Link between housing/crime studied

TRUCKEE, Calif. - Do affordable housing projects breed higher rates of crime? That has occasionally been the fear in ski towns, as well as elsewhere, when clustered and dense housing for lower income workers is proposed. A symposium in Truckee addressed the issue, but found no compelling evidence that this is true.

Tony Lashbrook, Truckee's director of community development, pointed to several affordable housing projects built in the last 10 years that have no crime rates different than elsewhere in Truckee. The key, he indicated, is effective on-site management and steady maintenance.

Truckee police reported a slightly higher number of calls to the police from mobile home parks and other older, lower-income areas, but those areas have neither on-site management nor are they well maintained.

A local women's services agency said that cases of domestic abuse and sexual assault are found equally in affluent and poor neighborhoods.

Academics also have studied the issue, although presumably not specifically at resort areas. The Kirwan Institute on the "Study of Race and Ethnicity" found that in communities where more than 40 percent of residents live below the federal poverty level, crime is more common.

Jianling Li, from the University of Texas at Arlington School of Urban and Public Affairs, studied high-density projects and found a less than clear chain of causality. "I think it is too simple to say directly that low income and high density will lead to high crime rates," she told the Tahoe World. "There are many other factors."

An effort also was made to equate ski town affordable housing projects with the massive Housing and Urban Department projects found in inner-city Chicago and San Francisco. Lashbrook termed the comparison "laughable."

Traffic to Aspen to get much worse

ASPEN - Highway 82 heading toward Aspen and Snowmass Village is already jammed with traffic most mornings, and a new study suggests it will get much, much worse.

That study predicts that the number of commuters will more than double in 20 years. At the century's turn, Pitkin County imported 8,400 commuters, but that figure is projected to swell to 20,500.

Drawing more commuters will be more jobs. The study projects more than 19,000 new jobs, while the population is expected to grow by only 10,330, owing primarily to growth-control measures and an absence of affordable housing.

The silver lining for the increase is that it will make mass transit more attractive to commuters.

What kind of mass transit? Most likely buses. After spending years and years trying to get hold of the old railroad line from Glenwood Springs to Aspen, local authorities have basically given up hope that trains will be used on those tracks anytime soon - if ever. Recently, the Roaring Fork Transportation Authority voted to tear up and sell the unused railroad tracks to allow a portion of the railbed to be used for a pedestrian trail.

Something of a similar situation exists in nearby Eagle Valley. There, a much larger population growth is projected, but the job growth is expected to increase even more. While only 800 people per day commuted at the century's turn, a daily flux of 33,000 commuters is expected within 25 years, unless more is done to build lower-end housing.

Whistler tries to put end to garbage

WHISTLER, B.C. - Whistler's municipal council has nearly tripled the cost of garbage disposal as a key part of its plan to eventually reduce solid waste to zero. By driving up the cost of landfilling garbage, the town hopes to encourage more careful recycling as well as attention to reuse and reduced consumption. As well, a major composting facility is now operating near Whistler.

Driving this attention, in part, is the growing problem of where to put garbage, explains Whistler's Pique newsmagazine. Currently, garbage is dumped in a landfill near Whistler, but that site will be adjacent to the athletes' village to be built for the 2010 Winter Olympics. As such, that landfill is being abandoned this year.

The town had considered hauling it to a landfill in Washington state 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) away. Instead, the trash will be hauled 124 miles (200 kilometers) into the interior of British Columbia.

How realistic is it that Whistler can reduce its garbage to nothing? Pique accepted that goal at face value, perhaps regarding it as being similar to New Year's resolutions about being kind and cheerful to one's neighbors.

Dual language moves to Vail schools

EDWARDS - A dual-language program is moving into one of the two middle schools that serves Vail and its closest suburbs. Some 200 students at Edwards Elementary School were enrolled in the dual-language program during the last four years, and the oldest of them will be sixth-graders at Berry Creek Middle School this August.

The Vail Daily talked with several students, parents and administrators who seem to think the dual-language program has proven a success. One reason is that when they can speak each others' native languages, the kids hang out with each other. "The greatest thing to see is when the two cultures can mingle," said one parent, Curt Nash. "You don't see kids hanging out like this in schools that don't have dual language."

The program has students doing academic work in both English and Spanish. Spanish-speakers spend about half their school year learning only in English, while English-speakers spend about half their time working only in Spanish.

The Eagle Valley, like most of the larger ski resort valleys, has a large and still growing population of recent immigrants. Edwards Elementary has 70 percent Hispanic students, most of them immigrants. Berry Creek Middle School is 60 percent Hispanic, and again many are native Spanish speakers.

Is everybody a fan of this dual-language program? Obviously not, as many parents who are worried that their children will be slowed down by schools trying to teach classes in two languages have instead sent their children to the four private or charter schools in the Vail Valley. Just how many children are being diverted in that way was not reported.

School officials report difficulty finding enough teachers who are bi-literate, knowing both languages well enough to teach in both. Also lacking are sufficient textbooks in Spanish.

Speed limit reduced for grizzlies

LAKE LOUISE, Alberta - Come May, when bears emerge from hibernation, the speed limit on the Trans-Canada Highway through Lake Louise is lowered from 90 kilometers per hour to 70 kilometers per hour, or from 56 mph to 43 mph.

Grizzly bears cross the highway in that area, and vehicles or trains have killed six in the last several years. The grizzly population near Lake Louise seems to be sinking, despite growth of the bruins in the broader Bow River Valley. No wildlife-crossing structures have been built yet across the highway near Lake Louise, nor is there fencing. There are plans to do so, however.

Granby pushes for school uniforms

GRANBY - A middle-school principal in Granby is pushing for adoption of school uniforms.

Nancy Karas said both girls and boys were disrupting the learning environment by the clothes they wear, or don't wear. She reported too much cleavage, too many exposed midriffs and lots of exposed underwear, as well as see-through clothing, hats, piercings and more.

Will uniforms really make a difference? Karas could report no studies that confirm that uniforms do improve learning, although she had anecdotal reports.

Parents at the meeting where this idea was rolled out were divided in their support, reports the Sky-Hi News.

West to continue its fast growth

THE WEST - The U.S. Census Bureau has issued revised population projections, and to nobody's particular surprise, the new predictions look much like the old ones. Seven of the 10 fastest growing states in the United States will Western states, led by Nevada, Arizona and Utah.

Bill Travis, a geography professor at the University of Colorado in Boulder, says he does not see the environment putting limits on growth. While the common perception is of the West being a parched landscape, the West actually has such water available for population growth, he points out. That water is used currently for agriculture, but farmers want to retain their right to sell the water.

- compiled by Allen Best