Colorado Springs: Dream City 2010-2020: Not What You Might Expect

Colorado Springs Dream City 2010-2020: Not What You Might Expect

Empowering Citizen Groups

What do you think is the most effective way for Citizen Groups to come together and brainstorm?
- Meeting online
- Meeting somewhere locally (coffee shop, bookstore, etc.)
- Weekly meetings
- Bi-weekly meetings
- No meetings at all...just keep brainstorming here online


What is the best way to present the "voice" of the Citizen Group to City Officials?

- In the form of letter writing
- In the form of e-mails
- In person

When representing a Citizen Group, what is the best way to identify ourselves?

Letters To The Editor - Requirements and Contact Information

Gazette
Jeff Thomas - Editor & Vice President
30 S. Prospect St.
Colorado Springs, CO 80903
opinion@gazette.com

To be published: All letters must include the author's full name, address and daytime phone number for verification. No letters from anonymous authors or those using pen names will be considered. Priority will be given to brief letters. Authors are limited to one published letter every six weeks. The Gazette reserves the right to edit submissions for length, taste and clarity. No e-mail attachments, please. All readers' submissions become the exclusive property of The Gazette. BY E-MAIL: Send e-mail to opinion@gazette.com BY MAIL: Send comments to Letters to the Editor c/o The Gazette, P.O. Box 1779, Colorado Springs CO 80901 BY FAX: 636-0202

Colorado Springs Business Journal
Mike Boyd - Editor
31 E. Platte Ave., Ste 300
Colorado Springs, CO 80903
mike.boyd@csbj.com


The Colorado Springs Independent Newsweekly
Ralph Routon - Executive Editor
235 S. Nevada Ave.
Colorado Springs, CO 80903
letters@csindy.com

The REAL effects of slashing the public tourism promotion budget from the Colorado Springs Convention and Visitors Bureau

• Cutting public tourism promotion budget actually results in a significant increase in budget deficits, community hardship and is a self-defeating policy decision.
When funding was cut in the 1990s, the state of Colorado saw a decline of
7.7% of leisure travelers to the state.

Using these numbers, the 23% cut in funding to the Colorado Springs
Convention & Visitors Bureau would likely result in a 1.8% drop in leisure
travelers or approximately 98,000 fewer visitors to the Pikes Peak region.

With the local tourism industry generating over $1.1 billion in travel-
related revenues, this drop in travelers would result in $19.7 million
less in total visitor spending in our region in 2010.

Accommodation spending losses of $3.5 million

Restaurant & Other Food losses of $3.7 million

Retail/Shopping losses of $3.2 million

Transportation spending losses of $4.5 million

Arts, Culture and Entertainment losses of $3.0 million

Colorado Springs would only have to see a loss of 3,000 travelers to completely negate the savings incurred by cutting the CVB budget by $582,000. Even after reinstating tourism funding, destinations often take three or more years to recover to pre-cut travel levels. If budgets cut advertising and communications in a down period, the cost to regain the share of voice in the market once the economy recovers may cost four to five times as much as the cuts saved.

• The local tourism industry employs over 14,000 citizens.
• 25% of the City’s general fund is derived from the spending of non-residents.
• Tourism promotion has a high Return on Investment – for every dollar
invested in tourism promotion, $90 of economic activity is generated.
• Each family saves over $400 in taxes due to the economic activity of non-
residents.

Is This How It's Going To Be?

So, is this it? Doug Bruce vs. City Council? Oh, let's not forget Lambert. He's first and foremost. I mean, come on. What he does is of uttmost importance to all of us, right? 1,500 complaints and all kinds of publicity today. It's good we all have our priorities straight.

Guess what? City Council today approved the new budget. Approved, as in done. It's done.


I don't understand. I am at a loss. I think I should focus on making cookies for my girls, be a PTA mom, coordinate sleepovers and playdates and just it let it all unfold.

Whatever.

Tourism: Third Largest Industry In Colorado Springs -Please Read and Post and Respond

“If your roots are forgotten then your fruits will rotten.” -- L.E. Leo Veness

Colorado Springs was founded on July 31, 1871 by General William Palmer, with the intention of creating a high-quality resort community, and was soon nicknamed "Little London" because of the many English tourists who came. Nearby Pikes Peak and the Garden of the Gods made the city's location a natural choice.

Within two years his flagship resort the Antlers Hotel opened, welcoming U.S. and international travelers as well as health-savvy individuals seeking the high altitude and dry climate, and Palmer's visions of a thriving, quality resort town were coming true. Soon after, he founded the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, a critical regional railroad. He maintained his presence in the city's early days by making many grants or sales of land to civic institutions. Palmer and his wife saw Colorado Springs develop into one of the most popular travel destinations in the late 1800s United States.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado_Springs,_Colorado

Folks, the vultures are watching us and swirling, ready to swoop down and take our visitors to their economically suffering cities and states. We will drop off the vacationers' radar, Denver will be where people go, ski resorts will gain from our stupidity, Utah will become the "Rockies", and we will all be sitting here with our self-righteous selves wondering what happened to the glory days of Colorado Springs. Keep it up, City Council. You've just about pounded the final nail completely into our coffin.


http://www.gazette.com/opinion/city-89542-springs-performs.html

An Excellent Starting Point

Derek said...

USOC is a symptom of the problem. The real problem is that City Council and the government staff are disassociated from the community. They want to blame everything on TABOR because it prevents them from following an East Coast (or West Coast) model of just continually increasing city spending and bumping up taxes accordingly. Could expound on that a long time but will instead posit some solutions.

- First and foremost to correct the disassociation and improve communications, the entire and actual city budget should be published regularly on the springsgov website. The ENTIRE budget, not the amalgamated sections the city manager chooses to put up. Include salaries and benefits information for all employees of the city and city enterprises after privacy act review by the city attorney.

- All city enterprises will need to pay actual taxes instead of PILT due to 300. The city should immediately start figuring out what those taxes should be and how to implement them as PILT phases out over the next 8 years.

- Start planning immediately for the dissolution of the Stormwater Enterprise. I would place those duties and functions under CSU myself; I'm not sure why the city picked such a convoluted scheme as the fly-by-night enterprise.

- It's unfortunately too late to implement this retroactively to all the new development east of Powers but city planning should reject any new development that does not itself pay for the increased infrastructure burden on the city.

- Work with local civic groups to see how volunteer labor can assist in maintaining existing parks and recreation infrastucture until city finances improve. There are a lot of Boy Scouts needing community service hours and a lot of people who would donate time or funding to keep facilities like the Pioneers Museum or Rock Ledge Ranch open.

- Cease park and street "improvements" that aren't required.

- Return to CSU's focus on xeriscapy, especially in public lands. Why exactly are they planting trees and flowers that require water and maintenance along the streets (then claiming that as a "taxable benefit" in the springsgov website) anyway?

- Open one or two city pools this summer with increased user fees. Separated accounts might encourage additional donations as donors actually saw their donations were applied to operations and maintenance of the pools rather than general city coffers.

- Get rid of the city manager position or at least downscale the salary for it by 1/3-1/2. Scale all other city administrative position salaries accordingly (i.e., flatten the salary profile of the administration). This would translate to a roughly 10% cut for the Fire and Police Chiefs but help hold the line for "sworn" workers.

- Get rid of the EDC. Rely instead on a voluntary forum of local business or community organizations with at least 1000 employees/members to advise the Council on what measures would improve economic development.

Welcome!

This blog is for solution-oriented, concerned citizens who wish to bring forth their specific ideas for bridging the gap in Colorado Springs' current City budget shortfall. This blog is not meant to be a place to debate whether 2C should or should not have passed, what 300 was or was not pertaining to, or the like. It is meant to act as a whiteboard where viable, tangible, goal-specific solutions can be presented for increasing this city's revenue and/or lowering expenses without compromising safety or our city's ability to prosper. The hope and goal is to collect the best of the best ideas here and present them to city leaders and decision makers for their consideration of our efforts.

Thank you for your time, passion, persistence, thought, energy, and most of all, commitment to this community and one another.

Dianne

Local Newpaper Contact Information - How To Send Letters To Editors

Gazette
Jeff Thomas - Editor & Vice President
30 S. Prospect St.
Colorado Springs, CO 80903
opinion@gazette.com

To be published: All letters must include the author's full name, address and daytime phone number for verification. No letters from anonymous authors or those using pen names will be considered. Priority will be given to brief letters. Authors are limited to one published letter every six weeks. The Gazette reserves the right to edit submissions for length, taste and clarity. No e-mail attachments, please. All readers' submissions become the exclusive property of The Gazette. BY E-MAIL: Send e-mail to opinion@gazette.com BY MAIL: Send comments to Letters to the Editor c/o The Gazette, P.O. Box 1779, Colorado Springs CO 80901 BY FAX: 636-0202

Colorado Springs Business Journal
Mike Boyd - Editor
31 E. Platte Ave., Ste 300
Colorado Springs, CO 80903
mike.boyd@csbj.com


The Colorado Springs Independent Newsweekly
Ralph Routon - Executive Editor
235 S. Nevada Ave.
Colorado Springs, CO 80903
letters@csindy.com

Contact Information for the Mayor and City Council

Colorado Springs City Council Contact Information

Mailing Address
City of Colorado Springs
MC 1549
P.O. Box 1575
Colorado Springs, CO 80901-1575

Mayor
Lionel Rivera lrivera@springsgov.com
719.385.5986

Vice Mayor & Councilmember At-Large
Larry Small lsmall@springsgov.vom
719.385.5485

Councilmember At-Large
Tom Gallagher tgallgher@springsgov.com
719.385.5491

Councilmember At-Large
Randy Purvis rpurvis@springsgov.com
719.385.5469

Councilmember At-Large
Jan Martin jmartin@springsgov.com
719.385.5486

Councilmember District 1 – Northwest Quadrant of the City
Scott Hente shente@springsgov.com
719.385.5487

Councilmember District 2 – Northeast Quadrant of the City
Darryl Glenn dglenn@springsgov.com
719.385.5493

Councilmember District 3 – Southwest Quadrant of the City
Sean Paige spaige@springsgov.com

Councilmember District 4 – Southeast Quadrant of the City
Bernie Herpin Jr. bherpin@springsgov.com
719.385.5492

Have an Idea? Start Here.

I believe there are good ideas in everyone. Problem is getting those ideas expressed and heard and then put into motion.

Not everyone is comfortable public speaking. Not everyone is comfortable writing. Not everyone has a lot of spare money or time. Not everyone has all the answers or solutions. But collectively, we do.

The problem I see now is that because 2C did not pass and 300 did, there is a mentality that there is only one way to go now, and that is what has everyone in an uproar. People feel like they were given only two options: raise our taxes or put our community and us at risk. That's what we plain folks call "an ultimatum."

There are a lot of creative solutions floating around the angry posts, and the problem is that the citizens are not done being angry (with good reason) to be calm enough to look at what they could do to bring forth other options for solving the budget crisis.

SO, thanks to The Gazette, people are venting. It's good to vent. Get it all out. When you feel you've gotten all your anger out, come here and think about what you as a citizen, business owner, community leader, etc. could do to be a part of a bigger solution.

Can you donate your time to talk to people? Are you a business owner who could make small adjustments in your business that would invest more money locally and still keep your staff? Be creative. You can do more than you think. Do you know other business owners you could start partnering with creatively that would cut corners without laying people off? Maybe you could donate some of what you do professionally that would be of some help. Think about you, your resources, your talents, your ability to reach out to and educate people, and every idea you have that would keep you afloat while still investing in the city and its ability to proper.

Slashing a budget is, really, such an easy and lazy answer. I'm sorry, but it is. There are way other options, but it requires thought, energy, reaching out to others, and making the solution a SHARED SUCCESS with the citizens of a commnity.

How To Participate in this Blog?

Hello!

I've started a few categories on this blog just as a basic framework to get going. But if you just want to start a post or category, you can start here. I will read these over and if there are a lot of posts about a topic, I will start a new label about it.

It would also be nice if people would introduce themselves to everyone here. Nothing personal if you don't want...just a little information about who you are, why you are here, what you hope to accomplish and how you would like to be of most help.

Thanks so much for jumping on board in this initial stage. Stay positive and believe we can do this, cause we can.

Dianne

The Way You See Things

Is USOC the real problem? Is who is representing our current local government the real problem? Not happy with how salaries are determined? Whatever your specific opinions are about the root of the problems right now, here's where you can share those opinions BRIEFLY, but you are also asked to follow-up your list of frustrations with alternatives for solutions. Please try to follow a bullet list format and keep this from becoming a soap-box session. Rank things here in priority if you can.

In whom do we put our faith and trust moving forward?

Moving forward, in what or in whom do we have the most confidence and are we willing to put our trust? What people, industries, associations, groups, do we feel are most worthy to take the next crucial steps towards getting out of this hole and moving in the most positive direction? Do we need to look outside our current resources for guidance and leadership or do we have what we need right here?

Is Apathy really the problem in Colorado Springs?

I am reading from a lot of people that they feel residents of Colorado Springs are apathetic. However, most of the posts I've read on The Gazette and other places are anything but apathtic. Is it really apathy that is our problem or is it perhaps another phenomenon? Could it be a sense of entitlement in some or that others care deeply, but have gotten exhausted from their past efforts amounting to no affect or change over the years?

Taking the first steps towards a solution

There's a lot panic going on right now with the failure of 2C and passage of 300. Mayor and City Coucil recall petitions, people losing their jobs, funding for key industries like tourism being slashed.

Folks, there's a saying. Cut once, measure twice.

Before anything permanent is done, I urge everyone who has a shred of energy, thought and inclination to ask questions, do what you can to "stop the presses" as quickly as possible, and see what other alternatives have not been examined. The haste right now is scary and solutions that involve bureaucracy, tax dollars, and a whole lot of time is like telling someone who is about to have their arm chopped off that you are going to mail a letter to the hospital as soon as the arm is off so help will arrive. WE WILL BLEED TO DEATH BEFORE THE LETTER EVEN HITS THE MAILBOX!!

I hope someone gets my analogy. Please...someone...tell me I'm making sense to someone out there.

Local Government and Voting Issues

testing dawaters said...
next election separate the ballot issues. We dont need an omnibus tax plan. if the taxes were clear and concise in their purpose, and they had a sunset clause, a lot of people would have voted yes.

If we are going to foot the bill for a special election to recall rivera and smalls, why not try to squueze a save the city bus issue or a save the parks and recs issue on the same ballot? signatures would need to be gathered.

Most Valuable Assets to Colorado Springs

What are the unique aspects of Colorado Springs that should be most protected and invested in to keep this city a place that offers a high quality of life all those who wish to live here?

What are the biggest threats to keeping Colorado Springs a thriving community?

What do you perceive are the biggest threats facing the community of Colorado Springs and preventing this city from being a thriving and healthy community?

What do you like the most about living in Colorado Springs? What do you like the least about living in Colorado Springs?

As a resident, what is it you like the most about living here? What do you like the least about living here. Try to limit your list to ten things.