UTMC

WTF is going on in Colorado Springs?

Looks like the Republicans/Libertarians are getting and authentic frontier living experience...

No cops, paving, parks or streetlights, but hey, the taxes are low!

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

This tax-averse city is about to learn what it looks and feels like when budget cuts slash services most Americans consider part of the urban fabric.

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.

"I guess we're going to find out what the tolerance level is for people," said businessman Chuck Fowler, who is helping lead a private task force brainstorming for city budget fixes. "It's a new day."

Some residents are less sanguine, arguing that cuts to bus services, drug enforcement and treatment and job development are attacks on basic needs for the working class.

My sister-in-law recently lost her job, a lot of people were laid off, and city projects have been left uncompleted. Yep, all so that people could save a whopping $35 a year!
Fucking Colorado Springs, when Rock is Grand Chancellor I would like to nominate the Springs as our first target in Operation Nuke and Pave.

Thirty-five dollars?
Well, there's some small government for ya.

Good point. I should have said $35 per person. Still, the denizens of the Springs have fucked themselves due to their own petty shortsightedness.

Ames wrote:Good point. I should have said $35 per person. Still, the denizens of the Springs have fucked themselves due to their own petty shortsightedness.

Couldn't happen to a nicer community. In SF we are taxed to all hell, no kidding there is a tax to pay for the administration of taxation. If it weren't for being allowed to run a substantial defecit, it would be the same here. Im not very familiar with TABOR, but doesn't that prevent CS from running a defecit? Frankly, I've been waiting for a community to get bit by the high cost of government. Vallejo California filed bankruptcy to avoid this sort of cutback. It forced the police and fire unions to come to the table (pensions for retired members are well over a 100k a year - show me how many private sector persons make that). Yes, this will be a fucked up situation - living within your means usually is. Interesting times.

Fuck 'em!

Wait till the summer crime spree starts! wOOT for lOOT!


Fuckers! And their stupid politics. Hope they enjoy that bed they made...

isn't colorado springs where the focus on the family headquarters is located?

Ugh, yes it is. But that's not my fault.

Ames wrote:Ugh, yes it is. But that's not my fault.

we shall now see, in a microcosm, what the evangelical conservative republicans want for the country as a whole. for those of us who do not live there, we can just sit back and watch.

however, for those who live there, my condolences. sincerely.

It's all gone to hell in the Springs since Ted Haggard left.


I'd agree with Ames. They've pooned themselves properly. Now we get to wait for the refugees to show up in Denver. I'm sorta scared, because a growing number of Aurora residents are mumbling with the same level of stupid on their minds. I hope it isn't contagious. I like my social services and the occasional drugger/gang arrest.

sun rat wrote:

Ames wrote:Ugh, yes it is. But that's not my fault.

we shall now see, in a microcosm, what the evangelical conservative republicans want for the country as a whole. for those of us who do not live there, we can just sit back and watch.

however, for those who live there, my condolences. sincerely.

i fail to understand this reasoning. Fiscal conservatism is not unique to the republicans. While CS is an extreme example, I don't know of any city where it's denizens feel their tax dollars are being efficiently utilized. It just so happens that they are unable or unwilling to cripple their city's future by running up a massive debt. Pay in the short run? sure. But I bet they discover how to make their infrastructure much more efficient. So some intolerant groups live there. Is it any more open minded not to tolerate them?

stiles wrote:

This tax-averse city is about to learn what it looks and feels like when budget cuts slash services most Americans consider part of the urban fabric.

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.

Is it me or does this smell like something that will bring on an avalanche of lawsuits from people who trip on bad pavement, get dust in their eyes from dead parkland being blown about, injuring themselves on the litter building up in the park, get burgled, have their houses burnt down, etc, etc, as well as lawsuits against "neighbours" who actually bring their lawnmowers to mow the park and then get into trouble when someone gets hay-fever or trips over a lump of cut grass or is hit by a piece of litter thrown out by the lawnmower?

goose wrote:

sun rat wrote:

Ames wrote:Ugh, yes it is. But that's not my fault.

we shall now see, in a microcosm, what the evangelical conservative republicans want for the country as a whole. for those of us who do not live there, we can just sit back and watch.

however, for those who live there, my condolences. sincerely.

i fail to understand this reasoning. Fiscal conservatism is not unique to the republicans. While CS is an extreme example, I don't know of any city where it's denizens feel their tax dollars are being efficiently utilized. It just so happens that they are unable or unwilling to cripple their city's future by running up a massive debt. Pay in the short run? sure. But I bet they discover how to make their infrastructure much more efficient. So some intolerant groups live there. Is it any more open minded not to tolerate them?

who said i was being intolerant?
they can do as they wish, obviously. i do not deny them their chance to prove that they can make it work.

but i live in texas where the evangelicals rule and currently social services are such a bad (and illegal) state of affairs that often there is a 3 month wait for necessary services.

are you aware of what has been going on in texas concerning rick perry and his refusal of federal funds for education? these funds were earmarked by the feds specifically to pay teachers, among other necessary educational items, like books.

i know exactly what these evangelicals are up to. i live among them.

They don't need cops... they have an entire military base.


When the city burns down, i will bring the marshmallows, chocolate and graham crackers.


Fuck'em.

erosvamp wrote:They don't need cops... they have an entire military base.


When the city burns down, i will bring the marshmallows, chocolate and graham crackers.


Fuck'em.

They have 4, 5 if you count the Academy. But Ft Carson busted a robbery ring among some of its treturning vets that ended up getting one of their own killed, so don't look to them for protection

Not to stir a shitstorm but this was the outcome of them dumping their relatively conservative approch to growth management for a "Denverization" of Co Springs. From the inception of the city, one of their most prized possesions was the skyline, or lack thereof. It was a city ordinance dating to the 1800s that forbid any buulding over 19 stories to keep the viw of Pike's Peak clear.

When the building boom was on, they elected to overrule that, despite protests from residents to make way for a new hotel complex that would bring jobs! (That they didn't need at the time). Along with tax breaks to developers who developed retial complexes they didn't need and couldn't fill.

When it all starting going bad, the city council looked to law enforcement to make up the difference. In the 1st qtr of 2008 traffic citation revenues were up over $300,000 from the quarter the year before. CoS developed an even worse reputation as a speed trap and if you did get stopped, you hoped it was a State Trooper (it was cheaper). Meanwhile the city was reaching saturation piont an average of 4 times a day (where there are not enough officers to resppnd to the 911 calls)

Starting in 2008; vandels, a car break-in, or property damage would not get an officer to your home. You had to go the the police station and file a report. You can imagine how effective this was at apprhending the miscrants. I had buddies who were cops and they weren't real happy.

As a guy that still owns a house there I can't sell, I can't say I am excited about this. But I ain't surprised.