\ntypes like to experiment with collective projects<\/a>. Apparently, so do people who don’t
\nlike civic projects, taxes, public parks, pools, police officers, or
\nfirefighters. Famously anti-tax Colorado Springs launched<\/a> an astounding
\nexperiment this year:<\/p>\n
More than a third of the streetlights in Colorado Springs
\nwill go dark Monday. The police helicopters are for sale on the Internet. The
\ncity is dumping firefighting jobs, a vice team, burglary investigators, beat
\ncops—dozens of police and fire positions will go unfilled.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The parks department removed trash cans last week,
\nreplacing them with signs urging users to pack out their own litter.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Neighbors are encouraged to bring their own lawn mowers to
\nlocal green spaces, because parks workers will mow them only once every two
\nweeks. If that.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Water cutbacks mean most parks will be dead, brown turf by
\nJuly; the flower and fertilizer budget is zero.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
City recreation centers, indoor and outdoor pools, and a
\nhandful of museums will close for good March 31 unless they find private funding
\nto stay open. Buses no longer run on evenings and weekends. The city won’t pay
\nfor any street paving, relying instead on a regional authority that can meet
\nonly about 10 percent of the need.<\/p>\n
Call it place-unmaking.
\nTowns across the nation are watching, as many of them are facing budget
\nshortfalls as severe as Colorado Springs’.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Atlantic Wire has <\/p>\n Eric Martin writes<\/a>, <\/p>\n Others note that <\/p>\n It’ll be fascinating (and Related Links:<\/strong><\/p>\n Each party has a clean-energy plan in U.K. election<\/a><\/p>\n U.S. military shrinking its carbon ‘boot print’<\/a><\/p>\n U.S. lowers expectations for climate treaty this year<\/a><\/p>\n
\nan interesting
\nroundup<\/a> of reactions to the project, though most are fairly ideologically
\npredictable. Conservative blogger and Colorado Springs resident Michelle Malkin
\nwrites<\/a>,
\n“Self-reliance. Privatization. Thrift. Fiscal accountability. The liberals
\nin Denver and Washington could learn something from our Mountain West spirit if
\nthey could just get over their Colorado Springs Derangement Syndrome.”<\/p>\n
\n“When one of the two major political parties wages tax jihad and demonizes
\ngovernment and its appendages … people no longer grasp the extent to which
\ngovernment services actually ensure a certain standard of living, not to
\nmention economic opportunity.”<\/p>\n
\nColorado’s second-largest city continues to receive plenty of taxpayer money
\nthrough the U.S. Air Force Academy, four other military installations, and
\nheavyweight defense contractor Lockheed Martin.<\/p>\n
\ndisturbing?) to see how this works out in the coming months and years. That will
\nrequire Actual Reporting on how the slashed public services affect residents of
\nall social classes. Here’s hoping there are journalists left to cover it.<\/p>\n