TOWN HALL: Safest city in USA — almost (poll)

Sometimes it’s good to remember what big outside media were saying about our city, back before the days of Mayor Steve Bach and our new system of government, when at least two of the city’s highest-ranking employees ran a covert campaign to malign our community after voters refused a tax increase. Here’s an excerpt from a propaganda piece in the New York Times, Aug. 6, 2010:

“It was when the streetlights went out, Diane Cunningham said, that the trouble started.

“Her tires were slashed, she said. Her car was broken into. Strange men showed up on her porch. Her neighborhood had grown deserted at night, ever since four streetlights in a row were put out on Airport Road, the street outside her mobile home park.

“That is why Ms. Cunningham, 41, and her son Jonathan, 22, were carrying a flat-screen television out of their mobile home on a recent afternoon. “I’m going to pawn this,” Ms. Cunningham said, “to get a shotgun.”

“It is impossible to say whether the darkness had contributed to any of the events that frightened the Cunninghams. But ever since Colorado Springs shut off a third of its 24,512 streetlights this winter to save $1.2 million on electricity — while reducing the size of its police force — many residents have said that they feel less safe.

“A few miles down Airport Road a 62-year-old man, Esteban Garcia, was shot to death in April when he was robbed outside his family’s taqueria and grocery in a parking lot that had lost the illumination of its nearest streetlight. Gaspar Martinez, a neighboring shopkeeper, said that he believed the lack of the light was partly to blame.

“‘You figure the robbers think that if it’s dark, it’s the best time to hit,’” said Mr. Martinez, 34, whose store, Ruskin Liquor, is in the same small strip mall.

The world was assured, day after day and week after week, that Colorado Springs was dangerous because taxes were too low. If crime data didn’t back this, it was just a matter of time before the statistics caught up with the mayhem. Fast forward to today, two years past the big scare.

“A study by InsuranceProviders.com lists Colorado Springs as the second safest city in the U.S.” said a story in Friday’s Gazette. It’s the second analysis in recent months to place Colorado Springs among the 10 safest cities.

Do you believe a report that says Colorado Springs is the second safest city in the country? Vote in poll to the right. Must vote to see results.

So here we are, the well-established poster city of limited government. The mainstream press considered it a dubious distinction, after the failure of a major tax increase, and used our city as a cautionary tale. We were said to be the next Detroit. The Denver Post reported that our cops were so impoverished that they no longer investigate crimes. Tourists canceled their trips out of fear they’d get mugged.

Yet empirical data reveal this place as the second-safest large city in the America, right behind the upscale retirement city of Mesa, Ariz. Someone call the New York Times.

Don’t bother questioning the validity of the study, because the methodology was sound. It used data from the FBI, the United States Geological survey and insurance statistics pertaining to traffic injuries and fatalities.

Visit Colorado Springs or move here. The climate and scenery are great. Entertainment opportunities abound. It is affordable and the second-safest city in America. Limited government works.

That's our view. What's yours? Please initiate or join in a Facebook discussion below, and vote in poll to the upper right.

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