Description
Book SynopsisHow is it possible for a town to exist where the median household income is about $73,000, but the median home price is about $4,000,000? Boring into the impossiblemath of Aspen, Colorado,Stuberexplores how middle-class people have found a way to live in thissupergentrified town. Interviewing a range of residents, policymakers, and officials,Stubershows that what resolves the math equation between incomes and home values in Aspen, Coloradothe X-factorthat makes middle-class life possibleis the careful orchestration of diverse class interests within local politics and the community. She explores how this is achieved through a highly regulatory and extractive land use code that provides symbolic and material value to highly affluent investors and part-year residents, as well as less-affluent locals, many of whom benefit from an array of subsidiesincluding an extensive affordable housing programthat redistribute economic resources in ways that make it possible for middle-class residents to live there. Stuberfurther examines how Latinos, who provide much of the service work in Aspen and who tend to live outside the town, fit into the social geography of one of the most unequal places in the country. Overall,Stuberargues that the Aspen's ability to balance the interests of its diverse class constituencies is not a foregone conclusion; rather, it is the result of efforts by local stakeholderscitizens, government, developers, and vacationersto preserve the town's unique feel and value, and keep Aspen, Aspen in all its complex dynamics.
Trade Review "Stuber does an excellent job of providing answers." * CHOICE *
“Astounding. . . .
Aspen and the American Dream is a wonderful book for students of social class and of urban sociology and for anyone who wonders how the material landscape is made.” * American Journal of Sociology *
Table of ContentsList of Figures and Tables
Introduction: The Impossible Math of Aspen, Colorado
1. Place-Based Class Cultures
2. Living the "Aspen Dream"? Redefining and Realizing the Good Life
3. Steadying the Pendulum
4. Place-Making and the Construction of "Small-Town Character"
5. "But Does It Deliver Value?": Negotiating Aspen's Land Use Code
6. A Mall at the Base of a Mountain?
7. Buscando el Sueño Americano: Latinos in the Valley
Conclusion: The Limits and Possibilities of Place-Making in the Era of Supergentrification
Acknowledgments
Appendix: Methodology
Notes
References
Index
