Colorado Springs resident here. I think the article provided a pretty fair assessment of things, considering it addressed how [previous Mayor] Bach identified

Colorado Springs resident here. I think the article provided a pretty fair assessment of things, considering it addressed how [previous Mayor] Bach identified bad deals such as the Memorial Hospital deal and the power plant scrubber. This town's leadership in general has been dysfunctional for a long time; Bach wasn't the cure-all that many had hoped he would be. Couple of additional thoughts: Regarding the (new) Mayor's success in getting $250M for roads: what isn't mentioned is that the roads in this town are abysmal. When I lived in Northern Virginia many moons ago, I joked that I could always tell when I drove into DC by the effect on my car's handling. Having just come back from a vacation to that area, I can affirm that Colorado Springs has surpassed DC in this respect. The neglect of the roads was another petulant move by the City towards voters, just like the streetlights. Secondly, despite so often being painted as an arch-conservative western extension to the bible belt, Colorado Springs is a pretty tolerant, open-minded city. I'd suggest checking out the /r/ColoradoSprings section on Reddit, especially where people ask about how LGBT-friendly, etc the place is, and read the answers from some of the other locals. It isn't the town out of "Footloose".