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U.S. Rep Doug Lamborn represents Colorado Springs, where most residents support his anti-government views. Indeed, Lamborn has worked for the government on their behalf for the last fifteen years. Lamborn’s Colorado Springs is presently undergoing an experiment being watched around the country. The lean city government is starved of funds and is now scaling back. Garbage cans have been removed from parks. The police force cut back on patrols and sold its helicopters. Public green spaces will receive no water this summer. And many of the streetlights have been turned off. Lamborn reports that he “penned” a letter to the Wall Street Journal, which last week reported on the city’s shrinking services and the response of the citizens, who are calling for the city to privatize the public sector.
“I don’t want anyone out there to think all is gloom and doom when budget cuts have to be made, or that this is some kind of unique experience. Families and businesses have to do it all the time,” Lamborn writes in a release. Maybe he should read the local papers instead of the Wall Street Journal. The Colorado Springs Gazette reports recent developments in the experiment.
City officials say they mistakenly left all the streetlights on around the Broadmoor resort and the affluent Old North End neighborhood despite darkening about a third in almost every other area of Colorado Springs to save money this year.
But Councilman Sean Paige said Monday that he has doubts that it was a mistake
A 62-year-old man died after being shot Sunday night in a parking lot that has been dark since the city turned off the streetlight in a controversial money saving measure, a neighboring business owner said.
Gaspar Martinez, owner of Ruskin Liquor near Airport Road and Academy Boulevard, blamed growing violence in the area — and the city turning off the streetlight in front of the business — for the man’s death during an attempted robbery.
From the Wall Street Journal Article:
“Taxi drivers have been recruited to serve as a second set of eyes for stretched police patrols. Residents can pay $100 a year to adopt a street light. Volunteers are organizing to empty the garbage cans in 128 neighborhood parks. The city is asking private swimming programs to operate its pools, and one of the city’s four community centers soon will be run by a church.”
“The hardworking families of Colorado Springs, Colo., have a can-do approach to solving their budget woes. Rather than feeling like victims, city residents are not only willing, but in many cases, eager to pitch in and volunteer to help the city.
“I don’t think the people I represent are really all that different from the rest of the country. Americans pride themselves on their willingness to roll up their sleeves and get the job done. I don’t think most Americans have been enfeebled by a victim mentality, at least not yet.
“Unfortunately, at the national level, it appears our current administration and congressional leaders believe that big government has all the answers. In fact, government is frequently the problem, not the solution.”
So in which part of town does Rep. Lamborn reside?
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