Not so many years ago, when I was younger, carefree, single and ready to party, downtown was a wonderful place to be on a Friday night.

Clubs such as Eden, the Vue and Rum bay were safe and welcoming, if often rowdy. But, these days downtown is downright dangerous. There have been a number of recent reports about late-night downtown gun fights.

But, at the same time, there have been a number of stories about Springs police cracking down on public nudity.

They appear to care more about bare breasts than about public safety.

It used to be that if undercover cops were lurking downtown, they weren’t worried about nudity. They never bothered to arrest women for indecent exposure or shut down the clubs for liquor license violations or ticket patrons for excessive ogling.

But now things are different. The cops are out in force, and all of those skanky women have been made to change their ways. No more bare breasts! The elevated moral tone of our city must be preserved!

But as many of us have noticed, downtown has changed. Forget ‘Spring Break on Tejon Street’ - it’s now a fully-clothed free-fire zone.

It’s almost comical to listen to our elected and appointed officials solemnly declaim about the importance of the liquor licensing laws and how seriously the city regards violations of these ordinances.

Maybe councilmembers and cops alike ought to stop worrying about nudity and start worrying about public safety.

Downtown after midnight is about as safe as the South Bronx in the 70’s or Newark in the 80’s. Thanks to aggressive and effective policing, as well as neighborhood revitalization, barhopping in Brooklyn is a lot safer than partying on Tejon Street.

Why? Are the police underfunded? Or are we misapplying already - limited funds?

We have a problem. Gangs of armed thugs have essentially taken over much of the club scene, and we seem powerless to do anything about it. Forget the bare breasts, forget DUI sweeps, forget 20 year-olds with fake ID’s, forget speeding tickets, and stop mourning our vanished helicopters-just make the streets safe.

That’s your job - just do it.

And stop staring at those girls!!

<-Back to CSBJ.com

---

Posted by John Hazlehurst on December 28th, 2009 :: Filed under Blog
Tags :: downtown, nudity, violence

---

Bettina, Warren, Amanda - of course, you’re all correct…except for a couple of points.

Like it or not, Dream City was conceived, organized publicized and pushed by the Gazette.  It is thought of, correctly or incorrectly, as a Gazette promotion. 

And, it might be fair to assume that Dream City might share some of the characteristics of its parent’s Multiple Personality Disorder. 

Given the G’s longtime editorial slant, I’d guess that the paper would oppose most of the initiatives likely to emerge from Dream City. 

Those of us who were around in the 90’s well remember the Gazette’s fierce opposition to TOPS, not to mention the reams of favorable coverage given to Douglas Bruce and the charter amendments and statewide constitutional amendments that he wrote.

But that’s neither here nor there -just a reminder that an apparently friendly old pit bull behind a chain link fence will still bite, given the opportunity.

The larger issue is that of change itself and of the myopia that afflicts those who push for it at any time in the history of a community.

I remember the beautiful Victorian downtown of my childhood, and how it was swept away in a few years-not destroyed by fire, or allowed to crumble from neglect, but torn down by well-meaning, civic-minded folks who wanted to rebuild downtown, to make it modern, shiny, and up-to-date.

What they succeeded in doing was to transform much of downtown into a wilderness of parking lots, conveniently located close to the clubs where the eager youth of our city get drunk, spill out in the streets when the bars close, and fight merrily among themselves-such an improvement!

The businessmen who, with the enthusiastic cooperation of the city (which created its very own ‘urban renewal’ program to fund the destruction of the city’s core), didn’t raze these noble old buildings out of spite - they thought they’d make money and improve downtown.

Careful, modest preservation initiative work (e.g., Dave Hughes’ brilliantly conceived plan that rescued Old Colorado City from the wrecking ball).  Grandiose schemes (southwest downtown?) often die of their own weight, and when revived, transmogrify, becoming the antithesis of what was originally planned and imagined. 

Your eyes, and your ideas change over time.  Decades ago, I thought neon signs were tawdry and tasteless. Today I think we ought to gather up and preserve the remaining historic neon signs, put ‘em all up in one of downtown’s desolate parking lots, and have a Vegas-style Neon Museum. 

So forgive my skepticism - I earned it fairly, and have the scars to show for it.  Doing good things - I’m all for it.  Going to meetings - no mas! Expect maybe only in bad weather, after work, and close to one of my many favorite downtown watering holes.

Especially one that’s close to a parking lot.

 

---

Posted by John Hazlehurst on July 21st, 2009 :: Filed under Blog
Tags :: Amanda, Bettina, Dave Hughes, Doug Bruce, downtown, Gazette, Neon Signs, TOPS, Urban Renewal, Warren

---

aren’t exactly everywhere, but here’s a hopeful little story.

Spent some time chatting with Wayne Jennings a few days ago, who with his spouse, Sylvia, owns a storefront Re/Max office on Tejon Street – a few steps from the CSBJ office. 

“We’re very happy with the location,” Wayne told me, “Until a Keller Williams office moved in on a side street, we were the only downtown storefront Realtors-and we’re still the only one on Tejon Street.  One day last week we had five walk-ins.  You never get that in a typical real estate brokerage-people don’t just walk in to a random office building and look for a Realtor.  And that’s given us a lot of business-a few months ago, an Army helicopter pilot who’s relocating to Fort Carson walked in, we showed him some houses, he bought one, and subsequently two of his fellow pilots bought from us as well.  They all bought on the same street.  They all married Korean women when they were stationed in Korea, all the families are close, and we were delighted to be able to help them -nice people. And I’ll tell you about military buyers: they know how to make a decision!”

Sound like a real estate broker’s dream, doesn’t it?  Wayne’s story also makes it clear that, despite all the challenges, there’s still business to be had for those of us who work hard, are creative in selling our services, and invent new ways to find potential customers. 

Not to mention the fact that downtown, where Colorado Springs residents have done business since 1871, is not just lively and interesting, but a place where new businesses can grow and thrive.

<- Back to CSBJ.com

---

Posted by John Hazlehurst on April 9th, 2009 :: Filed under Blog
Tags :: downtown, Keller Williams, ReMax, Tejon Street, Wayne & Sylvia Jennings

---

For almost half a century, local businesses, elected officials, nonprofits, and concerned citizens have conceived, pushed, and sometimes implemented a variety of schemes to improve downtown-to make it what it once was, the vibrant center of our community, an exciting, fun place to be, full of lively shops, restaurants, residents, defined by broad boulevards and historic buildings. 

Here’s what we’ve actually done.

During the 60’s and early 70’s, we tore down most of the major historic buildings that once defined downtown, and razed many square blocks of less distinguished buildings.  So successful was this program that today, forty years later, the site once graced by the Burns Opera House and Out West Printing, as well as a dozen other buildings, is still a parking lot.

Then we further improved downtown by building a bunch of ill-conceived, badly designed “junk buildings”-the Colorado Square Building, the renovated building at the NW corner of Pikes Peak & Tejon, the Antlers, the Holly Sugar building.

So moribund did downtown then become that a couple of clever businessmen figured out that it was, in effect, like the deserted warehouse districts of similar cities-so they bought buildings in the heart of downtown for cheap, and turned much of central downtown on weekend nights into a giant, skanky, nightclub district, with rowdy patrons, public drunkenness, and frequent fights that taxed the resources of the P.D.

And during the last couple of years, we’ve made sure that downtown has at least one major headquarters industry: the homeless.  The new Marian House, referred to by some of our frenchified wits as the “Palais des Clochards” (the Beggar’s Palace) nears completion, and the city also thoughtfully provides its patrons with the ‘DASH’ (downtown area shuttle), otherwise known as the Bum’s Bus.

The feral, homeless men who help define the street life of the Tejon Street corridor have, as anyone who works in or visits downtown knows, taken over the shuttle.  That’s the reality-despite the lofty pretensions of folks who want to believe otherwise.

And now, so dismayed are the shuttle pushers by the imminent demise of the Bum’s Bus, thanks to the city’s financial crisis, that they propose to keep it in operation by collecting a few  more dollars by anyone who may be unwise enough to visit downtown, and patronize local merchants.  The parking meters, just like the rest of us, are scheduled to start work earlier, and finish later!  Yup, they’re going to roll up their sleeves and collect those quarters between 8 AM and 10PM, six days a week, instead of their present lazy banker’s hours of 9AM to 6PM.

Just how stupid is this? To save a service that only adds to downtown’s scruffy disorder, the powers that be propose to stck downtown’s patrons with another fee.  And, of course, lots more folks will be stuck with $20 parking tickets (just downtown’s way of saying ‘thanks for shopping with us’!), and…why go on?

Here’s a small bit of advice-which, we know, will be ignored.  Hood all the meters and make the parking garages free for a month-and see what happens.

But then there wouldn’t be any money to run the Municipal Court, or pay for the parking garage expansions, or pay the salaries of the meter maids (and meter men), or pay for more plans to make downtown an exciting, vibrant place…

<- Back to CSBJ.com

---

Posted by John Hazlehurst on March 18th, 2009 :: Filed under Blog
Tags :: Bum's Bus, Burns Opera House, DASH, downtown, parking garages, parking meters

---