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it overrates itself simply because of a big mountain.
That is the vibe and has been for 150 years. Basic but over-rated. Cos was founded as a gentile resort amid the wild west. It promoted itself on the mountain and its related physical activities despite not have any springs worth mention within its original boundaries. It later over-rated its self for aircraft, aviation, and military and got one of three military academies as a result. More recently it over-rated its self as a manufacturing hub which succeeded for a while and has now almost all but unwound. Now we are pumping up our chest for the cyber security world. Lets see where that goes....
In all seriousness though, Cos is what you make of it. It big enough to have things to do, but not so big and active that you will never run out of things to do in town. Its got small slices of a lot of things, but not a huge swath of anything.
It promoted itself on the mountain and its related physical activities despite not have any springs worth mention within its original boundaries.
By "it" I presume you don't mean all the persons who have ever lived in COS for the past 150 years as a monolithic group. The naming rights of a city go to those who "found" the city and if I recall correctly the city was founded and named by one General Palmer, who ran a rail-line down from Denver in the years after the Civil War. The two existing nearby communities were Manitou Springs (which does actually have "springs" but are the type you drink from not the type you soak in) and Colorado City (now referred to as "Old Colorado City"). Being a not-so-creative retired-General-type (sorry and thank you for your service all retired Generals out there) he just merged the two names (Colorado City Manitou Springs became "Colorado Springs"). Not accurate exactly but a pleasant-enough name for someone looking to attract potential residents from the east and sell real estate to them.
Having lived here 14 years, there is no single "vibe" to Colorado Springs. I'd argue the same is true of Denver and many other places. The "vibe" one has in Highlands Ranch or Centennial or Aurora is certainly very different than the "vibe" one has in Capitol Hill and Golden is different yet again, though arguably all are considered part of greater "Denver." The "vibe" one gets in the northeast suburbs of Colorado Springs is not even remotely like the "vibe" one gets in the southwest suburbs (e.g. Skyway, where I live, or Cheyenne Canyon, etc.). Manitou is it's own deal entirely. Downtown and Old North End has it's own sort of vibe. Fundamentalist Christians in Denver (I know many) and atheist party-scene folks in Denver (I know many) each "vibe" in their own unique way. The same is true of Colorado Springs. We tend to have more visible military passing through town being stationed on one local base or another but frankly I don't notice them unless I go looking (which I don't). It's been over 10 years since the days Colorado Springs had at least two high-profile religious leaders going on CNN and being ridiculous (I get where they were coming from but picking on Teletubbies and Sponge Bob characters is just really ridiculous and likely to invite ridicule that unfairly or not spills over to the city in which they and their organizations are located). Because some out-of-touch old dude went on Larry King Live 15 years ago and made a fuss about the purple Teletubby carrying a purse does that mean all of us in Colorado Springs are appropriately lumped together as having the identical mindset? Obviously not, but yet the stereotype just lives on and on and on and is harder to kill than Dracula himself.
Back to the "vibe" of Colorado Springs. I agree with much of what has been said. The vibe is what you make it and what you want it to be. Want funky? It's here, just find it. Want family values? Its here. Want affordable? Check, it's here. Want a $12Million dollar mansion. Also here. Want to be honest? You can do that here. Want to be sleazy? Plenty of opportunities for that. Want a local music scene? Not my thing but I know it exists here. You can't really pigeonhole Colorado Springs (or Denver for that matter) into one single "vibe." And if someone tells you otherwise they're grinding an axe.
Colorado Springs used to have a few springs - although little in comparison to those in Manitou. Side Streets: Putting the springs back in the Springs | Colorado Springs Gazette, News There is some evidence those springs were related to General Palmer's naming of the city. What you might now know about General Palmer | Colorado Springs Gazette, News However, he was also a salesman for the city he founded to bring over colonists from back east and certainly took that into consideration in choosing a name.
As for the mountain (presumably meaning Pikes Peak) and related physical activities, they have nothing to do with the springs existence or non-existence. Of course there is a lot more than one mountain here - we sit against a whole range, but Pikes Peak is indeed pretty impressive in many ways for its elevation, proximity/view, the fact one can drive to its summit and could even in the early days of the city, and so on. There are few places in the lower 48 that have anything that compares for a city of this size. As for the related physical activities, Colorado does indeed excel compared to most other cities nationwide for park space, open space, biking trails, hiking trails, and some other similar amenities in relative proximity. We do have some forethought of city fathers back in the day to thank for some of that, and organizations like TOPS (Trails and Open Space Coalition) and Palmer Land Trust, etc., to thank for some of that today.
I realize this topic has gotten a bit off topic. Enough has been written here that is obvious that the Springs is big enough to have several vibes depending on which neighborhood you live in. For those that think the Springs is only an overrated city with a mountain I would challenge you to name many other places that are better. After you eliminate too expensive, too cold, too hot, too small, too humid, etc you're not left with much.
To the last 3 posts ... well-stated - all of it. This is why it's hard to pigeon-hole. If you're in Old Colorado City, it's completely different than being in the northeast part of the city. Downtown is it's own environ. Manitou Springs is it's own little self. And all the many individual neighborhoods have their own thing goin' on. There's ONEN, and then there's S. Nevada ... there's N. Academy Blvd., different from S. Academy Blvd.
There is no one "vibe" here, or in any other town or city in this great country of ours. You take yourself wherever you go, and make of it what you will.
We are more than that big mountain, and at the same time ... are happy that big mountain is there. I mean c'mon people.
Last edited by mtngigi; 09-21-2016 at 07:47 PM..
Reason: added text
By "it" I presume you don't mean all the persons who have ever lived in COS for the past 150 years as a monolithic group. The naming rights of a city go to those who "found" the city and if I recall correctly the city was founded and named by one General Palmer, who ran a rail-line down from Denver in the years after the Civil War. The two existing nearby communities were Manitou Springs (which does actually have "springs" but are the type you drink from not the type you soak in) and Colorado City (now referred to as "Old Colorado City"). Being a not-so-creative retired-General-type (sorry and thank you for your service all retired Generals out there) he just merged the two names (Colorado City Manitou Springs became "Colorado Springs"). Not accurate exactly but a pleasant-enough name for someone looking to attract potential residents from the east and sell real estate to them.
To presume anyone but the original founding group had any influence on its name that would be inaccurate. Of course it means those people.
However, Palmer, at the ripe old age of 35, had originally named our little village The Monument Dells and the Manitou area was named La Font, in an attempt to denote more civilized places. BTW, Manitou does not predate Cos. Only the core of OCC does. Palmer eventually settled on Fountain Colony after some of his partners disagreed with him about the perception of a Dell anywhere on our flat prairie and Manitou for the native reference because of the large gathering of Utes and Arapahoes that frequented the springs west of Colorado City. Even before it physically existed, Palmer was making a deliberate attempt to differentiate his town as a refined resort. Manitou was part of that vision, but Colo City was not. It wasn't until after much of the land was purchased, platted, and being prepared for sale that the company of new investors, some of whom had experience with the creation of Ft Collins and Greeley, brought their experience from those start ups and pushed for the name to be Colorado Springs, denoting the territory pushing for statehood and trying to capture Palmer's vision of a resort town by using Springs to align it as a desirable place not unlike Newport Springs or Saratoga Springs in the east. It was a classic marketing move at a time when Denver was all but run by organized crime, the army was regularly fighting native people across Wyoming and Montana, and Leadville was serving up a dead man a day in its newspaper reports. To simply propose this place at all was a big gamble, to propose it as refined could have been financial suicide.
Perhaps try substituting over rated with promoted. It still stands. I've said before in other topics here that Cos has long had a knack for reinventing its self and promoting its survival. It has never been a glamorous place, but it is more than just causally attractive. I don't see any reason why it won't continue to promote itself and continue to be a desirable place for many, but certainly not everyone. In some cases, that self promotion has led to long term success, in some cases it has not. People at the beginning were drawn here for a better life in a better atmosphere with more healthful lifestyles, and that still holds true to this day. Palmer was inexplicably drawn to that great big pile of granite to the west, as have been 100s of thousands since. That attraction has changed little over the course of time. I agree with mtngigi that we are more than just that pile of rock, but it also is, for better or worse, a big defining factor for us.
But I'm just reguritating info that can be found in other sources. For anyone interested in the early history of the area, I'd certainly suggest reading the books from Irving Howbert and Marshall Sprague as they go into great detail about how the Pikes Peak region was developed from the onset to the end of the last century.
If the OP is from the East Coast I would think a very conservative (old-fashioned?) state like OK would be a huge turn off.
For more culture etc.. and a more progressive world view you definitely need to leave the mid-west states.
Colorado Springs has a conservative/evangelical reputation but I have always wondered if it has quite the cultural dominance that it does in Oklahoma City or it is more of an individualistic, libertarian type conservatism.
Colorado Springs has a conservative/evangelical reputation but I have always wondered if it has quite the cultural dominance that it does in Oklahoma City or it is more of an individualistic, libertarian type conservatism.
It has that element, but it doesn't dominate here like it does in OK. I think in 20 years the libertarian aspect will be bigger and the religious element smaller.
Quote:
Originally Posted by phetaroi
The general vibe of Colorado Springs...hmmmm...I don't think Colorado Springs has a vibe. It's just a small city where a lot of people live and (and I know many are going to hate this comment) it overrates itself simply because of a big mountain.
I've felt that Springs people tend to wonder why people live where there isn't mountains. Like what do all those other people do on the weekend? What do you mean you haven't 4 wheeled? It's very much an activity oriented town vs a community oriented one.
Quote:
Originally Posted by otowi
There are plenty of left-leaning people here in Colorado Springs. It is a huge misconception that Colorado Springs is so conservative. It is decidedly purple here - about a 60/40 split R/D in the 2012 elections. There are only 4 counties in the whole state with more registered Democrats than El Paso County - Adams (barely), Boulder, Denver and Jefferson.
It's still republican dominated. That anti abortion bill a year or 2 ago only lost by a few hundred votes, which is kind of shocking. And moron Lamborn still gets elected, even though there was a better R contender that should have been the name on the ballot.
It's still republican dominated. That anti abortion bill a year or 2 ago only lost by a few hundred votes, which is kind of shocking. And moron Lamborn still gets elected, even though there was a better R contender that should have been the name on the ballot.
Yes, correct. And Denver County is an 80/20 split D, and reelects their own versions of Lamborn left; 20 years of Diana DeGette, a real star. Prior to her there was Pat Schroeder who made us all proud for 24 years. Almost 50-years of one party rule. The difference appears to be that it's considered the "correct" party.
Yes, correct. And Denver County is an 80/20 split D, and reelects their own versions of Lamborn left; 20 years of Diana DeGette, a real star. Prior to her there was Pat Schroeder who made us all proud for 24 years. Almost 50-years of one party rule. The difference appears to be that it's considered the "correct" party.
I guess it depends on your view of "moronic".
DeGette and esp. SCHROEDER were (are) the laughingstock politicians we all enjoy now. Clueless (DeGette) as to how guns operate, Pat Schroeder actually wanted to take down the "Bring Me Men" slogan at the USAFA that had been there since its birth.
Gotta start the PC Revolution!
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