EDITORIAL: Black individuals ought to contemplate life in Colorado Springs | Opinion

Throughout Black Historical past Month, we’d like Black individuals throughout the nation and across the globe to contemplate relocating their households and companies to Colorado Springs. That is the place to be for individuals of all backgrounds who wish to succeed, obtain the American dream and transcend it.

This isn’t merely an statement by The Gazette’s largely white editorial board. Journey Noire journal revealed an article this week highlighting “8 Cities Black Individuals Ought to Contemplate for Profession Development.”

Colorado Springs ranks No. 4, with the journal giving a glowing assessment of Black life and alternative in our neighborhood. Some outtakes:

• A high 25 metropolis the place Black Individuals fare greatest economically, from a 2021 ballot by Good Asset

• Well-liked native Black-owned companies in Colorado Springs … are thriving with lots extra native firms to help all through the town.

• A examine by the College of California at Berkeley discovered that Colorado Springs is considered one of two cities within the U.S. to be labeled residentially “built-in” with 1 out of each 4 residents now African American or Hispanic.

• The area attracts expertise in high industries resembling manufacturing, IT and cybersecurity, aerospace and protection, well being care and medical tech, and sports activities.

As detailed within the ebook and film “BlacKkKlansman,” Colorado Springs has endured a protracted and sordid historical past in attaining variety and peace amongst all demographics. Our pricey pal Ed Jones has informed us of Colorado Springs forcing him right into a segregated neighborhood and later electing him a county commissioner and state senator.

Now we have fought for and achieved a metropolis dedicated to limitless alternative for all, with out regard for race, faith, creed, gender, sexual orientation or something aside from the character and abilities of people prepared to contribute to the advance of society.

Just lately, we noticed slates of minority candidates take over the town’s main college districts with the intent of eliminating achievement gaps amongst white and non-white college students. The earlier they obtain this, the higher.

The journal makes particular point out of the Colorado Springs Black Enterprise Community, “a bunch designed to create an atmosphere of enterprise, private, and neighborhood empowerment for Black enterprise professionals and enterprise homeowners, additionally serving to to increase assets for the 28-year-old Colorado Springs Black Chamber of Commerce.

This excerpt reminds us of the day former Gazette columnist Rachel Stovall requested for a gathering with Gazette editorial board members in 2017 to encourage our help of Black-owned companies all through the metro space.

She advised extra articles and images highlighting the achievements of our neighborhood’s Black professionals. On the time, she was amongst a handful of Black residents with a imaginative and prescient for the enterprise community changing into a significant driving pressure in supporting minorities in search of success. She and others achieved the imaginative and prescient shortly.

Colorado Springs routinely wins “better of” awards for its top quality of life. This award means greater than most, because it exhibits how our neighborhood encourages and helps variety and success for individuals of each conceivable background.

Black households, people, and enterprise homeowners ought to flock to Colorado Springs. Right here, you will discover the identical red-carpet therapy supplied to everybody else who arrives with constructive hopes and goals.

The Gazette Editorial Board