Category: Opinion

As a longtime art collector, I was horrified but not surprised when someone bought a banana duct taped to the wall for more than $6 million. It was the product of a well-known art prankster, who profited mightily by the buyer’s taste (pun intended). According to the august scribes of the New York Times, “Five […]

It was great to be back in Grenada, footloose and fancy free. I had saved a few bucks, and the Seymour estate agreed to give me a few months to pay them for Imamou. I eventually renamed her Samantha, and once again immersed myself in island joy. There was a certain cachet in being a […]

[This guest column was written in response to the Pikes Peak Bulletin article “Now it’s gone: Homeless say CSPD destroys belongings” in our Oct. 25 edition. — ed] Consider CSPD’s official process for retrieving confiscated belongings. According to CSPD Public Relations Manager Ira Cronin, “It’s easiest if they have a state-issued ID,” and they “prefer […]

Intro to the Hazlehurst Memoirs Nov. 5, 2024 – Election Day! Like many of us in our sadly divided electorate, I’m dismayed. If my preferred candidate doesn’t win the presidency, I think the nation will go to hell in a handbasket. But concerned as I am by the fate of our country, I’m also troubled […]

Intro to the Hazlehurst Memoirs Nov. 5, 2024 – Election Day! Like many of us in our sadly divided electorate, I’m dismayed. If my preferred candidate doesn’t win the presidency, I think the nation will go to hell in a handbasket. But concerned as I am by the fate of our country, I’m also troubled […]

Intro to the Hazlehurst Memoirs Nov. 5, 2024 – Election Day! Like many of us in our sadly divided electorate, I’m dismayed. If my preferred candidate doesn’t win the presidency, I think the nation will go to hell in a handbasket. But concerned as I am by the fate of our country, I’m also troubled […]

Wednesday, Oct. 11 – just another beautiful October day, somewhat diminished by the prospect of Thursday’s plastic surgery to rebuild my nose after the removal of some cancerous spots. I’d already had a little chopping, but this was the real thing: general anesthesia, lots of tiny stitches and a few days of discomfort. No big […]

Without a major wildfire that wipes out a large portion of our mountain backdrop or a major recession, the Pikes Peak Region will grow to a million and Colorado Springs to 750,000 people over the next two decades. And our current 25 million tourists who visit our region every year will likely increase as well. […]

What’s the difference between an art collector and an art hoarder? I found out last weekend, when I tried sporadically to get rid of some of the framed paintings, posters, drawings, lithographs, etchings, watercolors and sketches that clutter our closets. And why are they in the closets? Because there’s no room on our walls, where […]

Do you enjoy forests, wildlife, comfortable weather and clean drinking water? Do you want your descendants to be able to enjoy them as well? If so, then you care about climate change! This global phenomenon affects everyone regardless of political affiliation, yet it has received less attention than it merits during this Presidential election season. […]

These last months I have learned more than I ever wanted to know about the brutal, unsporting killing of Colorado mountain lions and bobcats for their heads and beautiful coats. I have also learned more than I ever wanted to know about how trophy hunters freely use misleading pseudo-science to trick voters. Spoiler alert: if […]

What do humans do for shelter and safety? We may have started in caves, but we soon began to build. Thatched huts soon became encampments, villages, towns, cities and metropolises. As migrants from coastal and midwestern states poured into Colorado Territory in 1859, settlements that would grow into cities sprung up along the Front Range. […]

Hello! My name is Ryan Lloyd. I’ve been a resident of the Westside for over 15 years. In 2008, I founded Echo Architecture, a local architecture firm focused on “thoughtful design that is sustainable, memorable and inspirational to our local community.” In 2021, we made the very intentional decision to move our operations from Downtown […]

Thanks to J.D. Vance, we can assume that many “childless cat ladies” that might have voted for the Trump-Vance ticket have migrated to Harris-Walz, but what about all the childless (and not childless) dog people? Trump has reportedly never owned a dog and doesn’t seem to like them. That may have contributed to his defeat […]

The great 18th-century French diplomat Charles Talleyrand said of the exiled Bourbons, who sought to return the Monarchy after the French Revolution, that they had “learnt nothing and forgotten nothing.” After four grumpy years in exile at Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump seeks return and restoration. He still believes (or pretends to believe) that he won in […]

Here’s some good news for businesses in Old Colorado City and the historic Westside: our friendly rivals in Downtown Colorado Springs are about to spend millions of dollars to screw up Tejon Street between Colorado Avenue and Boulder. The “Tejon Street Revitalization Project” will do away with diagonal parking, eliminate the center lane, create bike […]

We may be, as our national anthem reminds us, “The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave,” but we’re also a nation of noisemakers. Here on the Westside, we have a daily dose of noise from multiple sources, including automobile and truck traffic, motorcycles, trains, helicopters, fixed-wing aircraft, barking dogs, gunshots and/or […]

November 5, 1940. That was the day that Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected to a third term, much to the dismay of my staunchly Republican father. It was also the day his only son was born, triggering multiple telegrams from his pals suggesting that the child should be named Franklin Roosevelt Hazlehurst. He chose to […]

On November 5, residents and business owners within the boundaries of the proposed Old Colorado City Downtown Development Authority (DDA) will likely have their votes tallied on whether to authorize its creation. If approved, the district will extend to the Colorado Springs and Manitou Springs boundary to the west; to the north by the alley […]

Manitou Springs is full of larger-than-life personas – think of civic legends like former Mayor and Colorado state representative Marcy Morrison, artist Charles Rockey and the legendary Emma Crawford, whose coffin slid down Red Mountain during a heavy rainstorm in 1929. Manitoids see themselves as quirky and fun, sharply contrasting with the dull and duty-driven […]

Looking for something else?

Support Local Journalism!

We’re a community-powered nonprofit organization and we can’t fulfill our mission without you. We need your voices, viewpoints, and financial support.