Sunday, February 20, 2005

More Evidence of Dysfunctional Business Efforts

If you want to attract business to downtown, don’t put government offices in prime real estate locations.

I understand that the City and County Public Health Department is looking for new, or rather different, office space. I can appreciate that need. However, since we’re on the topic of apparent dysfunctional efforts to attract business to Pueblo, let’s talk about this activity.

It seems that there are five locations on the short-list for Public Health’s new digs. One of which is the old Holmes Hardware building. A very nice old building with lots of history, lots of space, lots of parking and lots of useful years ahead of it. Strategically situated at the intersection of Union and B Streets, on the corner of the restoration effort of the historic Union district, it has a commanding presence that many a major retailor would covet, like an anchor location in a major mall.

So, tell me….what is the logic of putting a government agency there? Will it enhance the retail activities of the district? Hardly. So why are the City Fathers not saying, “No way!” As it is, I have not heard a peep out of them about this.

Chuck Green, in today’s editorial, touched on dysfunctional efforts to attract good business to Pueblo. He also mentioned the city’s apparent disregard for historical structures. Here, with the Publich Health Department’s interest in Holmes Hardware, we see both of these fused in perfect synchronicity. Let’s make a government building out of a perfectly good business opportunity.

What we REALLY need in the old Holmes Hardware building is a retail magnet that will draw consumer business to the historic Union District. Not a government agency that will do nothing for commerce in downtown. Something like Borders. I’ve called Borders about the possibility. And although I didn’t do lunch with their CEO, I got the distinct impression that they’d look at the idea.

I mean, Circuit City is okay. So is Barnes and Noble. But they are not Borders. We could use a bit more serious competition in that segment. More attractive shopping opportunities scattered about the city, especially in downtown. And whereas we cannot do well without the Public Health Department, could they not do their work just as well in one of those big vacant buildings along the southern stretch of Santa Fe?

I think so. But I’m just a grunt. I could run the logistical activities of a heavy brigade in contact with an ‘enemy’ out of a trunk in the corner of a rat-infested, abandoned rail car. Along with the rest of the brigade staff crammed in there with me. I had a roof over my head to keep out the rain and my feet were dry. But I’m easily pleased…when it comes to where I work. Not when it comes to where I live.

Troubles In ‘Paradise’

There’s TROUBLE. Right here in River City….

Chuck Green has an interesting editorial in today’s Pueblo Chieftain. The reverse side of the Pueblo coin. Last week he editorialized on why this is a great place to live. Today, he shows us the other side of the coin. Listing the flaws in the object that makes it less than perfect condition. And the list is interesting.

• The ‘ugly’ face of downtown people see as they whiz past on I-25.
• I-25 exits that drop people into ‘ugly’ neighborhoods.
• Inadequate ‘signage’ that fails to promote this place properly.
• A self-esteem issue. Heh….
• Resistance to change.
• Highest teen pregnancy rate in Colorado.
• A disregard for the historic aspects of the city.
• Apparent dysfunctional industry attracting activities.
• An apparent collection of skeletons in a closet; some of which are about to open the door and step into the living room. Presumably to dance a merry jig for eveyrone’s entertainment.

I can’t speak to the secrets he’s referring to in the last bullet. I don’t know what these skeletons look like. He does and I look forward to watching the dancing and commensurate excitement that will result.

I can speak to some of the other issues he mentions. And I think I will. And I invite others to chime in with their opinions. This blog has been established for such a discussion as this. It’s the ideal place for people to actually get a ‘letter to the editor’ published. And in such a fashion as for the whole world to see; that which bothers to look here.

Over the next few days, I’ll address the various bullets. I hope others here have the courage to contribute their thoughts.

Monday, February 14, 2005

Super-Slab SITREP — 050214

House action completed.

According to the Pueblo Chieftain, HB 1030, the legislation to authorize an initial step in the establishment of a four-lane super highway and dual-railroad system to the east of the Front Range metropolitan areas, has passed the state House vote.

This is good news. Actually, this is great news. The momentum is building for building something every city along the Front Range desparately needs, relief from the congestion on I-25 and the rail net.

Forward thinking people, most especially transportation planners and urban developers, will need to re-examine some concepts I’ve heard batted about over the last year or so.

Saturday, February 05, 2005

Mutual Respect Requires Honesty

The police department’s efforts to win the trust of the citizens will be in vain if it is not willing to examine actions in the public light.

Juan Espinosa, of the Pueblo Chieftain staff, has a good ‘editorial’ in today’s edition. He’s addressing last Thursday’s efforts at public relations efforts conducted by the city with regards to the growing concern that the Pueblo Police Department has an attitude problem.

This segment of the article caught my attention….

Pino’s family questioned why police have been reluctant to release reports on the incidents that led to the young man’s shooting. A lawyer for the family said Police Chief Jim Billings had not returned calls from the family. Chief Billings countered by saying the family had missed an appointment with him to discuss the case. He offered to set another date. Pino’s mother said she was not ready.

The question that it brought to my mind is, where is the official police and coroner’s report on the shooting of Daniel Pino? Surely they have been completed and are on available. What does it take to see the reports? A Freedom Of Information Act law suit?

I remember my days living in Lincoln, Nebraska, in the 70s. I recall two incidents where the police had to kill someone in their contacts with the citizens. One incident was right out of Clint Eastwood’s Play Misty for Me. A mentally unstable man came out of the door of his room with a kitchen knife and attempted to stab one of the detectives who had come to question him about a reported criminal activity. In the other incident a guy started shooting at the officers. In both instances, the LPD held a public hearing to explain their official reports on the incidents. The citizens respected the police department’s actions in both instances. The public hearing to brief the citizens worked very well in accomplishing that.

I would suggest that it would be in everyone’s interest if the PPD adopted the same policy. If someone is shot by an officer, then the PPD should hold a public hearing to explain the exact circumstances surrounding the incident.

Friday, February 04, 2005

New Sidebars

More and better things to see and do and places to go/stay.

I’ve expanded the sidebars (see left-hand side of the blog at the main level). I’d like to tout some of the great places to go, things to do/see and places to stay in town. So I’ve added some sidebar boxes to assist in that.

If you can recommend any others, I’ll be happy to try them out for myself, as best I can. Send an e-mail to ADMINISTRATION.

And Thanks!

Deadly Encounters

The police, suspects and the use of deadly force.

According to the Pueblo Chieftain, last night a group of city officials met with a number of citizens on the issue of police public relations. It was, apparently, an interesting discussion. Wish I could have been there, but I was zonked after having my head buried in computer code all day. Went to bed early.

From the article, it appears that the Pueblo Police Department (PPD) is on the spot for a number of things ranging from allegations of targeting parts of the population based on ethnic background to being overly quick with the use of force in contacts with the civlian population, i.e., you know…us regular folks, the daily, ununiformed residents. Matters have come to a head with the killing of one Daniel Pino; a 17-year old who was involved in a car chase with the police and had a pistol visibly in his possession. Pino was shot dead by a PPD officer while he was trying to exit his car after the officer had rammed it, to end the chase. Or so I recall.

I was disappointed reading about this tragedy in the paper the next day. And I got to thinking about how often I hear about the police in so many instances using their weapons to kill people. It’s not only here, but Denver, California, etc., etc., etc. I seldom hear reports of the police disabling a suspect with their weapons. More often than not, it seems their approach is ‘shoot to kill’. And I’m getting curious about that. I’d like to see some statistics on the number of times a police officer pulls their service weapon and shoots and what is the break-out of data in terms of:

• Number of officers involved.
• Number of targets.
• Number of rounds fired.
• Number of hits.
• Number of wounded.
• Number of dead.

Heck, even in training ‘accidents’ at police training facilities I hear that when an officer is shot, by ‘accident’, they are usually killed. It may be that the wounded ones don’t make the news. A dead one certainly seems to.

Maybe the police have a ‘shoot to kill’ mentality that needs to be reviewed. Based on our new District Attorney’s comments, as reported in the article, there may be something to that. According to the Chieftain’s article…

District Attorney Bill Thiebaut offered his own perspective.

“When it comes to high-risk confrontations with armed citizens, we need to set a precedent to use non-lethal force,” he said. “We also have to realize there are situations that cause peril.”

Thiebaut said it could be beneficial to develop community-wide standards for law enforcement personnel that dictate when it’s appropriate to use lethal force.

“I want to make sure all law enforcement entities in this county know what the rules are,” he said. “We don’t need any more deaths in this community. We also need to use the grand jury system more than it’s been used, and I intend to.”

Thiebaut’s remarks were greeted with a standing ovation from a majority of the civilians in the audience, but received a chilly reaction from police in the crowd.

That’s interesting, because earlier in the article I read….

...Judge Dennis Maes and [Police Chief Jim] Billings said safeguards ensure proper police behavior are already in place.

Looks like there may be something of a disconnect here. If there are safeguards in place for the use of deadly force, it seems that the DA would like to know what they are.

So would I and, perhaps, a number of other people.

The Super Slab, Politicians and Economics

Who pays for the super slab?

In the Pueblo Chieftain article, I mentioned the other day, the state legislature taking up the idea of a ‘super-slab’ to the east of town, Representative Buffie McFayden (D-Pueblo West) expressed concerns that truckers not be charged so much for use of the toll road that they would not care to use it. I didn’t think much of the concern.

Today, Mr. Rawlings’ editorial reminds me of McFayden’s concern. So I thought I’d explain why it should not be such a concern to us.

It’s all about economics. Yes. Taxpayer money will be used to build it, but the tolls will pay the taxpayers back; one way or another. And then some, if this beastie is built and operated properly. The only difference is the rate at which the taxpayers will realize the return and that will be based on usage, which will, in part, be based on the level of the toll.

The higher the toll, the lower the usage. However, remember this, the trucks and trains are not going to ‘eat’ the tolls. No indeed. Not by a long shot. They are not that altruistic. They are going to pass all of those tolls on to whomever is buying the supplies and services they are carrying. They are already doing it, today, with every drop of fuel, wear on equipment and minute wasted in traffic in Colorado Springs and Denver and other such choke points. Not to mention all the ancillary joys of diesel exhaust pollution and congestion they give back to the cities.

So, I don’t worry about the expense of the tolls being a serious threat to truckers. There may be some independent/wild-catter operators that will avoid it. Indeed, I’m curious what sort of percentage that could be. But I do not see it as a threat to the vast majority of outfits involved in over-the-road transportation.

I’m confident that people who manage the super slab will come to a toll rate that will squeeze as much out of the users as they think they can get away with. They’re not altruistic either. And I’m equally confident the truckers and rail roads will pass all of those expenses onto those who ultimately use whatever it is they are hauling.

Whatever the rate is, I’m sure it will be less than what we are paying now. That includes the delights of additional pollution and congestion at those choke points. I just wonder how long it will be before we consumers see the benefits in terms of savings passed on to us by the haulers, distributors and retailors? Anybody want to start a pool?

18-Wheeled Blips

700 of em, per day. And each one of them is a big one.

It could be described as the Wal-Mart Express; a variation on a theme of hard driving truckers keeping US forces supplied to fight the war in Europe during World War II. [Note: Those Third Army guys. They were SUCH ‘consumers’.]

It’s supposed to be around 700 18-wheelers on US 50 each day moving between heaven knows where and the proposed Wal-Mart distribution center near the intersection of US 50 and Purcell Boulevard in Pueblo West.

The Pueblo Chieftain carries an article in yesterday’s paper on the impact of all the trucks on US 50, according to a contracted consulting firm, Kimley-Horn and Associates. According to the article, K-H & A think the traffic will increase by 1 truck every 2 minutes; they calculate a rate of 30 trucks an hour. The article doesn’t say it, but that looks an awful lot like an ‘average’. Life, usually, does not work in reality by averages. The average family does not REALLY have 2.4 children. The .4 child would be having a hard time of it. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) would have been a way of life back in the 18th Century, if that were true.

So, a few questions, if you will indulge me.

What are the assumptions involved in this estimate/report?

Will the Wal-Mart facility be operating at full capacity and crew 24-hours a day?

Or will there be more work accomplished in one part of the day than in another?

If the latter, what is the difference and what is the impact on the density of truck traffic?

I’ve travelled by road quite a bit. Indeed, I love driving about this great country, seeing all of its spendors. At all hours of the day and night. I notice that where there may be some 18-wheelers travelling at night, I see most such vehicles are not out and about between 2200 hrs and 0600 hrs at night. The drivers tend to be like most other people and want to get some sleep between those hours. These guys are NOT in the military. Generally we can’t order them to be on a schedule like I’m familiar with in convoy planning from my earlier life.

So I have my doubts that the truck traffic is going to be the same at all hours of day and night. Therefore, the density of trucks could well be higher during the course of the daylight hours than reported by K-H & A. And if that IS the case, how could they have overlooked that?

Another think….about these 700 trucks. Are those trucks the number to be processing through the facility on a daily basis? Or are those trucks to pass on US 50? If it’s the latter, fine. If it’s the former, that means the trucks will be on US 50 twice. Once going to the facility and once again to leave it. That increases the traffic to 1400 passes along US 50, daily. Double the traffic increase. After all, the trucks gotta go SOMEWHERE, after visiting Wal-Mart.

Thursday, February 03, 2005

Greetings from the Colorado Preservation Conference

Things are buzzing in the Temple Events Center for Colorado Preservation Inc.‘s 2005 Conference.

The Preservation Conference is well-attended and busy. Today I attended lectures on Researching Historic Neighborhoods, Protecting Undesignated Neighborhoods, The Main Street USA program for revitalizing downtown areas and a presentation on “Industrial Plants and Company Towns” led by Maria Sanchez-Kennedy of the Bessemer Historical Society.

Most of the sessions have been packed with information and ideas. If there any strong themes or threads running through the presentations they are that you need to get all the parties who have a stake in something together, you have to be patient in thrashing it all out and you have be creative in coming up with solutions.

But for now I’ll leave you with a thought from one presenter who said, “Every time something good happens, celebrate! Throw a party!”

Recycling WILL Require Payment by Residents

Or, the beatings will continue until morale improves.

Found in the classified section of today’s Pueblo Chieftain….

PUBLIC NOTICE

PUBLIC NOTICE is hereby given pursuant to Section 30-15-401(7.5), C.R.S. that the City of Pueblo, Coloardo will on or after August 1, 2005, subject to adoption of appropriate orinances and contracting with qualified contractors, require the use of and commence the imposition and billing of a fee for residential recycling serivces throughout the City of Pueblo. [Note: Emphasis added.]

The rest of it looks to be about soliciting bids from qualified contractors to get in on this.

This can be found on page 6C of today’s, 3 Feb 05, Pueblo Chieftain.

What this says to me is that whatever you may have heard at City Council meetings or the last PNP meeting about Pay as You Go or voluntary, don’t you believe it. You are hereby notified, officially, that they are going to charge each and everyone of us, if they can get the ordinances passed.

This is done even before the research efforts on feasibility and economics have been presented. But I guess they intend to thrash those out over the next couple of months and hope for the best. However, as has been mentioned before, the economics don’t seem to work well in all too many cases. Hence having to have the residents pay. So who is really benefiting here? If it relates to not having to procure and manage another land fill, I’d like to see the math on how that works out.

I look forward to seeing the study. I hope they can get it out to us sometime soon. Like May. Anything closer to July is going to look ‘peculiar’.

Wednesday, February 02, 2005

Northiside Might Qualify for CDBG Funds?

A ray of hope in an otherwise frowning sky.

If you’re not aware of it, the Northside neighborhood, where OHNO lives, is apparently eligible to apply and possibly even get Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) funds.

These are large wads of money showered down by the gods of Housing and Human Development or some other dieties from Washington DC to help communities deal with certain situations.

BAND got something like $10K, as I understand it, to publish their very well done newsletter. I could be wrong about the figure, but I’m NOT wrong that they turn out a very professionally done product and from whence the money to do the printing came.

But we here in the Northside are generally too well off to qualify for such largess. However, at the latest Pueblo Neighborhood Partnership meeting, it came out that we can submit requests for such funding and the city’s offices that manage it would consider the applications. This does NOT mean they will grant the funding. But if the project does capture their imagination and would be a boon to the city, especially the neighborhoods that they usually try to target for such funding, it could possibly happen.

It might be in our interest to seriously consider doing the work to request such funds. Usually, we’re talking what is termed ‘mortar and brick’, i.e., construction, efforts. I can think of some sidewalks that could benefit from such work. If we did it right, we might be able to get a lot of places fixed. And, if we dovetailed such a one-time-shot with a longer term effort, say the establishment of a special district for a low-low tax for sidewalk repair, it would be maintainable.

The reason this came up was that I got the distinct impression that the city is looking for ways to finish obligating the funds it has received from Olympus on the Potomac. I was getting the idea that if they did not obligate all the funds they have by the end of the year, that the gods on high were going to take their manna back and give it to other people who could consume it.

This looks to me like it ‘might’ be an opportunity.

However, I’m sure there is LOTS of paperwork to be done in order to ask…..

Yo! Chris! You reading this?

The Super Slab Is Coming

And what shall we do?

So much to write about today. Where to begin? Ah. Yes…..the Pueblo Chieftain’s article on the super-slab project.

Seems like that massive project to re-route the heavy road and rail traffic to the flatter lands to the east of town is going to come true in the not-too-distant-future after all. This years legislative session is taking up the issue today.

Personally, I think it’s a great idea and its time has just about come. During the, what I called TRANSPLAN 2030, meetings I kibbutzed last Spring it was talked about in almost hushed tones, but I could see the necessity of it. Especially after hearing the reps from the railroads expressing what they had to contend with in moving trains up and down the Front Range, through burgs like Colorado Springs. It sounded like a logistical nightmare to me.

[Hystorical Note: I even had a glimpse of the sort of masstyeria the Imperial German General Staff had to contend with in their planning mobilization for World War I. It was a running joke with them that their best young minds graduating from their military academy went into the railroad planning division and from there into an insane asylum.]

At any rate, the most interesting impacts of this project, when it comes to pass, are going to be as follows:

[1] The new Wal-Mart distribution center. Is it REALLY smart to build the center so far away from the planned route of the super-slab? Doesn’t look like it to me. It’ll just cause the trucks to travel so much farther, if they are coming from out of state. It would be much smarter to build the distrubtion center at the municipal airport industrial park, where it will be conveniently located for both the truck and rail loads.

[2] The plans to widen I-25 through Pueblo proper to ease traffic. The planned super-slab puts all of this planning on its proverbial ear. The need will not be to build a wider and faster road through Pueblo. It will be to build a better connection from the super-slab to the northern part of town. This is because the southern part of town would be serviced by the proposed connection at Stem Beach. So, looks like CH2MHill will have more time on the contract as they re-write their plans to accomodate something any rational person could see coming last year.

[3] Expansion of the industrial park at the municipal airport. Here’s a great thing for the city. And something that will bring in more business as well. As commented earlier, the Wal-Mart distribution center would work better out there. So it will need to be expanded. Maybe for no better reason than to make it inconvenient for the people at the Target distribution center to get into a turf war with their competitors.

[4] Speaking of expanding the industrial park. I understand that Denver doesn’t want any stenkeng piggy-back railcar transfer facilities anymore. The railroad built a huge activity south of C-470 off Santa Fe some time back and the word at the TRANSPLAN 2030 meeting was they didn’t want it there anymore. Here’s a great opportunity for the city. Expand the industrial park, near the super-slab, and get the facility to be moved there. After all, if we don’t know railroads, we don’t know jack.

This thing has great potential, if we have the vision to see it and the courage to seize it.

Tuesday, February 01, 2005

Recycling in Pueblo: Where Does It Go from the Curb?

City Council intends to establish curbside recycling with residents paying a fee. However, this is only half of the recycling loop: collection of recyclables. Nothing has been said about the other half: using recyclables to make new items.

On January 24th, the Pueblo City Council passed a resolution saying that it intends to establish curbside recycling and charge a fee for the activity. Approximately six months from now Council hopes to make a decision based on the proposals it is soliciting from waste management companies. Over the next few weeks we’ll be posting a series of essays on the various ramifications of fee-paid curbside recycling with the goal to determine whether this is a viable activity for Pueblo. Let’s look at this proposal honestly.

To begin with, the term “curbside recycling” is something of a misnomer. You can require residents to sort out their recyclable materials and put them on the curb, but nothing has been recycled until someone makes new products out of them.

What is required for someone to use recyclables? Low costs.

What are the costs involved? Sorting, storage and transportation.

Why do recyclables need to be sorted? Because contaminates (plastic mixed with glass, glossy paper with newsprint, etc.) ruin the usefulness of the recyclables.

How do you keep sorting costs down? You have the supplier (in this case the residents) sort the recyclables.

How do you keep storage costs down? You put the transfer station in an area where land is cheap and you make sure you have a ready market so that the recyclables are shipped as soon as there’s a truckload or carload so there’s less storage space required.

How do you keep transportation costs down? By keeping distances short.

How do you keep the distances short? By having local manufacturers who use the recyclables.

Does Pueblo have manufacturers who use glass, tin cans, aluminum cans & foil, plastic containers and newsprint to make new items? Uh—

One problem with this proposal is that nothing is said about recruiting manufacturers who use recyclable materials in their products to come to the Pueblo area. Yet it is obvious that these manufacturers are needed in order to close the loop and make recycling successful in Pueblo.  By successful I mean a very high percentage of recyclable materials are made into new items by manufacturers who ultimately pay the costs of sorting, collection and transportation through sales of their products. Not Pueblo residents.

This proposal is only acceptable if Pueblo actively recruits manufacturers who use recyclable materials with a goal of making the program self-supporting so that residents are not charged.

Monday, January 31, 2005

The Northside Neighborhood Survey

We’ve got it!

David Cockrell, the city’s Senior Neighborhood Planner, has passed me a limited number of copies of the finished survey.

We’ve asked him for the document in PDF format so we could pass it to anyone who wanted it electronically. If we have to, we’ll scan the document in and generate something that way. However, it would be best if we could have that done via Acrobat, just to make it easy to search it for words and terms.

We’ll keep you apprised.

Friday, January 28, 2005

OHNO Victories

The Night of January 24th.

It’s an Ayn Rand classic, come to life!

Last Monday night, at the regularly scheduled meeting of the City Council, the Historic Preservation Commission (HPC) and Old Historic Northside Organization (OHNO), inadvertantly combined forces in order to give the City Fathers an opportunity to do the proverbial ‘right thing’, vis a vis a proposed modification to the city ordinance regarding historic landmarks and the establishment of Mineral Palace Park as an historic district.

It’s rather interesting that the two items came up together like this and the story is certainly worth telling of how that happened. But we’ve got a lot of other things to do before this day is over; so maybe another time. Suffice it to say that these two matters were related. The fun part is trying to understand the why’s and wherefore’s. But, as I said, that’s another, rather long and ‘paranoid’ story. And one better described over fine scotch and tobacco.

So, back on track. The people won a good fight last Monday night. The City Fathers wisely chose to amend the proposed ordinance so that the City Council would not be ‘above the law’, vis-a-vis other private and/or corporate entities. It also agreed to declare Mineral Palace Park an historic district. Both of these decisions will go far in maintaining a quality of life for the general population, well above that realized on Gedi Prime (see classic science ficition series by Frank Herbert).

A round of applause and drinks for all those who participated, either by communicating to the City Fathers via phone or e-mail, attending the meeting itself, and testifying on the matters.

THIS is what makes this land and this community a great place to live.