Coming soon to a downtown corner

I had heard that this new high rise apartment building was in the pipeline. Now I see that the southwest corner of Wahsatch and Colorado has been fenced off, and this banner has been stuck to the fence, illustrating exactly what is to come. I'm not opposed to this structure at all. This corner held nothing but a parking lot, so no historic building is being torn down (no doubt there was one there at some point, destroyed to make way for the parking lot!). As the city grows ever eastward, it's important that our downtown continues to thrive and grow as well. A robust, bustling city center is important to any municipality!

Highlands

A restaurant in the Denver neighborhood known as Highlands. In the last few years, Highlands has become extremely trendy and gentrified, causing property values and rents to skyrocket. For many years this neighborhood was low income; I remember most of the billboards around there being in Spanish, because many of the residents were Mexican nationals. Now it's almost 100% "cute" and "funky". And surely it's been a strange (and expensive) transition for the long-time residents of Highlands.

Maximum security

Did you know that we have a large number of prisons in the area? Actually they're in Cañon City and Florence, two small towns that sit side by side in Fremont County, 50 miles from Colorado Springs. The prisons are a very large employer in Fremont County. Most notably among the penal facilities, in Florence we've got the infamous Supermax, "the Alcatraz of the Rockies", the only federal Supermax prison in the country and home to some very notorious criminals. Some of its current denizens include Zacarias Moussaoui and many other well known terrorists whose names I can't pronounce; Richard Reid, the "shoe bomber" -- thanks, Richard, it's your fault that I have to take my shoes off to go through airport security; Theodore Kaczynski, a.k.a. the Unabomber; Terry Nichols, who conspired with Timothy McVeigh to bomb the Federal Building in Oklahoma City; Eric Rudolph, convicted for bombing the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta; as well as numerous spies, mafiosi and notorious gang bosses. Yes, these guys are 50 miles from my house. Gulp! I'm glad they're locked up! I took the above photo of the Supermax as we whizzed past in our car on the way home from Bishop Castle. (It's not exactly advisable to stand in front of the Supermax with your camera and make like a tourist.) The photo below is the Centennial Correctional Facility (I think), a state maximum security penitentiary. Like the other photo it was taken from the car as we drove past, just outside of Cañon City on Highway 50.

The ghost of Cub Foods

Cub Foods was a "no frills" supermarket that had a brief heyday in Colorado Springs during the '90s. Did you have a Cub Foods in your town? The basic principle was that the goods were cheap because their workers were non-union (and  thus paid low wages), and although someone was there at the cash register to ring up your purchase, you had to bag your own groceries.  Pat and I tried this a few times.  I never was (and still am not) very good at bagging groceries, so Cub Foods was not my favorite place to shop.  I finally just refused to keep going there.  I wonder if that's why they closed -- customers disgruntled about having to bag their purchase! Or maybe their profit margins were so slim, there just wasn't enough to keep the company in the black.  Either way, I don't miss it.  Maybe I'm lazy, but I'd rather just pay a little more to shop at a regular supermarket and have an expert bag my groceries for me!

Another sign of the times

I went to the Citadel Mall with Pat yesterday for a bit of shopping. Haven't been there in ages -- it was pretty busy, actually, which is a good thing to see, especially in January! The last time I saw this little kiosk in the center of the mall, it was advertising homes for sale. It still is, actually, only now the word "foreclosures" features in bold text on the signage. Sigh. They say the economy is slowly recovering, and I can say that things are holding steady or even on the upswing for me personally, but little reminders like this one are still sobering.

A sad state of affairs

I love Monument Valley Park. I use it a lot for portraits, and Pat and I enjoy taking walks there as much as possible during the summer. It's really the most beautiful place. There are two ponds in the park, one of which you see in the above photo. That's right, it's completely drained and it looks awful! I'm pretty sure this can be chalked up to lack of funds. Over the last couple of years this pond has become more and more manky and disgusting. Last year it was downright gross! It was full of algae and all kinds of disgusting crud was floating in it. The waterfowl didn't seem to mind, but it really did look bad. I hope they can repair and refill it, but something tells me it's going to look this way for a while -- our city parks department is pretty much the big loser in this terrible economy right now, so I'm not holding my breath in hopes that this pond will miraculously be returned to its former glory anytime soon :o(

The Julie Penrose fountain

Behold the Julie Penrose fountain in America the Beautiful park. This impressive, sculptural water feature was in part designed by David Barber, who happens to be the father of one of my friends. And America the Beautiful park came into being a few years ago under the stewardship of then-mayor Marylou Makepeace, who happens to be the mother of one of my friends. I think she's the best mayor we've ever had! Unfortunately, Colorado Springs residents are now so tax-shy that a wonderful park and water feature like this is probably not going to happen in our city again for a long, long time, if ever. You may have heard how city voters recently defeated a proposed (small) tax that would have gone toward our police and fire departments, as well as open spaces and other issues. A tax that would have cost the average resident only $16 per year, rejected! As a result, Colorado Springs rather shamefully made national news because our city council had to make some tough choices, including not watering our parks and open spaces this year, turning off half our street lights (not good!), closing our public pools, and asking citizens to mow the grass in our parks! The other day I noticed our downtown medians, which are usually so lovely and green and planted with beautiful flowers, are now overgrown, brown, and not planted with flowers at all. So our beautiful downtown, the jewel of our city, is looking a little dejected this year :o( The good news is that the council did find a way to at least water a little, so our parks won't all turn totally brown. But they will not be as wonderful as they usually are.

I can't wait for this dead economy to turn around. Every little glimmer of improvement gives me hope! As for the fountain, dear readers, I plan to go back when it's flowing with water and get a picture for ya.

The Barracuda Bazaar

Here's the facade of the Barracuda Bazaar on 25th and Colorado, one of the most unique and funky boutiques in Colorado Springs. I love to go in there and browse around. They have all kinds of great clothes, jewelry, accessories and just plain cool stuff, some of it vintage, some of it handmade. It really appeals to the artsy/urban rock and roll rebel in me. Every time I go in there I want to buy everything in stock!

I think it's great that we have places like this to shop -- an alternative to the mall, you know? I hope that the current dreadful economy doesn't kill off these independently owned boutiques. It's so much more fun to shop at a place like Barracuda Bazaar.

FYI they have a very cool website, check it out! http://www.barracudabazaar.com/

It's the economy, stupid

This probably isn't huge news anywhere else in the world, but it's headline news here: Focus On the Family is about to lay off over 200 people. I heard that Focus poured a lot of money into Prop 8 in California so now they're hurting for funds. [For those of you who haven't heard about it, Proposition 8 is a controversial anti-gay marriage law that was very narrowly approved by California voters on November 4th.] Focus On the Family generally doesn't pay very much (except for the higher-level positions) but they employ a lot of people here. Losing even a low-paying job sucks.

The powers that be say the recession isn't affecting Colorado Springs, but I beg to differ.