Crested Butte Public Policy Forum: “Resort Economics: How Can Mountain Towns and Their Communities Thrive in the Future?”

Justin Farrell in conversation with Neal Payton, “Resort Economics: How can mountain towns and their communities thrive in the future?”
Tuesday, June 18, 2024
7:00 PM 8:30 PM

Thanks to our sponsors, we are able to provide an admission-free program to encourage all members of our community to attend.

Justin Farrell is Professor of Sociology at Yale University, in the School of the Environment and the Director of the Lab for Western Lands and People. Farrell researches how different human societies understand the natural world. He focuses on the causes and consequences of climate change, social class, morality, and epistemology. His studies blend large-scale computational methods with local qualitative fieldwork. His books and articles have won national awards and regularly appear in major media. He frequently presents findings to policymakers, including the U.S. Senate, the White House, the Vatican, and the United Nations. His research has been published by Science, Princeton University Press, the American Sociological Review, PNAS, Nature Climate Change, Social Problems, among others, and funded by the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Science Foundation. Justin is a proud first-generation college graduate and Wyoming native. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Notre Dame. He splits time between rural Wyoming, Denver, and New Haven.

Neal Payton, FAIA, FCNU, is an architect, urban Designer and Senior Principal at Torti Gallas + Partners, where he created and directs the firm’s West Coast office in Los Angeles. With a focus on the public realm, Neal’s work transforms urban environments into socially and culturally diverse, walkable and economically vital communities. He has led multidisciplinary teams in the creation of visionary, yet implementable Master plans, for the infill development of towns and cities as well as the redevelopment and revitalization of vast areas of aging inner suburbs. Working across scales the common themes in all of these efforts are: connectivity to transit networks, a focus on walkable-urbanism; public participation in the design process, and the inextricability of urban design with social equity and economic development.

Neal’s work in Colorado includes the master plan for the redevelopment of a defunct shopping mall in Westminster, CO into a new downtown for the City. He is also helping the Town of Erie, CO envision the development of a 550-acre site adjacent to I-25 known as Erie Gateway.