Downtown Colorado Springs sees changes before the new year

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KKTV)—Starting on Friday, the city will shorten metered parking hours to 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and on Sunday, metered parking will start at 1 p.m.

“We have some customers who say they don’t come downtown because parking is a nightmare or because they have to pay for parking,” co-owner of Cronk Art and Curiosities Andrew Cronk said.

On Sunday parking at the city-owned garages and lots will be free.

“Having abbreviated hours of paid parking definitely would help,” Cronk said.

This is just one of five areas the city is focusing on during the holiday season. Other areas include security, clean-up, homelessness response and business support. The mayor also granted overtime for CSPD’s downtown response team and homeless outreach team.

“I think help is the keyword rather than drive out or move away as long as they’re helping people that makes me feel better,” Cronk said.

The city says the effort is geared toward driving more business downtown, something Cronk says he would love to see more local customers in his store.

“It’s all new people it’s tourists, it’s people visiting, that’s wonderful. but some of our regulars feel like it is out of the way now,” Cronk said.

The results of these changes will be evaluated in January. They plan to see what aspects need to be carried on through the next year.

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