Colorado Springs - The Negatives . (Denver, Pueblo: spring break, lawyer, statistics)

[ryanek9freak]

I might take you up on that El mac

[alphaluce]

There is only ONE unimpeded thoroughfare in the city: I-25 running north and south. EVERY other road through this city requires navigatation through traffic-light riddled streets to go in any direction. For a city of its size, it is remarkable....and aggravating. The dearth of loops, highways, bypasses, and frontage roads can be a pain in bad weather, at rush hours, and special events. So stay away. j/k

[ryanek9freak]

same thing as Denver. Unless you count I-70

[El Mac]

Originally Posted by alphaluce

There is only ONE unimpeded thoroughfare in the city: I-25 running north and south. EVERY other road through this city requires navigatation through traffic-light riddled streets to go in any direction. For a city of its size, it is remarkable....and aggravating. The dearth of loops, highways, bypasses, and frontage roads can be a pain in bad weather, at rush hours, and special events. So stay away. j/k

I hope others take your advice. Stay away! Please...

[Postal]

Originally Posted by alphaluce

There is only ONE unimpeded thoroughfare in the city: I-25 running north and south. EVERY other road through this city requires navigatation through traffic-light riddled streets to go in any direction. For a city of its size, it is remarkable....and aggravating. The dearth of loops, highways, bypasses, and frontage roads can be a pain in bad weather, at rush hours, and special events. So stay away. j/k

I find this hilarious after visiting DC for the last two weeks. Traffic here is nothing.

[Bob from down south]

Originally Posted by Postal

I find this hilarious after visiting DC for the last two weeks. Traffic here is nothing.

Yeah, I've lived in SoCal, the D.C. suburbs, and a south american capital city. COS isn't in the same league. But for the true traffic hater, consider Punkin Center. A real easy commute to anywhere in town!

[El Mac]

Originally Posted by Postal

I find this hilarious after visiting DC for the last two weeks. Traffic here is nothing.

After living in Northern VA and communting to DC for 12 years, I find this comment:

There is only ONE unimpeded thoroughfare in the city: I-25 running north and south. EVERY other road through this city requires navigatation through traffic-light riddled streets to go in any direction. For a city of its size, it is remarkable....and aggravating. The dearth of loops, highways, bypasses, and frontage roads can be a pain in bad weather, at rush hours, and special events. So stay away. j/k

...absolutely stunning in its lack of basis in reality. Like you, I find COS traffic to be sweet!!! But please, we should keep it to ourselves lest word get out...

[Ghostgecko]

So that's what I get so far, seemingly the only things that always plague that area of the country. I guess what I would be worried about are that most people there are obsessed with the negative. I really do believe in the make it the best you can everywhere thing, bloom where you are planted, if you will, but are people generally receptive and friendly to a people person? I am just a Midwest guy (no matter where I live ) and hold the door open and say please and thanks...Miami hated me, I actually liked driving in Cali, was fast, but people all moved... Wait till it takes you about ten minutes to drive two miles cause of scooters and bicycle taxis and people that forget that just cause the light is green in Key West doesn't mean they have to stop and walk right in front of you, course, doesn't help our streets are barely wide enough! Vegas was insane, so easy to get lost in that city...Not like that in COS I hope!

[Lady2soothe]

1

[Lady2soothe]

I left West Los Angeles (very near the beach) in 1981 and moved to Colorado Springs because I thought bringing up my kids in a nice safe kicked back city would be much preferred to LA violence. Well within 6 months when a friend of my husband (both men attended Pikes Peak Community College) and the lady he was out with on New Years Eve, were murdered, he was dumped in a commercial trash bin on N. Nevada Ave., she, left in a car in a trailer park on the southeast side of town. I started to wonder.

But things do happen even in “nice” communities… CS has culture. Well that played out fast because unless you’re of a socio-economic level and you can pay the price, then you can’t enjoy the good things CS has to offer. There is virtually nothing for kids to do to keep them occupied. Not so bad for the little ones, there’s always the sprinkler in the backyard to run through during the summer or video games or TV during the cold of winter. It’s the teenagers who are most likely to find themselves with time on their hands and almost no activities to keep them out of trouble. No teen clubs, no dances, nothing. That is unless you can pay for activities. (even school sports cost, and it’s a small fortune). My granddaughters’ school field trip was $15 plus spending money, and one of the girls had to sit in the office all day while her class went without her because her single mother didn’t have the extra $15 to spare. Why couldn’t the school have saved this young girl the embarrassment of sitting alone all day by paying her way?

There’s other reason’s CS is not the most favorable place to live.

Black women (I have many black women as friends in CS) but the majority of the women who frequent the night spots around town have given me heartache, or at least tried to. I never once, even during the unrest of the 60’s and early 70’s in Los Angeles, was I ever confronted negatively or given problems. But in CS there were many, many nasty comments made over the years.

My husband was rear ended by a 17 yr. old (white) kid driving mommy & daddy’s car. - Kid’s attorney: “This boy” (pointing at my 29 yr. old black husband) “was driving a hot rod” (old and beat up Camero he hadn’t started restoring yet and never would thanks to the 13 surgeries caused by this accident). My husband would up with nothing, we had a lousy attorney, and the white kid walked away scott free.

ICAWH (Inspecting car accident while black) One night around 11 pm a drunken man ran into our parked car. When the police arrived to investigate the incident they totally ignored the man who sat bleeding behind the cracked windshield of his car. However the officer did notice my husband inspecting our car for damages and he ungraciously slammed my husband against the car and handcuffed him. When I protested about the abuse and suggested the officer take a look at the bleeding man the officer stepped forward in a very threatening manor and proposed he should handcuff me as well. However when he noticed I was 7 months pregnant, chose to back off instead. Oh, did I mention the drunken man was white?

GUSWB (Going upstairs while black) CSPD arrived to check out a report pertaining to an unrelated incident. Husband answered door, they wanted to speak with me. He went up the stairs while I was passing him going down. CSPD jumped him, tried to put his head through the wrought iron banister, threw him out the door, slammed him to the ground, handcuffed him, re-broke his shoulder (which he’s just had surgery on, see above car accident incident). Old man (retired law enforcement officer) from next door with recent tripple bypass tried to explain my husbands’ injuries, CSPD slammed him in the chest. All while our 3 yr. old son (now 25 yr. old) watched. Addendum: This officer while driving under the influence (drugs and alcohol see articles re: 1984 Officer Surdo CSPD) on the wrong side of a back road managed to kill himself, a young Air Force Academy Cadet and seriously maiming the Cadets girlfriend for life. (No police officer to prosecute, no police brutality court case to win).

DWB: (Driving while black) My daughter pulled over in the early afternoon in her new Lincoln Aviator with the USAF tags just a few blocks from the house she and her Air Force husband own on the north end of town, because she looked suspiciously like a gang member or maybe a drug dealer or possibly a hooker? Of course this was with my 11 yr. old grand-daughter properly buckled in the backseat, and my 13 mo. old grandson in his respective car seat. “Just checking” No ticket issued, but a lot of ridiculous questions asked.

ICSWB: (Installing car speakers while black) While laying on his back across the front seat of his car installing speakers in the back, with his feet hanging out the door during the middle of the day my son was yanked out by CSPD hitting his head on the pavement, snatched up then slammed on the curb causing a minor concussion and a nice head wound. Son arrested, son released. Suspicious activity … Oops, thought you were stealing the car. (Yep, from the back seat???). I guess all is fair in probable cause.

I could go on and on about the CSPD choosing to target blacks, but instead let’s talk about shootings and other violence.

My 14 year old nephew shot and killed by a 23 yr. old postal employee after an impromptu basketball game at Sierra High School (1995).
Daughter’s school friend strangled by ex-boyfriend and stuffed in a hall closet (1995).
Youngest son, (now 25), shot twice in an attempted robbery (he was robbed. Thank God he’s still alive).(2006)
The murder of 2 young men and the wounding of 2 others at Whitney Young Apts. (2008)
Soldiers killing another soldier “after” they came back to the Springs (2008)
And the list goes on, how many murders this year alone? 28?
And lest we forget the murder of actor Kelsey Grammer’s sister Karen, all the way back in 1975

Yes things do happen everywhere. And maybe because CS is tucked into such a concentrated area it appears bigger than it is, but if you check the statistics and calculate per capita, Colorado Springs is an extraordinarily violent place to live. That’s’ why I moved back to LA where people don’t give a damn who you date, what you wear, or the color of your hair. Life is easier when people accept people at face value, even if you’ve got to explain how far someplace is in the time it takes you to get there rather than in distance.

And yes CS may be beautiful to the casual visitor looking for a historical vacation but lets face it Colorado Springs is a city with a rich history of violence.

Isn’t it funny that even after being gone7 ½ yr.s and all the bad things I’ve seen, I find myself reading the Gazette online, watching KRDO online, and I still consider it somewhat home. Go figure…Must be the water.