Is CO Springs a safe city? (Denver, Colorado Springs: neighborhood, purchase, school)

[treedonkey]

Originally Posted by lalahartma

There are 29 metro areas over 2 million!

Yes, I should have said city - not metro... not many CITIES over 2 mill in the US. Besides, that was just an example. Raise the pop-bar high enough and NYC will win as 'safest' (or in any other category) because no other US city will be in the running...

[REESESPEEDY]

Does COS have any areas of dense Hispanic population? I have noticed in my city that our low income areas have become very Hispanic. With this, comes huge changes in how schools close by are run. In addition, I have noticed the whole area takes on a new atmosphere-as if it were being taken over by the Hispanics and the cultural habits that go along with them.

[otowi]

Well, some areas have more than others. There is a Rancho Liborio grocery store and some carnicerias, fruiterias, etc. in town, if that's what you mean by "taken over" (which seems rather negative to me, personally). The Rancho Liborio is on Circle Drive just south of Fountain Blvd and northeast of Janitell Rd. The Rancho Liborio sometimes has great deals on produce, by the way.

[REESESPEEDY]

I have tons of agriculture in my area, that probably doesn't exist near the Springs. The individuals that work in that fields are very uneducated, speak little if any English-and many aren't very good Spanish speakers either. Being poorly educated, they take very poor care of themselves. Drinking, smoking and drugs become rampant and agricultural jobs then fail to support those habits.

Property crimes such as burglury, auto break-ins and theft become more prevalent. The local high-school as been tagged "persistantly dangerous" by the feds because of the high number of expulsions from drug trafficing, fights and weapons on school grounds. There are lots of DUI because the Hispanics feel that driving while intoxicated represents a right of transition between boy-hood and man-hood.

These guys have come straight from Mexico, want to live in America for the money, and expect us to learn Spanish for them so they don't have to bother with the English. The stunning thing is that they come in such numbers and reproduce at such rates that the community has no choice but to learn and become familiar with Spanish and their culture in order to teach, police and run a working community around them. It is in that context I use the term "taken over."

[supernova8610]

What about the areas with the so-called "gang-bangers" (as someone here earlier called them)? What part of CO Springs are those areas in?

[otowi]

I have attended gang workshops from police officers. There is no real gang problem in the Springs. There are some wannabes, and gang members that don't really do much of note, that are situated pretty much all over the area, but very few hard core real gang members. The presentation was school-related, and the real gang members mentioned could be counted on one hand and were associated with the Northeast part of town, south east and south central parts of town.
Real gang activity in the area is not much and is actually mostly managed through the prison in Florence, where gang members send messages up and down the I-25 corridor. At least that is what I recall from the presentation.

[froggin4colorado]

The majority of them live between Platte, Wahsatch, South Academy, and Powers. Its a huge square. Downtown area has more homeless than gang bangers. There are also a lot of gang bangers in the Old Colorado City area too. The worst area of town is known to be around Fountain, Circle, Chelton. But even COS gang members aren't really bad. There isn't a lot of gang rivalry here. It occasionally gets tense but its not bad enough where they get territorial with guns and such. When working with at-risk youth, it wasn't uncommon for a Blood to know and be seen hanging out with a Crypt. Its really just about association and a longing for belonging.

[CTownNative]

Originally Posted by supernova8610

What about the areas with the so-called "gang-bangers" (as someone here earlier called them)? What part of CO Springs are those areas in?

There really isn't any gang areas of town, I think alot of kids in the schools rep gangs even though they really ain't in them. Im 17 and dropped out of school, but when I was in school there was alot of people saying they repped certain gangs, whether or not they were actually apart of them I don't know. Really theres bo dangerous parts of the city at this point, but I've been to alot of apartment complexes around the city and they get grimey.

[REESESPEEDY]

Zounds like Springs is in fairly good shape. We recently had a fatal shooting in a city park where three youth sat on a park bench. Another youth came up and asked them why they were there in a park not in their territory. He was heard saying something like "this is the southside-what are you doing here?" The three youths on the bench said "no this is the north side-of town-we live here." The youth standing proceeded to take out a pistol and at close range shot all three on the bench-one fatally in the head. All involved were Hispanic.

On another night, I was in bed, awake, at 4:30 a.m. when I distinctly heard automatic gun fire. I recognized at-least eight pops. When it came out in the news it was over 21 shots sprayed into a house in a neighborhood in the middle of the night in the name of revenge. I walked over and looked at the house. Turns out that the house sprayed was the home of a student who had been in a fight with the shooter's son at school. All Hispanic. It seems that that the Hispanic culture deals with conflict through guns, fighting, and behind the wheel antics.

I am at the 45th parallel, on the west coast. I am grateful to hear that despite your close proximity to the boarder you don't appear to be having to deal with such behavior.

[otowi]

No, fortunately gang activity here, other than grafitti or relatively minor and rare school-related incidents, is rarely territorial like that. We did have a gang related shooting in December, but it was a matter of drugs being involved and revenge for that person doing something to someone else, not just random.