La Junta? (Denver, Colorado Springs, Aurora: leasing, crime, gated)

[kerrymac]

This maybe a dumb question but why do I never read about east of Pueblo..Like La Junta and the towns around it.
Are they bad in terms of crime or employment?

I mean I never read about this part of Colorado.

Just wondering.

[jazzlover]

The simple answer is that it does not fit people's stereotypical view of Colorado. It is out on Colorado's arid Eastern Plains, away from the mountains. La Junta and the other towns in the lower Arkansas River valley are agricultural communities. As such, they are facing a lot of the same challenges as other ag communities in the Plains States--plus one more real big one: they have relied on irrigation water from the Arkansas River to irrigate their land. That water is being bought up wholesale by Colorado cities like Denver and Aurora--apparently irrigating Kentucky Bluegrass lawns in suburbia is more important than growing food for people, so the lifeblood of towns like La Junta is drying up. It's sad, the lower Arkansas valley in Colorado used to be a huge producer of things like watermelons, cantaloupes, and other produce. These days, most of those products around here come from Mexico--I guess we can't even be bothered with growing our own food, anymore.

[80skeys]

They're very small towns in the middle of the desert

[McGowdog]

One of Colorado's four "major" rivers flows through it, just like Grand Junction. Grand Junction just so happens to be at the junction of the massive Colorado River (it gets massive at some point along the way) and the Gunnison, but the Arkansas ain't too shabby either.

I would hardly call a town that has the Arkansas flowing through it a desert.

And to Jazz I say, don't count them chickens before their hatched. Aurora and CoSprings haven't swindled them farmers out of that water just yet.

[jazzlover]

Originally Posted by McGowdog

And to Jazz I say, don't count them chickens before their hatched. Aurora and CoSprings haven't swindled them farmers out of that water just yet.

Well, they have purchased a bunch of water rights and are trying to get more. Irrigated acreage in the lower Ark is already down very significantly. In some cases, too, the cities are leasing water back to farmers on an interim basis until the cities need it--but there is not much doubt that those farm lands will be eventually dried up. I think that is a crime, but such is the case in a topsy-turvy society society where fluff and bull****--often directly or indirectly subsidized by the government (i.e., all the direct and indirect subsidies to suburban land development)--is more important than feeding ourselves.

[McGowdog]

And then there's Kansas.

I have a philosophy; instead of moving the water to the people, try moving the people to the water. But bring a hoe and a shovel with you too.

[80skeys]

Originally Posted by McGowdog

One of Colorado's four "major" rivers flows through it, just like Grand Junction. Grand Junction just so happens to be at the junction of the massive Colorado River (it gets massive at some point along the way) and the Gunnison, but the Arkansas ain't too shabby either.

I would hardly call a town that has the Arkansas flowing through it a desert.

don't worry, I call GJ a desert too

[McGowdog]

Well thank you! I was worried there for a minute!

I've gotta go out and get me a Camel.

[CosmicWizard]

Most of the downtown GJ businesses are camel friendly. They provide hitching posts so you don't have to worry about your camel while you are spending your money inside.

[COflower]

Originally Posted by jazzlover

Well, they have purchased a bunch of water rights and are trying to get more.

lest you forget that the City of Colorado Springs bought rights to that water decades ago and is now utilizing what it has legal rights to:

Colorado Springs owns the rights to the water that will come up the Southern Delivery System, thanks to Fry-Ark and the other water it has acquired since looking west in the early 1900s.

Moving water 1,500 feet uphill is not the most efficient way of delivering water. When the pipeline reaches capacity, it will cost $7.4 million a year to pump it from Pueblo Reservoir. But the pipeline was long ago identified as the best option for quenching Colorado Springs' future thirst.

http://www.sdswater.org/docs/newsroom/in_the_news/2009-0404-Gazette.pdf (broken link)

Jazz - what you don't get is that C Springs has been fighting legal battles over the last decade and a half over water that is rightfully owned by C Springs (and same with Aurora (? my sources are a bit confusing) which invested in the Frying Pan/Arkansas project in the early 60s) .

I know you aren't a fan of much of anything with regards to the Front Range but you of all people should know that water rights in the West are probably some of the most contentious subjects but rights are rights regardless of one man's perch in southwestern Colorado or a woman's perch on the Front Range.

The City of C Springs and our city owned utilities are not trying to strip rights from others and as far as I know aren't trying to obtain more rights at this time. Simply using their legally obtained rights and various government entities (cough - Pueblo) have made that difficult.

As it stands, approx 49% of the use of the Frying Pan/Arkansas water is for agricultural use. Those are legal rights guaranteed by the project.

As a native of CO that grew up without a green lawn, I am appalled at the misuse of something as precious as water in the entire state. I am, however, pretty impressed with Colorado Springs Utilities in how they have handled recent droughts and getting residents to recognize how important it is to conserve water. There is much further to go to get new(er) residents to understand that Colorado should not be filled with green grass that is not native to the area...What we do here effects a huge chunk of those east and west of us.

But please, don't state things that aren't true. Water rights were established long, long before these Front Range cities became suburban tracts and to the best of my knowledge, CSprings is currently only in a battle for the rights it has invested in.

Okay then.