I wrote, and they published, in the Colorado Springs Business Journal this opinion piece in response to a column by John Hazelhurst who writes a column weekly for it. I will expand on what I say in the last paragraph.

"Well, John Hazelhurst, in his May 11th column has come up with yet another theory of why and how things happen in Colorado Springs. Now he bemoans the fact that there are too few from the 'creative class' out enjoying the sunshine by bike riding very early, because Colorado Springs doesn't cater to that class of people like the People's Republic of Boulder, or that overgrown Cow Town of Denver.

But it's interesting that he equates creativity and dynamism with being physically young. As if older locals are, by definition, stuck in the mud.

He fails to notice that the rise of personal computers, telecommunications and the Internet has made it possible for those otherwise retired because of their age, to lead very active and creative lives - even bringing money into the city long after they have to stop riding bicycles. I, for one, used the earliest Radio Shack computers and the first dialup telecom Services in the country in 1978 after I was 58 and retired, to attract business and drive the revitalization of the one hundred half empty, Old Colorado City commercial buildings along West Colorado Avenue. And after that, in my late 60s I brought $2 million into the City from the National Science Foundation, by pioneering wireless, doing most of my work from my home-office and a net connection.

And oh yeah, when I was just a lad of 75 I had to get a little more in shape by using Barr Trail instead of cycling the Garden of the Gods, before I trekked 15,000 feet up Mount Everest in 2004 to train Sherpas how to use variations of Wi-Fi wireless to connect themselves up to the rest of the world and improve their incomes. I didn't notice any Boulder hot shots up there, then. Maybe because, while young Engineers know 'how', some of us a little older know better 'why.'

The only thing I can complain about, is that the 'business leadership' of Colorado Springs has yet to capitalize on its older net-connected brain and earning power, judgment, and yes, even creativity. "

Dave Hughes - Old Colorado City Communications