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A Dollar Short and a Day (30 Years) Too Late

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Contributed by: Dave Hughes on 6/6/2007

Today's - June 6th - Gazette Telegraph paper has a Front Page picture and article about Mayor Lionel Rivera's 'State of the City' address.

And what is the story line? That DOWNTOWN Colorado Springs and all the central city commerical strips are in DECLINE! i.e. they are not paying enough sales tax to support the City. That the big box retailers and other larger businesses all have moved out of the City, to the north and east, and are in the County now, not city taxed.

Well, I saw that coming 30 years ago, after I retired as a Colorado Springs native who grew up here, then had a 27 year Military Career - retiring in 1973.

There were TWO major mistakes then by the so-called business/government Leaders of Colorado Springs.

First the City government in cahoots with downtown property owners used URBAN RENEWAL and EMINENT DOMAIN (and this city says its 'conservative??) to destroy the charm and character of the downtown. It destroyed the ONLY thing it had - its architectural history - that no modern shopping center, from the Citadel onward, could duplicate.

That was a dumb decision - not just for locals who grew up here - losing 'their' downtown, BUT the classic photographic scene looking westward down Pikes Peak Avenue was THE most memorable image of 'Colorado Springs' the Rocky Mountains, and the place to take our next vacation. That 'look' seen in magazines and newspapers, movies and later television, attracted money-paying TOURISTS! Once gone, there has NOT been ANY comparable image of Colorado Springs for potential visitors. (The Air Force Academy Chapel is a draw, but that doesn't do anything for 'downtown' retail.) And that destruction of the downtown opened the door for me to use architectural HISTORY as well as SMALL BUSINESS opportunitiesto make the economy of Old Colorado City take off and sustain itself for these 30 years while downtown is STILL flat on its duff .
Secondly, the so called city 'business leaders' could not see the full implications of the coming Information Age - started when the first microcomputers were sold in 1976 (Apple II and Radio Shack 'Trash 80s' Commodore 64s and Vics AND acoustic, then Haye, 'micromodems.' Permitting vast amounts of digital data to be sent around the world - from Colorado Springs. At trivial cost.

The City thought the ONLY economic payoff for High Tech was to attract in traditional tax-break ways large Manufacturing companies - like HP, which would provide 'primary jobs' which incomes would 'trickle down' to small businesses and support the economy. But I watched IBM come and go, and Digital come and go, MCI come and almost totally disappear, and now Intel is pulling out.
Except for Defense Contractors there is NOT enough 'high tech' larger firms to support the City in the ways it is 'accustomed' to live. And every other city wants, and competes for, such high tech manufacturing jobs.

What the City refused to consider (still) is the idea of developing, promoting, supporting work at home or in neighborhood offices using personal computers and telecommunications, including the Internet - for Individuals and very small businesses. Who can export the content of their brains ( programs, science, entertainment, art, literature) or skills (financial, educational, managerial, analytical) and importing dollars. i.e base our economy on Knowledge Workers.

Well it may be too late to try it. But unless Colorado Springs wakes up and starts thinking freshly about its fundamental economy, and what could work OTHER than the traditional trickle down big business economy, it isn't just going to make it.

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CONTRIBUTOR INFO

Dave Hughes

Colorado Springs , CO

Dave Hughes has posted 83 stories and 87 comments since joining on 3/1/2007. Dave Hughes 's average story rating is 4.9.

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