Hello,

This is my contribution to Citizen's Discussion at Tuesday's City Council meeting:

Good morning,

Why did the land swap between the city and the Broadmoor Hotel take place?

We were told that the Broadmoor wanted to have stables so they could offer their guests horseback riding.

The deal closed over 7 years ago, I don't see any horses.

Why did the land swap happen?

It is better if the city owns the land that has the route for “Incline return traffic”.

The city acquired millions of dollars in grant money to do repairs to the Manitou Incline.

Is the Manitou Incline even legitimately legal.

The city told me that the Manitou Incline Task Force did not explore why the Incline was falling apart before it was legally opened.

Is that claim true?

Could the Manitou Incline be legally opened if the Task Force did not even research why the Incline was falling apart so badly?

At one time Sara Bryarly stated in the Colorado Springs Independent that the repairs being done on the Incline would hold up for “about a hundred years”.

The city later walked that back a little in an email to me, but the city also claims that the long-term stability of the Incline was not compromised when the rails were removed by the Cog Railway.

I will call this “Physics Heresy”.

One does not have to be an engineer to understand that such a claim is foolishness.

No ties came loose on the Incline from 1907 until after the rails were removed sometime in the 1990's.

So it held up fine for 80 or 90 years, then fell apart within 20 or 25 years after the rails were removed.

The Manitou Incline Task Force had no understanding of this?

They were not concerned in the least about the long-term stability of the Incline?

Did the Task Force not ask "Why is it in such bad condition today and what is necessary to ensure that this can never happen again"?

The city told me that the long-term stability of the Incline was not compromised by the rails being removed.

Is that the determination of the Task Force?

Why did the land swap happen?

All three property owners of the Incline have a revocable license.

Did the land swap take the revocable license away from the Cog Railway?

Was that a consideration in the conception of the land swap?

Did the city say to themselves “The Incline is not legitimately legal or sustainable in the long term, the city will acquire the one revocable license that is in private hands”?

Whose idea was the land swap?

The Broadmoor does not appear to have any interest in using Strawberry Fields for stables.

We were told that the land swap came to be because the Broadmoor wanted Strawberry Fields for stables.

It now appears that this claim was not true.

Thank you, Carl Strow