Sculptures, monuments, statues and memorials have long been a feature of American life — and Colorado Springs is no exception.
Will the real estate bubble ever burst? Given the soaring cost of new construction, the national popularity of our fair city and region, and the strong local economy, it’s difficult to imagine any real change in the foreseeable future.
As a child, I loved the poems and prose of Rudyard Kipling. He was a wonderful storyteller, a poet whose measured rhymes delight the ear, and an author who transported readers to exotic, faraway lands.
In the idyllic early 1950s, Downtown Colorado Springs was the center of everything. Platte and Colorado avenues ran east and west, while Nevada Avenue and Tejon Street ran north and south. Public schools were organized radially, with four junior high schools (West, East, North and South) fun…
How do you know when you’ve become a geezer? In common with many of my contemporaries, I did my best to avoid that melancholy fate. You’re only as old as you feel, right? Stay thin, fit and healthy, and you’re fine, right? Don’t let your hair fall out, work out every day and go out every night!
Tomorrow is the 20th anniversary of 9/11, a day of rage, remembrance and reflection. The towers fell, the planes crashed, thousands died tragically and our world changed.
Ours is a time of cascading crises; so many, so numbing and so endless that after a while we just stop paying attention. With that in mind, let’s concentrate on something that’s lighthearted, fun, uplifting and begins with a party!
A controversial two-panel mural by John Ward Lockwood that has adorned the north wall of the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College’s theater lounge for 85 years will soon be permanently removed.
Here’s a question that many of us in Colorado Springs have pondered: Who the hell are we? Are we indeed the best place to live in the United States, our Olympic City of Sunshine at the foot of America’s Mountain?
Self-assured art critics notwithstanding, it’s hard to grade art on a scale of 1 to 100.
During much of Colorado Springs’ history, times of prosperity and growth have often brought sudden and unwelcome change.
When Colorado College’s Century Chest was opened in 2001, it contained hundreds of letters, photographs and documents placed there by city residents 100 years earlier. Without exception, they believed that the city would grow and thrive during the 20th century. It had done so, growing steadi…
As digitization swept across libraries in the late 20th century, hard-copy newspaper archives slowly disappeared. Bound volumes dating from the 19th century were cut to expedite scanning, digitized and discarded. Believing that physical papers were nothing more than primitive information sto…
We chugged slowly up the mountain, opened the windows and enjoyed the changing views. The summit was shrouded by a dense white cloud that never lifted...
For the past 150 years, Colorado Springs has had the same mantra: Live here and enjoy life! We’ll all be prosperous and happy, so rock on! Here’s to another 150 years of growth and development ... but maybe there’s an unexpected reckoning on the horizon. One ingredient vital to growth in the…
During the 50 years between 1875 and 1925, Colorado Springs citizens created scores of wonderful buildings. And although many remain, dozens have been lost. Fading photographs remind us of the Chief Theater, the Colorado Springs Opera House, Steele School, the first and second Antlers hotels…
As we anticipate our long-awaited sesquicentennial blowout on July 31, what most worries us? Let’s see; the Delta variant of COVID-19 might overcome vaccine protections and launch us into another year’s masked isolation, state and national politics might get even more fractious and bizarre, …
As I look back on my chequered career, I’m mildly dismayed by my professional choices. I’m proud of my first job — cleaning up after elephants, rhinos, giraffes and other exotic fauna summers at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo.
Only two months until our earthshaking sesquicentennial on July 31, when we’ll gather together Downtown near the sacred space where the first stake was driven 150 years ago. Never mind that the site is now a parking lot graced by a 20th century bronze of businessmen on horseback — let’s all …
In a report issued earlier this week, the International Energy Agency listed multiple steps that all advanced nations must take to bring CO2 emissions to “net zero” by 2050 and thereby avoid irreversible damage to the Earth.
As we brace ourselves for the city’s sesquicentennial hoo-ha on July 31 (Fireworks! Parades! Vendors! Tens of thousands of Downtown celebrants, spectators, vendors, politicians and assorted scoundrels!), here’s a story about another 150th anniversary.
How many artists have called Colorado Springs home since our city was founded 150 years ago? Many thousands. How many left a legacy of some kind? Thousands. And of them all, which were the best?
A few days ago two back-to-back emails popped up on my screen — the first from the Denver Art Museum and the second from the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College.
Like many Colorado homeowners, I’ve tracked local real estate prices with disbelief.
Whither goeth the Colorado Republican Party? That’s a difficult question. Lauren Boebert tossed five-term Republican Congressman Scott Tipton to the curb last year while Kristi Burton Brown recently took down former Secretary of State Scott Gessler to become Republican Party chairwoman. Boeb…
Once again, it’s sesquicentennial time. Last week, I listed five drivers of our history. Here are five more, listed chronologically.
It’s our sesquicentennial year, one that should be full of cheerful events, boring speeches, tedious histories and drinks for all — especially if the pandemic exits stage right! And even if we have to make do with virtual events, we can lift a glass or two at home and thank those who precede…
If you’re a white American, to whom among your fellow citizens and residents do you owe reparations for past injustices? Sixty-five years ago, a teacher at Fountain Valley School suggested to his all-white, all-male 11th grade history class that our country’s past wasn’t what we imagined it to be.
So sorry to have missed the overhyped snow dump last week — we went to Las Vegas. The weather was somewhat chilly, but we enjoyed our vaccinated release from COVID captivity. The plane was full, the streets were thronged with masked multitudes and restaurants were cheerfully busy.
On the surface, these are the best of days for Democrat moderates in elected office and the worst of days for their Republican counterparts. Democrats John Hickenlooper and Michael Bennet are cheerfully influential in D.C., while defeated Republicans Scott Tipton and Corey Gardner sit gloomi…
Being a geezer isn’t much fun (oh to be 50 again!), but it has its advantages. You get Social Security, Medicare and early vaccinations. Not bad — especially the vaccinations!
Starting, funding and sustaining a small business isn’t easy, even during the best of times. Years ago, one multiple offender gave a succinct explanation of the problems he’d encountered.
Big tech, big data, big money. That’s why Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google and Microsoft are all-powerful and all-seeing. Collectively, they know everything about everybody, monetize that knowledge with mysterious algorithms and control our lives while pretending to help us understand the mys…
The pandemic has taught us one transformative lesson: We can work from anywhere. Tired of the expense and inconvenience of New York, San Francisco or Chicago? Sell your overpriced little dump, buy a luxurious spread in Colorado Springs, Austin or Tampa with the proceeds and live happily ever after!
So here we are, 15 days after Joe Biden’s remarkably pleasant inauguration (the Poet! The Mittens! Lady Gaga!). We should be savoring stories about the first dogs, lining up for vaccinations and yearning for a post-COVID summer… but it’s impeachment time!
In 2021 it will be even more difficult than usual to determine what marketing tactics will be successful, given that the business world has faced unprecedented upheaval.
2020 — what a year! The past 12 months have seen countless changes, as the coronavirus pandemic has affected the health of millions of Americans, the economy, and our daily lives. But one thing the pandemic didn’t interrupt: Parents’ role as the primary providers, first teachers, and best ad…
Boebert, Buck & Lamborn sounds like a respectable small-town law firm from the 1950s, doesn’t it? You’d expect the three principals would be serious, sober-minded and responsible citizens eager to participate in the betterment of their community, state and nation. But like Rudy Giuliani …
So here we are at the beginning of a new political era, one that may have a far different set of winners and losers. What about the Pikes Peak region — which column will we be in?
By the time this column appears in print, we’ll be five days from Joe Biden’s inauguration — unless swarms of right-wing anarchists have seized the U.S. Capitol, imprisoned every Democrat in sight and declared Donald Trump the Supreme Ruler of all lands, rivers, lakes and oceans from Panama …
After two months without any significant moisture here on the Westside, it was nice to wake up one day last week and see 3 or 4 inches of snow. The dogs cavorted happily, the neighborhood seemed magical and I hoped that the sun would melt it away so that I wouldn’t have to shovel the sidewalk.
