FOLLOW
DENVER
As I arrived in Israel, I was thinking about a tale of
two cities, but not Dickens’. Though I was born in Haifa, I’m staying in Tel Aviv,
about one hour south. These two cities parallel Colorado Springs and Denver,
respectively, one hour by car but light-years apart.
Haifa and CS have about the same size population, one
half million, and their own reputations: Haifa has traditionally been the labor
stronghold, the proud home of the Technion (Israel’s MIT), and the world center
of the Baha’i (with gardens meandering down the hill to the Mediterranean Sea),
while CS is a conservative stronghold with Focus on The Family headquarters,
the USOC, AFA, and UCCS.
Tel Aviv and Denver have populations that exceed one
million (depending on how one counts), and their own reputations: TA is the
party mecca of Israel, competing with Paris and London for all-night clubs,
high fashion, high-tech, banking, and cosmopolitan sophistication, while Denver
has successfully climbed up the national ladder as a convention center,
communication industries, professional athletic teams, and overall commercial
appeal.
Haifa has always been the ugly sister of TA, just as CS
remains the secondary city in Colorado. Haifa stayed the course of isolation
and self-loathing, internal community squabbles, and lack of leadership or
vision. After decades of false starts, it lags behind its ascending counterpart
to the south.
CS has likewise not kept up with the growth of Denver,
choosing instead to maintain a parochial approach to its self-image. A friend
who bought a house in CS and one in Denver about fifteen years ago for the same
price reports that while his CS’ house has doubled in value, his Denver place
has appreciated ten-fold. Anecdotes, when factual, capture much.
Denver had a visionary mayor who is now our governor,
John Hickenlooper. Yes, he is a Democrat by party affiliation, but if you were
to judge him on either Coast, he’d definitely be considered a Republican
centrist. He is so pro-business that he’s letting fracking (hydraulic
fracturing), for example, go on with limited regulation till proven that more
is needed.
But even this pro-business politician was keen on raising
taxes in Denver in order to ensure a strong infrastructure (with voters’
approval). This, incidentally, didn’t deter corporate America from flocking
into town, but rather was a necessary ingredient in their decision to move
there. Why?
Tax-burden on corporate entities is only one of many
variables that figure into choosing a location. Good roads and bridges, public
transportation, police and fire departments, schools and universities,
hospitals and concert halls, restaurants and bars, athletic facilities and
parks, are much more important!
If a broad tax base ensures all of the above and is used
judiciously to provide a wide-range of options for people, the sting of taxes
is not only acceptable but even welcome. Cities have to offer the foundation,
and private enterprise will follow. It doesn’t work the other way around.
Until the Waldo Canyon fire CS played the “let the
marketplace do its thing” game: private enterprise will fill the gaps left by
inadequate public funding, from the symphony and FAC to USOC and Uncle Wilbur.
Isn’t Pikes Peak enough?
Despite its quirky reputation for religious headquarters
and mega-churches (all of whom enjoy special tax status), CS still owns a
hospital and utilities. MHS is being sold (unless some genius in CS’ leadership
derails this), but CSU is still proudly managed by incompetent, small-town
executives who are way over their head.
Follow Denver! That’s all we need to do if we plan to be
like our big sister to the north rather than Pueblo (which has a nicer downtown
river-walk and historic buildings). Denver got it right: it has a great
infrastructure with multiple museums and a core downtown that draws tourists
and conventioneers.
Recall the Broadmoor derailing a downtown convention
center for decades, as if two are not better than one. An old professor of mine
taught me years ago: there is plenty of room at the top; it’s not a pyramid. Recall
decades of studies that yielded no results because downtown development would
necessitate floating bonds. No financial infusion of city funds, no local
development—the equation is easy to figure out. But as real entrepreneurs know:
there must be more than one equation worth checking out.
As Councilman Leigh is willing to challenge CSU’s
operations, old, small-town minds keep silencing him, worrying that back-room
contracts might see the light of day. No matter how hard CSU circles its
wagons, let’s follow Denver and keep a water department while selling all else.
If we don’t, we’ll turn into another Haifa where the sidewalks are rolled up early
to ensure a good night’s sleep.
Raphael
Sassower is professor of philosophy at UCCS. He can be reached at rsassower@gmail.com See
previous articles at sassower.blogspot.com
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