In Vail, where Colorado Springs Gazette publisher Steve Pope once published the Vail Daily, homelessness merely referred to ski bums evicted for hosting too many keggers and couch surfing until they landed another condo.
Apparently shocked to encounter actual homelessness along the banks of Fountain Creek in the Springs, Pope in a column Saturday referenced one of the most pressing problem from his Vail days: bears plundering trash cans in tony mountain-resort enclaves, occasionally resulting in euthanasia.
“Lack of municipal leadership. Cruel charity. Badly behaving bears. Needless death and destruction,” Pope wrote of homeowners either accidentally or intentionally feeding problem bears and communities failing to pass tough wildlife protection ordinances.
He then made the unfortunate comparison to the homeless human problem in Colorado Springs, blaming city leaders for a lack of intestinal fortitude in failing to crack down on creek-side camping.
“Lack of leadership. Cruel charity. People behaving badly. Needless hurt and destruction. Sound familiar?” Pope wrote of homeless humans in the Springs. “We need to fix this problem quickly for the health of our city, our citizens and the homeless population.” As if those last two things, citizenship and homelessness, are mutually exclusive.
Looks like Pope has settled in nicely in the conservative confines of C. Springs.
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