Loryn Duke, a familiar face in Steamboat Springs, is stepping into the city’s political arena with a bid for a Steamboat Springs City Council at-large seat.

Having recently ended an 18-year tenure in the communications department at Steamboat Ski & Resort Corp., Duke is running with a platform focused on the intertwined challenges of housing, transportation, child care and environmental protection.

Duke, who grew up in the suburbs of Denver, came to Steamboat nearly two decades ago for a job as the public relations manager at Ski Corp., she said in an interview with the Steamboat Pilot & Today. Her passion for making a direct impact in the community sparked in 2021 following the birth of her daughter.

“Like so many parents in this community, I didn’t have child care opportunities,” she said. “There was nothing for us.”

The struggle led her to assemble a group of working parents at the resort, and together they navigated regulatory hurdles and logistical challenges to launch an employer-based child care center at Steamboat Ski Resort. 

“We didn’t know anything about starting a child care center, but we did a ton of research,” she said. “We worked with local, state, even some national organizations, figured out how it would be possible, and we actually were able to open an employer-based child care center … in 18 months, from idea to open doors.”

This effort of successfully advocating for working parents, she said, created a newfound passion for community advocacy, leading to her entering the council race.

“When I left the resort, I kind of was trying to take an inventory of what excited me and what brought me passion, and it really is serving a community and seeing what I can do,” she said, noting that she and her husband face many of the same issues often raised by community members. 

“I want to see how I can utilize my voice and the skills that I learned through that process of child care, of how if you listen, you learn, and you advocate what changes are possible,” she added.

Core challenges

Duke identified housing, transportation, child care and environmental protection as top priorities in her campaign, all of which she said contribute to a “thriving economy.” 

“If (my husband) is going to have workers in his shop, they need places to live and for them to be able to work for him and afford to live here, they need to find housing that is affordable and can accommodate their lifestyle,” she said. “We have a housing crisis and we don’t have the luxury of waiting anymore.”

She points to missed opportunities in the past, such as the failed annexation vote of Steamboat 700, urging action now to avoid repeating history.

“I think about if we had taken action on those projects 20 years ago, where would we be today?” she said. “And similarly, when I think about my daughter and her future, I would hate to look back 20 years from now and say, ‘What could we have done that we didn’t do?'”

She noted the area Community Plan, which designates West Steamboat as the most feasible area for residential growth and development, and called Brown Ranch “the infill opportunity between Steamboat and Steamboat II.”

“I think we need to understand the city assets, the (Yampa Valley Housing Authority) assets, and how we bring them together to make meaningful opportunities for housing,” she said.

Duke also views accessible, high-quality child care as essential to supporting economic stability, enabling parents to work and community members to put down roots. 

“If elected, I’m looking forward to how I can work with organizations like First Impressions and leverage some of those national and state relationships that I have to see how we can create more accessible, quality, affordable child care,” she said. 

On transportation, Duke highlighted the significance of regional solutions like the Mountain Rail project and the proposed Yampa Valley Regional Transportation Authority.

She drew on previous conversations with both leaders and locals in the Eagle and Roaring Fork valleys to understand how Steamboat can learn from their existing transit systems.

“An RTA is not the solution for housing opportunities in our community,” she said, “but it is a way to accommodate the spread of our workers as it is now and into the future. “

Expanding and extending amenities like the Yampa River Core Trail, she argued, would not only create a “vital link” between major neighborhoods, but also provide an accessible, safe path for both commuters and children getting to school. 

Duke also discussed the importance of environmental stewardship, noting that “we have precious commodities that we need to protect — the river, the air that we breathe, the mountains that we want to play in.” 

“I want to see how we can connect the government and nonprofit organizations, such as Friends of the Yampa and the Yampa Valley Sustainability Council, all these amazing partners in our community that are already doing great work,” she said. 

Bridging the communication gap 

With extensive experience in the communications field, Duke believes she can improve transparency between local entities and the broader community — bridging gaps among the City Council, the housing authority and the resort.

She proposed bringing greater clarity to council decisions to “help people understand what the city and City Council actually do, what’s in their jurisdiction” and “what the processes are like.” 

“They’re doing a lot of great work,” she said of the city’s communication department, “but are there opportunities for us to make it more accessible and more easily understandable for our community so that we can coalesce around the right ways to move our community forward?”

Duke, who opted not to speak on specifics regarding YVHA leadership, acknowledged both the mission and ongoing challenges of the housing authority, adding that “they are doing the mission that they have been set up to do” but that further transparency is needed to foster “trust and collaboration.”

Regarding the relationship between the city and the resort, Duke, like most candidates, underscored the significance of a cooperative relationship, but recognized that “right now, there’s some opportunities for that collaboration to be repaired.”

“I think I understand how Ski Corp. and Alterra operate, and then if I’m able to be on City Council, I can understand where they’re coming from and maybe bridge those two together,” she said.

“I’m naturally curious, and I totally understand that I don’t know everything, but I’m really excited about the opportunity to learn about a lot more,” she said at the close of the interview. “If I am willing to listen and learn and seek out different opinions and seek out different experts, there’s a lot to be learned.”

To reach Duke or learn more about her campaign, contact LorynKDuke@gmail.com or visit DukeForSteamboat.com.