Colorado Springs cuts into services considered basic by many

[phantom power]

Yet another beta release of the libertarian paradise.

More than a third of the streetlights in Colorado Springs will go dark Monday. The police helicopters are for sale on the Internet. The city is dumping firefighting jobs, a vice team, burglary investigators, beat cops — dozens of police and fire positions will go unfilled.

The parks department removed trash cans last week, replacing them with signs urging users to pack out their own litter.

Neighbors are encouraged to bring their own lawn mowers to local green spaces, because parks workers will mow them only once every two weeks. If that.

Water cutbacks mean most parks will be dead, brown turf by July; the flower and fertilizer budget is zero.

City recreation centers, indoor and outdoor pools, and a handful of museums will close for good March 31 unless they find private funding to stay open. Buses no longer run on evenings and weekends. The city won't pay for any street paving, relying instead on a regional authority that can meet only about 10 percent of the need.

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_14303473

[notadmblnd]

1. Colorado Springs. Isn't that a resort town?

[hlthe2b]

5. It is the center of anti-tax Rethuglicans....

This is our future, DUers if the RETHUGS get their way.... And for those states looking at TABOR as a "good thing", is this what you want?

[otohara]

11. Yep - Controlled By GOP Ever Since I Can Remember

they brought this on themselves.

Imagine that?

[apnu]

17. Further to that, here's an interesting story

I'm a cyclist and while training for my events I ride all over the place in the Chicagoland area. I frequently ride through Republican Shangri-La towns and villages as I frequently ride through more neutral areas as I ride through Democratic strongholds. And I'll tell you this: The super rich Republican communities have the worst roads I've ever ridden on. Its bizarre to ride through McMansion land (and even more exclusive places) and see these immense homes with immaculate lawns and roll over worn out, poorly serviced and badly patched asphalt.

Tells me everything I need to know about what a Republican controlled universe would look like.

[otohara]

18. The Only Biz Growing in Colorado

right now is Medical Marijuana dispensaries . . including Colorado Springs.
As a MM patient, I can tell you there are 22 in my zip code.

I can't wait until the Gov. election this year....the GOP can't stand all this MMJ business, but it's still business.

[clixtox]

22. Cheyenne Mountain is nearby, perfect for perpetual nuclear waste storage...

and the answer, potentially, for vast swaths of the people, no matter what eventually happens.

The Yucca Mountain site in Nevada has been recently nixed as the final location for very long term isolated storage of nuclear waste.

Collecting the waste in Colorado makes a lot of sense, location wise, and it would be an economic shot in the arm (or head, depending on perspective) for CSC.

[AtheistCrusader]

34. That site is mothballed.

And could be reactivated for national security, I doubt they'd store nuclear waste there.

[femrap]

20. Isn't that where

Focus on the Family and a bunch of other theocrats are headquartered?

Hey...let the Churches do the work of the State....VOLUNTEER and SHARE...go mow some grass at the parks. Go fill some potholes. Do God's work here on Earth, you hypocrites.

[upi402]

26. Amen

I've said for decades, Rightists should be very careful what they ask for. They are phony, soft and weak, I will eat them when necessary. Hypocrites taste like chicken, I hear

[Tempest]

7. Not anymore

Colorado Springs is known for its outdoor activities.

Why go there if there's no amenities for tourists to take advantage of?

[donheld]

19. Only for Xtians

Kind of a petting zoo

[SpiralHawk]

2. Now that they have 'Starved The Beast'

the CoSpringsters 'christian' paradise has arrived.

[NoFace]

33. Praise Jebus! But seriously....'Starving the Beast'?

That phrase should be on the tongues and in the minds of every American.
:toast:


"Starving the beast" is a fiscal-political strategy of some American conservatives<1><2><3> to use budget deficits via tax cuts to force future reductions in the size of government. The term "beast" refers to government and the programs it funds, particularly social programs such as welfare, Social Security, and Medicare.
The tax cuts of former US President George W. Bush's administration, still in place, are an example. He said in 2001 "so we have the tax relief plan <...> that now provides a new kind -- a fiscal straightjacket for Congress. And that's good for the taxpayers, and it's incredibly positive news if you're worried about a federal government that has been growing at a dramatic pace over the past eight years and it has been." <4>


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starve_the_beast

[provis99]

3. Colorado Springs: the right wing fundamentalist paradise.

Let that town rot, for all I care; then the fundamentalists can sit proudly in the shithole they made.

[cutlassmama]

10. that is acceptable

[BR_Parkway]

4. Wonder how much in taxes Focus on the Family HQ contributes or has

gotten exempted

[PassingFair]

6. That's OK, JESUS will light up the town.

It's such a BLESSED community!

[BR_Parkway]

16. Looks like a Walmart - same as every other Big Box store out there

[jaxx]

8. I have family in CSC and got this from one today:

Scary times it is, Colorado Springs is so broke they are removing 460 trash cans from 120 parks because they cant afford trash bags & disposal service. Can you imagine we had 500 plus homeless camped along Fountain Creek from Hwy 24 exit to Rockrimmon? The Salvation Army has begun to buy many of them one way tickets to somewhere else. I don’t know how many we have left but the more hoidy toidy folks started having a fit about the ecological damage and aggressive panhandlers accosting shoppers. <


Scary times indeed.

[roamer65]

24. Sounds like another right wing distopia is on its way.

[Democrats_win]

9. This article is incredibly written: "bring your own lawn mower to local green spaces"

In reading this article you picture that the city is run by a bunch of lazy people. It's stunning that they put up signs telling people to take their trash home with them. Why not just empty the trash cans rather than put up signs. Besides these summer jobs are nearly minimum wage jobs for students. It's quite amazing.

Then consider all of the advantages that Colorado Springs has over most other American cities: A major Army base (Ft. Carson), the Air Force Academy, Peterson Air Force Base (Home of the 21st Space Wing, Air Force Space Command, United States Space Command, and North American Aerospace Defense Command--Norad), major tourist mecca (Pikes Peak, Garden of the Gods--beautiful red rock monoliths, gold mining country, Rodeo Hall of Fame), and high tech industries. (on edit, I forgot about Focus on the Family! They are in CO Springs too.)

I guess the city was so used to getting money from the rich gold miners, in the early days of the city, that they never felt that they needed to pay for anything. They have had so many advantages over other American cities!

[pscot]

25. All those military installation

pay no taxes.

[bemildred]

12. This ought to be an interesting experiment. nt

[Democrats_win]

13. Stark contrast with city's early benefactor: benevolent discoverer of earth's biggest gold mine.

Much was given to Colorado Springs, so why are they giving so little back?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado_Springs,_Colorado#W._S._Stratton.2C_early_benefactor

In 1891, Winfield Scott Stratton discovered and developed one of the richest gold mines on earth in the nearby Cripple Creek and Victor area, and was perhaps the most generous early contributor to those communities and to Colorado Springs.

After he made his fortune he declined to build a mansion as the other gold rush millionaires were doing; instead, in later years, he lived in a house in Colorado Springs he had built when he was a carpenter in pre-gold days.

In Colorado Springs, he funded the Myron Stratton Home for housing itinerant children and the elderly, donated land for City Hall, the Post Office, the Courthouse (which now houses the Pioneer Museum), and a park; he also greatly expanded the city's trolley car system and built the Mining Exchange building, and gave to all three communities in many other ways, great and small.

As Stratton's generosity became known, he was also approached by many people looking for money, and he became reclusive and eccentric in his later years.
---

Also check out Spencer Penrose who "financed construction of the Broadmoor Hotel, the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, the Will Rogers Shrine of the Sun, the Pikes Peak Highway, what is now known as Penrose-St Francis Health Services, and established the El Pomar Foundation, which still oversees many of his contributions in Colorado Springs today."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado_Springs,_Colorado#Spencer_Penrose.2C_early_benefactor

[nostalgicaboutmyfutr]

14. Looking for the third horseman of the apocalyse????

Michelle Malkin recently moved there.....

[femrap]

21. Well....they turned the lights

out on her! LOL!

[CanonRay]

15. Libertarian=Cheapskate

and the Springs is full of Libertarians. Most of them are also evangelical Christians (God rewards the faithful) so if you're broke, you must not be Christian enough. I live 35 miles from there, and unfortunately am in the same Congressional District, and State Rep district. We get overwhelmed every election. I try never to shop there, as I don't want to increase their tax revenue. They're totally broke, and don't want to pay for anything. This is the end result.

[Djarun]

23. I guess the gold rush is over?

[upi402]

27. Can this be? I mean CNN is silent about this...

Corporate News Network whores and traitors, oh my! I wonder if Michelle Malkin will whine about her hometown. Seattle doesn't miss that skank.

[Psephos]

28. The problem is perpetual-obligation public employee pay, health and pension benefits

It is an epidemic problem at state and local levels, and worsening.

[brussell51]

30. concur; check this link

http://reason.com/archives/2010/01/12/class-war

[Psephos]

31. pizza

[brussell51]

29. Notice that the town manager and all office minions go untouched

[my2sense]

32. This should be plastered

across M$M. Either you pay taxes or you don't get basic services, it's simple. All this while folks are actually paying attention to the imbecile from Alaska. ::shaking my head::