Let’s see - if residents of Boulder are the happiest folks in America, and residents of Colorado Springs are just a little less cheerful, coming in 37th, what does that mean? I’ll tell you: Absolutely nothing.

These made-up “best place” rankings, which local boosters often point to with such pride, are utter fabrications, invented to boost readership of whatever pub is pushing them.

Let’s say that you own a magazine called “Iguana Fancier,” featuring all things iguana. You note that you’re not getting the circulation that you’d like to see in the Pacific Northwest, although research tells you that the north woods are full of iguana-lovers, who’d love to be part of the “Iguana Fancier” community.
So you run your story: Best cities for iguanas! Seattle at #1, Portland at #2, Boise at #3, Tacoma #4, etc., etc. You get lots of great iguana ink, your circ explodes, iguana lovers find each other, and learn how to care for their beloved lizards for the very small, very insignificant price of a subscription to “Iguana Fancier.”

So, in an effort to boost the circulation of the world’s best business publication, headquartered right here in Colorado Springs, here are the unofficial CSBJ rankings of Colorado Springs in a few as yet unpublicized categories.
1. Best view of Pikes Peak: Colorado Springs! You can scarcely see it from Pueblo or Denver, and it’s invisible from most of Manitou.
2. Most dysfunctional local elected body: Marbella, Spain (last three mayors in jail for corruption!). Colorado Springs isn’t even in the top 100, without a single jailed/indicted elected official - although Tom Gallagher gets points for having a garage that used to be a crack house.

3. Best city park with giant red rocks: We get #1 for the Garden of the Gods, and #3 for Red Rocks open space. Denver gets #2 for its Red Rocks.
4. Site of worst-ever major rock concert: Colorado Springs, The Who, April 9, 2020. Both Roger Daltrey and Pete Townsend expire on stage, and promoter Aaron Retka refuses to refund ticketholders.
5. Best train service: Colorado Springs, with 21 coal trains passing through town every day, not to mention scheduled passenger service to the top of Pikes Peak!
6. Easiest airport parking, top 100 Standard Metropolitan Statistical Areas: Colorado Springs!

7. Fewest direct flights, top 100 SMSA’s: #1 Santa Fe (airport closed), #9 Colorado Springs.

8. Most articulate and combative blogger/councilmember, online division: #1 Sean Paige, Colorado Springs!
9. Most drunken 20-somethings in central downtown area, Saturday night division: #1 Colorado Springs, #2 Austin, #3 Boulder, #4 Denver (LoDo only), #5 Santa Monica.
10. City most unfairly reviled by national left-wing media: Colorado Springs!
10a City most unfairly reviled by national right-wing media: Boulder!

11. Most effective right-wing taxophobe: The Dougster (who else?)

12. Looniest elected official, ancient history division: #1 Betty Beedy (remember “normal white Americans”?), #2 Charlie Duke, #3 Cheryl Gillaspie, #4 The Dougster, #5 Mark Sanford, #6 John Edwards … actually we should just expand the list to about 500 names, all of whom would be tied for #1.

13.Greenest city: #1 Colorado Springs - the only city in America to save money and reduce carbon emissions by turning off one-third of the city’s streetlights.

You may think that these rankings are frivolous, biased and inaccurate. Yes they are! But the metrics are impeccable - just ask my iguana.

<- Back to csbj.com

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Posted by John Hazlehurst on February 17th, 2010 :: Filed under Blog
Tags :: Aaron Retka, Austin, Betty Beedy, Boise, Boulder, carbon emissions, Charlie Duke, Colorado Springs, crack, Denver, Garden of the Gods, Iguanas, John Edwards, left wing media, Marbella, Mark Sanford, Pikes Peak, Portland, right-wing media, Roger Daltrey. Pete Townsend, Santa Monica, Sean Paige, Seattle, Tacoma, The Dougster, The Who, Tom Gallagher

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There’s nothing better than a good, old-fashioned left/right bloodbath, especially when it involves our own fair city.

Lefty commentator David Sirota started the ball rolling with a bitingly snarky column in the Post, which also ran in the Gazette, characterizing Colorado Springs as “a shining example of what happens to a community when conservatives’ anti-tax policies are distilled into their most pure form …”

And if you think that’s a little mean, he was just getting started. He continues: “The next time you hear a conservative prattle on about how much he/she hates taxes and how the solution to all problems in America is to cut taxes, remember Colorado Springs. It is the anti-tax zealot’s nirvana - and it shows what America would look like if our politics continue to be dominated by the me-first, screw-everyone-else crowd and their tax-hating ways.”

Former Gazette editorial page editor, and present city councilmember Sean Paige promptly rose to the defense of our cruelly maligned, not-quite metropolis.

No doubt inspired by the absence of editorial constraints (“Paige, you have 800 words, and that’s it!”), Sean’s indignant piece in the Huffington Post ran on for nearly 1,900 words.

Characterizing the city’s current funding crisis as “a budget crunch…no different than (those currently experienced by) most American cities,” Paige claimed that the city is “…leagues ahead, in terms of livability and quality of life, of most places from which the ideological sniping comes.”

And Sirota? “Typical of the slams was this post by David Sirota in the Denver Huffington Post, which shows that he doesn’t know anything more about Colorado Springs than he knows about the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights. Here’s Sirota, spewing stupid.”

After listing all of  the “best places” awards that the city has won, and taking aim at those pesky, ill-informed lib’ruls, Sean concludes by saying, “Maybe what really infuriates liberals about Colorado Springs is that it demonstrates that you can have a great American city without the need for a great big government running things; that you can keep taxes in check and still deliver an outstanding quality of life; that people here will step up to do for themselves, the things government can’t or shouldn’t be doing for them. This town remains a magnet for transplants because it keeps the American dream affordable and attainable, by actually putting America’s limited government ideals into practice. Take all the pot shots you want, liberals, but Colorado Springs will get through this fiscal crunch and emerge on the other side stronger and better than ever.”

Sirota, no slouch as an incendiary, opinionated writer, replied in kind.

In yesterday’s Huffington Post, Sirota leveled both barrels at Paige, characterizing everything he said as arising from the “eternal delusions of the right-wing mind.”

“Paige says Colorado Springs attracts new residents and economic growth ‘by actually putting America’s limited government ideals into practice.’ In this, he asks us to forget that one of the city’s biggest employers is the defense industry - that is, an industry that has absolutely nothing to do with ‘limited government’ and everything to do with the hugest of Huge Government. Whether you support this Huge Government or not - whether you think it is a good or bad thing - it’s size and centrality to the Colorado Springs economy is undeniable, as is its antithesis to the concept of ‘limited’ or small government. You don’t have to trust me, the guy who Paige calls a ’statist’ (do people even use that red-baiting McCarthy-esque word anymore?). You can look at the $700 billion annual defense budget.”

OK, you two - just shut up. You’re both wrong.

You both see this city as through the distorting lens of your particular and quirky ideologies, and make the facts fit your own preconceptions.

Sean: David’s right. We contributed to this mess by embracing Doug Bruce’s taxophobia. And those “best places” rankings are highly dubious. For example, are we really one of the most drunken cities in America, as a recent survey seemed to show? And is Boston the least drunk? Or are the rankings derived from dubious metrics? And yeah, we’re more dependent upon guv’mint payrolls than any city in America … except Washington, D.C.  Volunteerism is fine - but who’s gonna patch the potholes?  Not me.

David: Sean’s right. With all its faults, the city’s a great place to live, and despite our current travails, is likely to stay that way. You can rant all you want about our problems,but we’re very far from being the poster child for American urban dysfunction. And besides, we’re the city every journalist dreams of - a city run by newspaper guys!

Journalists are former city councilmembers, and city councilmembers are former journalists. And we know that Colorado Springs taxpayers have always wised up eventually. They may load the gun, cock it and aim at their foot - but they never quite squeeze the trigger. And you may think that Sean’s a crazed, delusional right-winger, but he’s changed.

He used to be a crazed, delusional right-wing journalist, but now he’s a respected, comparatively moderate community leader … a role model for you!

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Posted by John Hazlehurst on February 9th, 2010 :: Filed under Blog
Tags :: Colorado Springs, conservatives, David Sirota, Denver Post, Douglas Bruce, eternal delusions of the right-wing mind, Gazette, Huffington Post, liberals, Sean Paige

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The city’s ongoing budget crisis became slightly less acute this week with the discovery of a few million extra dollars that, it appears, Colorado Springs Utilities owes the city as a result of an inadvertent miscalculation of the so-called payment in lieu of taxes (PILT).

That’s good news, since it enabled the city to pony up $365,000 to keep the Pioneers Museum open and to provide enough funding to keep the aquatics centers open for a few more months.

But thanks to the Dark Lord of Taxes, He-whose-name-must-not-be-spoken (he’ll sue!), the PILT will be phased out during the next several years. And thanks to previous successful voter initiatives created by his tax-cutting majesty, even a reviving economy won’t bail out the city.

That’s because, thanks to the mini-Tabor amendment to the city charter, year-to-year city revenue growth is capped at a rate pegged to certain local and state indicators. In practice, if a suddenly booming economy produced a 20 percent gain in sales tax collections, the city would likely be required to refund two-thirds of the gain to the taxpayers.

So acute and visible are the city’s problems, and so pressing is the need for some sort of long-term solution, that even Broadmoor CEO Steve Bartolin weighed in last month with a long, thoughtful letter to the mayor and members of council.

In the letter, Bartolin expressed his concern about the city’s cost structure, noting that personnel costs consume the lion’s share of the budget.

“My intent was not to have (the letter) circulated,” he said, “I don’t want to embarrass anyone. Colorado Springs is not alone in this - every city, large and small, is going through similar difficulties. But it may be time for somebody to take a fresh look.”

Bartolin’s no stranger to the restructuring process. He’s been at The Broadmoor for 18 years, becoming its CEO three years after the El Pomar Foundation sold most of its interest in The Broadmoor to the Oklahoma Publishing Company.

Looking at today’s resplendent resort, it’s hard to believe that The Broadmoor of two decades ago was a faded grande dame, increasingly shabby and irrelevant in a changing resort environment.

During Bartolin’s tenure, The Broadmoor has added 150 rooms, a new golf club, a new spa facility, a new pool complex, the 60,000 sq. ft. Broadmoor Hall, The Summit restaurant, the mountain golf course, 23 retail shops, and developed the Broadmoor resort community, as well as spending$35 million restoring the main building.

“We don’t have any debt,” Batolin said. “We’ve spent hundreds of millions (in improvements) and we’ve financed it all through cash flow. In my business, a lot of people focus on quality, and a lot of people focus on costs - but you have to do both. We have about as many employees as the city, not including utilities and the hospital, so there may be some similarities.”

The Broadmoor may be a success story - but Bartolin’s former employer, the Greenbrier, has fallen upon hard times.

Like The Broadmoor, the Greenbrier is a historic resort hotel with a national reputation. Situated on 6,500 acres, offering 700 luxuriously appointed rooms (to use hotelspeak!), it has sheltered kings and presidents, movie stars and scoundrels. Today it’s in bankruptcy, having lost $35 million last year.

“They let their personnel costs get out of control,” said Bartolin. “There were some expensive labor agreements, and they just refused to tackle them. They thought they could just go on raising their prices. This is a very, very competitive business. Their personnel costs got to 70 percent of their budget and no business can compete with those kinds of costs.”

Bartolin didn’t have to point out that the city’s personnel costs consume 70 percent of the general fund budget, and that the city’s cost per employee, with benefits, is close to $90,000. For a business, such a cost structure would be unsustainable.

Maybe, Bartolin agreed, it’s time to bring in a major national consulting firm such as McKinsey & Co, and ask them to analyze the city’s operations and make specific recommendations.

“I’d support that,” he said, “we need to do something. We all have to work with the city.”

And Bartolin, more than most of us, has a dog in the fight. He’s not happy that council has cut the CVB’s budget by almost $600,000 this year, particularly since the Broadmoor pays a substantial percentage of the “lodger’s tax” from which the Convention and Visitors Bureau funds are derived. As the state of Colorado learned a few years back, cutting tourism funding has at least one absolutely certain outcome: fewer tourists.

And he’s also concerned about prospective increases in the resort’s water bills.

“We paid $586,000 last year for water,” Bartolin said, ” and if water rates are going to increase at the level they predict, then we’ll be paying $2.5 million ten years from now. That’s a lot of money.”

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Posted by John Hazlehurst on December 9th, 2009 :: Filed under Blog
Tags :: Colorado Springs

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In Colorado Springs, commercial real estate markets move in predictable cycles. We get a decade or so of prosperity, as rents rise steadily and prices follow. 

New entrants flood into the markets, brokers show up for work, answer their phones, write offers, collect commissions and move on to the next deal. Owners cackle with glee as their net worth increases, tenants complain mildly as rents skyrocket - but not too much, because business is booming.  Let the good times roll!  Life is good!!

Until it isn’t. 

Every twenty years, a new generation of brokers and investors get inducted into the Hard Knocks School of Colorado Springs Real Estate. 

Businesses founder, rents plunge, banks foreclose, equity evaporates, and investors who find themselves miraculously solvent during market chaos are positioned to make money - lots of money.

Let’s consider the Chase Bank building at 6 N.Tejon, at what was once, and may still be, the city’s prime downtown corner. It’s priced at $7.25 million, or $56 per square foot.  It’ll need some updating to attract new tenants, and retain the cachet of a class A office building, which might add another $2.5 million or so to the price.

A new owner would then have, for a total investment of less than $10 million, a trophy downtown building.  When the local and national economies revive, whoever owns the building will see substantial appreciation.  Who knows?-it may even get back to its original 2007 asking price of $14 million.

Meanwhile, the city of Colorado Springs, apparently unaware of such investment opportunities, just paid $19 million and change for the top five floors of the building at 27 South Tejon, which the United States Olympic Committee will occupy next spring, as soon as G.E. Johnson completes $2 million + in tenant finish.   That’s a total of $265 per square foot, more than twice the PSF price for a renovated Chase Bank building.

Conclusion: someone is going to make a lot of money buying downtown real estate, but it won’t be the taxpayers.

As broker Andy Oyler (who’s listing the Chase Bank building with Grubb & Ellis/Quantum Commercial Group) said this morning, reflecting upon today’s challenging commercial real estate market, “It blows your mind how quickly markets change.”

True enough, Andy - but just wait for the upside move!

 

 

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Posted by John Hazlehurst on December 2nd, 2009 :: Filed under Uncategorized
Tags :: 27 South Tejon, 6 north tejon, andy oyler, chase bank building, Colorado Springs, commercial real estate, G.E. Johnson, taxpayers

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Utopia or dystopia?  What does the future hold for our city?  

How can we, individually and collectively, shape this community?  In endeavors such as Dream City, the 6035 project, and a dozen predecessors, we’ve asked ourselves the same question:  how do cities thrive?

Forty-eight years ago, Jane Jacobs published “The Death and Life of Great American Cities.” 

In the book, she attacked the planners, bureaucrats, and urban brutalists whom, she believed, were ripping the heart out of American cities by imposing their own sterile modernist visions upon the complex, messy, unregulated chaos of the city. Her particular target: Robert Moses, who tore down whole neighborhoods in New York City to build freeways to serve suburban commuters.

Jacobs was too late to stop the tidal wave of urban renewal (AKA urban destruction) that swept across the country during the ’50s, ’60s and early ’70s. 

More than almost any city in America, Colorado Springs suffered from the “new brutalism.” 

Entire city blocks were leveled, including most of the city’s major historic structures. The architects of this disaster weren’t trying to rip the heart out Colorado Springs - they just wanted to build a shiny new city that would be convenient and modern, just like a suburban office park. 

Deluded fools, every one - right?  We’ve learned our lesson - right? 

We know now that we need to get the stuff back that we so casually ripped down a few decades back - downtown residential structures, retail density, vibrant street life, thriving small businesses, art galleries, convenient public transportation.

Trouble is, we’ve been trying to revive downtown for nearly three decades, with mixed success. Tejon Street looks good, but most everything else is suffering.

I don’t think we can revive downtown with half-measures. We need to make some big changes - and that doesn’t mean spending tens of millions in taxpayer funds to give a junkily designed renovated building to the USOC.

Here are some suggestions.

• Get rid of the parking lots. There are three enormous lots that are being held by owners sure that, sooner or later, the time will come to build a trophy high-rise. Here’s some news from the reality-based community: that time may never come. 
• Have the city/county act together to create a fat incentive package, deferring all manner of taxes, to encourage property owners to build low-rise commercial/residential structures on their vast sites.  And here’s a stick to go with the carrot: remove flat parking as a principal permitted use.
• Make downtown a special tax-exempt zone for both merchants and residents.  Just suspend the collection of sales/property tax for five years, and offer property owners/ residents the same break.  Do that, and watch the stores open, watch the lofts go up. And try to get the state to suspend the state income tax as well … we’d have a mini-Monaco!

Would it be fair, equitable, and logical policy?  No - but it’d sure work. 

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Posted by John Hazlehurst on November 24th, 2009 :: Filed under Uncategorized
Tags :: 6035, Colorado Springs, downtown parking lots, dream city, dystopia, Jane Jacobs, parking lots, Robert Moses, Tejon Street, the death and life of great american cities, Urban Renewal, utopia

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But one I received yesterday, originating from our very own United States Olympic Committee, and provided by a helpful reader, is a minor masterpiece of the art.

It contains all of the elements of the classic press release, i.e.:

• Fake enthusiasm. Does anyone seriously think that our Olympic ath-a-letes are quivering with joy at the very thought of oinking down some li’l pink pills for acid indigestion?
• Frequent product mentions. 11 mentions in less than 400 words-that’s right up there with with the most annoying TV pitchmen.
• Endorsement from C-level celebrity. Sasha Cohen.
• Fake news. Disaster avoided as chewable tabs arrive just in time!

And although the unfortunate writer of the release may not realize it, so inherently bizarre that it could be a Saturday Night Live routine. Can you imagine Tina Fey archly reciting the fourth paragraph-especially the diarrhea, gas, and belching part?

Here’s the release. Read it for yourself.

“Pepto-Bismol® Helps Team USA Keep Their Cool at 2010 Olympic Winter Games In

Vancouver; New Pepto-Bismol Chewables with InstaCool^TM Arrives Just In Time to Send U.S. athletes on their way to competition.

by Lindsay DeWall - U.S. Olympic Committee (719) 866-4529)

COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. - As part of Procter & Gamble Co.’s sponsorship of Team USA at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, Pepto-Bismol® announced today it will provide all Team USA members with new Pepto-Bismol Chewable Tablets with InstaCool^TM.

Pepto-Bismol Chewable Tablets with InstaCool technology is an innovative new product that provides an instant cooling sensation to signify relief is on the way.

“We know that no one wants to be slowed down by stomach upsets, especially these athletes who may only have a few minutes to execute a medal-winning performance,” said Brand Manager Nathan Fox. “Pepto-Bismol Chewable Tablets with InstaCool technology will help these athletes keep their cool, focus on the task at hand and not let common stomach issues get in the way.”

Pepto-Bismol is the leading choice for people who are looking for one solution to multiple common stomach symptoms such as nausea, heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach, diarrhea, gas, belching, and traveler’s diarrhea.

“There are many reasons an athlete may suffer from stomach upsets,” said Dr. James Moeller, USOC Chief Medical Officer. “Travel and foods can cause stomach upsets that may keep our athletes from achieving their goals during competition. It’s comforting to be able to offer them a quality product that combats their stomach symptoms and helps them live their dream.”

Pepto-Bismol is also partnering with Olympic silver medalist Sasha Cohen as she returns to the ice with the hopes of joining Team USA in Vancouver.

“I’ve got so much going on everyday with managing my hectic practice and competition schedule as I prepare to qualify for Vancouver, so when stomach problems hit, I need a product that I know is going to work,” Cohen said. “The cooling sensation of this new Pepto-Bismol lets me know relief is on the way so I can get back to my busy schedule.”

Cohen and Pepto-Bismol encourage consumers to enter the Pepto InstaCool Sweepstakes* for a chance to win a 5-day/4-night trip to Vancouver to cheer on Team USA with some of the most sought-after event tickets at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games.”

Thanks, Lindsay - it brightened our day! And how ‘bout a nice press release highlighting the benefits of your urban sponsor, Colorado Springs ^TM? I’ll even help you write it, and here’s a start!

Come to Colorado Springs^TM and you can forget diarrhea, gas and belching! Thanks to our carefully formulated High Altitude Air^TM…well, you figure out the rest.

<-Back to CSBJ.com

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Posted by John Hazlehurst on November 18th, 2009 :: Filed under Uncategorized
Tags :: belching, Colorado Springs, diarrhea, gas, Lindsay DeWall, pepto-bismol, press releases, Sasha Cohen, TV pitchmen, USOC

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The estimable folks who brought us the “Dream City” project are searching for a slogan.

Appealing to the public, they wrote that “The Pikes Peak region needs a slogan, words that suggest all the great reasons to visit or live here. As part of the community engagement project Dream City: Vision 2020, we’re collecting your ideas for inspiring slogans.”

Far be it from us to fall short community-engagement wise. We asked for suggestions. Here are a few, and yes, we know that they’re sadly inadequate! That why we’re asking you, dear readers, to submit your own suggestions, in the hope that we can, collectively and individually, come up with the single perfect phrase, or scrap of doggerel, or limerick, or haiku, that inspires, informs and amuses.

Here’s what we have so far:

“Pikes Peak and Busted.”

“Nobody shares our views!”

“Colorado Springs - where only the view matters!”

“Colorado Springs: South of Denver-and to the right of everything”

“Dobson, Haggard - need we say more?”

“Colorado Springs: Where not even Katherine Lee Bates stayed for long.”

“No springs in Colorado Springs!”

“Colorado Springs hits the spot/One 14′er, that’s a lot?/The USOC, and what a view/At least we’ll always have one of two!”

“Colorado Springs - once a city, now a suburb.”

“There once was a town near Pikes Peak/Whose founders large fortunes did seek/But soon they did find/That the town fell behind/And now its reputation is weak”

“Go west young man and claim your stake/To Colorado Springs-where everything’s fake/There you’ll find nature/And government failure/And a town that’s rarely awake.”

You get the idea.

Actually, the city already has a slogan-”We Create Community.” That little phrase was stolen from a bumper sticker created by Citizens Project during the late 1990’s, which read “Celebrate Diversity/Create Community.”

We have no quarrel with the city’s deft plagiarism - it’s better than paying a P.R. firm 20 grand or so to come up with a catchy phrase. The city’s various departments, “friends” groups, and divisions also have mission statements. Here’s our favorite, copied directly from the city website.

Mission Statement

City Contracting

“Business with a Competetive Edge”

Colorado Springs Utilities has its slogan as well - “It’s how we’re all connected.” El Paso County is without one.

But Denver’s slogan is simple and memorable -”The Mile-High City.” And just to rub it in, at least one city agency, the Denver Office of Cultural Affairs, has not only a mission statement (”To advance the arts and culture in the City and County of Denver”) but a vision statement (”To make Denver a community that attracts, cultivates, and mobilizes the creative spirit”).

Inspired by our neighbors to the north, how about “Colorado Springs-755 feet higher than a mile!” or “Colorado Springs - no mission, no vision, no slogan - and proud of it!”

Your turn.

<-Back to CSBJ.com

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Posted by John Hazlehurst on June 19th, 2009 :: Filed under Uncategorized
Tags :: Colorado Springs, Denver, dream city, El Paso County, pikes peak region, slogan

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This morning’s joint press release from the USOC and LandCo, announcing that they have “resolved all disputes relating to the USOC and LandCo’s relationship as part of the project to retain the USOC in Colorado Springs” almost certainly signals that a similar resolution between the city and LandCo is in the offing.

So here’s the question: what will the agreement look like?  More to the point, who will pay, and what will they pay for? 

Rumor has it that Stephanie Streeter, the newly-appointed CEO of the USOC, worked out a deal with the City a month ago, which would kick in as soon as the LandCo dispute was resolved.

It has been clear for months that, while LandCo’s finances were not strong enough to move the project forward, they were nevertheless in a position to stall the deal indefinitely.  Such stalling tactics may have seemed unsporting and ungentlemanly, but real estate development is a rough game, and you play with the cards you’re dealt - unless you can deal yourself an ace off the bottom of the deck.

In all probability, LandCo has cut a deal, allowing the company to exit gracefully from the agreement in return for considerations of some sort-maybe in the form of debt relief, or real estate equity, or even, as some particularly suspicious folks have theorized, future tax relief for a project in which LandCo may have a residual interest.

More questions: is there a new developer, ready to step in and take over LandCo’s role?  Has the city filled the gaps with some combination of taxpayer dough, El Pomar grants, contributions from civic-minded citizens, and promises of future largesse?  Will the agreement be submitted to voters for approval, or will Council, as is its wont, just rubber-stamp it with no debate and a hearty round of mutual backslapping?

We’ll see - maybe even by tomorrow.

<-Back to CSBJ.com

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Posted by John Hazlehurst on June 10th, 2009 :: Filed under Blog
Tags :: Colorado Springs, El Pomar, LandCo, Stephanie Streeter, USOC

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Press releases. They come. We delete. Life goes on. But every once in a while, we get one that piques our interest, like this one from the Pikes Peak Area Council of Governments:

Colorado Springs, CO-The Pikes Peak Rural Transportation Authority (PPRTA) has released the 2008 Annual Report to the Citizens. The report highlights how the four member governments of Colorado Springs, Manitou Springs, Green Mountain Falls, and El Paso County made significant transportation improvements and spent more than $83 million in new revenue on major construction and design projects, maintenance activities, and transit services.

More than 200,000 copies of the PPRTA Annual Report will be distributed through major news publications including the Gazette, the Colorado Springs Independent, Cheyenne and Woodmen Editions, Military News, the Tri-lakes Tribune, Fountain Valley News, the Pikes Peak Bulletin, Ranchland News and Black Forest News. The report will also be available in all area King Soopers and Safeway grocery stores.

200,000 copies? That’s more than enough for every man, woman and literate child in the PPRTA’s entire service area. It’s also about 199,900 copies more than any reasonable person would imagine the demand for such a publication to be.

Let’s not forget that this is the cash-strapped PPRTA that had its budget cut by 51 percent this year and cannot afford to fill its usual number of potholes.

Obviously, you might conclude that we have a dog in this fight. After all, our peerless publication was inexplicably deprived of the no doubt lucrative business of enclosing this bit of puffery, and making it available to our similarly deprived readers.

But here’s a question: why publish the piece at all? Why not just make a PDF, and drop it in the websites of all the member entities? Cost for printing, insertion, and distribution - zero. Take the money saved thereby, and fill a few more potholes…and that reminds me of yet another press release, this one received Tuesday morning from the city.

“Fewer streets to be resurfaced in 2009.”

But maybe I’m way off base - and if so, I’m sure our readers will let me know. If any of y’all feel unjustly deprived of your PPRTA annual report, let me know. I’ll arrange to have one delivered to you.

<-Back to CSBJ.com

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Posted by John Hazlehurst on May 26th, 2009 :: Filed under Blog
Tags :: Colorado Springs, El Paso County, potholes, PPACG, PPRTA

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