Please sign the petition. Take the quick survey.  

Colorado Springs citizens are fed up with the continual attempts by our Parks Department and City leadership to commercialize our public parks.  If you value our beautiful surroundings, please sign the petition, leave a comment on the petition, and, especially, take the quick, 6 question survey to stop the commercialization of our public lands.  Please email and share on your social media.  This data will all be presented to City Council and shared with the press.  Here are a few examples of what citizens have witnessed over the last several years:

• Commercialization of historic Strawberry fields, one of the most bucolic meadows on the front range home to countless wildlife for over a century.  80-85%, in 4 citywide polls, of the people opposed this.  Did you know that over 90% of the citizens in the state are granted a right to vote to sell or trade parks?  In fact, it's our state statute which mandates a vote of the people prior to conveyance.  Citizens have tried 3 times to get these same rights for our voters.  Our leadership does not believe we deserve the same right to vote that over 90% of Coloradans have.
• The infamous Blue Frame bolted into Garden of the Gods.  Without seeking approval from anyone, the Parks Department had the gigantic, bright blue frame branded "Olympic City USA" bolted into Garden of the Gods.  After a petition like this, it was removed.
• Commercialization of North Cheyenne Cañon.  The North Cheyenne Master Plan which was appealed to City Council includes some atrocious carnivalization additions like shuttle buses, hanging bridges and virtual game devices.
• An attempt to collect photography fees at our parks.  Usage fee signs have been installed at parks and rangers were asking people to leave who did not have permits to photograph.  A petition like this has forced that to be "reconsidered" though the signs still exist.
• The New Downtown Master Plan for 3 historic parks, Acacia, Antlers and Alamo:  This was the final straw.  It is quite clear that there is a disconnect between the values the local voters have regarding our public parks and our City leadership.  If you look at Acacia Park, for example, it currently has an artistic and tasteful water play area, a charming outdoor amphitheater and plenty of gorgeous old trees and grassy areas for relaxation, picnics, and connecting with nature as General Palmer and our founders intended our parks to be.  One new proposal offers a gigantic concrete center island which will feature activity and food/beverage booths, a commercial coffee and dining area (think of the trash this will create), a computerized sculpture area and a redo of the water park to include a light show are just some of the horrible ideas.  We will also lose some of the gorgeous, old trees as well as much of the grassy areas.
• Bancroft Park:  Much like Acacia, the entire center section of Bancroft as well as the southern corners will be concrete and pavers for a new atrocious restroom wrapped in a tacky building wrap (like a bus or car advertisement).  The picnic pavilion is being removed because of vagrants while we are adding capacity for 76 food/activity booths (i.e. follow the money) which will attract more homeless thanks to food waste.  The fate of the historic Dr. Garvin cabin is to be determined.  Again, old trees and grassy areas being ripped up for concrete.  There's no undoing this one.  It's in progress now.
• Smith Creek Natural Area:  Recently, the Parks Dept started the Master Plan process for the Smith Creek Natural Area which has been halted due to the Preble mouse being a federally protected endangered species.  During the Broadmoor Land Exchange, people objected to the commercialization of Strawberry Fields because the US Fish & Wildlife has designated North Cheyenne Canon as a high critical habitat for the Mexican Spotted Owl.  It didn't bother them one bit, and, unfortunately, though we and the USFWS know they are there, we were unable to document the presence of this nocturnal, elusive creature.  We also had 2 lynx sitings as well.  One would think the City would err on the side of caution with TWO endangered species potentially at risk?  Nope.  While the Smith Creek plan is temporarily on hold, rest assured it's not over.  It will start again and be the same contrived process we have seen repeatedly. A note about the survey which was started to gather data from park users.  A survey from survey monkey was used during the Broadmoor Land Exchange also.  Many people asked the City to stop using this method of data collection because it has only cookie controls meaning the data can be slanted not only by question design, but also by clearing cookies and retaking the survey ad nauseum.  This is not a serious attempt to collect clean data.  The survey on this petition (please take it, it's important) is controlled by email address and IP address.  We tested it by having a person try different emails from one computer, and Google's terrific screens prevented it.  This is really critical to avoid survey abuse.  It's also important to collect geographic data from users as well. 

The trend is clear.  Our parks are being commercialized and marketed so that their natural carrying capacities are being violated.  We need to help our City leadership understand what we want for our public parks and open spaces.  We have been through the master planning process several times now; these "open houses" are silos as opposed to open-mic public meetings for all to share and hear - especially the press; they involve slanted surveys, managed input and gargantuan master plans hundreds of pages long (North Cheyenne Canon was just over FOUR HUNDRED PAGES) making them hard to digest (Rocky Mountain National Park's is only about 45 pages to give context) - a contrived process to produce a desired outcome.  Our Parks Department traded away one of the most valuable and historic meadows on the front range claiming they could not afford to maintain that natural, open space.  We are now looking at spending millions installing permanent structures many of which may have fees and will create more trash.  Since we have no vote to convey parks or to oppose the development of them, our only hope to stop this is to unite our voices by signing this petition, taking the short survey and sharing your opinion by leaving a comment on this petition.  This is a bipartisan issue.  We all love our natural, public parks that our city founders so wisely set aside to protect and respect our stunning scenery.  Let's keep them clean, easy to maintain, free and natural for all to enjoy.