Colorado Springs: Rethinking the Economy of the City

Colorado Springs, Colorado is a beautiful, viable city. With a population of 414,658 people, there are many responsibilities that must be met. City services, police, fire and many other costs that must go on, even in a tough economy.

According to an article in the Gazette in February of this year, "The national media are turning Colorado Springs into a poster child of government cutbacks, with reports of brown park grass, dark street lights, shuttered police helicopters and buses on scaled-down schedules." See complete article at: www.gazette.com
Like many cities across the country, Colorado Springs is struggling to keep the bills paid. City Officials have been forced to cut budgets, trim back unnecessary luxury items and stop extra services such as trash pickup in some of the parks.

The various departments across the city have made staff cutbacks and have tightened their belts as well. Last year, the Deerfield Hills, Hillside, Meadows Park and Westside community centers and other recreational facilities were scheduled to be closed under the 2010 budget. City Councilman Sean Paige intervened and asked, they be kept open for the first three months of the year, to give the residents of Colorado Springs a chance to find money, long-term, through public and/or private contributors.

The list could go on and on for things that are being cut or stopped or left out of the future of the city. The cuts were deep and painful for all to hear. However, the residents of Colorado Springs have done, what I would suspect many other people have done. They have stepped up to the plate and have slowly begun to rescue the city with offers of help. Across Colorado Springs, citizens have said if the city cannot continue to do it's job, they will spend their time to do it," for free".

Churches, charity organizations and regular folks are getting together and volunteering their time and money to keep Colorado Springs on the "Top of the List" of Best Places To Live In America. A great example of why it was voted to the level of No. 1 in 2006, to begin with. Here are just a few examples of the true American Spirit that lives in my city, Colorado Springs, Colorado. Our citizens truly are making a great difference.

A local school that teaches swimming offered to take over some of the city's pools which will keep them open for a while longer and gives our kids some place to enjoy their time off.

Another group, part of Woodmen Valley Chapel is managing the Westside Community Center for at least the next three years. This is another great place for families and kids that provides needed community support.

El Pomar, one of the largest charitable organizations in the Rocky Mountain's western area ,is giving $20,000 to keep three community centers open through public-private partnerships after the normal funding runs out in 2010.

The city has turned off about 10,000 of the estimated 24,500 streetlights in Colorado Springs. They plan to turn off about 1,100 more, so they can save a total of about $1.2 million.

About 520 of those 10,000 streetlights have been turned back on under streetlight adoption program. A year of service is $75 for a residential light and $180 for an arterial light, which serves larger, multi-lane streets, according to www.springsgov.com. Residents have pulled from their pockets, to keep the lights on in many areas across the city.

Another idea to save money for the city, was removing the garbage cans from some of the parks. Residents again have called in and requested the chance to provide those services in their areas. They are emptying the trash and keeping the grounds clean.

Companies are also taking the opportunity to get involved by adoptiing median areas to keep watered and maintained. In doing that they can do modest advertising. Not only a great idea for the city, it is a wonderful advertising tool for a small business to get involved in.

The economy is still not very strong and Colorado Springs, like other cities will be cutting back for a while to come. Residents across the country will have to be more involved in helping to pick up the slack, if they want to continue to have nice cities to live in. Our past," build and spend" theory has created more needs and more requirements to run our cities.

Colorado Springs has a team of caring, concerned citizens that have become a grassroots, self motivated, volunteer movement. As more and more budgets are cut and cities retreat on their responsibilities, the people who live in those cities like Colorado Springs are getting involved to lend a hand. That is the real America we live in.

Sources

www.gazette.com
www.springsgov.com