Is Colo Springs becoming the next Denver?

[otowi]

And I'm glad Colorado Springs is what it is and not something like Denver! If I wanted Denver, I'd live in Denver.

[AT9]

It will be really interesting to see how Denver, CO Springs, and Pueblo develop in the future. Right now, the I-25 corridor reminds me very much of the I-35 Corridor between San Antonio and Austin. Granted, those are two major metropolitan areas, whereas Denver is the only major one (for now) on 25. But I think that eventually the whole I-25 Urban Corridor (Cheyenne to Pueblo) will one day resemble a less populated version of the East Coast cities, in that they will be their own defined metro areas, but they are still very close and that they share a lot of business/tourism/etc.

The 25 corridor is already an extremely interesting place, because it's so isolated in relation to the rest of the country... the closest major cities are Salt Lake, Phoenix, Vegas, OK City, Dallas, Kansas City, etc, all of which are hundreds of miles away. It will be a huge urban area in the middle of the plains/mountains.

[dennative]

Originally Posted by McGowdog

Maybe in the year 2059, CoSprings will be the size of the Denver Metro of 09.

We'll check back in 59 to verify this.

I grew up in the Denver area in the 1950s and moved to Colorado Springs in the late 1960s. Colorado Springs now reminds me of Denver back then in a lot of ways....so maybe there is a 50-year lag. COS 2059 may be very much like Denver 09.

[McGowdog]

Originally Posted by AT9

It will be really interesting to see how Denver, CO Springs, and Pueblo develop in the future.

But I think that eventually the whole I-25 Urban Corridor (Cheyenne to Pueblo) will one day resemble a less populated version of the East Coast cities, in that they will be their own defined metro areas, but they are still very close and that they share a lot of business/tourism/etc.

Easy now. You're gonna get Joss all excited.

Originally Posted by AT9

The 25 corridor is already an extremely interesting place, because it's so isolated in relation to the rest of the country... the closest major cities are Salt Lake, Phoenix, Vegas, OK City, Dallas, Kansas City, etc, all of which are hundreds of miles away. It will be a huge urban area in the middle of the plains/mountains.

Yeah, it is isolated. That's why the Broncos, Nuggets, Rockies, and Avs stand out so much out here. CoSprings may not be considered a huge metro area to some, but it's big enough for me. If it wasn't so close to Denver, maybe it would have even more ammenities like a pro sports team... maybe. Albuquerque should definitely have something soon. I liken CoSprings to Wichita, but Omaha NE and Albuquerque and El Paso are big.

[reginhild]

Originally Posted by Josseppie

Fort Carson is only a buffer on the west side. Not the east and the airport has no affect on that. Have you heard of Pueblo Springs Ranch? It will bring Pueblo to the El Paso County line and Fountain already is annexed down to the race track. Its up in the air as to who will annex the land south of there, Fountain or Pueblo but it could go in either direction. Either way I predict that in the next decade Pueblo and Colorado Springs are one big city.

There is only about 2 to 3 miles between Fort Carson land and Airport land on the SE side of town. The space between there has already been filled in with housing developments and there are only I-25, Hwy 85/87 combined as one road, and Powers Blvd that cut North/South through the area (not counting subdivision roads). I would call that a bottleneck for that will end up stifling development.

To the West of Ft. Carson there is only Hwy 115 going North/South between the Fort and Cheyenne Mountain air station land and the mountains.

Fountain and Widefield will likely grow a bit serving Ft. Carson because it is easy access to the Fort while more difficult access to most of the amenities of Colorado springs which are now mostly from the center of town to the North end (encompassing both the E/W sides going North from the center of town).

Banning Lewis Ranch is the largest development area under construction in Colorado Springs. They are starting at the NE side of town just East of the Woodmen/Powers intersection and will work South over the next 20+ years ending up finishing just East of the airport.

All the new business development with many large complexes that look much like those around Denver are occurring just off of I-25 North of Colorado Springs. Many communities of homes are also being developed in the area. I have not seen any new large business construction going on in the Security/Widefield area - again it only seems to be communities that offer easy living access to Fort Carson (and the Airport).

Do a google maps look at Colorado Springs and choose satellite view.

[Userdavey]

Colorado Springs could never transform itself into Denver. It may approach it in size or population, sure. But Denver has a big city feel and the Springs has that spread out, hilly, curvy, disconnected feel. The Springs will never have the kind of direction Denver has. Denver is big, tall, and everyone knows it. But everyone wants the Springs to be small, and that will never happen, so it just keeps laying out new developments like "Deer Pastures" or "Mountain Ranch" or "Cordera" which all proclaim to be so wonderful and new and exciting but are all the same...just curvy hilly residential streets and new looking strip malls anchored by big box stores. And to the OP: If the traffic in the Springs is a reflection on the population, it should be way smoother than Denver's. But it is not. The street lights are not timed well for the most part and the curves and hills make getting anywhere a chore. Denver is easier to get around IMHO.

[lalahartma]

It's true that CoS is more a big suburban area, less a 'city.'

[treedonkey]

YES, in fact...

Palmer Lake is the next Monument
Monument is the next Colorado Springs
Colorado Springs is the next Denver
Denver is the next Houston
Houston is the next Chicago
Chicago is the next New York
New York is the next California
California is the next USA
USA is the next Asia
Asia is the next Earth
Earth is the next Jupiter
Jupiter is the next Sun
The sun is the next Red Giant
The next red giant is the next black hole
which will then suck everything back in to infinite mass occupying absolute zero space, openming a worm hole into and alternate dimension..

So Palmer Lake is the next parallel universe.

[Userdavey]

I agree with that completely.

[COflower]

Originally Posted by Userdavey

Colorado Springs could never transform itself into Denver. It may approach it in size or population, sure. But Denver has a big city feel and the Springs has that spread out, hilly, curvy, disconnected feel.

My guess is you have never lived in the Denver Metro area...don't get me wrong, I loved it up there (as well as Grand Junction) but it has a very disconnected feeling to it and feel that C Springs is much more cohesive geographically speaking. I guess that's because Denver proper is so far removed from the mountains comparatively speaking. We have "America's Mountain" and Denver features the Cash Register building.

I remember back in the 70s and 80s how much speculation was about that Colorado Springs would be another Denver and the Denver/Colorado Springs metro areas would emerge into some kind of L.A. by the end of the 90s. Hasn't happened and it wont.

Will C Springs mimic the Denver of now in the future? Maybe population wise but not likely in other areas. Teller and El Paso counties are a very conservative base and my feeling is not because of the military but because of the general nature of the area. A lot of the people around the two counties might be considered loners because they take pride in living with more "Old West" ideals so to many, this seems a bit off-putting.

I don't see Pueblo and C Springs having a very cohesive relationship, the two never have. It's not about being the bigger of the cities outside of Denver, it's the political spectrums that will keep them from forming much of an alliance like the cities and counties of Metro Denver.

C Springs is kind of snobby in its roots and rightfully so as the vision of Palmer and other city founders was that C Springs be a resort town and it lived up to that and still has that vision but for the military that started coming in to Camp Carson in the early 40s.

Pueblo, a nice little city (9th in size of cities here), has a very different base of history and are trying to shed the "blue collar" image with the river walk, Pueblo West, etc but since it's still one of the largest steel producing cities in the US, that's going to be hard to shake off.

With the buffers of Greenland on the north, Ft. Carson on the south and the political differences, I have a hard time seeing that there would be a C Springs/Pueblo alliance. C Springs and surrounding is pretty sheltered.

But that's just my 41 years as a resident of Colorado opinion - 41 years, OH MY!