It’s all coming back at me now–all those nasty quips about Mayor Mick Ireland and his foot-in-mouth Aspen City Council being Communists.

Now people are telling me without prompting that Mick and his minions really are Communists–no joke.

Still it’s funny. I opened the Sunday newspaper this morning to see Aspen being “nickle and dimed” to death because everything costs a limb, even little things. And then there was the story under the headline “Council Visualizes Ajax Base” about how what we really need is affordable housing where the Lodge at Aspen hoped to put (gasp!) a hotel. Mick made the statement that what we really need is affordable housing and a lift that comes right into town.

“Lodging, affordable housing on site and a chairlift coming into town,” Mayor Mick Ireland said. “You want to talk about putting life back onto that site? You put affordable housing there. And imagine a ski town where you could actually ski into town.”

Unfortunately for this vision, by rejecting the downsized hotel plan, Mick and the boys (1) killed the improvement of Lift 1A; and (2) put the kibosh on scores of working housing the Lodge offered as part of 100 percent mitigation. All that’s left is the 14 townhomes and 17 affordable housing units from Centurion Partners pre-approved before the latest debacle. Workers of the world should know the new jobs for Aspen are gonzo. Instead they are left with Mick’s “vision” of what should be, regardless of who owns what–and who exactly is going to foot the bill.

Now some on the City Council are talking about “master planning” the area–another sign of creeping communism.

“It’s a great opportunity for the city, the Skico and the community,” said Councilperson Jack Johnson about the potential for government planning. “There needs to be a big conversation between the town and the Skico. It’s not only advisable but necessary.”

One particularly delicious footnote to the death of the Lodge was the Council’s decision not to let it come to a public vote because Centurion could dominate the debate with advertising. The Council, in other words, was petrified that the voters might actually get a chance to decide what happens in Aspen. That idea was rejected in closed session as unacceptable.

Worker housing. Master planning. Officious office building for the state. No public accountability. Redistribution of wealth.

What do you call it?