Pubdate: Fri, 25 Jul 2014
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Copyright: 2014 The Denver Post Corp
Contact:  http://www.denverpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122
Author: Meredith C. Carroll
Page: 23A

COLORADO GROWN, COLORADO PROUD ... OR ELSE?

Some communities embrace outsiders as insiders from the second they
pass Go. Plenty of people are considered real New Yorkers, for
instance, the first time a cabbie or landlord overcharges them. Visit
Florida, California or Washington, and chances are you'll eat
authentic Latin American or Asian cuisine made and served by people
not necessarily native to those states but who are still considered a
critical part of their fabric and character.

In September, I'll celebrate 11 years as a resident of Colorado. I met
my husband, who just passed the 17-year mark in the Centennial State,
six weeks after I moved here. Our children were born in a hospital 1.3
miles from the house that we own, and our income is earned within
state lines. Yet by unspoken Colorado standards, neither he nor I are
considered locals.

We're not alone, as earning your Colorado-local stripes can be
complicated. Some farmers markets across the state will only allow
vendors with items made, grown and produced in Colorado to set up
stands. The best restaurants here are often judged as such because the
menu is based on what's available from nearby ranches. Cities in other
parts of the country brag about sophisticated or extensive selections
of imported wines and cheese. In Colorado, if it wasn't milked, aged
or brewed in state, it's probably not a selling point.

The Snowmass Village ski area opened in 1967, making it hardly local
by Colorado standards. Today, it's a friendly yet tight-knit community
of just a few thousand full-time residents. It's never had a downtown
area bubbling with charm like nearby Basalt, Redstone or Carbondale,
although that's changed somewhat in recent years as the base of the
mountain has expanded exponentially with some fabricated charisma,
thanks to the New York based uber-developer Related.

Outcry was rampant when the Base Village at Snowmass was being
constructed, although there was also a fair share of boo-hooing when
the Village Market, the town's sole supermarket for 34 years, closed
at the end of the ski season. It wasn't nearly the cleanest, least
expensive or most expansive market in the area, but the family-owned
and locally operated store had a loyal following among its neighbors
nonetheless.

Its replacement, Clark's Market, opened last Saturday. A
14,000-square-foot store fresh off a $2 million remodel, it oozes sex
appeal from the front door in a Whole Foods kind of way and only gets
better as you uncover the abundance of artisan and locally sourced
products contained therein. Clark's is also a second-generation
family-owned and locally operated market, but perhaps the only thing
harder to accept in Colorado than a non-local native is change
("Village Market is where life stands," one former resident lovingly
bemoaned in the newspaper last fall).

It's not just Snowmass Village that turns its nose up at
quasi-carpetbaggers, though. On Monday, the Aspen City Council gave
the green light to bar "outsiders" from applying for recreational
marijuana licenses until next spring. Some in Eagle County are also
keen to keep business all in the family.

"It seems that a lot of people from out of town are trying to get
licenses. We're proud to be a local business," Jim Comerford, co-owner
of The Vail Bud Brewery, told the Vail Daily in May after he and his
wife were granted one of a handful of marijuana licenses there.

By out-of-towners, Comerford was referring to a few pot shops in Eagle
County whose owners are based out of Colorado Springs, Boulder and
Denver. The Comerfords, by the way, operate other businesses in the
Vail Valley, including Subway sandwich shops and a Qdoba Mexican Grill.

There's nothing wrong with being Colorado proud, but as Ralph Nader
once said, "when strangers start acting like neighbors ... communities
are reinvigorated." It wouldn't kill us to broaden our definition of
what it means to be local outside of our own town centers- and some
times even within.
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MAP posted-by: Matt