Tag: Colorado Springs

Make Colorado Springs a major tourist destination

*Note: This essay was published in the Colorado Springs Gazette print edition on July 9, 2018. It can also be found online here.

Roland, our food tour guide on a recent vacation to Montreal, had a great personality to match his great size. Reassured by the reverse of the aphorism to ‘never trust a skinny chef,’ you couldn’t help but like and put faith in Roland’s recommendations.

Roland was our key to unlock Montreal. He marched our group of 12 or so around the Old Port, where we ducked in and out of restaurants, nibbling samples of spectacular eats while Roland taught us about the 4 million inhabitants that call the island of Montreal “home.” Continue reading “Make Colorado Springs a major tourist destination”

In 2018, let’s throw out the surface labels in the Pikes Peak region

*Note: This essay was published in the Colorado Springs Gazette print edition on December 31, 2017. It can also be found online here.

I don’t always do it. But I scrolled through the comments in response to a recent opinion column of mine on the giant blue frame in the Garden of the Gods (may it rest in peace). I read them all.

This time, there were a couple that pierced my armor. One called me a “military carpetbagger,” and another said I “haven’t lived here long enough to have a stake in this issue.”

Both are worth a moment of thought. Just how long does it take a resident to gain “a stake” in local decisions? When does a “carpetbagger” become a “local?” And what is the right balance between the wishes of long-term residents and ideas of relative newcomers in a city? Continue reading “In 2018, let’s throw out the surface labels in the Pikes Peak region”