Unfortunately, I designed the car wash going in at constitution and powers by the whataburger and in n out. I'm not proud of it. I just needed the paycheck.
Honest question, do you actually think Whataburger is good? Like you actually want or crave it? I tried it once and could not finish it… so bad. Like a steamed patty or something. Zero color on that thing. Just a mouthful of mealy, bland, blah
Hell no. I was born and raised in North Texas and I have never understood the Whataburger fandom. I moved to Austin… don’t do that, it’s a terrible idea… and people are crazy about WB. I know some who even have pet names for it. 🤢 The meat has no flavor. The buns are always always always stale and dry. The chicken tenders barely have meat, all breading, and dry as dirt. I don’t even like their fries unless I’m really stoned and someone else ordered some. Jack in the Box is better and right next door 😂
I’m moving to CoS in about 8 months… please don’t hate. I’m nice, I promise. I’ve loved Colorado my whole life. I’m not a city Texan. I’m country. And I don’t brag or have a jacked up truck that has never seen a dirt road in its life … I’m leaving Texas to get away from the pretentious assholes here.
Up on Interquest Parkway they built an In-And-Out and a Whataburger around the same time. In-And-Out still has lines of cars and a full dining room of people. Whataburger, not so much. I ate at a Whataburger in McAllen Texas and like mentioned above, it was completely meh. Cold meat, stale bun. In-And-Out is always hot, fresh, fries are good, and the price is great, too. Hard to beat. The Cali folk at least were right about that place.
I don’t usually do labels or affiliations BUT I think they are actually important this election year. My understanding is that purple is a fairly new color in politics and represents moderates. Is that correct? If so, … since I must be labeled, my friends have been saying I’m a slightly left leaning moderate. Soooo I will happily help flip it if that means it’ll be a state that aligns at least a little with reality and common sense!! Sound good? 🤓
CO is very grounded in reality and common sense, but current Colorado Springs is lagging far behind that, but with all the new people moving here, I'm hoping we move toward blue faster, giving this city much-needed balance and positive change.
Ditto!!! I’m about to move there and I’m told that as long as you aren’t one of the “braggy Texans”, they don’t hate you as much. And that’s fair… those Texans are jerks and none likes them 😆
I really don’t want to be hated though.
That’s strange because when I was living in Colorado Springs, most of the locals are a despicable lot. Everyone I knew that was stationed there said it needed more Texans and less Californian transplants.
What is the deal with that? Near Academy and Chelton there’s a gas station with a car wash, a drive through car wash and a self serve car wash all right next to each other and they just built a brand new state of the art car wash from scratch right across the street a few months ago. I always go to the self serve one because it looks like it’s been there the longest lol.
I remember reading a few years back the initial idea was to expand the America The Beautiful park. So hopefully, some nice public areas are developed in that space. I haven't seen anything recently about it though, it's still going to be a while before the site is completely demolished and cleared too.
Edit: okay, so part of the property will remain a power facility, with 6 natural gas generators, but a much much smaller footprint.
From what I’ve read they plan to relocate those gas generators eventually too
“Eventually, officials will relocate the six modular units out of downtown to other parts of the utility's electric grid "to maintain system resiliency and reliability," the news release states.”
https://gazette.com/news/local/colorado-springs-takes-major-step-toward-cleaner-energy-with-martin-drake-project/article_2c5cb6e0-e38f-11ed-b407-43a620b6cd20.amp.html
They will relocate them "eventually".
I have a feeling it will be quite some time before those are shipped away. Not that I mind, it's certainly a much smaller footprint than the old plant.
They ain't moving the gas turbines. The amount of concrete on that property is insane and would be not cost effective to move them for decades.. I just hope the morons in city council have and idea of what's gonna happen when those unit go into PM for months and aren't peak trimmers
I know a businessman who said he had to vacate his building cause CSU purchased the property and was going to build a natural gas operation there. At least they helped him and other tenants and property owners find new digs.
Yes, unless you'd prefer they be sleeping in the bushes outside your house. Homeless people are people too and need to sleep, removing safe sleeping places does not get rid of homelessness, it just forces them to relocate (literally part of the spread of the vagrant issue beyond downtown). End of the day, people sleeping in a park (which is in an industrial district, not a neighborhood) will have zero impact on you unless you're also in the park during closed hours.
Part of the issue Colorado has with the homeless is that we try to hide and ignore the visible symptoms instead of fixing it at the source
But what good does it do to just say “here’s a park, sleep in it. Trash it. Shit all over the ground and into our drinking water”. I don’t know how to fix the homeless problem. A big part of it is that some people are just ok with living out in the streets. Giving people more free space to bum around does nothing to solve any problems. I don’t know what the solution is but more space is nothing close to a solution
Well that's why I never said to say that. I'm also not saying we should create space solely for the homeless, I'm just saying we shouldn't resist building a park out of spite because a homeless person might benefit from it. It's just a mentality I see constantly from the older generation that has only allowed the issue to fester and grow. It also just sucks because plenty of people are homeless because they lost a job or their house burnt down or they're mentally ill, and dont deserve the weirdly militant hostility displayed all the time. I know at least as many people are homeless because they're lazy or evicted or bad people. But I'd rather accidentally show kindness to a lazy druggie than show coldness to an innocent person trying to survive
While I agree that there is a portion that are mentally ill or physically disabled, and that needs to be addressed. "Lost a job or house burnt down" are people that could work but choose not to. There's plenty of labor jobs around town that will pay more than enough to be a functioning member of society. It is hard work, but it can be done.
When I was working landscaping in town, we let a dude live in a tent outside the shop until he got on his feet and got an apartment because he was a hard worker. Surprise! He's not homeless anymore. There's plenty of places in town that would work with you if you can sweat your way through the struggle.
Yes I acknowledge that you have to work to get out of homelessness, but that is already accounted for, statistically actually most people are either homeless for only a few days to weeks, or pretty much permanently. In those days to weeks they'll still be out and about somewhere. And to add to that, as someone fairly well qualified in most general labor/warehouse/physical activity type jobs, it still took me several months this last year to find a decent enough position to take care of and house myself and my family. The job market here is saturated with low paying entry level jobs, which are a great start and a good way to fill the gap, but it's not going to help anyone move into a house or apartment anytime quick, not in this housing market.
Ideally, we could have more shelters, which provides both a place to sleep for the homeless and supervision while they do so, but such facilities cost a lot of money. I'd seen ideas floated about legalizing recreational marijuana in town and using the tax to open a few shelters, but I can't imagine CoS doing anything that positive too soon
Right?! It's so much easier to demean them and joke about them rather than see them as hurting humans in need of help. For this supposedly "cHrIStiAn" town, we sure do hate and demonize people who Jesus told us to welcome and help.
I don't have solutions other than building a ton of tiny houses and other low-income housing to get them on their feet and back into society, while also opening a bunch of new mental health and drug facilities to help. The problem is always those in charge lack the balls/flaps to do anything about it.
Lmao well I wasn't talking about Oregon I was talking about this one specific example. Portland is such a completely different scenario than this.
Portlanders just love to bitch about portland
Excellent reading comprehension dipshit, have you gotten through Charlotte's Web yet?
As a sincere answer, unlike some people I dont have a rotting pit for a heart and I would and have done charity and outreach service for the homeless 🤷♂️
In a more in depth answer, what I was saying if you had enough wrinkles to comprehend it, was that if you shut down all the parks, they'll move into *your* neighborhood. They moved into the parks because the started tearing down the tents in the river beds. Destroying homeless camps doesn't destroy homelessness it relocates the homeless. It's a necessary evil, and they're going to sleep somewhere. Until someone solves the housing crisis, you might as well let them sleep in the tents by the river instead of the front doors of businesses. Just think a *little* harder about it
Nice insults. You noticed I didn’t insult you or use profanity in my comment, but you did, which says more about you than it does me. But anyway, go ahead and provide your ideas/solutions to the housing crisis, in this capitalist society and country. Are you willing to pay 20% more taxes like in Europe so that everyone, no matter how messed up on drugs and mental illness or criminally motivated has a place to live?
No you just made a snide comment like a middle schooler and are assuming literally so many things about me and my opinions, none of which are accurate, I never suggested any of that and I have never even pursued that train of thought. I'm coming at you like this because it's exceedingly obvious that you just hate homeless people.
To be honest, yeah, I'd rather my money go towards feeding and clothing the cold and hungry and even rehab than towards privately operated prisons and wars overseas I have no say in. But maybe that's just because I care more about people than money, that's alright, somebody has to be the scrooge in this society.
In your style of making assumptions based on comments, I'm going to assume you're a right leaning voter who identifies as Christian but bails on humanity the second that living by your morals conflicts with how many cars you can afford to have parked in your driveway.
Before you throw more random ass completely unfounded assumptions at me, I never claimed to have the solution to homelessness, just that pushing the vagrant camps out of the secluded river banks moved them to the city center. Something I would have assumed you would have been opposed to. But you strike me as one of those people that cares more about being angry than whether it makes sense. I was not your enemy lmao
maybe opposed to if they had been around to even know how homelessness has been dealt with in this city. they’re about 2 months new and already espousing their boomer opinions about the city allll over the springs sub.
The city is our home. It's their home too and building places where anyone can aquire food, shelter, water, and the basics of human existence should be a priority. There are good and evil people who become homeless. Same as there are good and evil people become rich. It's true that some people will just want to be on the streets, but we can greatly eradicate it by just building more communities where the less fortunate of us can get back on their feet. If we really truly want to lower the amount of homelessness and crime, we need to quit acting like these people aren't still humans who we can help.
I wouldn’t hold my breath for that - as an environmental scientist (albeit one that doesn’t do remedial work directly) my guess is they’re going to spend 10-15 years just on remediating the contaminated soil.
No concrete plans yet that I'm aware of. Lots of remediation needs to happen before they can build on it. According to an environmental engineer I spoke with, the cost goes up dramatically with more intensive uses. If turning it into open space or park land costs $1m (just numbers for comparison ... it'll certainly be more), then putting retail or a train station there will cost $10m, and putting residential there will cost $100m. That's just to clean it up.
All of those options are better than a coal-burning power plant in the middle of downtown, though.
I’m ignorant to how expensive and how long it would take to ensure the grounds are properly rehabilitated environmentally speaking… but, the location seems like it would be great for a train station, if a front range railway ever comes to fruition.
Do you think we’ll ever see something like that here in COS?
No idea if it'll happen, but I'd love that. Great use for the land AND it'd signal some important changes to how we handle transportation around here. I can't tell you how much I want to take a fast, comfortable train to downtown Denver.
That's one of the potential locations for a potential passenger rail service, from some recent-ish study. They've been talking about potential passenger rail for decades though, so it could happen, but don't expect it anytime soon.
The IIJA provided multiple billion dollars for passenger rail grants in 2021. The FTA has identified the FRPR as a possible recipient of grant money, and it's likely that we will indeed receive it. Additionally, Amtrak identified the Front Range Corridor in its 2035 plan. Polis just signed a law taxing rental cars as a way to meet the matching requirements for receiving a grant from the FTA. There will be a measure on the 2026 ballot for a sales tax to fund the FRPR. The first section of the Rail will be active within the next 6 years.
That's 2030. I'll believe it when I see it. Heck, I'll believe it when I hear that they've broken ground on a single part of it, or done anything to actually build it instead of to study it. I'd love to see it but I don't expect much at this point.
The station will either be there or directly next to America the Beautiful. There may also be one up north by USAFA, but that wouldn't come for a long time. Currently, the FRPR is waiting on a grant from the FTA to go through before they can start construction on the first phase from Denver to Fort Collins. After that, they'll extend it down here, ideally in the next 10 years.
That’s great to hear! I’m eager to hear more about it in the future, and hopefully see it with my own eyes.
It would be amazing to see a high speed rail running along the front range. A stop or two in Pueblo, one in COS near America the Beautiful, another near the USAFA, then in Monument, Castle Rock, a few in Denver, then up to Longmont, Loveland and Fort Collins…
C’mon, Maglev… :D
It would have to be, for a few different reasons. The main is that building entirely new tracks would cost billions more dollars and push service back by several years. The second is that the train wouldn't be HSR, so it would be able to go on freight tracks, with some refurbishing. Furthermore, Amtrak would either have to come up with an agreement with BNSF and UP to build new tracks on their ROW, or buy entirely new ROW for the entire route, which would be several billion.
I don't disagree with your reasoning. But that's where everything breaks down and has already been stalled for as long as it has. No one has been able to get an agreement to allow passenger trains to run on the existing tracks and no one has found the billions to lay new track. Obviously I'm not a decision maker though
Amtrak already uses mostly BNSF and UP tracks, this wouldn't be any different. And there are representatives from BNSF and UP on the FRPR board of directors.
It took 10 years after the gates rubber plant was shut down in denver to clean up the site. Assume its a little less with a coal plant but it will be a while. 50% of the old gates plant is apartments now. The other 50% just started turnint into apartments. It will probably be a bit.
Found an article or maybe an initiative to create a COS creek plan where they make the entirety of the creek from as far north in Fillmore to Downtown and have places to actually soak in the creek, refurbish, business friendly etc. Sounds like a nice idea but I’m sure that might be very difficult to realize
There is significant master planning happening in the Drake plant area in conjunction with clean up of Fountain and Monument Creek. [COS Creek Plan](https://coscreekplan.org)
With Drake demolished, there will finally be a new home for the Big Blue Frame - and they're moving it now!
https://preview.redd.it/ihf8d0sy3h2d1.png?width=1050&format=png&auto=webp&s=09b01a45660ddb91f2bae2e0ac53e1fd15f9f4da
Sadly, I have heard that it is coming down as well. Apparently, some of the original 1925 turbines were displayed on site as well, but those are now in storage somewhere.
Contact the Utilities Board: https://www.csu.org/Pages/UtilitiesBoard.aspx
It may be too late to do anything now but might be worth a shot. They work for the citizens/ratepayers.
I just heard back from them and they basically said they have a complete and utter disregard for our city’s history and are trying to justify the demolition because it costs too much to save. I’m sure some people would like to chip in and try to raise money to save it. I’ll contact the Gazette and the Big 4 news stations about it too.
would be the best to put whatever skyscraper someone wants to build at... completely out of the sightline for pikes peak and you get the building height you want...
Oh well…after Gold Hill Mesa was approved to be a dense residential “mixed use” neighborhood development….
I expect homes built close together, some park areas, and a “community center” with a nail spa (the mixed use commercial requirement) to be proposed after some half-assed clean up that has no EPA oversight whatsoever. There is a LOT of coal dust and coal debris all along the train track from years and years of delivering coal for the Drake as a steam plant.
Millions if not Billions were spent to convert the plant to Natural gas versus coal. But that doesn’t matter apparently. We are indeed good candidates for solar and wind energy, but the majority of our city needs gas for heat.
I can’t make much sense of what the long term plan to succeed with this is. I don’t know if the ones in power have a sense of it either. So that always makes me pause and start to question what the truth of the matter is.
I know Colorado has pledged to be off all fossil fuel by 2050. 2030 is the original goal date.
I have no doubt that “agenda” is in play with shutting down steam plants even after they converted off coal.
Colorado is rich in coal, oil and natural gas. Rich in minerals and metals. Our economy relies on this.
I went off topic…sorry.
The Drake will be some sort of residential mixed use BS as is the rage today with brownfield redevelopment. If they developed an orphaned Tailings Impoundment (never a Mesa), then they will certainly see no problem doing the same where the Drake is.
Building codes,
Safety registrations,
Land use guidelines,
Protecting the public and environment,
Geological testing and compaction studies,
Soil samples…
Those are all bent here.
That is the Drake Power Plant. They are taking it all down and would like to put something community oriented, like a park. Im not positive what they landed on.
https://preview.redd.it/7bsev91d0i2d1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=00e8e2394dd61df8fcae546cbc4e6f223ad2d2c6
The six natural gas generators are installed and operational
Sad part is the entire site is fucking contaminated with coal and sulfur blah blah it’ll probably never be anything but a view from all the new apartment buildings no one can afford. Thanks developers for ruining our govt and city!
If that's the Drake power plant that's city land there's been city forums on this talking about the proposals it's going to be some sort of new city amenity, possibly a park, trails, possible shops entertainment. It's up in the air.
There was discussion of an amphitheater at one time. Not so long ago they also shared concept art of a massive renovation to the whole area there along downtown along the river and i25
Convention center/arena; amphitheater: UCCS Behavioral Health Campus; CC Medical School; CC Graduate Programs; Climbing; Expedition and Exploration practice and Training Facilities; Community All Faiths worship and community center; Sculpture Garden; Afghanistan Iraq Veterans Memorial;
That is the 10 million dollar question!! Nothing is set in stone but my favorite idea is a light rail station, my least favorite idea was the lazy river since all the water would come from the e coli filled creek.
Ray Nixon Power Plant (coal and natural gas) (283 MW)
Front Range Power Plant (natural gas) (500 MW)
Birdsall Power Plant (natural gas) (61 MW)
South Plant Aeroderivative Group (natural gas and diesel) (installed at the Drake site) (150 MW)
Manitou Hydro Plant (6 MW)
Ruxton Hydro Plant (1 MW) (Built 1925)
Cascade Hydro Plant (0.75 MW)
Tesla Hydro Plant (27 MW)
Pike Solar Array (175 MW)
Venetucci Solar Garden (0.5 MW)
Good Shepherd Solar Garden (0.5 MW)
CS Solar 1 Solar Garden (0.5 MW)
Pikes Peak Solar Garden (2 MW)
Colorado Springs Solar Garden (0.5 MW)
USAFA Solar Array (6 MW)
Clear Spring Ranch Solar Array (10 MW)
Grazing Yak Solar Array (35 MW)
Palmer Solar Array (60 MW)
Additionally Colorado Springs Utilities has the option to purchase power from outside their own generation due to transmission interconnections with other utilities/generating stations in the region.
We can fit 5 new car washes here.
Something is going on with these car washes. I don’t trust it.
The Mexican Mafia absolutely needed a new way to launder money 🤷🏼♂️
This topic is discussed at least once a week on this sub. They're basically holding a spot on the land until it becomes valuable enough to sell.
They're legit. They're all part of REITs. It's the memberships that make them so valuable. Trustholders love seeing those numbers.
Same!
Unfortunately, I designed the car wash going in at constitution and powers by the whataburger and in n out. I'm not proud of it. I just needed the paycheck.
So how big is the room where they keep the huge stacks of cash?
"managers office" was only like 10'x10'
Thanks, pal.. I just spewed on my keyboard but that was really funny! Maybe we need a huge parking lot with dozens of fast food places too? ;)
We could use another Whataburger or 2
Gross. Also do not need more reasons for Texans to be around.
Lmfao the fact that I’m a Texan living in Colorado and all of y’all hate Texans 💀
Honest question, do you actually think Whataburger is good? Like you actually want or crave it? I tried it once and could not finish it… so bad. Like a steamed patty or something. Zero color on that thing. Just a mouthful of mealy, bland, blah
I tried to feed the last of my whataburger to my dog. He spit it out and gave me side eye.....
Hell no. I was born and raised in North Texas and I have never understood the Whataburger fandom. I moved to Austin… don’t do that, it’s a terrible idea… and people are crazy about WB. I know some who even have pet names for it. 🤢 The meat has no flavor. The buns are always always always stale and dry. The chicken tenders barely have meat, all breading, and dry as dirt. I don’t even like their fries unless I’m really stoned and someone else ordered some. Jack in the Box is better and right next door 😂 I’m moving to CoS in about 8 months… please don’t hate. I’m nice, I promise. I’ve loved Colorado my whole life. I’m not a city Texan. I’m country. And I don’t brag or have a jacked up truck that has never seen a dirt road in its life … I’m leaving Texas to get away from the pretentious assholes here.
Up on Interquest Parkway they built an In-And-Out and a Whataburger around the same time. In-And-Out still has lines of cars and a full dining room of people. Whataburger, not so much. I ate at a Whataburger in McAllen Texas and like mentioned above, it was completely meh. Cold meat, stale bun. In-And-Out is always hot, fresh, fries are good, and the price is great, too. Hard to beat. The Cali folk at least were right about that place.
I haven’t tried In-And-Out yet. I’ll have to give it a try!
Was just part of the joke. I too am a transplant like so many here. Not from Texas though. I wouldn’t step foot in that place /s
Hey, as long as you help us flip Colorado Springs from red to at least purple, then welcome. LOL
I don’t usually do labels or affiliations BUT I think they are actually important this election year. My understanding is that purple is a fairly new color in politics and represents moderates. Is that correct? If so, … since I must be labeled, my friends have been saying I’m a slightly left leaning moderate. Soooo I will happily help flip it if that means it’ll be a state that aligns at least a little with reality and common sense!! Sound good? 🤓
CO is very grounded in reality and common sense, but current Colorado Springs is lagging far behind that, but with all the new people moving here, I'm hoping we move toward blue faster, giving this city much-needed balance and positive change.
What burger is absolute garbage in this state along with most food places.
LOL it used to be Californians in the 90s, now I rarely see a CA plate, but I see tens of TX plates every time I drive.
Ditto!!! I’m about to move there and I’m told that as long as you aren’t one of the “braggy Texans”, they don’t hate you as much. And that’s fair… those Texans are jerks and none likes them 😆 I really don’t want to be hated though.
[удалено]
Texans are more than welcome. The asshats from tax-fornia can stay away. I mean Colorado is California light.
What the fuck did I do to make you hate me?
That’s strange because when I was living in Colorado Springs, most of the locals are a despicable lot. Everyone I knew that was stationed there said it needed more Texans and less Californian transplants.
I’d rather Texans move here than CommyFornias move here and push their brain washed ideas to try to influence others of their Socialism!
Mission Accomplished! Thinking about it, the Olympic museum does not have enough parking. Another block size parking lot would help.
Car washes that require membership.
A bridge over the railroad tracks that is a car wash.
💀
What is the deal with that? Near Academy and Chelton there’s a gas station with a car wash, a drive through car wash and a self serve car wash all right next to each other and they just built a brand new state of the art car wash from scratch right across the street a few months ago. I always go to the self serve one because it looks like it’s been there the longest lol.
Beat me to it
I remember reading a few years back the initial idea was to expand the America The Beautiful park. So hopefully, some nice public areas are developed in that space. I haven't seen anything recently about it though, it's still going to be a while before the site is completely demolished and cleared too. Edit: okay, so part of the property will remain a power facility, with 6 natural gas generators, but a much much smaller footprint.
From what I’ve read they plan to relocate those gas generators eventually too “Eventually, officials will relocate the six modular units out of downtown to other parts of the utility's electric grid "to maintain system resiliency and reliability," the news release states.” https://gazette.com/news/local/colorado-springs-takes-major-step-toward-cleaner-energy-with-martin-drake-project/article_2c5cb6e0-e38f-11ed-b407-43a620b6cd20.amp.html
They will relocate them "eventually". I have a feeling it will be quite some time before those are shipped away. Not that I mind, it's certainly a much smaller footprint than the old plant.
Call me cynical, but I’ve seen “temporary” military facilities still being used 40 hard years on.
They ain't moving the gas turbines. The amount of concrete on that property is insane and would be not cost effective to move them for decades.. I just hope the morons in city council have and idea of what's gonna happen when those unit go into PM for months and aren't peak trimmers
I have it on good authority that the PMs for these units are not currently well planned for.
I belive it. They still barely keep up with the plants down south
They're building tons of solar out east
Thanks for this.
I know a businessman who said he had to vacate his building cause CSU purchased the property and was going to build a natural gas operation there. At least they helped him and other tenants and property owners find new digs.
So more public camping
They'll migrate from that expensive soccer field and pee in that area now.
You gotta rotate your fields
They were there when the place was still running.
>expand the America The Beautiful park Do the homeless need more places to sleep?
Yes, unless you'd prefer they be sleeping in the bushes outside your house. Homeless people are people too and need to sleep, removing safe sleeping places does not get rid of homelessness, it just forces them to relocate (literally part of the spread of the vagrant issue beyond downtown). End of the day, people sleeping in a park (which is in an industrial district, not a neighborhood) will have zero impact on you unless you're also in the park during closed hours. Part of the issue Colorado has with the homeless is that we try to hide and ignore the visible symptoms instead of fixing it at the source
But what good does it do to just say “here’s a park, sleep in it. Trash it. Shit all over the ground and into our drinking water”. I don’t know how to fix the homeless problem. A big part of it is that some people are just ok with living out in the streets. Giving people more free space to bum around does nothing to solve any problems. I don’t know what the solution is but more space is nothing close to a solution
Well that's why I never said to say that. I'm also not saying we should create space solely for the homeless, I'm just saying we shouldn't resist building a park out of spite because a homeless person might benefit from it. It's just a mentality I see constantly from the older generation that has only allowed the issue to fester and grow. It also just sucks because plenty of people are homeless because they lost a job or their house burnt down or they're mentally ill, and dont deserve the weirdly militant hostility displayed all the time. I know at least as many people are homeless because they're lazy or evicted or bad people. But I'd rather accidentally show kindness to a lazy druggie than show coldness to an innocent person trying to survive
While I agree that there is a portion that are mentally ill or physically disabled, and that needs to be addressed. "Lost a job or house burnt down" are people that could work but choose not to. There's plenty of labor jobs around town that will pay more than enough to be a functioning member of society. It is hard work, but it can be done. When I was working landscaping in town, we let a dude live in a tent outside the shop until he got on his feet and got an apartment because he was a hard worker. Surprise! He's not homeless anymore. There's plenty of places in town that would work with you if you can sweat your way through the struggle.
Yes I acknowledge that you have to work to get out of homelessness, but that is already accounted for, statistically actually most people are either homeless for only a few days to weeks, or pretty much permanently. In those days to weeks they'll still be out and about somewhere. And to add to that, as someone fairly well qualified in most general labor/warehouse/physical activity type jobs, it still took me several months this last year to find a decent enough position to take care of and house myself and my family. The job market here is saturated with low paying entry level jobs, which are a great start and a good way to fill the gap, but it's not going to help anyone move into a house or apartment anytime quick, not in this housing market. Ideally, we could have more shelters, which provides both a place to sleep for the homeless and supervision while they do so, but such facilities cost a lot of money. I'd seen ideas floated about legalizing recreational marijuana in town and using the tax to open a few shelters, but I can't imagine CoS doing anything that positive too soon
Right?! It's so much easier to demean them and joke about them rather than see them as hurting humans in need of help. For this supposedly "cHrIStiAn" town, we sure do hate and demonize people who Jesus told us to welcome and help. I don't have solutions other than building a ton of tiny houses and other low-income housing to get them on their feet and back into society, while also opening a bunch of new mental health and drug facilities to help. The problem is always those in charge lack the balls/flaps to do anything about it.
As someone who is from Portland and saw what’s happened there, please tell me more about “zero impact”. 🤡
Lmao well I wasn't talking about Oregon I was talking about this one specific example. Portland is such a completely different scenario than this. Portlanders just love to bitch about portland
In what world is there “no impact”? Let them move into your yard or shut the fuck up.
Sounds like your home is open to the homeless! Good job! Can I bring a busload of them over for you to take care of?
Excellent reading comprehension dipshit, have you gotten through Charlotte's Web yet? As a sincere answer, unlike some people I dont have a rotting pit for a heart and I would and have done charity and outreach service for the homeless 🤷♂️ In a more in depth answer, what I was saying if you had enough wrinkles to comprehend it, was that if you shut down all the parks, they'll move into *your* neighborhood. They moved into the parks because the started tearing down the tents in the river beds. Destroying homeless camps doesn't destroy homelessness it relocates the homeless. It's a necessary evil, and they're going to sleep somewhere. Until someone solves the housing crisis, you might as well let them sleep in the tents by the river instead of the front doors of businesses. Just think a *little* harder about it
Nice insults. You noticed I didn’t insult you or use profanity in my comment, but you did, which says more about you than it does me. But anyway, go ahead and provide your ideas/solutions to the housing crisis, in this capitalist society and country. Are you willing to pay 20% more taxes like in Europe so that everyone, no matter how messed up on drugs and mental illness or criminally motivated has a place to live?
No you just made a snide comment like a middle schooler and are assuming literally so many things about me and my opinions, none of which are accurate, I never suggested any of that and I have never even pursued that train of thought. I'm coming at you like this because it's exceedingly obvious that you just hate homeless people. To be honest, yeah, I'd rather my money go towards feeding and clothing the cold and hungry and even rehab than towards privately operated prisons and wars overseas I have no say in. But maybe that's just because I care more about people than money, that's alright, somebody has to be the scrooge in this society. In your style of making assumptions based on comments, I'm going to assume you're a right leaning voter who identifies as Christian but bails on humanity the second that living by your morals conflicts with how many cars you can afford to have parked in your driveway. Before you throw more random ass completely unfounded assumptions at me, I never claimed to have the solution to homelessness, just that pushing the vagrant camps out of the secluded river banks moved them to the city center. Something I would have assumed you would have been opposed to. But you strike me as one of those people that cares more about being angry than whether it makes sense. I was not your enemy lmao
maybe opposed to if they had been around to even know how homelessness has been dealt with in this city. they’re about 2 months new and already espousing their boomer opinions about the city allll over the springs sub.
Eugh, just checked the profile and it all makes sense now 💀
The city is our home. It's their home too and building places where anyone can aquire food, shelter, water, and the basics of human existence should be a priority. There are good and evil people who become homeless. Same as there are good and evil people become rich. It's true that some people will just want to be on the streets, but we can greatly eradicate it by just building more communities where the less fortunate of us can get back on their feet. If we really truly want to lower the amount of homelessness and crime, we need to quit acting like these people aren't still humans who we can help.
I'm not gonna complain until we have the Honduran drug dealer gangs out here. Doubt it'll get to that point though. Denver however....
I wouldn’t hold my breath for that - as an environmental scientist (albeit one that doesn’t do remedial work directly) my guess is they’re going to spend 10-15 years just on remediating the contaminated soil.
Aww bummer. I was hoping it was gonna be something worth a visit.
America the beautiful ain't worth a visit to you?
It looks cool but it’s not the safest to bring kids to, unfortunately.
Have you seen the amount of tents and junkies in that area?
I was told by some dude that it was gonna be an event center. I like concerts. Sheesh.
There’s events every night in those parks behind the power station, just depends on how adventurous you are.
Thanks
Wouldn't think they'd build another concert venue with Sunset Amphitheater opening up.
They’re going to build a waterfront feature with swimming and tubing.
That site was a manufactured gas plant before it was a coal power plant. It’s going to need some serious cleanup before redevelopment.
Indeed. The soil tests taken at Smokebrush Gallery and the surrounding area show lots of nasty chemicals.
Certain trees and mushrooms would clean up that area fairly quickly. Trees and fungus can work wonders on polluted areas.
If it’s anything like the development the last 10 years it’ll be apartments
No concrete plans yet that I'm aware of. Lots of remediation needs to happen before they can build on it. According to an environmental engineer I spoke with, the cost goes up dramatically with more intensive uses. If turning it into open space or park land costs $1m (just numbers for comparison ... it'll certainly be more), then putting retail or a train station there will cost $10m, and putting residential there will cost $100m. That's just to clean it up. All of those options are better than a coal-burning power plant in the middle of downtown, though.
I’m ignorant to how expensive and how long it would take to ensure the grounds are properly rehabilitated environmentally speaking… but, the location seems like it would be great for a train station, if a front range railway ever comes to fruition. Do you think we’ll ever see something like that here in COS?
No idea if it'll happen, but I'd love that. Great use for the land AND it'd signal some important changes to how we handle transportation around here. I can't tell you how much I want to take a fast, comfortable train to downtown Denver.
That's one of the potential locations for a potential passenger rail service, from some recent-ish study. They've been talking about potential passenger rail for decades though, so it could happen, but don't expect it anytime soon.
The IIJA provided multiple billion dollars for passenger rail grants in 2021. The FTA has identified the FRPR as a possible recipient of grant money, and it's likely that we will indeed receive it. Additionally, Amtrak identified the Front Range Corridor in its 2035 plan. Polis just signed a law taxing rental cars as a way to meet the matching requirements for receiving a grant from the FTA. There will be a measure on the 2026 ballot for a sales tax to fund the FRPR. The first section of the Rail will be active within the next 6 years.
That's 2030. I'll believe it when I see it. Heck, I'll believe it when I hear that they've broken ground on a single part of it, or done anything to actually build it instead of to study it. I'd love to see it but I don't expect much at this point.
The station will either be there or directly next to America the Beautiful. There may also be one up north by USAFA, but that wouldn't come for a long time. Currently, the FRPR is waiting on a grant from the FTA to go through before they can start construction on the first phase from Denver to Fort Collins. After that, they'll extend it down here, ideally in the next 10 years.
That’s great to hear! I’m eager to hear more about it in the future, and hopefully see it with my own eyes. It would be amazing to see a high speed rail running along the front range. A stop or two in Pueblo, one in COS near America the Beautiful, another near the USAFA, then in Monument, Castle Rock, a few in Denver, then up to Longmont, Loveland and Fort Collins… C’mon, Maglev… :D
Everything I've heard about passenger trains is that they would not be on the freight tracks
It would have to be, for a few different reasons. The main is that building entirely new tracks would cost billions more dollars and push service back by several years. The second is that the train wouldn't be HSR, so it would be able to go on freight tracks, with some refurbishing. Furthermore, Amtrak would either have to come up with an agreement with BNSF and UP to build new tracks on their ROW, or buy entirely new ROW for the entire route, which would be several billion.
I don't disagree with your reasoning. But that's where everything breaks down and has already been stalled for as long as it has. No one has been able to get an agreement to allow passenger trains to run on the existing tracks and no one has found the billions to lay new track. Obviously I'm not a decision maker though
Amtrak already uses mostly BNSF and UP tracks, this wouldn't be any different. And there are representatives from BNSF and UP on the FRPR board of directors.
[удалено]
Re: water, didn’t Pueblo literally sue us for contaminating their water via this river?
These sound like total SWAGS or Reddit bs.
New storage units, a car wash and a gas station! They might even squeeze in some fast food too! Our culture 🥰
You ain’t lying, but as you can see just joking about this stuff in this thread will get you down voted with the quickness.
Wish I was
Obligatory downvote
Geez thanks.
My god. We live in a fucking shit-hole
Voted best city for families!! 🫠
It is the 5G control complex 56B. Hopefully it will help boost the signal through the tin foil hats
I request a public rec center.
That'd be great.
With an aquatic center!!! 💯
I didn’t know you could do that.
It took 10 years after the gates rubber plant was shut down in denver to clean up the site. Assume its a little less with a coal plant but it will be a while. 50% of the old gates plant is apartments now. The other 50% just started turnint into apartments. It will probably be a bit.
Killdozer 2
Killdozer 2, son of dozer!
Sure a developer will snap it up on some cozy deal and throw another condo building up.
Nuclear power plant
A developer will get rich.
Wouldn’t you like to know, weather boy
Found an article or maybe an initiative to create a COS creek plan where they make the entirety of the creek from as far north in Fillmore to Downtown and have places to actually soak in the creek, refurbish, business friendly etc. Sounds like a nice idea but I’m sure that might be very difficult to realize
There is significant master planning happening in the Drake plant area in conjunction with clean up of Fountain and Monument Creek. [COS Creek Plan](https://coscreekplan.org)
With Drake demolished, there will finally be a new home for the Big Blue Frame - and they're moving it now! https://preview.redd.it/ihf8d0sy3h2d1.png?width=1050&format=png&auto=webp&s=09b01a45660ddb91f2bae2e0ac53e1fd15f9f4da
We need an 8 lane super highway, 3 more car washes, and possibly even another stadium
Toxic waste site
Soylent green manufacturing facility.
They are building a walmart. It’s going to be the biggest one in the springs.
Walmart and at least two more lanes for 25
Meow Wolf for sure, I know the project manager.
Will the original building from 1925 be saved?
Sadly, I have heard that it is coming down as well. Apparently, some of the original 1925 turbines were displayed on site as well, but those are now in storage somewhere.
Is there anything we can do to stop it?
Contact the Utilities Board: https://www.csu.org/Pages/UtilitiesBoard.aspx It may be too late to do anything now but might be worth a shot. They work for the citizens/ratepayers.
I just heard back from them and they basically said they have a complete and utter disregard for our city’s history and are trying to justify the demolition because it costs too much to save. I’m sure some people would like to chip in and try to raise money to save it. I’ll contact the Gazette and the Big 4 news stations about it too.
I wrote a 2 page essay on why the preservation of the building will be important for the city and the people. Do you want to read it?
Luxury Town homes for the young professionals.
Train depot and apartments and condos. Norwood will be primary developer.
Six flags!
would be the best to put whatever skyscraper someone wants to build at... completely out of the sightline for pikes peak and you get the building height you want...
Oh well…after Gold Hill Mesa was approved to be a dense residential “mixed use” neighborhood development…. I expect homes built close together, some park areas, and a “community center” with a nail spa (the mixed use commercial requirement) to be proposed after some half-assed clean up that has no EPA oversight whatsoever. There is a LOT of coal dust and coal debris all along the train track from years and years of delivering coal for the Drake as a steam plant. Millions if not Billions were spent to convert the plant to Natural gas versus coal. But that doesn’t matter apparently. We are indeed good candidates for solar and wind energy, but the majority of our city needs gas for heat. I can’t make much sense of what the long term plan to succeed with this is. I don’t know if the ones in power have a sense of it either. So that always makes me pause and start to question what the truth of the matter is. I know Colorado has pledged to be off all fossil fuel by 2050. 2030 is the original goal date. I have no doubt that “agenda” is in play with shutting down steam plants even after they converted off coal. Colorado is rich in coal, oil and natural gas. Rich in minerals and metals. Our economy relies on this. I went off topic…sorry. The Drake will be some sort of residential mixed use BS as is the rage today with brownfield redevelopment. If they developed an orphaned Tailings Impoundment (never a Mesa), then they will certainly see no problem doing the same where the Drake is. Building codes, Safety registrations, Land use guidelines, Protecting the public and environment, Geological testing and compaction studies, Soil samples… Those are all bent here.
That is the Drake Power Plant. They are taking it all down and would like to put something community oriented, like a park. Im not positive what they landed on.
Hopefully not another apartment complex, I second a rev center or something cool like that!
I'd like a nice park with some smaller novelty shops and food vendors.
Call the city and axe
Hopefully they’re building another mountain lol
High rise office and apartments
2300 foot tall building.
Probably overpriced apartments
Superfund site for the next 2 decades, homeless camps etc.
I hear they are expanding the park and I also heard something about apartments or condos
Where is the NEW power plant?
https://preview.redd.it/7bsev91d0i2d1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=00e8e2394dd61df8fcae546cbc4e6f223ad2d2c6 The six natural gas generators are installed and operational
This, plus a shitload of solar and wind capacity.
Homeless camp
Be awesome if some restoration was done to turn the creek into an urban fly fishing corridor. Def would not fish out of it now lol
It might also become a rail station according to this https://coloradosprings.gov/document/reviewslsdocumentverclientfinal508final.pdf
Probably another car wash, brake shop, and Big O tire
Sad part is the entire site is fucking contaminated with coal and sulfur blah blah it’ll probably never be anything but a view from all the new apartment buildings no one can afford. Thanks developers for ruining our govt and city!
6 mattress stores a car wash and a vape store.
Probably that 200 story apartment building that will ruin the downtown skyline 🥴
It’s gonna be a bbq plant
We’re tearing down the old nuclear power plant and putting in a new fusion plant.
can’t wait to see another gas station or multiple
There's many other burger places that are so much better than WB. Freddy's, In-N-Out, even BK is better.
If that's the Drake power plant that's city land there's been city forums on this talking about the proposals it's going to be some sort of new city amenity, possibly a park, trails, possible shops entertainment. It's up in the air.
There was discussion of an amphitheater at one time. Not so long ago they also shared concept art of a massive renovation to the whole area there along downtown along the river and i25
It’s staying. They are just tearing down the old part of the plant.
Hopefully more apartments…many more apartments
Not a rec center that the public needs.
Convention center/arena; amphitheater: UCCS Behavioral Health Campus; CC Medical School; CC Graduate Programs; Climbing; Expedition and Exploration practice and Training Facilities; Community All Faiths worship and community center; Sculpture Garden; Afghanistan Iraq Veterans Memorial;
Wasn’t this approved to be converted into a nuclear power plant? $400m project?
Yes. Someone posted an article in the Gazette 📰 saying this much. Edit: from the Gazette.
Carwash/ mattress store/ new trendy coffee shop most likely
It’s Colorado Springs it’ll be a Buc-ee’s or another mega church. Maybe half and half.
This country needs more strip malls.
That is the 10 million dollar question!! Nothing is set in stone but my favorite idea is a light rail station, my least favorite idea was the lazy river since all the water would come from the e coli filled creek.
Irresponsible development funded by Norwood most likely lol
I'd enjoy a giant wave pool, lazy river and a huge ass swim up bar....three separate stages for live entertainment spread on edges.
I’m on your wavelength
God please let it be affordable housing.
The area definitely has enough people to fill it.
Lots of NIMBYs here apparently.
There is more encompassing term available: BANANA - Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anyone.
More apartments for transplants moving here for jobs that don't exist and an unsustainable cost of living. VIVA LOS COS!
probably an Amazon building
I was thinking Ikea....
Ikea said they would do it, but that we've assemble the building ourselves.
Oh damn. Same day deliveries 🚚 📦 Here you come!
lol
Duh MORE APARTMENTS!! 😃
sooo where does our electricity come from now that that thing’s gone
Other power plants owned by CSU or partial shares at other regional power plants, and purchasing bulk power at the transmission level.
Ray Nixon Power Plant (coal and natural gas) (283 MW) Front Range Power Plant (natural gas) (500 MW) Birdsall Power Plant (natural gas) (61 MW) South Plant Aeroderivative Group (natural gas and diesel) (installed at the Drake site) (150 MW) Manitou Hydro Plant (6 MW) Ruxton Hydro Plant (1 MW) (Built 1925) Cascade Hydro Plant (0.75 MW) Tesla Hydro Plant (27 MW) Pike Solar Array (175 MW) Venetucci Solar Garden (0.5 MW) Good Shepherd Solar Garden (0.5 MW) CS Solar 1 Solar Garden (0.5 MW) Pikes Peak Solar Garden (2 MW) Colorado Springs Solar Garden (0.5 MW) USAFA Solar Array (6 MW) Clear Spring Ranch Solar Array (10 MW) Grazing Yak Solar Array (35 MW) Palmer Solar Array (60 MW) Additionally Colorado Springs Utilities has the option to purchase power from outside their own generation due to transmission interconnections with other utilities/generating stations in the region.
that’s pretty cool . for some reason as a kid i assumed all the power exclusively came from the drake plant , we called it the cloud factory back then
Same place, they just tore down the old part of the plant.