Side Streets ~ Neighborhood people and issues

Archive for September, 2011

SHOOKS RUN AHEAD OF STREETSCAPE CURVE

September 28th, 2011, 1:09 pm by

Nancy Strong didn’t know she was ahead of the curve when she led an effort to transform a deteriorating piece of abandoned Santa Fe Railway right-of-way in the Shooks Run neighborhood.

The property, at the southeast corner of El Paso Street and Willamette Avenue, was a bend in the railroad abandoned after the last train passed in 1971.

Over the years, it had grown weedy and nasty.

It bothered Nancy, especially because it was across from the Middle Shooks Run Park and adjacent to a Mountain Metro Transit bus stop.

So after the bus stop was rebuilt last fall to make it handicapped accessible, Nancy was inspired to transform the right-of-way as well.

She led and public-private effort to rehab an old bend in the railroad and make it an attractive corner that would look good for years with minimal water or weeding.

The corner of El Paso Street and Willamette Avenue has been transformed by the Middle Shooks Run Neighborhood Association from weeds and dirt into a landscape of trees and shrubs sustainable in our dry climate.

First, she enlisted her friends in the Middle Shooks Run Neighborhood Association for ideas and help.

Then she started contacted Metro Transit where she found Bill Bottini, who helped her get approval to redirect $500 the agency planned to use reseeding the area and use the cash for landscaping.

Nancy turned to area businesses for donations and got donations and discounts on boulders, dirt, landscaping materials, trees, shrubs, flowers and mulch.

Finally, it was up to neighborhood volunteers to sculpt everything into the streetscape that exists today.

Long-term, the plants will need little water. Hopefully, they will get by on natural rainfall and snowmelt.

And the mulch will suppress weed growth to keep the properpty attractive with minimal labor.

Turns out, Nancy and her neighbors doing the exact kind of public/private project envisioned by Mayor Steve Bach when he announced formation Wednesday of a Streetscapes Solution Team.

The team will be led by longtime neighborhood activist Dave Munger, president of the Council of Neighbors and Organizations, an umbrella group for the city’s neighborhood associations.

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YOU HAVE JUST ENTERED THE HOA TWILIGHT ZONE

September 25th, 2011, 11:30 am by

Dietmar and Jean Voitel

 

Dietmar Voitel is trapped in an HOA Twilight Zone and it’s making him crazy because none of his neighbors seem to care.

He lives in the tiny Canterbury neighborhood within the Ridgeview at Stetson Hills subdivision. As some yards around him go to weeds and a few houses deteriorate, his Canterbury homeowners association board is AWOL.

The board, in fact, evaporated, leaving no one to oversee covenants like parking and weeds and paint colors.

“Our HOA is coming unglued,” Dietmar told me. “We no longer have a board. And the HOA members are not interested in coming to meetings.”

A number of HOAs have gone dormant around the Springs over the years. But Canterbury is different.

Thanks to an odd decision by the last remaining board member, the board has been vacant but dues are still being collected by Colorado Association Management , a subsidiary of Associa, a national HOA management company.

CAS collects $150 a year from each of Canterbury’s 55 homeowners. CAS uses the cash to pay the association’s taxes and mails notices of meetings no one in Canterbury attends.

That’s about it.

CAS does no covenant enforcement, no inspections, no architectural control. Just collects $8,250 from homeowners, pays itself $3,000, calls it a day.

Looking south down Tomiche Drive near its intersection with Summit Peak Drive at Horace Shelby Park.

Oh, and CAS pays an HOA attorney for collection services on delinquent accounts.

“They are collecting money and doing nothing,” Dietmar said. “How can this happen?”

It happens because the last board member to serve — before he sold his house and moved away in early 2010 — signed a contract with CAS authorizing it to handle HOA finances. The fine print included a clause that automatically renews the contract each year, whether there’s an HOA board or not.

CAS branch manager Greg Smith said he sympathized with Dietmar and shared his frustration.

“Mr. Voitel wants the association revived,” Smith said. “He wants a thriving community to help improve property values. He wants us to do inspections and covenant enforcement. But we can’t. We’re not authorized to do it.”

Most surprising is that the neighbors seem fine with it. In May, Voitel and his wife, Jean, contacted every neighbor, exposing the dues payments and trying to gauge their interest in the HOA. They also invited everyone to a meeting which Smith coordinated. Only one other homeowner showed up.

Jack Scheuerman, an attorney who represents 170 HOAs, said Canterbury is unique.

“I just don’t see this,” he said. “Apathy to this point is unusual. Usually, it’s just the opposite – people get too involved in their HOA.”

Scheuerman said it would an involved and expensive process to dissolve the HOA, which is a legal corporation with specific rules and fiduciary obligations and responsibilities.

It would be best, he said, if three homeowners took control by gathering support either through attendance at a special meeting or by collecting proxies.

Dietmar would like a thriving HOA. But he’d be happy with any decision of the neighborhood.

“I want things to run properly,” Dietmar said. “But we don’t necessarily need an HOA. If they want to dissolve it, let’s do it. But let’s stop paying for something that gives us absolutely nothing in return.”

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APPARENTLY, COLORADO SPRINGS IS NO OAKLAND!

September 21st, 2011, 1:09 pm by

I was having a tough time with this one . . . New York City and even Oakland rank higher than Colorado Springs in walkability.

Oakland? Really?

A recent ranking placed Colorado Springs just 34th among large U.S. communities in walkability.

Whoa! This is where you can get on a trail in Palmer Lake and walk, run or bike 35 miles all the way to Fountain!

 How can we rank behind top-rated New York City in walkability?  New York scores an 85 and the Springs gets a measly 45?

The Springs has 102-miles of urban trails — and 100 more under development. Are they comparing the Midland Trail to some alley in Queens?

 Even worse, the  top 10 “walkable” cities includes Oakland? Ever try walking around Oakland?

OMG

Heck, we have trails that snake from downtown through our neighborhoods to our sprawling suburbs, which cover 200 square miles.

 Bingo!

 As usual, I had stumbled onto the exact point of the walkability ranking by Seattle-based Walk Score without realizing it.

 The ranking is not about places to stroll or bike along scenic streams or through pine-scented forests.

 It scores residents’ ability to do basic errands on foot or bike. The Springs fell in the “car dependent” category. New York, Oakland and the others are in “walker’s paradise.”

Oakland? Really?

I guess Oaklanders can easily walk (I’d suggest briskly walking) to the grocery store, pharmacy or, I’m just guessing here, to their self-defense classes.

The website rewards places where folks can leave their cars parked and get to work and school. Places where you can bank, find day care, get a good meal, exercise or catch a movie.

Let’s face it, it’s tough to leave your car at home here.

Walk Score’s Josh Herst encouraged cities to improve their scores.

In a news release, he said houses in walkable neighborhoods have higher value because of their proximity to amenities.

Plus, they generate less pollution and boast healthier residents, he said. Folks living in walkable neighborhoods typically weigh eight pounds less than residents of a sprawling suburb, according to his research.

I checked out Walk Score’s website, www.WalkScore.com. It’s very cool and include rankings of individual neighborhoods.

Old Colorado City came in first with a 59! Downtown scored a 58. Both are pedestrian-friendly and have lots of public gathering places. They are mixed-use and blend retail, commercial and residential as well as all income levels.

Falcon ranked last with a score of 5 while upscale Flying Horse scored a 6.

There’s other good stuff on the site. For example, it has calculators that will show you the mileage and elevation gain on any route you choose. Here’s a look at my bicycle commute from Rockrimmon to downtown.

But there’s hope for Colorado Springs and its walkability score.

 Ryan Tefertiller, a senior city planner, said recent changes to the downtown zoning encourages “walkability.” And the city would help developers apply walkable concepts in all new neighborhoods.

“I think the zones make sense in certain areas,” he said. “In theory, I could see one in Old Colorado City, or North Nevada Avenue or South Academy Boulevard. It would make sense.”

Sounds great. As long as we improve our score without turning us into another Oakland!

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81-YEAR-OLD MRS. SMITH AND HER BAD HIP CAN PARK IN THE ALLEY!

September 18th, 2011, 11:30 am by

Harold and Phyllis Smith met in Victor, where she grew up the daughter of a gold miner in Winfield Scott Stratton‘s Independence and Cresson mines.  

They married in 19445 and moved to Colorado Springs where he worked as a mortician and then laying wood floors. She worked at Penrose Hospital for years.  

In the mid-1950s, they built a house on the north edge of town on Parker Street and raised two daughters. Harold and Phyllis lived there 50-plus years until his death in 2010.  

Phyllis Smith, 81, is upset with a city plan to turn Parker Street into a dead end, leaving her and another neighbor stranded on a narrow access road, unable to even park in front of their homes.

 

Under the city plan, unveiled at a recent public meeting, Parker Street would become a cul de sac and Chestnut Street would veer west, bypassing a dangerous intersection at Fillmore Street and Interstate 25. Two houses beyond the end of Parker would access their homes by a narrow road.

 

The tidy little house is full of memories. But Phyllis is ready to sell it to the city and let it be torn down rather than suffer through what city engineers have planned for her.  

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Engineers want to re-route Chestnut Street to bypass a dangerous intersection at Fillmore Street and Interstate 25.  

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 The plan, as outlined by city engineers at a recent neighborhood meeting, calls for five houses to be bought and removed on the east side of Parker to allow Chestnut to swing west. It will cross Fillmore at a new traffic signal and jog back to the east to reconnect with its original alignment.  

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Parker, meanwhile, will become a long dead end — a cul de sac in fancy terms.  

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 That’s bad enough.  

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 Even worse is what the plan would do to Mrs. Smith and her next-door neighbors, Ruth and Joe Wagner.  

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Both houses will sit beyond the end of Parker. To reach their driveway, the Wagners will drive past Mrs. Smith’s home on a tiny access road.  

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To reach her garage on the alley behind her house, Phyllis Smith, 81, must climb 19 stairs. She said it's too hard, especially after her broken hip and multiple surgeries. She can't get her groceries in the house or easily reach her car. So she parks in front of her house.

 

Phyllis Smith loves her home, but she'd rather sell and let it be torn down than suffer through what the city has planned for her and Parker Street.

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Phyllis Smith's house on Parker Street. Next door, obscured by the spruce tree, is the home of Ruth and Joe Wagner. To get out of their gravel drive, the Wagners would have to back down the access road, past Mrs. Smith's house.

 

 

Here's a rough map of the city's plan to reroute Chestnut Stree to bypass a dangerous intersection at Fillmore Street and Interstate 25. It involves buying and demolishing at least five houses on Parker Street and more on Chestnut.

 

City Councilman Tim Leigh, who attended the meeting. He was not impressed with the engineers — “they seemed to be arrogant” — or their plan.
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“I think it’s a horrible plan,” Leigh said. “They are trying to push a plan too quickly when they have better options. It’s government gone bad. It’s out of control. I’m going to try and stop it.”
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Mike Chaves, acting city engineer, insists everyone is overreacting a tad.
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 “The meeting was to get peoples’ concerns so we can address them,” he said. “Nothing is final. We don’t have an exact plan.
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 “The drawings were rough and schematic. We’re going to make sure people have adequate access.”  

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 Adequate for an 81-year-old with a bad hip, by gosh! 

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The five houses in the box on the right would be bought by the city and demolished while the two on the left would be left beyond the end of Parker Street, accessible by a narrow road and the alley.

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IS IT TOO MUCH TROUBLE TO PARK IN THE STREET?

September 14th, 2011, 12:39 pm by

Darrell Watson finds it hard to take a simple walk to the park because so many of his neighbors park across the sidewalks, leave trash cans our or erect portable basketball goals on them. Watson uses a walker and carries oxygen, making it harder to swerve into the streets and dangerous because he can't move quickly enough to dodge oncoming traffic.

It was obvious from the first few minutes I drove around Darrell Watson‘s neighborhood in Deerfield Hills that he wasn’t exaggerating about the problem. 

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There were cars, trailers, trash cans and portable basketball goals blocking sidewalks on nearly every street. 

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This is a problem for Darrell, a 66-year-old retired soldier who suffers from emphysema and needs a walker and an oxygen tank to get around. 

Infractions are visible from space! Several examples of cars routinely parking on the sidewalks of Deerfield Hills, near Darrell Watson's home.

All the sidewalk obstacles make Darrell’s morning walks more strenuous than they should be. And it’s not safe for him to detour far into the streets since he can’t quickly move out of the way of traffic. 

A typical sight in Deerfield Hills and other Colorado Springs neighborhoods where many think it's OK to park on sidewalks.

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Portable basketball goals, overgrown bushes and trash cans are obstacles that make it difficult for Darrell Watson, with his walker, to stroll to the park.

 

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Imagine trying to negotiate this sidewalk in a walker. Squeeze between the overgrown bushes and the mailbox, the duck down into the street to get around the basketball goal.

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In this case, the basketball goal was in the street. But the trailer made walking a challenge.

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LYDIA’S HOUSE IS HAUNTED AND SHE’S OK WITH IT

September 11th, 2011, 12:08 pm by

YouTube Preview Image 

The first thing you see as you approach Lydia Klingensmith‘s little Craftsman bungalow at East Fontanero and North Weber streets is the large wheels lining the fence. 

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Then, as you look closer, you see hundreds of concrete cylinders — core samples from construction projects — throughout the yard. 

 Lydia buried 900 to create her driveway and carve pathways in her backyard. Hundreds more create flower beds. 

Lydia Klingensmith is an artist, a vintage clothes dealer and believer her house is haunted by its previous owner, Emma Walker.

Emma Walker in a photo from her 1970 driver's license. She was 78 at the time.

Look closer, and you start noticing all the art work — sculpture created from old farm machinery. 

But there’s more to Lydia’s story than just her fascinating landscaping. 

What you don’t see — Lydia’s ghost — is really intriguing. 

Lydia says her house, which she bought in 1985, is haunted by the spirit of Emma Walker, the 93-year-old woman who owned it before her. 

Could the little house on Fontanero and Weber streets be haunted? It seems to be and Lydia is OK with that.In fact, Lydia is convinced  Emma Walker has been hanging around since her death in 1985, perhaps unable to rest in peace after a life filled with tragedies — her only child died young, she was three times a widow and she was raped by an intruder at age 90.

“She’s my ghost,” Lydia declared. “She hung around, definitely. The house was haunted for a while.”

How else to explain the mysterious things that went on, like an electric outlet that always had power?

“The rest of my house and the entire neighborhood would be dark, but I’d have lights in my basement,” Lydia said.

That’s not all.

“The washer would run by itself,” she said.

Then came the bombshell.

“Emma started coming to me in my dreams,” Lydia said, describing how Emma gave her details of her life.

Lydia said she confirmed it by researching Emma’s life, from her childhood in the gold fields of Cripple Creek, her marriages, her daughter’s death and her life in Colorado Springs where she showered her love on neighborhood children and was robbed and raped.

She is not troubled by Emma’s ethereal presence. She feels such a deep connection to the old woman.

“This was the house I wanted when I was a little girl,” she said, describing how she used to walk by and admire the place.

When Emma died, Lydia bought it, though it was overgrown and run down.

Strange things occurred from the start, Lydia said.

She thought it was odd when keys from her childhood collection opened locks in Emma’s house.

She learned Emma shared her love of parrots and had other things in common.

One of the sculptures Lydia created from old farm machinery.

The spooky stuff started as Lydia began transforming the house and yard.

The landscaping certainly is different. In 1999, Lydia was robbed by an intruder who stole her car, wrecked it, her garage and fence.

When she started to repair the yard, she recalled seeing concrete cylinders — core samples from construction projects — used in Arizona for retaining walls.

She started collecting them and used them, by the hundreds, to fashion a driveway and to sculpt walking paths in her yard.

Then came the wheels and old farm machinery as art.

Lydia designed this gate and then knew she wanted more sunburst designs and wheels for her yard.

Lydia gave the interior of the house a makeover, too.

“I think Emma left once I’d painted everything,” she said, noting Emma’s never far away.

“I carry her driver’s license,” Lydia said. “She protects me.”

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Old gears and rusted iron create a sculpture that greets visitors to Lydia's front yard.

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An old rake becomes art in Lydia's yard.

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QUEEN OF KIOWA STREET WON’T LET SURGERY STOP PARTY

September 7th, 2011, 1:36 pm by

Theresa Ferguson, 85, wanted to host her 25th annual West Kiowa Street block party before having hip replacement surgery next week.

This photo from Theresa Ferguson's scrapbook, was mistakenly labeled "July '88" instead of 1987 when the party actually took place.

Theresa Ferguson was worried about her upcoming hip replacement surgery.
 So what did she do?

The 85-year-old retired nurse got on the phone and started inviting people to her annual neighborhood block party scheduled Saturday evening. She can barely walk but she won’t cancel her party.

This party is special. It’s the 25th year in a row she’s invited everyone over to her cozy little cottage for food, friendship and fun.

“I bought this house in 1987 and the first thing I did was have a block party,” Theresa said, flipping through albums to find a photo of her first party.

“I knocked on peoples’ doors,” she said. “I told them: ‘Hi, my name is Theresa Ferguson. I’m your new neighbor. I’m going to have a block party and I want you to come.’ And that’s how I met everyone.”

Her first party attracted six or seven neighbors. This year’s party is expected to draw 60 or 70 people, neighbors present and past, to celebrate with Theresa.

“I’ve been her neighbor 10 years now,” said Laura BenAmots. “I’ve gone to her party every year but one. Everybody comes. It’s quite wonderful. Generations of residents return. I’ve met two former owners of my home at her parties. We’re like a big family.”

Laura said she and the others look up to Theresa and all she’s accomplished in her life . . . graduating from nursing school in 1947, working full time and raising four children as a single mother and homeowner.

“We call her Grandma Theresa,” Laura said. “We think of her as the mayor of the Westside. Her home is the hub of activity in the neighborhood. We come over and have coffee with her in the morning. She keeps us all in line.”

Laura said people gravitate to Theresa for very personal reasons.

“She’s a role model for me,” she said. “She is so full of wisdom and joy and life.”

Theresa Ferguson points to the backyard where she expects 70 guests on Saturday at her 25th annual West Kiowa Street block party.

Theresa credits her extended family for lifting her during the weeks leading up to her surgery on Monday.

“I’d have died without my neighbors,” she said, struggling to stand and walk on her injured hip. “They’ve done so much for me. Even getting ready for my party. One neighbor pulled weeds. Another mowed my grass. One is bringing over a big banquet table to hold all the food. They’re just great.”

Theresa Ferguson, 85, won’t let pending hip replacement surgery stop her from hosting her 25th annual West Kiowa Street neighborhood block party on Saturday.

Theresa Ferguson is seen in 1947 in her graduation photo from nursing school in Wichita, Kan.

After briefly considering cancelling the party, Theresa now is looking forward to it.

“The air at the party always sounds like ‘happy voices’ to me,” Theresa said. “Everybody is just happy to see everybody else.”

Many of the children at the first party are now adults with their own kids who return each year.

Laura described it best:

“It’s a special time when people come together and celebrate community, their memories and celebrate Theresa as somebody who is very important to all of us.”

The neighbors are very important to Theresa, too.

“I like everybody,” she said. “I’m grateful for them. This party will be special.”

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Neighbors have weeded and mowed the yard for Theresa Ferguson in preparation for her 25th annual West Kiowa Street block party.

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