Tom DeKalb comes eye-to-eye with the nation’s economic meltdown every day as he delivers mail in the heart of the Old Colorado City shopping district along West Colorado Avenue.

Here is a view of the area from FlashEarth.com:

 DeKalb has been delivering mail in Colorado Springs since 1986 and what he sees as he makes his daily rounds to 300 businesses along the avenue is like nothing he’s ever seen before. Here is DeKalb as he made his rounds one day last week.

Unlike residential carriers who drive from mailbox to mailbox, DeKalb is not an anonymous as he goes door-to-door, handing shopkeepers their mail and picking up letters and packages for shipping.

In fact, DeKalb knows most of his customers by their first names. He has become a friend to many and, as a result, he hears the horror stories of the business owners who goes days at a time without making a sale. He sees the concern in their faces. He knows which shops are simply trying to hang on in hopes the Christmas shopping season will keep the afloat.

For those who don’t know the history of the neighborhood, I’ll try to summarize it, borrowing liberally from a 1997 Gazette story by Jane Turnis:

The neighborhood originally was its own town: Colorado City. It was founded in 1859 near Fountain Creek and served as a mining supply center for prospectors heading into the gold camps of South Park. Gen. William Jackson Palmer wouldn’t come along for another 10 years to begin building Colorado Springs to the east.

Colorado City suffered boom and bust cycles. For example, in 1862 it vyed to become the capital of the Colorado Territory. But by the time Palmer arrived in 1869, he described a mostly abandoned town, according to Marshall Sprague’s history, Newport in the Rockies.

Eventually, Colorado City even lost its name and became referred to as Old Town when it was annexed into Colorado Springs in 1917.

In the 1950s and ’60s, it nearly lost all hope, too. 

With the building of Interstate 25 to the east and the Highway 24 bypass to the south, cars sailed on past the isolated business district. Many of the old historic buildings were empty, and most were run down. Merchants couldn’t get affordable loans; local banks had red-lined the area.

The future looked bleak for Old Town – a seven-square-block area between 24th and 28th streets, most of it along West Colorado Avenue. By 1976, Old Town had only 30 businesses – a hardware store, a couple of bars, a gun shop, a restaurant and a laundry, to name a few. The area was 45 percent vacant.

Today, it is a thriving business and shopping district. One of the most successful collaborations of public and private interests in Colorado Springs’ history revitalized the depressed area and put many people in business.

Business leaders united and created a self-taxing commercial district to create free parking lots and maintain special improvements. Using a creative funding program, they helped businesses open, obtained park funds and traffic lights and made the area a national historic district.

Tired of getting ticketed and fined for parking on the street overnight?

If you are among the 3,200 homeowners in Ridgeview at Stetson Hills, this is your chance to do something about it.

On Saturday, Nov. 22, you get to vote. The issue will be debated and decided, once and for all, at the annual meeting at Skyview Middle School. The festivities start at 1 p.m.

Maybe you want to make sure the Homeowners Association continues to enforce the covenants banning cars on the street overnight. You still need to attend and vote. Or mail in your ballot. Remember, it takes 2,000 votes to change a covenant in Ridgeview.

Here is a look at the ballot:

Kim Polomka has watched wreck after wreck from the living room of his home on East Platte Avenue in Colorado Springs. He has photographed them and tried to convince the city to installed “traffic calming devices” to slow traffic and make the street safer.

Now he is asking for something most would declare outrageous. He wants potholes on Platte. Or at least the illusion of potholes.

Polomka discovered a decal that can be laid in the street to simulate the look of a pothole. He says it would slow motorists and put an end the slam zone. Here is a look at what he’s proposing in photos from the Internet:

They are an amazing optical illusion. Check this out:

These decals were invented by Brad Groff, an attorney in Georgia. He also created an optical speed hump as an alterative to the pothole. The photos of the decals show them being used to advertise a suspension system for automobiles. (Absorbs shocks so well you never feel the potholes).

Here is a link to his patent application.

City traffic engineers are not impressed. They believe motorists speeding up Platte to get to Burger King before it closes would freak at the sight of the Grand Canyon in front of them, swerve into oncoming traffic and clobber somebody.

Anyway, it seems to be a creative way to deal with the problem. Put a couple potholes down for a few days and move them around. OK. Maybe it isn’t such a good idea.

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For those who are wondering where to call at the city to get help, below is a page from www.springsgov.com for the Colorado Springs Street Division. The Pothole Hotline and Snow Line are of most interest to readers who have contacted me. But I thought the whole page might helpful:

In addition, the city is responsible for repairing sidewalks, curbs and gutters. The city took on the chore after voters in November 2004 passed a 1-cent sales tax and created the Pikes Peak Rural Transportation Authority, or RTA. Of the $60 million generated annually by the tax, about $4 million is designated for maintenance of area sidewalks, curbs and gutters.

To report damaged sidewalks, curbs, gutters or pedestrian ramps, call the Street Department at 385-5411 or e-mail the city by going to the Pikes Peak Rural Transportation Authority Web site at www.pprta.com, clicking on “contact us” and sending an e-mail to the appropriate category you want to report — curb and gutter, sidewalk, pedestrian ramp, etc.

But don’t get too excited. The city has a huge backlog of projects. We’re talking 4,000 requests in its database. It will take years to complete.
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Charlie Rollman is protective of city streets, knowing that damage done by builders tapping into sewer and water lines and companies laying fiber optics, phone lines, cable and the like ultimately can cost taxpayers a lot of money.

So he was not happy when a Bridgepoint Communications crew, working on behalf of Comcast, dug a hole in the street near his Skyway home and left a jumbled mess of asphalt behind.

Rollman remained upset when the crew came back and made a half-hearted patch in the street.

Here are Rollman’s photos of the “patch” by the crews:

Rollman was not impressed with the way crews just slapped down some asphalt mix and smashed it against the gutter. He predicted the chunks of broken asphalt would pop out the first time a snowplow came down the street.

(Please resist the urge to jump in with comments about snowplows only being seen in Skyway and the Broadmoor and other affluent neighborhoods!)

The crews didn’t even bother to sweep out the sand and dirt before applying the patch, Rollman said, and he provded it with this closeup of the rubble mixed with the new material. He said it would never bond and hold for any period of time.

He was also unhappy that the crews did nothing to smooth the street where their boring machine actually lifted the roadbed an inch or so, creating a nasty little bump for drivers. Here’s his photo of that damage.

So Rollman called the city and was told rogue crews often damage city streets. He also called Comcast and received promises but no action.

So he called Side Streets. He wondered why the city would let a private company damage its streets and do such a sloppy job repairing them.

Turned out the city doesn’t allow it. In fact, turned out Bridgepoint had not gotten a permit for the work it did in September that damaged Bonne Vista Drive in Skyway, said Steve Bodette, who oversees street inspections in the city engineering department.

Here’s a map of the area on the city’s southwest side:

 A few phone calls produced immediate action.

Comcast got busy and scheduled an asphalt crew to arrive Tuesday, Nov. 18.

And Bridgepoint went down to City Engineering to get a permit, after the fact, for the work it did in September.

Bodette gave Bridgepoint a warning for having done the work without a permit. And he said Bridgepoint’s repair would be inspected and satisfy city codes.

He also invited the public to call his office to request inspection of damage to city streets. The number is 385-5977.

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Folks on Mustang Road have nothing against the Woodmen Valley Chapel megachurch, or religion in general. But some of them aren’t thrilled at the idea of a four-story church building and six-story steeple possibly blocking their views of Pikes Peak and the Front Range. They’d prefer to have cows roaming the land where the church, as well as homes, apartments, townhomes and dozens of buildings, a sports complex and convention facility are planned.

And that is what they fear will happen if the Colorado Springs City Council approves the Chapel’s concept plan and zoning change for Shiloh Acres, a 113-acre residential, retail and commercial development, called Shiloh Mesa, on property at the northeast corner of East Woodmen and Marksheffel roads. The issue is expected to be on the council’s Nov. 25 agenda.

Here is a look at blueprints submitted to the City Planning Commission of the concept plan for Shiloh Mesa: 

You can see the entire 18-page document here.

The project is in the concept and zoning-change stage. And Larry Larsen, city planner, vows every effort will be made to protect mountain views of the neighbors as the project moves to full-fledged development plan stage.

But that doesn’t mean the city is interested in discouraging Woodmen Valley Chapel or dramatically changing its project.

Just the opposite. While Larsen is sympathetic to the neighbors’ fears of losing their rural lifestyle, he stressed that the Chapel’s 113-acre tract now is within city limits (thanks to the 2004 Woodmen Heights annexation) and therefore should be developed using urban design principles like any other city lot.

“We can’t be concerned with trying to promote a rural lifestyle within the city,” Larsen said. “That land is in the city. And the city should encourage urban densities and development so sprawl doesn’t occur into the county.”

It’s interesting the project is the involvement of Woodmen Valley Chapel, which is following a national trend among megachurches in delving into land development. LifeBridge Christian Church is doing a similar project east of Longmont. Actually, it was subject of heated public debate and voters there twice rejected annexation of the church’s 348 acres. Much larger Christian communities are being developed nationwide, including Ave Maria,  a new town being developed around a new Roman Catholic university near Naples, Fla.

Woodmen Valley Chapel has created the Center for Strategic Ministry to act as its development wing under hte direction of Les Krohnfeldt, who retired from the Army. Krohnfeldt said Shiloh Mesa will be built and operate under the Christian principles that guide Woodmen Valley Chapel. And its covenants – rules that typically govern things like paint, landscaping, remodeling and parking issues in neighborhoods – will reflect the church’s Christian beliefs.

“I do not envision any activities in this community inconsistent with the religious purposes and principles of the Woodmen Valley Chapel,” Krohnfeldt said.

Here is the key to the Shiloh Mesa blueprints:

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Folks living in Ridgeview at Stetson Hills are upset.

Some are angry that their own homeowners association is spending HOA money to hire a security service to patrol neighborhood streets at night looking for illegal parking.

Not thieves. Or vandals. Or speeders.

They are hot on the trail of those darned illegal overnight parkers. And we’re not talking folks in RVs camping out like it’s some Wal-Mart parking lot. We’re talking Ridgeview residents parking in front of their homes.

Technically, they aren’t parking illegally. Actually, most are simply parking parallel to the curb on public streets. But they are violating Ridgeview covenants mandating all cars be off the streets at night.

Turns out a lot of people in Ridgeview _ a neighborhood of 3,200 homes developed over the last 10 years _ want those overnight parkers to get tickets. Here’s a map of the neighborhood.

It’s a nightmare for the Ridgeview Homeowners Association board. They have spent two years struggling to solve the parking issue. They’ve written about it repeatedly in monthly newsletters. They’ve conducted an analysis: stetsonparkinganaylsis. Urged people to get involved.

Here are a couple newsletters:

Read more here: stetsonfall2008newsletter

Here’s an view of the problem. As you can see, there are too many houses, squeezed on tiny little lots. (It happens all over Colorado Springs. Thanks, California-inspired developers.) 

Inexplicably, some of the houses have only one-car garages. (Did they think we’d be all be riding scooters by 2008?)

Also, the driveways are very short and many are too steep to safely park a car, residents argue. See for yourself.

If you are one of those people who store things in your garage other than your car, you are in trouble.

Dare to park on the street overnight and you are likely to get one of these:

Ridgeview at Stetson Hills HOA board members say they are only doing their job and enforcing covenants everyone agreed to follow when they bought their homes.

They say the fines are not designed to generate revenue. They simply seek to encourage enforcement. Doesn’t hurt the fines cover the cost of the security patrols, though.

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