http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_14303473 I'm feeling so much better now that that old recession is over, aren't you? Oh, uh, maybe is not after all.....? Colorado Springs is getting HIT, big time!
Gee - I lived there when I was a kid. Even back in the late 60's speed traps were rampant. (Why is THAT my first memory? I was in elementary school!) Colorado Springs is a big military town - home of the US Air Force Academy, Peterson Air Force Base (Space Command Headquarters and HQ of Northcom - the ominous and growing command designated for domestic operations), Fort Carson (4th Infantry & 10th Special Forces), Schriever Air Force Base (Spy satellites and space warfare) and NORAD - the bombproof tunnel deep inside Cheyenne Mountain that watches for ICBM's and tracks Santa Claus every December 24th! Fort Carson's 4th Infantry has been hit hard by casualties in the Iraq war - even though I'm not very close to there anymore I still hear about the deaths all to often in the news. It's also home of the US Olympic Training Center and our athletes really benefit from the high altitude training. There are lots of lower income families (sadly including a bunch of military families) and the most pawnshops you'll ever see in a town that size. The big military presence has really changed the demographics since I lived there, and these days you'd probably want to choose your neighborhood carefully if you were moving in. The University of Colorado has a big campus there (now) that started out as a very small one. That's the reason we moved down there in the 60's - my dad taught electrical engineering there. That program alone is now bigger than the entire campus back in the day. High-tech and defense contracting jobs had been big but that has fallen - high tech by 60% or more in just the last few years. I can't speak much to the gov't down there but from the article it sounds like they're doing the typical spiteful kind of cuts in which every visible service will be pared way back. Didn't notice much about cutbacks in bureaucrats even though most cities could certainly spare a few (yes, I'm cynical about bureaucrats!) who would likely only be missed by their pets. ( And it's only a city of 400,000 - what on earth do they need with six greenhouses?? The front range is arid high plains anyway. Only in government, I tell 'ya...) I drive through there every other week or so, and what really strikes me lately is the growing tent cities along the river and on the way out Highway 24 toward Manitou Springs. I'm working right now on hatching a charitable group with the intention of helping those folks out. I'll take some pics next time I go through and post them... I'm a refugee from the financial world, and came to understand our dishonest banking/money system long ago. (This is the reason I became a survivalist.) As such, I'm a long critic of the growth of government. Here in Colorado the state and municipal governments grew like an aggressive cancer throughout the 90's and right on up till the economy took it's dive in 2008. Those clowns acted like the party would go on forever even though it was so clearly based on hot air. I've been saying for the duration that there would be a day of reckoning for these municipalities. Looks like it's here... (LOVE that smilie. I'm gonna have fun here...) Having said all that, Colorado Springs is a beautiful city. The Rockies rise straight up from the west edge of town with very little in the way of foothills. It just goes from 6000 feet to 14,000 at the summit of Pike's Peak. (Not quite as spectacular as Alaska, but pretty dang nice!) Our picture window faced that scene, and even as a kid I was mesmerized watching the weather come in over the mountains! The Broadmoor Hotel is still one of my faves in North America, despite being just 100 miles from my front door. The Cheyenne Mountain Zoo is unique in that it's literally a mountain zoo - seeing the place involves some hiking at over 6000 feet! The Air Force Academy and Peterson Air & Space Museum are great tours, and speaking of money the American Numismatic Assoc. Money Museum is there too, as is the ProRodeo Hall of Fame. As cities go, it's still a nice place in spite of the economy. I feel for everyone going through these times. Bad as things sound in that article, Colorado has not been hit as hard as a lot of other states. I'm thankful for that, but await the other shoe along with the rest of you.
You know what the first thing I thought of after reading that article.. "Extortion". This read like a playbook from some thug. Take away services and blame it on the people not accepting a tax hike instead of reassessing "union" wages and "union" salary thuggery. There needs to be some reasonable expectation that if you're a maintenance person..erm. sorry.. engineer.. that you're not going to make 80g/yr. unless you're specialized in something like HVAC and even then 80g is steep. I don't even make that as a software engineer. You know.. there is such a thing as "this job is only worth x number of dollars" and you can't get anymore than that. It's called a cap. I dunno.. I suppose I'm just rambling.
UGRev, I agree with you. That IS the attitude of governments here in Colorado (and probably everywhere else but I can't speak to that). When they make cutbacks, they do so in the way that causes maximum hardship for the people who won't give them a blank check. They must not grasp "do unto others..." or the concept of karma or the notion that turnabout is fair play. However you want to phrase it, there are some hard lessons coming their way if they don't grow up fast...
this article brings up something that I have been pondering for a bit now....I wonder just exactly what our daily lives here in America would be like if all of our governments (city/county/federal) were actually operating with only the actual money that they have....it would be mass chaos....people mostly recognize that if a person is paying their bills with 40% apr credit cards and taking out loans from loan sharks to pay that credit card etc etc, that person is in deep shit and is just making the pile of shit deeper.....but for some reason the fact that our governments have been doing that for decades seems to not bother most people.......the only reason that we have a functioning society, for the most part at least, is because of borrowing endless monies to pay for basic day to day services....we passed insolvant bankruptcy quite some time ago
It would be mass chaos "now" as in the present; and only because people have become numb to reality. I do believe, as a very versatile species, that we would be able to adjust as we always have. We got lazy, complacent and for a time, I think people thought it was a nice break that someone else was "taking care" of them. You know.. the whole "grass is greener" analogy.
