What do old guys talk about when they get together for coffee? Do they argue about politics, reminisce about the beautiful young women they once dated, brag about their business coups back in the 1980s or complain about the afflictions of old age? Nope — in my experience, they talk about the…
As a kid, I was fascinated by chess. It was more than a game; it was cerebral, combative, intense and endlessly interesting. Every game was different, and the playing field never changed. No matter how skilled and experienced your opponent, you start out even.
In 1873 Isabella Bird, an adventurous Englishwoman, rode her borrowed horse Birdie through the rough settlements and towering mountains of the Colorado Front Range. Bird, 42, was tough, athletic, curious and an extraordinarily gifted writer. She documented her trip in letters to her sister, …
In the last few years, video has exploded across the internet, from social media platforms based completely on video, to stories becoming a popular way to peek behind the scenes, to YouTube continuing to dominate a huge portion of content creation. Businesses wanting to be successful moving …
Driving up to Cripple Creek last Saturday morning, we were surprised to see scores of motorcycles heading back from the Creek on Highway 67. I knew that the annual Veterans Rally had been canceled because of concerns about COVID-19, so I figured that the guys we saw were just freelancers enj…
One hundred years, three months and 10 days ago Republican presidential candidate Warren G. Harding gave a speech in Boston that would define his campaign and help elect him in a November landslide.
As we lurch uncertainly toward the sesquicentennial of Colorado Springs on July 31, 2021, it’ll be fun to look backwards. The city has never lacked chroniclers, reporters, self-interested autobiographers, painters, photographers, novelists, columnists, society columnists and crusading journalists. Their work is still there somewhere, ready to be unearthed for our delight. The past may be […]
We all love the arts, don’t we? Well, maybe not all of us, but local, regional and national politicians love them for their economic impact. According to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, the arts and culture sector contributes $15.6 billion to Colorado’s economy, representing 4.5 percent of the state’s GDP and 103,401 jobs. When […]
Who was the greatest American of the 20th century? There are scores of worthy candidates. My short list might include Jim Thorpe, Lou Gehrig, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Inez Milholland, Albert Einstein, Franklin Roosevelt, George Marshall, Dorothy Day, Dwight Eisenhower and Martin Luther King Jr. It’s a deliberately quirky list that leaves off obvious candidates […]
When the sad news came last week, most of Colorado Springs didn’t know how to react. There was one sports story in the daily paper as literally hundreds of messages, instant eulogies and tributes crisscrossed the cyber world. Mike Moran, 78, former longtime head of communications and media relations for the U.S. Olympic Committee (1978-2003), […]
Are we on the verge of recreating Colorado Springs, of making it more just and more equal? Will we admit how much white privilege has shaped our city and ourselves? Or is this apparent public enlightenment another false dawn? White privilege shaped me, and enabled me to partially escape it. Thanks to money inherited from […]
As we begin to open up our region and come out of the safer-at-home phase of COVID-19, let’s pause to consider its impact on our aging adults — one of the groups hardest hit by the pandemic. The work of Innovations in Aging Collaborative, the lead nonprofit organization coordinating the city’s Age Friendly Colorado Springs […]
Eating at restaurants, going to a big game and enjoying a friend’s hug or handshake were all part of our lives just a few months ago and we all want them to be part of our routines again as soon as possible. Our success in making our lives “normal” again after COVID-19 is making our […]
June is Bike Month across the state and right here in the Pikes Peak region. Traditionally, the last Wednesday in June is Bike to Work Day — a fun, free event encouraging folks to try bicycle commuting and take part in free breakfasts provided by generous community sponsors. The local restaurant and business community has come […]
Once again our country has been divided and is in grief over the needless and tragic death of a man, a Black man who pleaded for his life while men who were sworn to protect and serve turned a deaf ear to his humanity and pleas of “I can’t breathe.” The outcry and anger are […]
Pikes Peak Women stands with those who are horrified by the brutal murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police on May 25, and those of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Freddie Gray Jr., Walter Scott, Oscar Grant III, Philando Castile, Sandra Bland, Tamir Rice, Botham Jean, Atatiana Jefferson, and too […]
After the marches and protests, after the novel coronavirus, after the diminished party conventions and finally after the election … what’s next? There are three possible outcomes. If Donald Trump wins a second term, losing the popular vote while eking out a narrow electoral vote majority, we can expect levels of popular dissent unseen since […]
After I became a full-time Colorado Springs resident last September, I visited the Manitou Springs Chamber of Commerce and suggested an ambassador program for the Manitou Incline. Little did I know that eight months later I would be embroiled in an inter-municipal battle worse than anything I experienced in 30 years of civic leadership in […]
One of our enduring national myths is that demonstrations make a difference. Demos are a big deal; after all, the First Amendment explicitly guarantees the right of the people to peaceably assemble, and to petition the government for redress of grievances. Authoritarian governments typically ban or control dissent, so it’s comforting to realize that we […]
It is with much enthusiasm that I begin my role as dean of the College of Business at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs. While I would have preferred to introduce myself to you in person, I look forward to engaging with you through a series of virtual events. Now more than ever, it is […]
As businesses in the Pikes Peak region gradually reopen their doors, it seems possible that the worst of the pandemic has passed. Does this mean a return to normal? Nope -— it means that we’ll work together to create some semblance of normal. Predictions: Double H Negative — no handshakes, no hugs. We’ll nod, we’ll […]
What do developers and urban bureaucrats have in common? Developers like to acquire land and build things, while urban bureaucrats may enjoy ripping down old stuff and “reactivating” publicly owned spaces. The latest example: the city’s nascent scheme to tear down the 1914 Thomas Barber-designed band shell in Acacia Park as part of an extensive […]
In early January I came across a story buried deep in the print edition of The New York Times about a new disease that had appeared in Wuhan, a then-obscure Chinese metropolis. For some reason it seemed threatening, and I told my spouse that we should stock up on canned food and other supplies. She laughed. […]
Many people are hoping that antibody testing will help us get back to normal by sorting the population into two groups: those who are vulnerable to COVID-19 and those who are “immune.” Unfortunately, this is not the case. At this point, antibody tests — the rare ones that are reasonably reliable and accurate at detecting […]
It was nice to hear Gov. Jared Polis’ comforting remarks on Tuesday as he announced the gradual loosening of the Colorado’s shelter-in-place regulations. For the first time in many weeks, a return to normalcy seemed possible. Maybe at last I could pick up my long-stranded dry cleaning, meet my geezer pals for coffee and join […]
As COVID19 forces us all to “shelter in place” (one of the many irritating neologisms that the pandemic has spawned), our lives have changed dramatically. As a couple whose kids left the nest decades ago, we’re lucky to be comfortably sheltering in our Westside Victorian. No more commuting to work, going to meetings, movies or sporting […]
Aren’t you tired of reading about COVID-19? I am too, so let’s take a break and focus on regional news from 200 years ago. Who was the first person to climb Pikes Peak? That’s unknown and unknowable. Given the great peak’s visibility, accessibility and seductive appeal, the first climber likely summited many millennia before the […]
When will all this be over? I don’t know, you don’t know, Governor Polis doesn’t know, Dr. Fauci doesn’t know and as for the Washington elite — well, never mind. It’s such a peculiar crisis. Many sit quietly at home enduring de facto house arrest (absent an ankle monitor!). My wife and I are sheltering […]
I have been saying in my past five years of presentations that there is plenty of good news to go around and that if anything, the news just keeps getting better — especially for our city and state. I would then joke that when we have a downturn, I am going on sabbatical. I never […]
Monday, 6:50 a.m. It’s Geezer Monday at King Soopers, and I’m standing in line with a couple hundred fellow oldsters, waiting for the 7 a.m. store opening. We’re quiet, subdued and socially distant. We wish we were living in another time, that remote, friendly paradise that disappeared a few weeks before. The doors open, we […]
Recent trends in charitable giving mean nonprofits need to be creative to survive and thrive. The Give! campaign can help. Charitable giving in the United States is on the decline, with fewer American households giving to nonprofits. Since individual giving represents 70-80 percent of income to charities, most nonprofits rely on these donors to fund […]
For the last 120 years, we Americans have usually responded to perceived national emergencies by sending troops overseas. The Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Grenada, Desert Storm, 9/11, Iraq and Afghanistan. COVID-19 is different. We can’t mobilize a few divisions and send them to China to contain this “foreign virus” […]
As a sometimes cranky member of the Silent Generation, I understand that our world is unpredictable, irrational and occasionally crazy. First the Democrats. They started with a couple of dozen presidential candidates, including age-appropriate, highly qualified folks like Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, Michael Bennet, Cory Booker and Amy Klobuchar. They all fell by the wayside, […]
On Feb. 28, 1995, Denver International Airport opened for business on a vast stretch of prairie 23 miles from downtown. It was, as The Denver Post noted last week, an expensive and controversial project. Opponents decried it as a multibillion-dollar boondoggle, one that Denver taxpayers would rue for decades. Today, DIA is the world’s 20th-largest […]
Like many of our late-middle-aged peers, we have too much stuff. The garage is full of tools, utensils, scraps of wood and metal, bicycles and bicycle parts, coolers, boxes of old magazines and newspapers and stacked storage bins filled with things I couldn’t bear to get rid of. Alas, there’s no room for our cars. […]
Did you know that healthy habits apply to more than just physical wellness? Good habits can affect your financial wellness as well. It is extremely easy to simply swipe your card at the drive-thru, at Starbucks, or at the vending machine — but those tiny transactions can add up. It is not a matter of […]
As befits my brand new unaffiliated voter status, I got two primary ballots in the mail last week. Six Republicans and 17 Democrats are listed on the “Official Ballot(s) for the Presidential Primary Election El Paso County Colorado March 3, 2020.” There’s a ballot for each party, but you can only fill out one. Send […]
So have we learned anything after the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary? We know that the leading Democratic candidates are moving slowly along, each hoping for some political miracle that would fatally injure their opponents and allow them to grab the nomination. Their hotel rooms are booked, their calendars filled — see you in […]
A few days ago a fold-over postcard from the city’s Land Use Review Division arrived in our mailbox. I thought it was another tiresome screed from the city’s landscaping/behavioral police (e.g., your trees overhang the right of way, your dogs bark too much, you need to clean up the pile of slash that you created when […]
When health issues crop up, people often have to decide where best to seek medical attention, with urgent care and the emergency room being potential destinations. But for more and more Coloradans, their smartphone is now the preferred way to see and talk to a doctor. Telemedicine visits — also known as virtual care — […]
National Democrats and Colorado Republicans may seem like strange bedfellows, but they share one defining characteristic: They know how to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. In 2016, Democrats mobilized around a convenient progressive trope, the laudable notion that it was time for a woman president. The majority of voters agreed, but key Midwestern […]
