The dictionary defines a “haven” as a spot of security or refuge. It’s my rivalry that Colorado Springs is a haven, particularly when in comparison with many different cities in the USA and all through the world.
It helps to suppose Colorado Springs is a spot of “security and refuge” in the event you’ve grown up and spent your early grownup years in a massive metropolitan space on the East Coast. From the age of 5 to 33, I lived primarily in Baltimore.
I discovered shifting to Colorado Springs a direct launch from site visitors issues, critical air pollution, violent crime, city crowding, and enormous areas of deteriorating housing.
And then there are the apparent positives of Colorado Springs — a spectacular pure setting dominated by Pikes Peak, entry to the superb out of doors recreation alternatives within the close by Rocky Mountains, and a stunning local weather that’s excessive and dry and more often than not lacks uncomfortable excessive humidity.
However there are different extra delicate issues that make Colorado Springs an unusually nice place to reside:
Simple Annexation: Within the early Sixties, the Colorado state legislature granted cities resembling Colorado Springs the ability to simply annex into the town its rising surrounding suburbs. The massive housing developments and close by purchasing areas which are always being annexed into Colorado Springs convey together with them property tax funds from the properties and gross sales tax revenue from the purchasing facilities. The result’s a financially sound metropolis that may keep a greater than respectable degree of metropolis companies.
Heads up utilities companies: In a excessive and dry state like Colorado, with its chilly winters, having good utility companies resembling water, sewer, pure gasoline, and electrical are important. The truth that Colorado Springs can present glorious utility service stimulates the will of housing builders to annex into the town. Metropolis utilities has accomplished job of anticipating the lengthy–vary future water wants of this rising metropolis and offering for them years upfront.
Low inhabitants density: Colorado Springs has one of many lowest inhabitants densities amongst American cities. Simple annexation has allowed the town to annex massive quantities of territory and primarily construct single household housing on it. The result’s a spread-out neighborhood with a lot much less crowding and a serious discount in site visitors issues. The general impact is to provide Colorado Springs the texture of a suburb fairly than a excessive–density metropolis. I have lengthy argued that “Colorado Springs is a suburb in quest of a central metropolis.”
A metropolis of properties: The town’s founder, General William Jackson Palmer, mentioned he needed to make Colorado Springs “the perfect place for properties within the West.” The metropolis has delivered on that promise. One of many issues I like greatest about Colorado Springs is the wide range of neighborhood decisions.
If you’d like an outdated–type neighborhood of wood properties with a grid avenue sample and heavy landscaping, you’ll be able to reside in one of many older neighborhoods that encompass the downtown.
If you wish to reside midway up a mountain aspect and look down on the town, there’s Upper Skyway and Mountain Shadows.
Then again, if you wish to reside out on the prairie and have an extended–distance mountain skyline view to the west, there isn’t a higher place than northeast Colorado Springs. Few cities have such a variety of differing neighborhood settings.
Parks, open area, and recreation: As soon as once more our metropolis founder, General Palmer, will get the credit score for a beautiful metropolis asset. He gave three main public parks to Colorado Springs — Monument Valley Park, Palmer Park, and North Cheyenne Canyon Park. Shortly thereafter a household related to the Burlington Railroad gave the Garden of the Gods Park to the town.
However all that simply obtained the ball rolling. The town has steadily added parks and playgrounds ever since, resembling Ute Valley Park to the north and Sondermann Park to the west. Together with the parks have come in depth open area and recreation programs. It’s the uncommon Colorado Springs youngster who doesn’t, whereas rising up, play a metropolis-sponsored recreational sport resembling baseball, softball, or soccer.
Responsive Metropolis Council: One of the nice charms of Colorado Springs is that common residents of the town can deal with the Metropolis Council in its formal conferences for 3 minutes on a topic that issues them, their house, or their neighborhood. Most massive cities shouldn’t have this easy-going entrance into the public debate on native metropolis points such as planning and zoning. In my opinion, Metropolis Council has file of responding appropriately to cheap requests from teams of common residents.
Properly–preserved downtown neighborhoods: The downtowns of most main American cities are surrounded by what known as the “gray space.” That could be a ring of housing, primarily constructed within the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, that has deteriorated bodily and develop into house to the rising social issues within the metropolis.
One of probably the most distinguishing options of Colorado Springs is that the neighborhoods instantly surrounding the downcity space are nicely preserved and proceed to present household properties for the town’s center class. These “encompass downtown” neighborhoods embrace the Near North Finish, the Old North Finish, Patty Jewett, Center Shook’s Run, Bonnyville, and so forth. There’s little or no regentrification in Colorado Springs, primarily as a result of our downtown–area neighborhoods by no means “degentrified” within the first place.
Not excellent: Colorado Springs does have some drawbacks. In case you are a loyal Democrat, the town is just too Republican. The town’s economic system is just too depending on U.S. Authorities army spending. And crime and medicines and lack of inexpensive housing are right here, identical to in different cities, massive and small.
Open to all: The blessings of Colorado Springs, enumerated above, can be found to all on an equal foundation. One of the most important tales of 2021 was the announcement by the College of California at Berkeley that Colorado Springs was one of many two greatest cities within the United States for equal entry to residential housing. The opposite metropolis with racially built-in housing was Port St. Lucie, Fla.
And so it’s that Colorado Springs is a haven, and it’s a haven for all.
Bob Loevy is a retired Professor of Political Science at Colorado Faculty. He has loved residing in Colorado Springs for 54 years.