Indy - Aug. 23, 2023 Vol 31. No. 33

HOT SPOT

Homelessness project at Dale and 19th streets will be surrounded by problem it’s trying to solve

Colorado Springs’ next big arts district is gaining momentum

Our mission is to deliver the truth, build community and engage citizens.

PUBLISHER

Fran Zankowski

COVER DESIGN BY Zk Bradley

EDITORIAL

EXECUTIVE EDITOR Bryan Grossman

MANAGING EDITOR Helen Lewis

COPY EDITOR Mary Jo Meade

SENIOR REPORTER Pam Zubeck

CULTURE REPORTER Nick Raven

INTERN Marynn Krull

CONTRIBUTORS

Rob Brezsny, Jim Hightower, Mike Littwin, Matthew Schniper, Tom Tomorrow, Andrew “Shaggy” Warren

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Raven

HOT SPOT

Neighborhood around homeless young adult housing project has a homeless problem of its own

BY PAM ZUBECK | zubeck@csindy.com

WHEN CITY COUNCIL

approved a 50-unit, fourstory complex for homeless young people called The Launchpad on Aug. 8, the 6-3 vote ended seven hours of debate that focused largely on the mechanics of the project.

Opponents argued the building’s height (45 feet) and proposed density (36 units per acre) were out of sync with the neighborhood and that the building’s site is subject to shifting soils.

But there wasn’t much time devoted to the impact of installing 50 or more 18-to24-year-olds trying to transition out of homelessness in an area that’s become what some call a hot spot for those experiencing homelessness.

The area of 19th and Uintah streets (The Launchpad will be located at Dale Street about two blocks north) at times is clogged with drifters and people living on the streets who have to be shooed

away from Uintah Gardens businesses.

“It’s a constant revolving door,” reports one manager who spoke on condition of anonymity for himself and his business. He describes an atmosphere where homeless people threaten or attack shoppers, appear “half naked” in the parking lots, steal from stores and deal drugs. That hurts business, he says.

Shawna Kemppainen, executive director of The Place, which will manage The Launchpad, told Council the nonprofit will offer residents programs to help with employment and mental health. It’s scheduled to open in late 2024.

But the business manager tells the Indy he’s skeptical that it’s the right environment in which to transition homeless young people.

“I think it’s an awful idea,” he says, especially when police presence is scarce and drug dealing and drinking

to excess are rampant.

Councilor Dave Donelson, who voted against approving The Launchpad, says he too questions whether that area is a good environment for the project.

“If you put people who perhaps have

some things they’re dealing with, you put them in an environment where there’s lots of that around them,” he says, “it may make the program less effective.”

continued on p. 4

The site for The Launchpad includes a hill that neighbors say is unstable.

Pam Zubeck

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THE PLACE IS THE ONLY NONprofit locally that caters to homeless young adults, and The Launchpad will be the only permanent supportive housing in the city for that population, Kemppainen has said.

The vote for approval drew three “no” votes — from Donelson, Lynette Crow-Iverson and Mike O’Malley. They wanted a geological report to be reviewed by state officials, because residents disagreed with findings of a

developer’s consultant. (That consultant used to employ the city planner who handled the project.)

Some residents mentioned the homeless issue, and Donelson tried to probe deeper on that issue. But Council’s legal adviser told Donelson to steer away from those questions, because they “have nothing to do with the review criteria,” which includes zoning and development codes, Donelson says.

But he says public safety is a legitimate review criterion. “The argument to be made deals with public safety and

➔ continued from p. 3

Mark Nocitra is among the homeless in the Uintah Gardens area.

Pam Zubeck

impact on the neighborhood,” Donelson says. “That neighborhood is already telling us they have experienced a dramatic increase of homeless at that shopping center, in their neighborhood, all around there. It’s a hell of a burden on them, and might not be a good place for people trying to turn over a new leaf.”

Kemppainen says via email that she believes that once young adults are in a safe place to live, they will “tap into their potential and purpose” and “see the West Side as a very good place from which to launch.”

Some people who run businesses at Uintah Gardens weren’t authorized to speak to reporters, but a security guard who works there under a contract with the owner, TKG Uintah Gardens of Columbia, Missouri, agreed to give an overview if the Indy didn’t identify the security company or him.

The guard says his instructions are to dislodge the homeless people, to “keep them moving,” he says. But they soon return. The guard says he warns them they could face a trespassing citation; if that’s not successful, he calls police.

“I have only called the cops on the ones who refused to leave or are passed out and won’t leave,” he says. While many people understand he’s doing his job, he says, he’s received death threats from homeless people, some of whom deal drugs.

“I’m not trying to be an ass,” he says. “They [merchants] just want them to move.”

The guard says he herds loiterers to the edge of the property but, “On the other side of the sidewalk, that’s public property. That’s a police matter.”

The business manager confirms that after guards clear the property, the homeless always come back. He says a woman walking her dog in the area was accosted by a homeless person armed with a wine bottle, but police either respond hours later or don’t show up at all. CSPD didn’t respond to a request for comment.

As for whether the homeless population is escalating, another business manager said, “It’s the worst I’ve ever seen.”

THE SECURITY GUARD SUGGESTed a visit with Mark Nocitra, 53, who’s been homeless since the COVID pandemic, when a lack of business caused him to lose his taxi cab.

Nocitra hangs out with a shopping cart behind Uintah Gardens and has been cited at least 15 times for violations associated with homelessness over the

last two years. He served 43 days in jail earlier this year.

He was cited on Aug. 15 for camping near a waterway, though he and his cart were parked a block north of Uintah on Dale Street, at the top of a hill where no waterway was in sight — though there is a detention pond nearby. Asked about the growing homeless population, Nocitra confirms more people assemble there.

He also says they don’t clean up after themselves, “don’t have a lot of manners,” panhandle shoppers or “cat call” women.

“They don’t give a fuck,” he says, adding he understands why businesses are upset. “You’re supposed to feel comfortable in a shopping center to spend your money.”

He acknowledges that many homeless people are wrestling with mental, emotional or addiction problems. His biggest issue at the moment is he lost his phone and needs to regain access to his stored information before his account is shut down.

That will be hard, considering he survives on $9 a day in food stamps and has no other income. But the former computer industry worker is philosophical about his predicament.

“Money doesn’t buy happiness,” he says, “but it makes dealing with unhappiness a lot easier.”

DONELSON SAYS THAT IN EARLY 2022 when City Council expanded the territory covered by the city’s 2016 ordinance barring anyone from sitting or lying on sidewalks, he recalls Council asking CSPD to report back on whether the enlargement simply pushed homeless people into other neighborhoods.

(The original sit-lie ordinance covered Downtown and a portion of Old Colorado City. The expansion widened the Downtown area north to Cache la Poudre Street and south to Cheyenne Road.)

So far, there’s been no follow-up report provided, he says.

Donelson acknowledged “hot spots” for homeless people have emerged across the city, and that CSPD’s Homeless Outreach Team should be more present in those areas, though that’s a challenge due to the police department being shorthanded.

It’s a tough situation, Donelson says, and the city lacks authority to do much about it, other than cite people or direct them to Springs Rescue Mission where a variety of services are available.

That said, he adds, a young man or a mother with children shouldn’t be forced to “run the gauntlet” of homeless people to get to a grocery store.

It’s a constant revolving door.

— Businessman at Uintah Gardens

‘WHEN WE STARTED,” SAYS

Muji Rieger, director of the Knob Hill Urban Arts District, “I was like, ‘Just let me put this naked lady on your building. I promise you’ll be happy.’”

The building in question: The Platte Furniture store, whose western face had a large, empty broadside capped with sunbaked cellular antennae. The store’s owner, Kyle Kelly, took over the new-and-used furniture business from his father Dick in 2000. Kelly signed off on Rieger’s proposed mural.

“As soon as I did it,” Rieger says, “It was like, ‘Can I put 17 more murals up?’”

The naked lady has since been painted over, but not before many more murals began appearing on the walls of various Knob Hill businesses thanks to Rieger and the Knob Hill Urban Arts District, the nonprofit he co-founded to mural “every damn wall we can get our hands on.”

“Mural art is the most altruistic because the artists can’t own it,” Rieger says. “They can make prints of it, but once they paint it, everybody gets to take pictures of it. The whole community gets to enjoy them. And then one day, the building owner can paint over it. It’s ephemeral. It just floats away.”

Since 2018, the murals — now over 57 of them on a series of buildings that lines Platte Avenue between Union Boulevard and Circle Drive — have transformed the character and aesthetics of the neighborhood. Rieger now does regular walking tours and media interviews to promote the work.

But KHUAD dreams so much bigger than being a small-time event space or artistic curiosity — it’s seeking a Creative District designation from Colorado Creative Industries, allowing it to join Downtown Colorado Springs and Manitou Springs in local artistic prominence with state-level logistical and promotional support.

The snowball kicked down the hill half a decade ago is beginning to gather mass and people are paying attention.

Kelly had no interest in becoming a venue for fine arts, but with the collection in place, King believes that Kelly was worried Platte Collections would become popular but then struggle without consistent direction and leadership.

“I kind of fell into their laps and wanted every little bit of responsibility I could get with this place,” King says. “I had been told about the gallery, but I didn’t know how much it would become my pathway until I turned that corner [at the bottom of the stairwell] for the first time. It’s very understated until you get down here.”

FORMERLY

ITS

LAYAWAY SECTION,

THE basement of Platte Furniture holds what was an open secret for two years: a large art gallery. The space is filled with vast quantities of paintings, intricate sculptures and other world-class curiosities. Easily the size of several Downtown galleries, Platte Collections began when an art collector approached Kelly. Those pieces — collected over nearly a century — compose roughly 60 percent of the gallery’s diverse offerings today.

“[The collector] approached Platte Furniture because of our reputation for buying estates,” says Elias King, Platte Collections’ gallery coordinator. “They had been collecting fine art, traveling all around the world. They made a joke to Kyle [Kelly] once that their best stuff was in their house in France. I look around at our stuff here and I can’t imagine it being the dregs of their collection.”

Since then, the gallery has added to the collection through other estate purchases and auctions. At first,

Before Platte Furniture, King had spent three years working at Manitou Springs’ Miramont Castle Museum. As a salesperson, they fell in love with the gallery and after repeatedly pitching them a vision for the space, Platte Furniture offered King a full-time position managing it. Through King’s work, the gallery re-launched with a new section dedicated to rotating local artists.

“I think by this time next year, we’re gonna be a lot busier than we are now,” King says. “I hope to get to the point where we’re able to honor this as the original location, but then also get a second location. And I think that we’ll get there.”

Half a block away from Platte Furniture, Luke and Morgan Blanton are working quickly to bring the building at 2217 E. Platte Ave. together for a big double opening. It was still a work in progress when the Indy visited, with boarded-up windows, exposed walls, debris lying about and improvised work lighting. But the Blantons have been remodeling it since December and it’s nearing the final stretch. Without a working HVAC system, they hung drywall in the frigid space until their fingers went numb.

Downstairs, music acts can book rooms with 24/7 access to practice without rocking their own neighborhoods.

Colorado Springs’ next big arts district is gaining momentum

STORY AND PHOTOS BY NICK RAVEN | nick@csindy.com

“I WAS LIKE, ‘JUST LET ME PUT THIS NAKED LADY ON YOUR BUILDING.’”

— Muji Rieger

Upstairs, What’s Left Records’ new location won’t just sell music — the rear of the store also features an open space with a stage for live entertainment. Its western third will be the home of Shutter and Strum and its education programs for underprivileged and at-risk kids, co-founded by photographer Brian Tryon and musician Chris Bacavis.

“He’s the brains, I’m the beauty,” Tryon says.

Tryon founded The Garfield Gallery in the basement of the Community Prep School last year. While that gallery will continue to display the school’s student art, Tryon and Bacavis will move on to their new home in Knob Hill to curate art and teach as they see fit with their new Disruptor Gallery, which includes a recording space and photography darkroom.

“It’s kind of a bummer [to leave Community Prep], but I’m really excited to move over here,” Tryon says. “I’m kind of excited to show people it’s safe to get out from Downtown and go other places.”

RIEGER TAKES US UP AND DOWN PLATTE Avenue, showing off the murals. He points out blank walls as opportunities, including the Wells Fargo near Circle Drive, He also notes that they have paid out of pocket to remove unwanted graffiti as well.

“When I was a kid, I had this memory that this area of town had murals,” Rieger says. “There were people in the neighborhood that have been here for 40 years and they go, ‘No, never been murals here.’”

The sidewalks are lined with bespoke brickwork and shallow parking lots that service the small businesses that abut the road. It’s clear that at one point, over half a century ago, Knob Hill was a place where you could park your car and access a variety of local businesses.

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One neighborhood landmark has been The Black Sheep — a concert venue that has been attracting music fans since 2005. But alongside them, storefronts are closed, empty and decaying, their owners largely absent. Damaged signs stretch high above with vacant slots where business names should be.

Taking stock of the large and growing number of murals along their building and nearby, King asked Kelly who their “mural person” was while exploring an installation for customers coming down to the Platte Collections gallery. Kelly referred them to Rieger, who then connected King with the growing community movement.

“As I’ve gotten to know Muji better, there’s even more, in my opinion, that I need to be getting involved with,” King says, “like Knob Hill and those meetings and these community pieces.”

The murals are vibrant and eye-catching, featuring abstract scenes and collaborations. But the Paes164 mural of William “Jackk” Underwood — a reformed gang member who was murdered on his 26th birthday — recently drew the ire of City Councilor Dave Donelson, who represents northwest Colorado Springs, miles away from Knob Hill.

KHUAD had been brought up at City Council meetings in the past and Rieger had largely ignored them. During their July 10 Council work session, though, there was a presentation about public murals, graffiti removal, the Public Art Commission’s evaluation process, and a survey of how other cities approach the public display of art. Donelson took specific issue with the Jackk mural, called it “disturbing” and asserted

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continued on p. 8 ➔ King, Rieger and the controversial Jackk mural

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that the mural’s symbology “didn’t build a sense of community.”

District 5 Councilwoman Nancy Henjum, whose jurisdiction borders Knob Hill, invited KHUAD board member Molly McClure to speak. McClure emphasized the value of expression, even if she didn’t agree with the message of the individual murals.

While Donelson didn’t call for specific legislative action during the work session, he did openly ask about regulation of murals on private property here and in other cities.

As news broke of the presentation, Rieger rallied locals to respond in person at the July 25 City Council meeting. He, as well as McClure, King, Colorado Rep. Stephanie Vigil (who defeated Donelson in the November 2022 election for House District 16) and several others disagreed with Donelson, who did not respond to their comments. McClure explained how public art broadly generates positivity and a sense of place while King highlighted the value and interest that the murals have brought to Platte Furniture.

Donelson didn’t respond to the Indy ’s inquiries for this story about future Council action on regulation, but Rieger says that in conversations with McClure, Donelson “has offered to help support our mission and help raise funds to further it.”

As the city began to piece together

its long-term revitalization plan for the Platte Avenue corridor, important for east-west traffic into Downtown, Rieger says they weren’t initially consulted. Soon, KHUAD was chatting with the city about how best to redevelop the Knob Hill section as they began drawing crowds for their art.

The latest vision features narrower roads in Knob Hill to calm traffic alongside expanded sidewalks and more crossings for better walkability and thick medians plump with trees.

“The people who live there are working-class folks [and] they love their neighborhood, actually,” says Henjum. “They love the quirkiness of it, they love the fact that it’s diverse, [and] art is important [there]. I think there’s a lot more positive feeling and regard for the neighborhood than there is concern that has been brought up by some. The good thing that came out of the [mural] session was that it really activated that neighborhood to start moving on their desire to become a formal Creative District.”

Rieger had envisioned Knob Hill gaining Creative District status within five years of the nonprofit’s creation in 2018, but he says 10 seems more realistic now. Muji says their Downtown counterparts have been extremely supportive.

It’s through art that KHUAD — and the new businesses springing up alongside its murals — hopes to revitalize and beautify what was once a neighborhood overlooked by many.

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➔ continued from p. 7

From left: Brian Tryon, Elias King and Muji Rieger are painting a new Knob Hill.

“I THINK THERE’S A LOT MORE POSITIVE FEELING AND REGARD FOR THE NEIGHBORHOOD THAN THERE IS CONCERN.”

— Nancy Henjum

DUCA’S NEW OWNERS EYE EXPANSION

DUCA’S NEAPOLITAN PIZZA DATES BACK 15 YEARS IN COLOrado Springs, but it’s recently undergone some changes (263 E. Cheyenne Mountain Blvd., ducaspizza.com). Namely, founder Tony Duca sold the business at the end of 2022 to Robert Athey and Travis Pickern.

Other than a Duca’s franchise inside The Antlers hotel since 2017 (owned by Perry Sanders’ group), this 14-year-old Cheyenne Mountain Boulevard eatery is the sole location. There was formerly a spot on Voyager Parkway (the original, closed last year) and another on Barnes Road (closed a little earlier, by the pandemic, I’m told).

Duca’s GM, Nic Duca, worked for his uncle for many years after his time in the Air Force. He’s staying on board with the new owners and aims to claim an ownership stake in two new locations that incoming business partners Athey and Pickern plan to open within the next 18 months. (They won’t disclose exactly where, but hint that one will reside on the Westside, and another near the Southeast.)

Nic represents the fourth generation of the family working around food. His greatgrandparents immigrated from Italy and moved to Cañon City, where they fed coal miners, he tells me. His great-grandmother opened a sausage shop there. Later, his grandmother moved to the Springs and he recalls making pizza with her in her kitchen. She taught him to make dough, which they’d let rest for a day, cooking the pies the next.

His uncle Tony was the first to launch a business in the Springs with the family recipes. Nic and his staff still hand-stretch their dough, made with Italian 00 flour. They bake in imported Italian ovens: Stefano Ferrara Neapolitan brick, wood-fired ovens

continued on p. 10

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STORY AND PHOTOS BY MATTHEW SCHNIPER

Duca’s GM Nic Duca

to be precise. They run at around 800 degrees, which cooks a pizza in roughly 90 seconds. The dough remains notably soft and chewy, easily eaten with a fork and knife if desired.

I know this because Nic makes me a special-of-theday Hot & Honey pizza, something he created a couple

years ago, he says. It’s a twist on the traditional Margherita (San Marzano tomatoes, mozzarella, basil, EVOO), with added pepperoni and red pepper flakes for spiciness and Mike’s Hot Honey sauce for countering sweetness with a continued heat kick. It’s damn satisfying, and will become a regular menu item soon with an imminent update.

What else is new?

• An appetizer category on the menu, which will feature plates like cheese and charcuterie boards, garlic cheese bread and meatballs. In part, this is meant to accentuate a new bar buildout that’s almost complete.

• Soon, spirits will join the existing beer and wine options (assuming a liquor license goes through permitting). And hours will expand to include Sundays.

• The new owners commissioned graffiti work to refresh the space in style. Pickern had been following the work of an Australian artist named Steen Jones, who happened to be on a tour across limited parts of America. They believe this is Jones’ only work in Colorado (though he has a bunch in L.A., Pickern says).

About the owners...

• Athey waited tables at the original On the Border in

Dallas when he was in high school. He says he made cast iron and wood trivets that he sold to the business as a side gig. He spent his early career in the telecom industry in Denver, and has spent the last five years in land development, which he continues to pursue.

• Pickern hails from Oregon. He was in sales prior and owned a food concession business for a decade, he says. After moving to the Springs, he purchased and operated our local Dutch Bros locations between 2014 and 2021.

“How did you guys become friends?” I ask during our interview. “I’m not sure we have,” jokes Pickern. Athey waits a beat, then explains they met while playing golf.

Next, I ask why they wanted to purchase Duca’s?

“We love this location,” says Athey, also noting the expansion plans. Pickern adds that it’s a fun place to hang out with friends and neighbors.

“And,” says Athey. “Nic is still here.”

BITES AND BITS

• After a beautiful run that’s lasted just over a decade, La Rosa (25 Hwy. 105, Palmer Lake, larosasouthwesterndining.com) is set to close up shop on Sunday, Aug. 27. I gave the outfit a pretty glowing review in my original 2013 writeup.

Owner/Chef Marina La Riva had been looking for someone interested in taking over the whole operation, to keep “the food available to the folks who love it,” she told me many months ago. But with news of the closure, she says new tenants in the space intend to open a barbecue restaurant as soon as October. More on that when I have it.

TheHot&Honeypie

• Chile Colorado (chilecoloradocos.com) recently opened at 7 E. Vermijo Ave., in the longtime Corner Cafe spot frequented by many Downtown workers in its day. The independent, family-owned eatery describes itself as “true Southern Colorado Mexican food” and says “Our dishes rewind back to the 1970s where our grandparents owned and operated two Mexican restaurants, Pris & Ernie’s & El Matador.” (That was long before my time here.) Their menu ranges from an array of breakfast plates to burritos, tacos, enchiladas, and entrées like carne adovada and a Slopper. Unlike the old Corner Cafe, they’ve got a liquor license and are putting it to use with drinks like a peach mojito, watermelon-agave vodka and mangonada margarita.

• The second Tails, Tunes & Tastes event for this season takes place from 6 to 9:30 p.m., Thursday, Aug. 31 at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo (4250 Cheyenne Mountain Road, cmzoo.org). Tickets are $64.75 and include unlimited food samples and a pair of drink tickets. Visit sidedishschnip.substack.com/p/honey-holes for a snapshot of the July 27 event, by way of a teaser for what the zoo’s culinary team, led by Executive Chef John Kuespert, is capable of.

DO MESS WITH TEXAS

‘THE CHUCKWAGON 719 (facebook.com/ chuckwagon719)

doesn’t need me to tell you how good they are. They’re gonna sell out of their true Texas barbecue in an hour or so regardless. A line will greet them upon opening, and people will sheepishly approach their window after closing in hopes that there’s still something left.

“If anything, by writing this, I’m just adding to your wait in line, or diminishing your chances of nabbing any barbecue on a given day from their food cart.

For those of you who’ve stood in line for Austin, Texas’ Franklin Barbecue, this is your moment.

“‘For us, it’s always going to be waking up and starting the smoker at 4 a.m., because no matter what, it’s gonna be fresh. That’s the epitome of Texas barbecue,’” says Jared Hammond, co-owner/co-chef of Chuckwagon 719 with his wife Deidre….”

That’s an excerpt from my review of mobile business Chuckwagon 719, which usually sets up outside The Sourdough Boulangerie at 6453 Omaha Blvd. Free subscribers to Side Dish may now read the review in full.

Chuckwagon has built a rabid fan base since opening shop just months ago. Everything’s epic, but the smoked beef ribs are a particular highlight, as is the house brisket.

Read the full review at sidedishschnip.substack.com/p/smoke-seasoned to discover the “cheesecake” (actually a fat cap) that rolled my eyes back in my head in a state of gustatory bliss.

Matthew Schniper is the former Food & Drink editor and critic at the Indy. You can find expanded food and drink news and reviews at sidedishschnip. substack.com.

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Since 1974. Features authentic Tex-Mex & Mexican fare in contemporary Sante Fe-styled establishment. Across from Acacia Park, and west of Powers & Carefree. Josemuldoons.com. Support local restaurants! We are open for delivery, carry out, and dine-in at both locations! Please check our Facebook page for hours daily, as they are subject to change.

STEAKHOUSE

THE FAMOUS 31 N. TEJON ST. | DOWNTOWN | 719-227-7333

Colorado Springs’ finest upscale steak house and lounge located in the center of downtown. Dine in an elegant and classic steak house environment. Award winning prime steaks, fresh seafood, premium wines, craft brews and piano bar provide a provocative mix of atmosphere and entertainment. Reservations suggested.

MACKENZIE’S CHOP HOUSE

128 S. TEJON ST. HISTORIC ALAMO BUILDING | DOWNTOWN | 719-635-3536

Offering half off all bottles of wine under $100! Voted Best Power Lunch, Steakhouse and Martini! Downtown’s choice for quality meats and mixed drinks. Mackenzieschophouse.com. Open Mon.-Fri. 11:30am-3pm for lunch, and 5pm- close every day for dinner!

Chuckwagon 719 sells out quickly.

Brisket highlights a barbecue platter.

PLAYING AROUND

WEDNESDAY, 8/23

The Acacia Strain, metal, with Mugshot, No Cure, Sewerslide; 6 p.m., Black Sheep, blacksheeprocks.com.

Davenports, rock; John Wise & Tribe, New Orleans R&B/blues/jazz/island; Roma Ransom, “eclectic bohemian world folk”; 6 p.m., Hillside Gardens, hillsidecolorado.com/upcoming-events.

Falconaires Alumni Band, jazz ; 6 p.m., Bear Creek Regional Park, communityservices.elpasoco.com.

Harry Mo & The Cru, reggae; 6:30 p.m., Front Range Barbeque, frbbq.com. Kendall Street Company, eclectic rock ; 8 p.m., Lulu’s, lulusdownstairs.com.

Springs Contemporary Jazz Big Band; 6 p.m., Bancroft Park, facebook.com/ SCJBB/events.

Craig Walter, acoustic ; 6 p.m., Jack Quinn’s, facebook.com/jackquinns/ events.

THURSDAY,

8/24

Blackthorn, Celtic rock ; 7 p.m., Jack Quinn’s, facebook.com/jackquinns/ events.

Dotsero, pop/contemporary instrumental; 6 p.m., Fox Run Regional Park, communityservices.elpasoco.com.

Gay Days with DJ Clark Afterdark, LGBTQ+ dance party ; 9 p.m., Dog House, doghousecos.com.

The Lisa McCall Band, blues ; 6 p.m., Mash Mechanix Brewing Company, mashmechanix.com.

Love Mischief, jam variety ; 8 p.m., Armadillo Ranch, manitouarmadilloranch.com.

Narrow Gauge, country ; 6 p.m., Viewhouse, viewhouse.com/events.

Susan Rissman and Jana Lee Ross, jazz ; 7:30 p.m., Summa, dizzycharlies. com/schedule.

FRIDAY, 8/25

John Brewster Music, rock ; 6 p.m., RoadHouse Cinemas, tinyurl.com/ johnbrewster.

Edie Carey, pop folk; 6 p.m., Palmer Lake Town Hall Green, tinyurl.com/ediecarey2023.

Cari Dell Trio, pop; 8 p.m., Good Company Bar, goodcompanybar.com.

Chain Station, Americana string quartet; 7 p.m., Black Forest Community Center, blackroseacoustic.org

Collective Groove, dance/soul/funk variety; 6 p.m., Cordera, tinyurl.com/collectivegroove.

Billy Conquer, indie rock , with Liquid Chicken, The New Creep; 7 p.m., Vultures, vulturesrocks.com.

The Eternal Temples, jam rock/space funk; 7 p.m., Mash Mechanix Brewing Company, mashmechanix.com.

Five Finger Death Punch, metal, with Ice Nine Kills, Devour the Day, OTTTO, Taipei Houston; 5:30 p.m., Weidner Field, tinyurl.com/weidnerfivefingerdeathpunch.

The Hi-Jivers, rock/R&B; 6 p.m., Pikes Peak International Raceway, tinyurl. com/hijivers.

Austin Johnson, singer-songwriter ; 7:30 p.m., Jack Quinn’s, facebook.com/ jackquinns/events.

Bit Brigade: “The Legend of Zelda” and “DuckTales” Live, rock covers,

with The Megas, Petey Pulsing; 7 p.m., Black Sheep, blacksheeprocks.com. Lies or Lullabies, Bryan Adams and John Mellencamp tribute; 7 p.m., Boot Barn Hall, bootbarnhallco.com. Triston Marez, country ; 6 p.m., The Whiskey Baron, tinyurl.com/tristonmarez.

Cody Qualls, singer-songwriter; 7 p.m., Stargazers, stargazerstheatre.com.

RADO, psychedelic jam; 9 p.m., Armadillo Ranch, manitouarmadilloranch.com.

Rupert Wates, “melodic art/folk,” and Jeremy Facknitz, folk; 8 p.m., Lulu’s, lulusdownstairs.com.

Session Americana, folk/rock, with The Undercover Heart; 7 p.m., Brues Alehouse, Pueblo, bruesalehouse.com.

Silver Moon Riders, Americana; 6 p.m., Buffalo Lodge Bicycle Resort, bicycleresort.com.

Teague Brothers Band, Americana , with Joe Johnson, Kade Hoffman; 7 p.m., Oskar Blues, coloradosprings.oskarbluesfooderies.com.

SATURDAY, 8/26

Acme Bluegrass; 6 p.m., Western Museum of Mining and Industry, tinyurl.com/ wmmi-blue.

“It’s a Small World”: Bel Canto Legacy Opera Company, 3 p.m., Broadmoor Community Church, belcantolegacy. com.

The Denver Brass Presents: Fiesta!, Latin ; 7:30 p.m., Ent Center for the Arts, tinyurl.com/denverbrassfiesta.

The Eternal Temples, jam rock/space funk ; 7:30 p.m., Jack Quinn’s, facebook.com/jackquinns/events.

A.J. Fullerton, roots rock ; 6 p.m., Distillery 291, tinyurl.com/AJFullerton.

Hopsin, hip-hop, with Merkules, 6 p.m., Sunshine Studios, sunshinestudioslive. com.

Jake Loggins Band, blues; 7 p.m., Stargazers Theatre, stargazerstheatre.com. Noche de Verano sin Ti, Bad Bunny trib -

ute ; 8 p.m., Black Sheep, blacksheeprocks.com.

RADO, psychedelic jam; 9 p.m., Armadillo Ranch, manitouarmadilloranch.com.

Lee Rocker, of the Stray Cats ; 7 p.m., Hot Rod Rock & Rumble, Fountain, hotrodrock.com.

Sons of Genesis, Genesis tribute; 7 p.m., Boot Barn Hall, bootbarnhallco.com.

The Sum Beaches, rock, with The Broken Record, Broth; 8 p.m., Vultures, vulturesrocks.com.

Craig Walter, singer-songwriter ; 6 p.m., Buffalo Lodge Bicycle Resort, bicycleresort.com.

SUNDAY, 8/27

Damn Tall Buildings, bluegrass/blues/ roots-rock/vintage swing, with Red Moon Rounder, indie folk-rock ; 8 p.m., Lulu’s, lulusdownstairs.com.

The Ephinjis, rock, with Ozonic, Strung Short; 7 p.m., Vultures, vulturesrocks. com.

Incubus, rock , with Badflower, Paris Jackson; 6:30 p.m., Weidner Field, tinyurl.com/weidnerfieldincubus.

Chase Matthew, country, with Trevor Snider; 7 p.m., Black Sheep, blacksheeprocks.com.

Michael Reese, rock ; 1 p.m., Armadillo Ranch, manitouarmadilloranch.com.

Revele and Company, variety ; 5 p.m., Goat Patch Brewing Company, goatpatchbrewing.com.

Traditional Irish Session, Irish; 3 p.m., Jack Quinn’s, facebook.com/jackquinns/events.

MONDAY, 8/28

Dead Register, “doom-gaze,” with WitchHands, Circumversor; 7 p.m., Vultures, vulturesrocks.com.

Nube Nueve, Latin jazz; 6 p.m., Green Mountain Falls Gazebo Island, discoverutepass.

The Tidal Breeze Cool Energy Jazz

Incubus comes to Weidner Field Sunday, Aug. 27, with Badflower and Paris Jackson.

Sven Mandel via Wikimedia Commons

Quartet; 5:30 p.m., Armadillo Ranch, manitouarmadilloranch.com.

TUESDAY, 8/29

New Vintage Jazz; 6 p.m., Bancroft Park, occpartnership.org.

WEDNESDAY, 8/30

Suzanne Santo, rock, with Deirdre McCarthy, singer-songwriter ; 8 p.m., Lulu’s, lulusdownstairs.com.

Kurt Travis, alternative rock, with Amarionette, Moondough, Predisposed, Giveaway; 6 p.m., Black Sheep, blacksheeprocks.com.

Roma Ransom, “world psych folk duo”; 6:30 p.m., Front Range Barbeque, frbbq.com.

WireWood Station, country; John Wise & Tribe, New Orleans R&B/blues/ jazz/island ; The Mitguards, folk ; 6

p.m., Hillside Gardens, hillsidecolorado.com/upcoming-events.

THURSDAY, 8/31

PLAYING AROUND BIG GIGS

Peak Big Band, jazz; 6 p.m., Fox Run Regional Park, communityservices.elpasoco.com.

Pony Bradshaw, folk, with Grayson Jenkins; 8 p.m., Lulu’s, lulusdownstairs. com.

Chatham County Line, country; 8 p.m., Lulu’s, lulusdownstairs.com.

River Spell, folk/rock/ jam/funk/bluegrass; 8 p.m., Armadillo Ranch, manitouarmadilloranch.com.

The Sleeping Giants, Celtic rock; 6 p.m., Jack Quinn’s, facebook.com/jackquinns/events.

Zizania, vintage jazz/swing/blues, with Ryan McCurry ; 7:30 p.m., Summa, dizzycharlies.com/schedule.

Upcoming music events

Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats, Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Morrison, Aug. 23

Pantera, Lamb of God , Ball Arena, Denver, Aug. 23

Five Finger Death Punch, Weidner Field, Aug. 25

Gavin DeGraw, Gothic Theatre, Englewood, Aug. 25

Corey Taylor, Fillmore Auditorium, Denver, Aug. 25

Ziggy Alberts, Boulder Theater, Boulder, Aug. 25

My Morning Jacket, Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Morrison, Aug. 25-26

Lil Durk, Ball Arena, Denver, Aug. 26

Jake Loggins Band, Stargazers, Aug. 26

Incubus, Weidner Field, Aug. 27

Damn Tall Buildings and Red Room Rounder, Lulu’s, Aug. 27

Vance Joy, Red Rocks Amphitheatre,

Morrison, Aug. 27

Tessa Violet, Gothic Theatre, Englewood, Aug. 27.

Duran Duran with Bastille, Nile Rodgers & Chic , Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Morrison, Aug. 28-29

LL Cool J, Ball Arena, Denver, Aug. 29

Goo Goo Dolls with O.A.R., Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre, Englewood, Aug. 30

Suzanne Santo, Lulu’s, Aug. 30

Young The Giant and Milky Chance, Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Morrison, Aug. 30

Pony Bradshaw, Lulu’s, Aug. 31

Rezz, Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Morrison, Aug 31-Sept. 1

Dawes, Caveman Music Festival, Weston, Sept. 1

The Chainsmokers, Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Morrison, Sept. 2-3

Continued at csindy.com

ENTERTAINMENT

Deafheaven brings their Sunbather 10th anniversary show to the Moon Room at Summit Music Hall in Denver on Dec. 13.

Renée Parkhurst

Not only has Amnet been recognized ten times as the Best IT Firm by Colorado Springs Business Journal readers and made its way into Better Business Bureau of Southern Colorado’s Excellence in Customer Service Hall of Fame — They also have

RULES

From Aug. 2 to Sept. 5, vote for your favorites to determine who is the Best Of Colorado Springs! Fill out this ballot or vote online at csindy.com. Vote in at least 20 categories for your vote to count. Winners will be announced in the Best Of magazine inserted in the Oct. 25 Indy !

BACK TO BASICS:

1. One ballot per reader, including online. All paper ballots must be postmarked by 5 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 5; online ballots must be submitted before midnight Sept.

5. Paper ballots must be sent via U.S. Postal Service. Faxed, handdelivered or photocopied ballots will not be accepted.

2. You must vote in at least 20 categories for your ballot to count.

3. For verification purposes, ALL BALLOTS MUST INCLUDE NAME, ZIP CODE AND A VERIFIABLE EMAIL ADDRESS.

4. If we can’t read it, it doesn’t count. Spell check is a thing; please use it.

5. Take time to review this year’s categories. Some are new. Some are gone. Quick heads-up — there must be at least three businesses operating in a given category in order for that category to appear on our ballot.

6. Cheaters never prosper so don’t even think about it. We see you and you’ll be excommunicated from future Indy love.

All fields required NAME CITY STATE ZIP

EMAIL

Mail completed ballot to: Best Of Colorado Springs · Colorado Springs Independent 235 S. Nevada Avenue., Colorado Springs, CO 80903 · Or vote online at csindy.com

When categories specify a region (North, South, East, West, Downtown), vote based on these boundaries in order for your vote to be valid: North/South dividing line: Pikes Peak Avenue.; East/West dividing line: Cascade Avenue.; Downtown: between Uintah Street and Fountain Boulevard and from Wahsatch Avenue to I-25.

HOME & GARDEN

Hardware Store

Store for Houseplants

Interior Design and Décor

Roofing Company

Remodeling Contractor

Garden Supply/Nursery

HVAC Company

Kitchens and Bathrooms

Flooring Company

Windows and Doors

Used Furniture

Electrical Contractor

Deck Builder

Sustainable/Environmental Home Improvement Co.

Painting Contractor

CANNABIS

Place for CBD Products

Recreational Marijuana Dispensary

MMJ Dispensary-Downtown

MMJ Dispensary-West

MMJ Dispensary-North

MMJ Dispensary-East

MMJ Dispensary-South

Head Shop

MMJ Dispensary-Pueblo

FOOD

Neighborhood Restaurant-West

New Restaurant (since 7.1.22)

Diner Vietnamese Chocolatier/Confections

Vegetarian/Vegan

Food Truck

Brunch Wings

Caribbean

Donuts

Green Chile

Chinese

Latin American

Indian

Neighborhood Restaurant-East

Mediterranean/Middle Eastern

Cajun

Frozen Treat

Seafood

Chef

Dessert Menu

Neighborhood Restaurant-North

Italian

Local/Regional Chain

ART EXHIBIT

ART EXHIBITS

45º Gallery, 2528 W. Colorado Ave., Suite B, 719-434-1214, 45degreegallery.com.

Gourd artist Dawn Healy and painter Michelle Lopez.

Academy Art & Frame Company, 7560 N. Academy Blvd., 719-265-6694, academyframesco.com, How Do You See God? — works by artists of “all faiths and beliefs, as well as all media, all ages, and 2D or 3D works.” Through August.

Anita Marie Fine Art, 109 S. Corona St., 719-493-5623, anitamariefineart.com. Past and Present — “original works by artists that have studied with Chuck Mardosz or Richard Dahlquist.”

Art 1eleven Gallery, 111 E. Bijou St., 719493-5084, facebook.com/Art1elevenGallery. Large-scale abstract oil paintings by Bill Stone.

Bella Art and Frame, 251 Front St., #11, Monument, 719-487-7691, bellaartandframe.com. Nature and Wildlife, photography by Tom Ulmer. Through August.

The Bridge Gallery, 218 W. Colorado Ave., #104, 719-629-7055, thebridgeartgallery. com. Clayprints, monoprints created by using clay as the printing medium Through Aug. 26.

Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College, 30 W. Dale St., 719634-5581, fac.coloradocollege.edu. Solo(s): Krista Franklin. Franklin “creates books, poetry, collages, handmade paper, installations, murals, performances, sound works, sculptures, and lectures.” Through Dec. 16. In Conversation: Krista Franklin and Ionit Behar, Thursday, Aug. 31, 6 p.m. Contested Terrains — Carolina AranibarFernández “looks at sites of extraction across the Americas.” Through Sept. 16. FAC museum free days: Sept. 9 and 15.

Commonwheel Artists Co-op, 102 Cañon Ave., Manitou Springs, 719-685-1008, commonwheel.com. 12 Hands: Works in Clay, by six Bemis School of Art ceramic instructors, shares “the joys of the many facets of the ‘mother earth’ medium — clay.” Through Aug. 28.

Cottonwood Center for the Arts, 427 E. Colorado Ave., 719-520-1899, cottonwoodcenterforthearts.com. Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, a juried show by artists from the Pikes Peak region and beyond who were asked “ to study their subject with a faithful eye, showing us a glimpse of modern life, culture, and/or experience. The goal is to communicate essential qualities that get at the ‘real’ and not the ‘ideal.’” Through Aug. 26.

Cultural Office of the Pikes Peak Region, 121 S. Tejon St., #111; facebook.com/ artsculturefun. Stone Boats, O Vases, and Other Fleeting Things, “stoneware ceramic pieces by local artist and educator Jeremiah Houck.” Through Aug. 25.

G44 Gallery, 121 E. Boulder St., 720-9510573, g44gallery.com. Suz Stovall: A Conversation with Color : “Manipulating layers of paint to reveal themselves, I allow the paint to be in control and be authentic.” Memento by Felicia Kelly, “who works mainly with ‘traditional women’s craft’ mediums with a current focus on collage. Inspired by Victorian photocollage she almost exclusively uses second-hand, used, and upcycled materials.” Through Aug. 25.

Gallery 113, 125½ N. Tejon St., 719-6345299, gallery113cos.com. Karen Standridge’s contemporary abstract paintings, and works by Mary Sexton, a rural-landscape painter working in pastels.

The Garfield Gallery, 332 E. Willamette Ave., 719-227-8836, garfieldgallery.com. Playtime by Jeffrey Allan Rozell. Using photos of ’90s-era Playboy and Playgirl

models “to envelop the awareness of fleeting beauty,” the exhibit “serves as a time capsule of exuberance that blends the body with disorder, color, and an occasional unclear form. We live in our skin as it fades with us.”

GOCA (Galleries of Contemporary Art, UCCS), Marie Walsh Sharpe Gallery, Ent Center for the Arts, 5225 N. Nevada Ave., gocadigital.org. Martha Russo’s Caesura

“her sculptural investigations appear at once fragile and potentially dangerous, cautioning one away while hypnotically drawing one in — ever closer — for intimate examination.” Through Dec. 2. Visiting artists and critics lecture, Sept. 28, 6 p.m.

Kreuser Gallery, 125 E. Boulder St., 719464-5880, kreusergallery.com. Curse You, Tiny Paintings: “Through a collection of 100 miniature oil paintings, Chris Alvarez invites viewers into a world that weaves together his life experiences and his deep connection to the landscapes of Colorado, New Mexico, and New England.” In Mas-

ter Copies — “a curated selection of master copy paintings,” Alvarez “takes on the role of interpreter, allowing us to experience the artistic vision and technique of iconic artists.” Neon Arcade, new works by Colorado Springs native Jon Francis: “I am currently focused on painting urban landscapes as a way to record, preserve, and savor what has shaped my childhood and shaped Colorado.” Through Aug. 25.

LightSpeed Curations, 306 S. 25th St., 719-308-8389, lightspeedart.art. Celebrating 50 Years of Hip-Hop, with works by Brian Tryon, Johnny Larson, Dreamscaper, Elizabeth Juvera and more.

The Look Up Gallery, 11 E. Bijou St. (inside Yobel), thelookupgallery.com. City Series, a solo show by Clay Ross: “11 large-scale paintings of Colorado Springs from a townie’s perspective.”

Manitou Art Center, 513/515 Manitou Ave., Manitou Springs, 719-685-1861, manito-

Idiom: Works by Warren Arcila — ZoneFIVE is showing a collection of Arcila’s paintings, drawings and sculptures, influenced by growing up in deeply diverse New York City in the ’60s and ’70s. Through August; 1902 E. Boulder St., zonefivecs.com.

“Summerfires” by Warren Arcila

continued on p. 20 ➔

CALENDAR

COMIC CON 2023

This year’s long-awaited weekend fan frenzy opens at 3 p.m. Friday, Aug. 25, at The Broadmoor World Arena and runs through 5 p.m. Sunday — plenty of time to ogle celebrities, bask in your favorite franchise and shop till you drop. Read our preview of the 2023 show at tinyurl.com/CS-comiccon23. Tickets at cscomiccon.com; World Arena, 3185 Venetucci Blvd.

Other times, we’re the result.” Through Aug. 26.

uartcenter.org. Father & Son, a commemoration of the life’s work of photographer Cris Pulos, who died in 2022, and a celebration of new work by Nikos Pulos.

The Peake Gallery, 14 S. Tejon St. (inside The Perk Downtown), instagram.com/ Peake_Gallery. Solo show by Aurora artist Ryan Secora upstairs and a quarterly group show on the first floor.

Portraits of Manitou by C.H. Rockey, features original town views and significant historical buildings. Manitou Springs Heritage Center, 517 Manitou Ave.; manitouspringsheritagecenter.org; through November.

Surface Gallery, 2752 W. Colorado Ave., 719-359-6966, surfacegallerycos.com. Ordinary Fields, “paintings by Betony Coons exploring Midwestern iconography in richly storied environments both personal and collective.” PARTS, new abstract works by Jes Moran, “explores the multifaceted identities in a world that often demands simplicity.” (Artist talks for Moran and Coons, Aug. 26, 11 a.m.) Connections: a Fibers Exhibition by Art Quilters With Altitude: “Our futures are frequently based on the foundations laid by our previous connections. Sometimes, we’re the catalyst for these welds.

True North Art Gallery, 31 E. Bijou St., 210-842-2476, truenorthartgallery.com. New work by 18 local artists.

UCCS Downtown, 102 S. Tejon St., downtown.uccs.edu/our-space. The Urban Animalz, a themed group art exhibition

DANCE

Blazing Brass and Fiery Dance, a benefit concert for Mt. Carmel’s One Simple Voice with Denver Brass and the Fiesta Colorado Dance Company. Saturday, Aug. 26, 7:30 p.m.; $35; Ent Center, 5225 N. Nevada Ave.; see tinyurl.com/brassdance for tickets.

FILM

Back to the Future, outdoor movie night at UCCS’ Heller Center (bring a chair and a blanket). Thursday, Aug. 24, 8:30 p.m.; free, snacks provided; 1250 North Campus Heights Drive; heller.uccs.edu/ events.

FOOD & DRINK

Pasta in the Park: A Black & White Affair,

fundraiser for TESSA of Colorado Springs. Teams compete for the best pasta sauce while guests enjoy live music; sample the sauces; try specialty cocktails, wine, whiskey/spirits and beers from local vendors; and bid on auction packages. Saturday, Aug. 26, 5:30 p.m.; TESSA, Myron Stratton Home, 2525 Colorado Hwy. 115; see tessacs.org for tickets.

Taste of Palmer Lake, “local restaurants, food vendors, and chefs come together to showcase their finest creations.” Saturday, Aug. 26, 1-4 p.m.; The Village Green, 66 Lower Glenway St., Palmer Lake; tinyurl.com/taste-PalmerLake.

Tales, Tunes & Tastes, an evening on the mountain for ages 21+ with unlimited small plates, two drink tickets plus a cash bar, and live music by local bands. Thursday, Aug. 31, 6-9:30 p.m.; Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, 4250 Cheyenne Mountain Zoo Road; see cmzoo.org/tails for tickets.

KIDS & FAMILY

Western Heritage Day at Mueller State Park, with hayrides, cowboys, kids’ stickhorse rodeo, pioneer crafts, games, Dutch oven cooking, frontier music and gold panning. Saturday, Aug. 26, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.; 21045 CO Hwy. 67, Divide; 719-687-2366, facebook.com/MuellerStateParkCo.

Altered Reality Entertainment

A’Buzz: Annual Honey Harvest & Pollinator Celebration Day — “watch beekeepers harvest honey from hives, see bees in action in their observation hive, and learn about the importance of bees and other pollinators. Activities, crafts, samples of honey and local honey available for purchase.” Saturday, Aug. 26, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.; $2; Bear Creek Nature Center, 245 Bear Creek Road; tinyurl.com/epco-fun.

Cool Science: The Magic of Harry Potter, “[l]evitate feathers and other objects; Look into the Mirror of Erised; taste Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans; find out what Hedwig has eaten; use the Sorcerer’s Stone to turn pennies into gold.” Saturday, Aug. 26., 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; general admission required; Space Foundation Discovery Center, 4425 Arrowswest Drive; tinyurl.com/cs-harryp.

Monarch Magic, the mystery of the monarch migration to Mexico. Includes an indoor presentation, make-a-craft, and a search for caterpillars and adults to tag and release for research. Saturday, Aug. 26, 10-11:30 a.m.; $5/$4 members, prepaid registration required; Fountain Creek Nature Center, 320 Peppergrass Lane, Fountain, tinyurl.com/epco-fun.

MUSEUM EXHIBIT

Black Wings: American Dreams of Flight is “the story of African Americans who, despite facing tremendous racial barriers, attained amazing achievements in aviation history. ... stories and artifacts from local Tuskegee Airmen will be on exhibit to highlight the many Black heroes in our community.” Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; free; Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum Annex, Plaza of the Rockies, 121 S. Tejon St., #100; cspm.org.

SPECIAL EVENTS

Opera Theatre of the Rockies 25th Anniversary Celebration Concert with Chamber Orchestra of the Springs, OTR

CALENDAR

chorus, and Metropolitan Opera artists soprano Brittany Renee, bass baritone Ashraf Sewailam and soprano Annamarie Zmolek. Sunday, Aug. 27, 3 p.m.; First United Methodist Church, 420 N. Nevada Ave.; see operatheatreoftherockies.org for tickets. Celebration honoring Martile Rowland (and others), “dinner, program and performances by Met soprano Brittany Renee, mezzo Stephanie Brink and tenor Eric Botto accompanied by Daniel Brink. Donations requested of $125 or more.” Tuesday, Aug. 29, doors open at 5 p.m.; Penrose House Garden Pavilion at El Pomar Foundation, 1661 Mesa Ave.; tickets, tinyurl.com/OTR-Rowland.

Race Against Violence, presented by Kingdom Builders Family Life Center — “an awareness event to help end domestic violence in our community.” A 5K race plus activities for children and adults, speakers and educational resources. Saturday, Aug. 26, 9 a.m. to noon; Panorama Park, 4540 Fenton Road; race registration and more info at kbflc.org/events.

Hot Rod & Rumble, “pre-’76 car show, drag racing, burnout and flamethrower contests, on-site pinstriping and pinup contest.” Aug. 24-27, Thursday-Sunday, see hotrodrock.com for times/tickets; Pikes Peak International Raceway, 16650 Midway Ranch Road, Fountain.

THEATER

School of Rock: The Musical, Community Cultural Collective presents the fully staged play that’s based on the movie. Three shows Aug. 25-26; $13; Colorado Springs City Auditorium, 221 E. Kiowa St., see tinyurl.com/cityaud-rock for tickets.

Lights Out: A 24 Hour Play, Lightbulb Theatre Co. will write 10 plays, rehearse them and perform all 10 — in 24 hours. It’s a fundraiser partnership with Ute Pass Cultural Center to buy a new stage curtain. Saturday, Aug. 26, doors open at 6:30 p.m.; $10; 210 E. Midland Ave.; Woodland Park; tinyurl.com/LightsOut-24.

SEPTEMBER FEATURED ARTIST: Teri Homick

Her show, Dark Reveries, emcompasses a wide variety of abstract ethereal works, including many crow paintings.

Teri’s current body of work features original paintings, embellished canvas prints, art inlaid wooden boxes, matted prints, greeting cards, and hand-painted leather bookmarks, keychains & unisex bracelets.

OPENING RECEPTION: 5-8pm on First Friday, Sept. 1st at Gallery 113 downtown.

Join

ART EXHIBIT

Jon Francis’ Neon Arcade show is open through Aug. 25 at Kreuser Gallery, 125 E. Boulder St., 719-464-5880, kreusergallery.com.

“Michelle’s” by Jon Francis

FAIR AND UNBALANCED

By Mike Littwin Courtesy The Colorado Sun

PARSING THE GEORGIA RICO CHARGES

IT’S NOT EXACTLY NEWS — AT LEAST NOT to anyone remotely familiar with the difference between the truth and a lie — that Donald Trump and his sordid, quasi-comical gang of third-raters tried mightily to undermine and overturn the 2020 presidential election.

But it is news when a prosecutor makes the criminal case so dramatically and so directly and, mostly, so on point.

In the fourth indictment brought against Trump in just four months, the former guy has finally been charged with racketeering — a term first used in a legal context during Prohibition to describe the activities of, say, Al Capone and friends — for attempting to organize what amounted to a hit on democracy. I’d say it fits perfectly.

In other words, when you read the 92-page Georgia indictment (here’s the New York Times’ annotated copy: tinyurl.com/nyt-indict) you should read it as if Trump was (OK, allegedly) no better than a mob boss, if one

who managed to hide in plain sight behind the presidential seal.

Trump was directly charged, along with Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis and Sidney Powell and Mark Meadows and John Eastman and the rest, with leading a “criminal enterprise” in the state of Georgia and elsewhere across the country. The case against Trump, 18 charged co-conspirators and 30 more unindicted coconspirators is being brought under Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, familiarly known as RICO.

The Georgia law, as presented by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, is based directly on the federal law, which is often used to combat organized crime. You may remember that back when Giuliani was still in his right mind, he first won fame as a federal prosecutor bringing racketeering cases against the New York mafia’s so-called “Five Families.” Among those he won convictions against were Anthony “Fat Tony” Salerno, Anthony “Tony Ducks” Corallo and Carmine “Junior” Persico.

Now, Willis is taking the case to Donald “Orange Donnie” Trump and his hapless henchpeople, charging them with “false statements and writings, impersonating a public officer, forgery, filing false documents, influencing witnesses, computer theft, computer trespass, computer invasion of privacy, conspiracy to defraud the state, acts involving theft and perjury.”

Richard Nixon and his plumbers could have only gazed in admiration and, I’d guess, envy.

For others, the view might not be quite so rosy. How much closer to seditious activity do you get than Trump and his team encouraging phony electors to turn in phony certificates and deliver them to the Archivist of the United States? That got Trump and others a charge of forgery and racketeering.

How much more absurd does it get than — note to Tina Peters — actively breaching a voting machine in Georgia’s Coffee County, with direct evidence that the order came from on high?

How much crueler does it get than Trump and team harassing and intimidating an entirely innocent election worker, Ruby Freeman, as well as her daughter — Trump charging that Freeman was a “professional scammer” and “hustler” in his infamous call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, Giuliani comparing her to a drug dealer in front of the Georgia Legislature? I’ll tell you how much crueler. Because of Trump and Giuliani, Freeman’s life has been under threat.

When Special Counsel Jack Smith charged Trump — and six unnamed co-conspirators — with a federal charge of attempting to overturn the election, the indictment was sleek and neat and meant to bring Trump to account as directly as possible. DA Willis’ charge is meant — just as the U.S. House Jan. 6 hearings were meant — to expose the entire crooked enterprise.

IT’S NOT CLEAR HOW OR WHEN THESE charges will eventually meet the light of day. There are many hurdles yet to be overcome, not least that this is a case brought by a local prosecutor in what amounts to a national conspiracy. But for all the Never Trumpers and anti-Trumpers and anyone who knows the difference between weaponizing the law and enforcing the law, this prosecution is the stuff that dreams are made of.

When trying this as a RICO case, Willis can bring in various charges related to the criminal enterprise of not only trying to overturn the Georgia election results but also related cases in other states, particularly those

Willis is taking the case to Donald “Orange Donnie” Trump and his hapless henchpeople.

in which the Trump team was involved in putting together slates of fake electors in order to scuttle the Jan. 6 election certification process.

There were 41 charges brought against Trump and the gang, with 13 counts brought directly against the former president. (He tied Rudy for the most counts.) Among the charges against Trump is the big one, the one that led to this prosecution — his “perfect” call insisting that Raffensperger “find 11,780 votes,” just enough to have given the state, won fairly by Joe Biden, to Trump. It was one of many calls Trump made, but this one had the advantage of having been recorded.

That vote-finding charge alone likely makes the case against Trump and could actually send him to prison, which isn’t to say that the Georgia case doesn’t have some issues. One is that Trump’s team will almost certainly attempt to make it a federal case — that’s literally, not figuratively — which would mean, were Trump to be elected, he could quash it. It could also take the case out of Atlanta, where the jury pool is heavily Democratic. And since it’s the fourth of four indictments, since RICO cases are generally complex, and since there are 19 named defendants, Willis’ case would almost certainly be the last one heard, meaning any trial would be unlikely to come until after the election. If Trump were president again, he could argue again that a case can’t be brought against a president while in office.

THERE’S ANOTHER PROBLEM, WHICH several people have brought up, as to whether a local DA should be bringing a case against a presi-

dent at all. I mean, you could imagine a small-town, right-wing Georgia prosecutor inventing charges against Biden at this very moment. That does seem like a legitimate concern.

But more concerning, at least for Trump, is that he’s now facing four cases and a total of — doing the math here — 91 counts. Those include counts from the hush money case, the purloined classified documents case, the federal election subversion case and now Georgia’s RICO case.

Meanwhile, even as he faces crushing legal bills and growing legal vulnerability, Trump contents himself with crying that, uh, Crooked Joe Biden is persecuting him while lashing out at various judges, prosecutors and witnesses, daring anyone to charge him with contempt for his contemptuous behavior.

At some point, you’d think that even for Trump, there must be limits. But people have been waiting eight years to find one. Whether a fourth case against Trump makes a bit of difference to his supporters, I have no idea. All we know is that so far Trump’s runaway GOP primary poll numbers have seemed to grow with each indictment.

This charge is different. For the first time really, we have a case that attempts to come close to the enormity of Trump’s crimes against democracy. That doesn’t mean it will make a difference. It does mean, at least, that it’s on record, for now and, if there’s any justice, for always.

Mike Littwin’s column was produced for The Colorado Sun, a reader-supported news organization committed to covering the people, places and policies of Colorado. Learn more at coloradosun.com. An alleged consigliere

LOWDOWN

By Jim Hightower jimhightower.com

Biden’s meek war on CLIMATE CHANGE

WEATHER FOREcasters across the Southwest are having a hard time this summer coming up with descriptive taglines for each day’s ever-rising heat. If 105 degrees is “hot” — what to call 110 degrees… and up? Some have quit trying, simply labeling each day: “Again.”

Luckily Joe Biden has issued bold new steps to counter the relentless climate change that’s causing this extreme killer heat. For example, workers will get “hazard alerts” telling them it’s hot. Also, a new website will urge everyone to stay hydrated. His aides say this shows that Joe is treating climate change with “the urgency it deserves.”

Excuse me while I have a political heat stroke. Urgency? The same day Biden launched his pathetic global warming “policy,” the Republican Supreme Court rubber stamped his disastrous push for the massively polluting Mountain Valley Pipeline. This 300-mile environmental scar across two states will be like adding 26 more coal-fired power plants to our climate change crisis. Then there’s his unconscionable approval this year of Willow, an oil-drilling project in the Arctic that will release hundreds of millions of tons of additional greenhouse gas emissions. Plus approving and subsidizing dozens of other fossil fuel boondoggles.

Democrats, only 20 percent express enthusiasm for his running in 2024) — there it is. People want and need presidential boldness, not a hot weather website.

MEANWHILE... HOW ABOUT A little bit of good news for a change? Specifically, good news about news.

The demise of local newspapers has been a very depressing story in the last few years, with several thousand of them gobbled up by Wall Street profiteers. Those money powers loot the publications’ assets, then callously shut down each community’s paper, or reduce them to empty news shells. So that local print journalism is passé, right?

Wrong! High-spirited, communityminded subscribers in places like Glen Rose, Texas; Hamburg, Iowa; Portland, Maine; and International Falls, Minnesota are humming an upbeat tune of regeneration that could be titled “Not Dead Yet!” In Maine, for example, five of the state’s six daily papers and 17 weeklies were sinking under the ownership of an investment group. But all were recently bought by the National Trust for Local News (nationaltrustforlocalnews.org), a nonprofit started two years ago. The trust is turning each publication over to local nonprofit owners and helping them find ways to become sustainable.

BY THE EDITORS AT ANDREWS MCMEEL

NATURE GONE WILD

PEGGY JONES, 64, OF SILSbee, Texas, got a little too close to nature for comfort on July 25 as she and her husband did yard work on their property. The New York Times reported that out of the blue, a snake fell from the sky, wrapped itself around Jones’ forearm and started to squeeze. “I immediately screamed and started swinging my arm to shake the snake off,” she said. “I was screaming, ‘Jesus, help me, please, Jesus, help me!’” But the snake hissed and struck at her face, sometimes hitting her glasses. Then, as Jones struggled, a hawk swooped down and tried to grab the snake, which it had dropped from on high, from her arm. As it wrestled with the snake, its talons slashed into Jones’ arm. Finally,

Sounds like a joke

the hawk got hold of the snake and flew off. “I looked down at my arm and it was totally covered in blood,” she said, but doctors say most of her wounds were caused by the hawk. Jones says that she is healing physically but is still having nightmares about the incident.

Field report

Worse, Biden has meekly refused to take the genuinely bold step of declaring a climate emergency, even as he’s pushed new laws to remove the people’s right to challenge corporate profiteering at the expense of climate sanity.

Yes, the Republicans are worse, but pointing that out is neither a policy nor good politics. Climate change is not a future problem, it is NOW… and people are literally feeling it. If Biden wonders why his approval rating is a woeful 40-41 percent across multiple polls (even among

Another new effort, called Cherry Road Media, has bought 77 rural papers in 17 states, most from the predatory Gannett conglomerate that wanted to dump them. Cherry Road’s business plan is simple, old-time genius — return editorial decision-making to local people and journalists who know the town, be an active presence and participant in community affairs, make the locals responsible for sustaining their town’s paper — and most important, reinvest profits in real local journalism that advances democracy.

In both of these new initiatives, the foremost mission is to serve the common good of the communities, not to pad the wealth of a few distant financiers. To learn more about these models, contact Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues: RuralJournalism.org.

The infamous “Lake Tahoe Foot Fondler” couldn’t outrun authorities forever, the New York Post reported. On Aug. 1, Mark Anthony Gonzales, 26, was arrested in Atwater, California, and charged with burglary and battery after two early July incidents at the Club Wyndham South Shore hotel in Nevada. According to police, Gonzales “entered two ... condominiums by opening unlocked screen doors. Once inside, he positioned himself at the foot of the bed and rubbed the feet of two separate adult females” in two different units. Gonzales fled when his victims woke up and confronted him. He is also suspected of trespassing and stealing women’s shoes for sexual pleasure. He was being held for extradition back to Nevada.

Bird balls

Pinecrest, Florida, has a peculiar problem: peacocks. The New York Times reported on Aug. 9 that the city has been overrun with the large, loud, destructive birds, which peck at roofs and cars and relieve themselves all over driveways. The solution? Peacock vasectomies. Dr. Don J. Harris, the veterinarian who will snip the feisty birds, said they’re “bona fide polygamists. We’re going to catch one peacock and probably stop seven females from reproducing. It’s going to have an exponential benefit.” County commissioners approved the plan, and city officials designated $7,500 a month to cover trapping and surgery.

Divers Ken Fleming and Doug Bishop were searching for clues in missing persons cold cases on Aug. 6 in Doral, Florida, when they stumbled upon an investigatory treasure chest, WSVN-TV reported. “We realized we had 32 cars underwater,” Fleming said. The divers work as volunteers and have a huge database of missing persons. “We have 40 that we’re targeting right now of folks that disappeared, anywhere from two or three months ago to 30, 40 years ago,” he said. Statewide, Fleming said they have found 60 submerged cars that may be linked to crimes. They’ll work with the county to get the vehicles removed and collect and deliver any pertinent information from them.

Flag-tack!

A Sonic Drive-In restaurant in Tulsa, Oklahoma, was the scene of a gruesome assault on Aug. 1, Fox News reported. Police arriving at the scene found a man with a flagpole — American flag still attached — through his head. They said it had entered under his jaw and exited near his right temple. Witnesses reported that the suspect, Clinton Collins, allegedly charged the victim and ran the pole through his head, saying, “That’s what he gets. He deserved it.” Collins was taken into custody immediately. Emergency responders had to cut part of the flagpole away in order to fit the victim in the ambulance. He survived but may lose an eye, police said.

IF BIDEN WONDERS WHY HIS APPROVAL RATING IS A WOEFUL 39 PERCENT, THERE IT IS.

Photo illustration assets from stock.adobe.com

The New York Times

CROSSWORD PUZZLE

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): “I don’t believe that in order to be interesting or meaningful, a relationship has to work out — in fiction or in real life.” So says Virgo novelist Elizabeth Curtis Sittenfeld, and I agree. Just because a romantic bond didn’t last forever doesn’t mean it was a waste of energy. An intimate connection you once enjoyed but then broke off might have taught you lessons that are crucial to your destiny. In accordance with astrological omens, I invite you to acknowledge and celebrate these past experiences of togetherness. Interpret them not as failures but as gifts.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): The amount of rubbish produced by the modern world is staggering: over 2 billion tons per year. To get a sense of how much that is, imagine a convoy of fully loaded garbage trucks circling the earth 24 times. You and I can diminish our contributions to this mess, though we must overcome the temptation to think our personal efforts will be futile. Can we really help save the world by buying secondhand goods, shopping at farmer’s markets, and curbing our use of paper? Maybe a little. And here’s the bonus: We enhance our mental health by reducing the waste we engender. Doing so gives us a more graceful and congenial relationship with life. The coming weeks will be an excellent time to meditate and act on this beautiful truth.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): I hope that in the coming weeks, you will wash more dishes, do more laundry, and scrub more floors than you ever have before. Clean the bathrooms with extra fervor, too. Scour the oven and refrigerator. Make your bed with extreme precision. Got all that, Scorpio? JUST KIDDING! Everything I just said was a lie. Now here’s my authentic message: Avoid grunt work. Be as loose and playful and spontaneous as you have ever been. Seek record-breaking levels of fun and amusement. Experiment with the high arts of brilliant joy and profound pleasure.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Dear Sagittarius the Archer: To be successful in the coming weeks, you don’t have to hit the exact center of the bull’s-eye every time — or even any time. Merely shooting your arrows so they land somewhere inside the fourth or third concentric rings will be a very positive development. Same is true if you are engaged in a situation with metaphorical resemblances to a game of horseshoes. Even if you don’t throw any ringers at all, just getting close could be enough to win the match. This is one time in your life when perfection isn’t necessary to win.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): I suspect you are about to escape the stuffy labyrinth. There may be a short adjustment period, but soon you will be running half wild in a liberated zone where you won’t have to dilute and censor yourself. I am not implying that your exile in the enclosed space was purely oppressive. Not at all. You learned some cool magic in there, and it will serve you well in your expansive new setting. Here’s your homework assignment: Identify three ways you will take advantage of your additional freedom.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Though my mother is a practical, sensible person with few mystical propensities, she sometimes talks about a supernatural vision she had. Her mother, my grandmother, had been disabled by a massive stroke. It left her barely able to do more than laugh and move her left arm. But months later, on the morning after grandma died, her spirit showed up in a pink ballerina dress doing ecstatic pirouettes next to my mother’s bed. My mom saw it as a communication about how joyful she was to be free of her wounded body. I mention this gift of grace because I suspect you will have at least one comparable experience in the coming weeks. Be alert for messages from your departed ancestors.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): “Those who know the truth are not equal to those who

love it,” said the ancient Chinese sage Confucius. Amen! Seeking to understand reality with cold, unfeeling rationality is at best boring and at worst destructive. I go so far as to say that it’s impossible to deeply comprehend anything or anyone unless we love them. Really! I’m not exaggerating or being poetical. In my philosophy, our quest to be awake and see truly requires us to summon an abundance of affectionate attention. I nominate you to be the champion practitioner of this approach to intelligence, Pisces. It’s your birthright! And I hope you turn it up full blast in the coming weeks.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): None of the books

I’ve written has appeared on The New York Times bestseller list. Even if my future books do well, I will never catch up with Aries writer James Patterson, who has had 260 books on the prestigious list. My sales will never rival his, either. He has earned over $800 million from the 425 million copies his readers have bought. While I don’t expect you Rams to ever boost your income to Patterson’s level, either, I suspect the next nine months will bring you unprecedented opportunities to improve your financial situation. For best results, edge your way toward doing more of what you love to do.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Addressing a lover, D.H. Lawrence said that “having you near me” meant that he would “never cease to be filled with newness.” That is a sensational compliment! I wish all of us could have such an influence in our lives: a prod that helps arouse endless novelty. Here’s the good news, Taurus: I suspect you may soon be blessed with a lively source of such stimulation, at least temporarily. Are you ready and eager to welcome an influx of freshness?

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Humans have been drinking beer for at least 13,000 years and eating bread for 14,500. We’ve enjoyed cheese for 7,500 years and popcorn for 6,500. Chances are good that at least some of these four are comfort foods for you. In the coming weeks, I suggest you get an ample share of them or any other delicious nourishments that make you feel well-grounded and deeprooted. You need to give extra care to stabilizing your foundations. You have a mandate to cultivate security, stability and constancy. Here’s your homework: Identify three things you can do to make you feel utterly at home in the world.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): On Instagram, I posted a favorite quote from poet Muriel Rukeyser: “The world is made of stories, not atoms.” I added my own thought: “You are made of stories, too.” A reader didn’t like this meme. He said it was “a nightmare for us anti-social people.” I asked him why. He said, “Because stories only happen in a social setting. To tell or hear a story is to be in a social interaction. If you’re not inclined towards such activities, it’s oppressive.” Here’s how I replied: “That’s not true for me. Many of my stories happen while I’m alone with my inner world. My nightly dreams are some of my favorite stories.” Anyway, Cancerian, I’m offering this exchange to you now because you are in a story-rich phase of your life. The tales coming your way, whether they occur in social settings or in the privacy of your own fantasies, will be extra interesting, educational and motivational. Gather them in with gusto! Celebrate them!

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Author A. Conan Doyle said, “It has long been my axiom that the little things are infinitely the most important.” Spiritual teacher John Kabat-Zinn muses, “The little things? The little moments? They aren’t little.” Here’s author Robert Brault’s advice: “Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.” Ancient Chinese sage Lao-Tzu provides a further nuance: “To know you have enough is to be rich.” Let’s add one more clue, from author Alice Walker: “I try to teach my heart to want nothing it can’t have.”

53 Stringed instrument in some psychedelic music

54 Kitchen wrap?

56 Yes, to Yves

Residue from a barbecue 58 Roll with it! 61 Thurman of “Pulp Fiction” 62 Slowpoke

EDITED BY WILL SHORTZ

1 Ruler of a mythological underworld

2 A court may be in the middle of one

3 Look of a room

4 Big ___ (serious favor)

5 “Sorry, not sorry!”

6 Morph into

7 Event often in caps on a syllabus

8 Can’t-miss

9 Not even 10 Creator of a spread

11 Winning feat achieved twice by the Green Bay Packers (1929-31, 1965-67)

12 Breaks down

15 Respect

18 Rummage (around)

23 Lead-in to country or rock

25 2006 animated film that really should have starred Adam Driver and Parker Posey?

27 Not good

29 Defend the hive, in a way

30 Tips

31 One getting pwned, often

32 Classic melodramatic cry 33 “Seriously!” 37 Kind of mark 38 Be forlorn 39 Prominent instrument in “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’” 41 Like a cutie patootie 44 Record label for Diana Ross and Elvis Presley 45 Hazards 46 Neuron fiber 47 Karaoke participant 50 A goner 51 Pioneer in calculus notation 52 Humdinger 53 Pulitzer winner Bellow 55 Demi-___ (ballet move) 59 United 60 Modern love?

Find the answers on p. 31

Focus Transportation

‘Bus’ted record

Mountain Metro Transit ridership higher than ever

BY AMANDA MILLER LUCIANO

Colorado Springs buses gave more rides this July than in any other month — ever. But the surge came during a grant-funded summer of free fares and follows three years of record-low ridership during the COVID pandemic.

The Zero Fare for Better Air state initiative that allowed Mountain Metro Transit to offer free bus rides from June 1 to Aug. 31 could be a catalyst for bringing riders back. That, and some significant internal changes in operations and the addition of a few new routes and technologies, could bring Colorado Springs public transportation back

to levels not seen since the Great Recession forced major budget cuts in 2009.

Mountain Metro gave 353,189 rides this July.

“The last record we had was in 2008. It was 347,194 trips,” says Elaine Sheridan, senior public communications specialist for MMT. “At the time we offered FREX, a commuter bus to Denver and the Ute Pass Express that ran from downtown Colorado Springs to Divide.”

Those were popular routes that drove a lot of traffic. Since much of the city revenue comes from sales tax, the down economy that started in 2008 forced the city

to cut those commuter and other services, and ridership numbers plummeted.

Mountain Metro was rebounding from that downturn and logged 304,345 rides in July of 2019. Then came COVID. The bus system gave only about 150,000 rides in July of 2020, at the height of the pandemic.

MMT struggled with low ridership and challenges in hiring and retaining qualified bus drivers over the last few years, Sheridan says.

“We ended up changing contractors and giving more to the contractor to fund the cost of getting bus drivers,” she

Courtesy Mountain Metro Transit

says. “They needed to be able to offer a very competitive salary and benefits package.”

Mountain Metro Transit is a city enterprise that owns all of the buses in its fleet but hires operations contractors to manage drivers, dispatchers and logistics. MMT also hires a contractor to handle maintenance and repairs. In February, MMT hired Transdev as its operations contractor. Transdev, a major international busing contractor, already handled Mountain Metro’s maintenance and repair division. The company advertises a starting pay of $25.60 per hour for bus drivers in Colorado Springs.

“It’s really been kind of a slow crawl to get drivers and riders back,” says Sheridan. “We’ve been bringing it back route by route and increasing as much as we can with the drivers and buses we have.”

But the transition to the new contractor at the start of the year did result in some rapid staffing gains that allowed MMT to restore services to pre-pandemic levels and to add a Downtown shuttle and a new route on the northeast side of town.

Supply chain issues are still causing challenges when there are mechanical issues with the buses, Sheridan says. So there’s no room to add any more services at this time, and MMT sometimes struggles to keep enough buses in rotation on certain routes.

“We try not to cut services,” Sheridan says. “The people who do use the bus, really rely on it. It can be pretty devastating when you cut a route.”

Mountain Metro Transit does surveys of riders to determine who is riding, but doesn’t yet have data for the summer of free rides. Typically, riders are local people getting to work and shopping.

The routes that serve the Manitou Incline and Cog Railroad see a lot of tourism traffic and a lot of locals head -

ing to recreate. There is also often tourist traffic on Route 3 between downtown Colorado Springs and Manitou Springs. There’s certainly tourist traffic on the Downtown shuttle, Sheridan says.

More homeless people have also probably taken advantage of the free rides. The buses are air-conditioned and riders can charge their phones for free.

“They really couldn’t sit on the bus all day,” Sheridan says. “We have an ordinance that everyone has to get off at the end of the line.”

MMT doesn’t track information that would identify homeless riders.

“Anyone can get on a city bus,” Sheridan says. “It’s public transportation and we welcome anybody and everybody.”

The summer of free fares was made possible by Senate Bill 22-180 and House Bill 23-1101. The bills were designed to reduce ground-level ozone by increasing the use of public transit. Mountain Metro Transit did receive grant funding for one month of free fares in the summer of 2022, thanks to the Senate bill. But the enterprise didn’t know the funding was secure until the last minute. The 2022 free fare period was underway before it could even be advertised.

“This year, we knew in advance and we put ads on our buses and bus benches and we went all out so that people knew this was happening,” Sheridan says. “Also, our service has increased a whole lot. We have new routes and longer hours. We’ve also made our service more user-friendly. Those are all big contributing factors to the record.”

To make the bus more user-friendly, MMT introduced and app that allows passengers to use their smart phones

rather than fussing with cash and change.

Once fares resume in September, the transit service will be rolling out a new reloadable fare card as well, and is introducing a new fare cap system.

The cost for a single trip is $1.75. A day pass is $4 and a 31-day pass is $63. With the new fare cap system, a rider will be able to pay one ride at a time, but will never pay more than $4 a day or $63 a month.

Under the previous system, “if you buy a pass, you have to pay $63 at once,” Sheridan says. “That’s hard for a lot of our riders to do.”

— Elaine Sheridan

She says riders will be able to reload their cards online and there will be several physical locations where riders will be able to add money to their cards with cash, which will be especially helpful to those who do not have bank accounts. Between the new fare cards and the app, the buses are becoming more efficient, which should make them more reliable.

August typically has the highest ridership numbers of the year, Sheridan says. That could be because there’s still tourism traffic on some of the routes and there could be additional back-to-school activity. Combined with free fares in August, MMT expects ridership to be especially strong.

“It will be interesting to see how this August compares,” Sheridan says. “People have really loved the free fares. We wish it could continue. We will always go after whatever grants are out there.” n CSBJ

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5 Questions: Erin Maruzzella Innovations in Aging

BY KATHERINE ATHERTON

Erin Maruzzella is the executive director of the nonprofit Innovations in Aging. Through her work, Maruzzella encourages the Colorado Springs community to consider how they want the world to look as they get older — and start building that world today.

What inspired your interest in geriatric health care and innovation?

I ask a lot of people this question; how did we end up serving older adults? Because a lot of people get there by accident. I got there by accident. I was in school to be a speech therapist, and I thought I was going to work with kids — like most people who go into speech therapy. I ended up really loving medical speech therapy. I ended up at Duke [University] Hospital for my fellowship, and then when the fellowship was over, I took a job in a nursing home, very randomly. I had no idea how much I was going to absolutely love working with older adults. … It just touched my heart in a way that I wasn’t expecting, to work with older adults. They’re fun to talk to, and I can give my attention for a long time one-on-one.

What is your work like with the Innovations in Aging Collaborative?

We’re a nonprofit, and we work with the city of Colorado Springs and with El Paso County to build our community so that no one gets ‘too old to live here.’ ... I feel like sometimes it’s hard for people to see themselves in our mission. That’s natural, because we have these breaks in our awareness of people around us — so when we’re

20, 40, 60, we don’t think about people who are 60, 80, 100, necessarily.

I ask people to look around their lives: What do you want to have always? Do you want to use the bus? Do you want to go for a hike? Do you want to go to the farmers market? Do you want to come to an art class? … So what I want is that, no matter how old you are, you can keep doing the things that you love here.

That’s what we do. We partner with transportation, housing, health care, the Parks, [Recreation and Cultural Services] Department, the arts community, and small businesses, so that we can adapt these public spaces so everyone has access, no matter how old they are.

It is so much fun. We have a few different initiatives at Innovations in Aging. We have our Age-Friendly program and that’s an international designation, an international framework from the World Health Organization, for communities that want to serve aging intentionally and well. It’s kind of social determinants of health. As a health care worker, I think everything is health care. Parks are health care; art is health care; civic engagement, being able to meet your girlfriends out for a coffee is health care.

So the World Health Organization created this framework in the United States, it’s overseen by the AARP. Colorado Springs, through Innovations in Aging, applied for an Age-Friendly designation in 2015, and in 2023, El Paso County applied for the designation as well through our organization. We live in an Age-Friendly city. We live in an Age-Friendly county.

Photo by Katherine Atherton

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ALMAGRE

2460 Montebello Square Drive

Hear Kevin talk about building a culture of kindness and how challenges are married to opportunities.

Kevin Shaughnessy

Partner and Executive Vice President at Phil Long Dealerships

The United States of America thinks that Colorado Springs is a leader in the way that we do this work, which I’m very proud of, and I want people to feel proud that they live in a place that cares about our older adults. It’s all about building the community so that people can interact and continue their lives and the things they love.

We also work with businesses to make sure that they can both [offer] jobs for older adults who want them, and that businesses can create their space to be accessible for older adults. I tell people all the time, if Disney World was not age-friendly (which is our term for stuff that is accessible for older adults), they would lose so much money. My mom goes to Disney World with my niece and nephew, and she spends money there, and she is in her 60s. So if Disney World was not a place that catered to the needs of retired adults, then they would lose money — and it’s the same for all businesses and for our small business community here in Colorado Springs. A lot of times it’s not that hard to do — just one little thing that would make your business more accessible, more inviting for retired adults.

(Editor’s note: Find Erin’s extended answer at csbj.com.)

How do you think Colorado Springs stacks up on the 8 Domains of Livability? (8 Domains is a framework set up

by AARP to help cities better serve the needs of older people.)

The AARP rates cities differently depending on how large they are, which is awesome, because we’re not San Francisco; we’re not New York City. However, we’re growing and Colorado Springs is about to cross into the same group as San Francisco and New York City. When we get there, by comparison, it might not look like we’re doing the same as our peers. I think community work placemaking is hard, and it’s always a work in progress. Because no place is perfect. The thing that we’re doing really well in Colorado Springs is we’re thinking about it, and we’re talking about it, and we’re intentionally working to make it better. I think that the places that suffer the most are the ones that don’t pay attention and aren’t trying, because Americans are getting older fast.

How do you think we can better serve our aging population as individuals and as a community?

I think that we need to be intentional about seeing the differences about individuals as we age, and consider how someone’s experience is different than ours. I think that that is a good way to serve aging — to ask questions and to listen and to understand what people need — because as a society we act like 20 is the same as 40 is the same as 60, and it’s very differ-

ent. It just gets more and more different as we get older.

I love my kindergarten chair story. I have to find a way to help people see themselves in our mission, and the best example that I have of age-friendly design, which is what we do, is the kindergarten chair. Have you ever been to kindergarten — like the kindergarten you went to? The chairs are small, and it makes sense that they’re small because kindergarteners are small humans. We don’t ask them to sit in a chair that’s built for an 18-year-old who’s about to graduate from high school. We also do not ask a fifth grader to call the mayor and say, ‘Hello, I’m bigger now. Can I have a bigger chair?’ We anticipate growth from kindergarten to high school and we give people bigger chairs every year, so you don’t even notice that the chair gets bigger. And yet, when we graduate from high school, we hang a sign on people that says, ‘You’re an adult now. Goodbye forever!’ But 20 is not 40 is not 60 is not 80.

What we do at Innovations in Aging is we try to anticipate the needs and opportunities for people who are aging, because I don’t want someone to have to call the mayor and say, ‘I can’t use the bus because I can’t get my walker down the aisle.’ I don’t want someone to have to call the mayor and say, ‘I would love to go to the park, but I can’t step up on the curb because it’s six inches high.’ We want the commu-

nity to be as seamless as we age as it can be. It’s possible.

Tell us about your work with the Women’s Chamber of Commerce Foundation.

I am the child of first-generation college attendees, and I did not realize until very recently that that was special. I see how my life has been impacted by the fact that my parents had the opportunity. My parents were the first in their families out of hundreds of cousins to go to college, and then my brothers and I were the second. We have had so many blessings because my parents were given that opportunity. Something about that — now that I know how special it is — just warms my heart and I understand the impact that I could have by giving back. The Southern Colorado Women’s Chamber of Commerce Foundation works to give back to women and girls who might need that extra help to make it, and I see it kind of like paving the runway to success. Sometimes there’s a small barrier to success in high school or in college. People just need one person to believe in them and to tell them that they can and they will be successful and they’re smart and they’re worthwhile. I have seen the power of education in my own family, so to be able to give back in my community in that way, it’s just so wonderful. I’m so glad to live in a community with such a big heart. n CSBJ

Front The

Honoring their sacrifice

Mt. Carmel Veterans Service Center commemorates Patriot Day

The bell will toll seven times and is part of the ceremony that also includes a Taps rendition from buglers, bagpipes, muskets, and drums as we stand together in reverence to honor and remember America’s fallen.

But as always, Mt. Carmel is here to thank and serve our current active-duty military, veterans, and their families. At 9 a.m., Patriot Day event attendees will march to the parking lot at the Norris Penrose Event Center where Care and Share Food Bank of Southern Colorado will provide food bags for 400 military members, veterans, their families and the community.

This event highlights Mt. Carmel and the support it provides to military, veterans and families. The center, founded in 2016 by Phil Long Dealerships’ CEO Jay Cimino, not only provides food and housing support for the veteran population in El Paso County, Pueblo, Trinidad and Westcliffe, but also assists with transitioning from the military, employment assistance for spouses, mentorship through a partnership with El Pomar Foundation, and health and wellness to provide a holistic, interlocking web of support for our veteran community.

Images from Sept. 11, 2001, at the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., are part of our national memory. The events on that day took almost 3,000 lives, damaged countless families and changed the course of our nation. Sept. 11 is also the day the nation celebrates Patriot Day.

On Sept. 1, Mt. Carmel Veterans Service Center will hold its Patriot Day Give Back fundraising event, to honor the lives lost during the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and the service members who made the ultimate sacrifice for their nation in the years since.

This year, as part of Mt. Carmel’s partnership with Comcast, British Royal Navy veteran and celebrity chef, Robert Irvine, will lead the opening ceremonies. Irvine has been recognized by the U.S. Navy as an honorary chief petty officer and received the Bob Hope Award from the Medal of Honor Society. He now stars in a popular cable network cooking show, and owns two successful restaurants and several food and beverage-related businesses.

A portion of the proceeds from those business endeavors supports the Robert Irvine Foundation, created in 2014 to give back to service members and first responders. That money helps in several ways: training service dogs; making mental health and wellness services available to more veterans; and providing mobility devices for the disabled.

Each, year, Sept. 11 is a somber reminder of the sacrifices made during the Global War on Terror and the lives lost at the World Trade center and the Pentagon. Mt. Carmel honors their memory and celebrates our partners who help support the veterans and military members who have served our nation.

On Sept. 1, Mt. Carmel will also highlight one of our partners who is receiving the Dan Koenigsman Community Partner Award. Koenigsman is a former executive at the Red Noland Auto Group who had donated time and money to Mt. Carmel over the years. After he died, Mt. Carmel created the award in his honor. His widow, Ann Koenigsman of accounting firm,

Stockman Kast Ryan + Co, along with Red Noland Auto Group officials, will present the award.

The ceremony ends with the tolling of the Honor Bell. For those unfamiliar with the history of the Honor Bell, it’s a Colorado tradition at military events around the state. The 1,000-pound bell tolls at public ceremonies and funerals to signal respect and publicly acknowledge the loss we feel for our fallen comrades. When it was cast, artifacts from 12 deceased Colorado service members from World War II to the Global War on Terror were added to the molten bronze, representing veterans, past, present and future.

Mt. Carmel also partners with UCHealth, housing the Next Chapter program, a wellness-based initiative geared to preventing veteran suicide through addressing underlying needs and concerns — in addition to behavioral health services. The state-funded grant program now operates in Pueblo as well as Colorado Springs.

Patriot Day is about remembering those who sacrificed their lives on behalf of this great nation and those who died on Sept. 11, 2001. But even as we honor their lives, it’s also about helping those who live here in our city. Mt. Carmel is proud to serve in both roles.

For more information about Mt. Carmel Veterans Service Center and Patriot Day, visit veteranscenter.org

Col. Bob McLaughlin [Ret.] is executive director of the Mt. Carmel Veterans Service Center. He began developing the concept immediately after retiring from over 28 years of service in the U.S. Army in 2014. Mt. Carmel serves and supports military, veterans and their families assisting with food, housing, employment and health and wellness services.

Veterans Voice News Service, presented by The Veterans Voice Project and Mt. Carmel Veterans Service Center, provides weekly, military and business-themed news, analysis and commentary for The Front in partnership with the Colorado Springs Business Journal

We stand together in reverence to honor and remember America’s fallen.

Bob McLaughlin

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