Year: 2015

Stuck in the 80s

Recently there were ‘opposing’ soapboxes on the Coloradoan’s editorial page about the impact of the positive rankings Fort Collins regularly receives. One soapbox was a positive, aspirational piece by City Manager Darin Atteberry. He basically was saying that the external recognition is validation of a community doing things right. Atteberry cited Time Magazine naming Fort Collins as America’s Most Satisfied City after a Gallup poll showed that 94.9% of residents are satisfied with the c...

Read More

May: Patience Wears Thin On Downtown Disruptions

From the blur of conversations, meetings and news stories since I wrote last, I offer a potpourri of observations:

•Is the city of Fort Collins being too tolerant of bad behavior in the greater downtown area?

Some businesspeople I’ve spoken with think so. Over the past couple of years the harassment of businesses and shoppers, panhandling, loitering, and property damage are up. It is being attributed to a collection of people known as “travelers.” These are not locals who have lost...

Read More

The $1,500 Sandwich: An Ode to Trade

Do you grow backyard chickens? As a kid, my family did. And geese and ducks and rabbits. We didn’t call them ‘backyard’ chickens in those days. We called them ‘breakfast’ and ‘dinner.’ The chickens gave us eggs and…well, their very lives.

We also had a big garden, about half-an-acre big. Carrots, parsnips, potatoes, tomatoes, watermelon, cantaloupe, cucumbers, turnips, rutabagas, onions, asparagus, corn, lettuce, cabbage, horse radish, radish, kohlrabi and more.

With four g...

Read More

The Fast Track to Staying Informed

Do you have 3-5 hours to spend attending or watching the City Council meetings every week? Nobody does (except of course Kevin Jones on our staff). Yet, city government can have a big impact on the business community through its plans, regulations, laws and fees and taxes.

Instead of 180-300 minutes a week or ignoring city government altogether, keep informed by watching the Chamber’s weekly Two-Minute Update. You can see a sample here. In roughly two minutes, our staff gives you the highli...

Read More

How Fort Collins Leaders’ Decisions Stack Up

“How Does Your Town Stack Up?”

That’s the headline of a recent story on Money.com. When you click the link, you access a tool for comparing communities against national averages and each other.

The data points are limited but interesting nonetheless.

For instance, the median household income in Fort Collins is $55,257 versus $44,749 nationally, $60,269 in Boulder, and $45,322 in Greeley. Out of curiosity, I tossed in a few other places I have lived and came up with $44,893 in Inde...

Read More

“Yes” to More Water Storage

The formal comment period to the Army Corps of Engineers regarding the Northern Integrated Supply Project (known as ‘NISP’) is now over. Earlier this summer the Corps released its Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the project. NISP is a proposed water storage and distribution project with 40,000 acre feet of new water supply and would be owned by the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District (known as ‘Northern Water’).

Two reservoirs are part of NISP: Glade and...

Read More

Interesting Data Sets

In the course of a typical day, I have a lot of information come my way. Recently, I’ve seen several sets of data that I thought you’d find interesting. Click on the subject headings below to be taken to them.

IRS Migration Data – 2012-2013. The IRS’ Statistics of Income Division recently published the latest state-to-state migration data. People are moving to Colorado from everywhere but the biggest contributors are California, Texas, Florida, Arizona and Illinois, respectively. The ...

Read More

I-25, Jobs, Talent Development Top Issues

Interstate 25 expansion, staying focused on creating good-paying jobs — and having a city government that understands their importance — and talent development are the top issues facing area business leaders.

At a planning retreat in May, the Chamber’s board of directors looked ahead over the next 18 months and asked where the business community needs to focus its attention.

First on the list is widening Interstate 25 to three lanes each way between Colorado Highway 14 in Fort Collin...

Read More

Freakouts in Our Reptilian Brains

What an interesting time we live in. The 24-hour news cycle propelled forward by competing political agendas adds an emotional froth to everyday life. Below all of the contrived angst are significant technological and economic changes that are as confusing as they are profound.

Last week I heard Salim Ismail talk about exponential disruption. Ismail is a former VP of Yahoo! and is now the executive director of Singularity University. Here are some of the notes I captured:

Society is not r...

Read More

A big, busy summer for Fort Collins

Hopefully you’re having a great summer, including a few fun adventures.

The community is certainly making the most of summer. There are a lot of great things happening. Here’s a look:

•As I write this, Galvanize is ready to open its doors. Located in the old Sunset Events Center at 242 Linden St., Galvanize is an interesting new concept — a community of entrepreneurs and learners connected across six campuses here and in Denver, Boulder, Seattle and San Francisco. There is space fo...

Read More