When Telluride Ski Patrol went on strike in December and January, employees’ demands were fairly simple: They wanted higher hourly wages and benefits to make living in the famously expensive town feasible.
The strike, which lasted from Dec. 27 to Jan. 9, disrupted the tourism-reliant mountain town.
When the ski patrol union accepted a deal with Telluride’s owners, it brought some relief but was another episode in the national conversation about how rising costs and demand for specialized mountain skills are making it harder to live in Colorado’s mountain towns – including Durango.
Rasta Stevie – former Telluride town councilor, Durango DJ, mogul skier and social justice advocate – has watched those mountain communities change.
That, in part, inspired him to advocate to make places like Telluride and Durango inclusive for all – which is why he ran for Telluride local government in the 1980s, ran environmental-news and music programs on community radio stations and adds his voice to public demonstrations whenever he can.
Rasta Stevie encourages people to follow their dreams and advocate for what they believe in, regardless of the costs or other restrictions. That outlook stems in part from his devotion to Rastafari – a religion that teaches strong community and personal sovereignty as ways to overcome the difficulties of day-to-day life.
Stevie grew up in San Angelo, Texas, where he always felt a little out-of-place because of his long hair and counter-culture outlook. He went to college in Boulder in the 1980s, before deciding he wanted to live in a ski town.
Originally planning to live somewhere like Jackson Hole, Wyoming, or Taos, New Mexico, Stevie stumbled upon Southwest Colorado on a road trip, he said. One day, he stopped in Telluride and was taken aback by the picturesque box canyon.
“I got to Telluride, and it was just game over, that’s where I was supposed to be,” he said.
Stevie worked as a dishwasher making $5 an hour and skiing every day. He called his first year in Telluride the “biblical powder season,” because it snowed for 40 days and 40 nights.
The town itself was still coming off its mining days, which meant rent was cheap, but the culture was rough and rowdy.
Stevie fell in love with the grittiness. But when the town voted to put in an airport, he knew his way of life was about to change: The town was about to become more expensive.
“I was in this spot where I was going to either embrace or isolate,” he said. “Some other skiers and I had this false illusion that we could just move into the woods and ski happily ever after. I was like, I’m not just gonna sit here.”
So, Rasta Stevie ran for and was elected to Telluride’s Town Council. His election and bump-skiing prowess even landed him in legendary ski filmer Warren Miller’s “Blizzard of Ahhhs” film.
“I got involved in civil government because I knew that something had to be done,” Stevie said. “And the first thing had to be done was housing. If people don’t have a place to live, they’re not gonna stay.”
During his five years on Town Council, for instance, Stevie pushed for a community‑first agenda by helping launch the Shandoka affordable housing project and strengthening land-use regulations that have helped preserve the community, he said.
Rasta Stevie moved to Durango in 1996, deciding to leave the town’s “ski bum bubble” for a bigger community. But he maintained his desire to give back to the community – something that, in part, came from his devotion to Rastafari.
Originally a heavy metalhead with an affinity for marijuana, Stevie said his friends in Telluride introduced him to reggae. He fell in love, and through the music, learned about and converted to Rastafari.
“”he herb led me to reggae,” he said. “Reggae led me to Rastafari. Rastafari taught me about myself.”
According to Wikipedia, Rastafari is an Afrocentric social movement and Abrahamic religion that originated in Jamaica in the 1930s. Basically, the religion interprets the Bible with the belief that Jah – or God – lives partially within each person, and that by living close to nature, wearing their hair in dreadlocks and smoking marijuana – considered sacrament – one can become closer to Jah.
The Rastafari message was popularized by Bob Marley’s music and Haile Selasie, the emperor of Ethiopia who banned slavery and modernized the county in the 1930s, who was believed to be Jah-incarnate. Equality and working for the benefit of humanity is central the Rastafari’s message.
Stevie said the other core pillar of the religion is “a searching for the self” through Marley’s music, the words of Selasie and the Bible.
“Rastafari is the source of strength and power,” he said.
He said that strong sense of personal sovereignty creates a strong base for a healthy community. That is why, over the years, Stevie has sought to be a source for good in his community, especially when environmental and geopolitical problems plague the headlines.
“That strength is what the people need right now from every single person, and if we all find that inner strength, we’’e an unstoppable force,” he said. “We’re with a majority, and we’re being seen as a minority because we’re not owning our sovereign position and our rights to have decency. So don’t tell me that the human race is lost.”
Take his radio career. Stevie briefly lived in Costa Rica in the early 2000s, where he hosted “Rainforest Radio” to bring positive news about the environmental movement. Back in Durango, he hosted a show called “Good Dirt Radio News” with the same goal.
At the same time, he showed up for community protests – including the October ICE protest in Bodo Park – with the goal of demonstrating nonviolently.
Additionally, Stevie said he wants to advocate for and move toward an abundance mindset, rather than that of struggle and scarcity.
That includes working through affordability challenges for anyone who wants to live in communities like Durango or Telluride. Instead, he encourages them to follow their dreams no matter what, while working to make their chosen homes a better place, he said.
“I tell people all the time, don’t let this program that’s been created in your mind of what you’re supposed to be get to you,” Stevie said. “Live your life. Do what makes you happy. Go for it. Show up in the places that bring you joy and it will all work out.”
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