Many Hats

Colorado Springs has never been a gentle blending of many voices, but instead a bizarre backwater of extremism. From day one, General Palmer decided to separate his newly formed Fountain Colony, or Colorado Springs, from the existing Colorado City with its bars and brothels.

His reasoning was grounded in a Quaker upbringing that sought temperance, combined with the capitalist ideals necessary to sell a moralistic colony to potential residents. The more raucous  smining supply town of Colorado City sat as a polar opposite to Palmer's Puritan community.

Strangely, this dichotomy has survived since the 1870's. I remember Manitou Springs getting national attention as ‘The Satanic Capitol of America' in the late seventies and early eighties. Residents got worked up about what was perceived as satanic rituals at the ruins of the gold refinery along 21st street. So much so that ‘The Ruins,' a place of exploration for generations of children, not to mention historical significance, was buried.

To be fair, in Bizarro City there are always extreme opposites. The mine tailings surrounding ‘The Ruins' contain potentially dangerous chemicals, and from a Christian perspective, the Paganism prevalent in Manitou might seem satanic.

The Westside, Manitou and Downtown may be where I have always preferred to live, and they do classically represent the liberal minority, but they are by no means without fault. Each of Colorado Springs' liberal strongholds is dominated by a hippy bourgeoisie that is every bit as judgmental as any Limbaugh faithful. REI clothing that spends more time in a coffee shop are the equivalent of suits, and mudless Subaru's are just the politically correct SUV of choice.

On the other hand, I shake my head daily at the sudo-intellectual acceptance of anything the GOP puts on talk radio. The Republican platform seems to have eroded to personal finance, but not personal thought.

Put simply, that Colorado Springs is at the center of an extremist controversy surprises me little. So what affect will the reality of budget cuts have on residents of Colorado Springs, and UCCS students alike?

In a classic overstatement, the Gazette reported that "Cuts mount city on national microscope slide" (2/12/10). This is the real problem for anyone doing legitimate business in the Springs because, as General Palmer knew all too well, the only marketable natural resource in the Pikes Peak Region is scenic beauty.

Tourism may not be our only industry, but it is our oldest and dearest. Unfortunately for everyone, the modern American conception of a vacation destination usually involves green parks and a reputation for public safety. Two things we can no longer offer.

Kentucky Blue Grass was never meant to grow here, so we should all switch to native grasses anyway, yet the reality is that most tourists are not used to brown parks.

These changes will also make Colorado Springs less attractive to our other economic staples: the military, retired military and high tech industries as well.

The inconveniences of fewer expected municipal services are, unfortunately, problems we will all have to deal with now. UCCS students will be particularly affected by safety concerns rising from fewer streetlights and less police presence. Be careful in the downtown bar super machine: We just might have a significant riot soon.

The most important question is: Do we, as an extremist community, have the capacity to learn? Every resident will feel the budget cuts, whether it be my dangerous bike ride home from school late at night because of reduced bus service, or potential profit losses by the business elite because of a bad national reputation.

How we handle these  present obstacles, and future ones, will continue to define us as a community, and will ultimately be the deciding factor in whether this will remain such a great place to live.