New Life Church - Colorado Springs Colorado

[Kevin1a]

New Life church is still one of the largest churches in the area, and is now under different leadership.  The main building has an interesting hexagonal design. 

If anyone is willing to make a lot for the church it would be greatly appreciated and a most interesting addition to a variety of cities.  You could just give it a generic name like "Evangelical Mega church."  I can provide source material if needed, but with all the media attention they have received I am certain there is plenty of it online already.

Mod edit: Let's just keep to the requests, eh?

[banditp61]

im from the Springs, and i would like to see this as a lot too.

[Kevin1a]

Another Colorado Springer!  If you ever do a mayor diary or post some pictures of your cities you should link me.  I'd be interested to see how living in the Springs affects a persons building style.

[banditp61]

I try to recreate my cities like Colorado Springs 1 interstate and lots of avenues with no room for growth and i try to make military bases using the Sim National Military stuff.

Sometimes I try to base my cities off of Denver too.

[marsh]

So that makes 3 people from the springs on this site.... strange. 

[Kevin1a]

It's probably because our cities planning is so unbelievably horrific, that we feel the need to demonstrate some real city planning in game.  My cities rarely resemble the Springs in any way, though I've tried to make a Springs-like downtown before.  There was seriously a time when I was so fed up with our roads that I would writ

[Kevin1a]

It's probably because our cities planning is so unbelievably horrific, that we feel the need to demonstrate some real city planning in game.  My cities rarely resemble the Springs in any way, though I've tried to make a Springs-like downtown before.  There was seriously a time when I was so fed up with our roads that I would write emails fairly often.  It's partially thanks to me that the speed limit on North Powers just past Old Ranch road was raised to 60 instead of the 55 it was before.  I'm like to go to the community meetings for stuff like the Powers Expansion Project, the interchange at Academy and Woodmen, and the Austin Bluffs Widening (which should be starting soon, I think)  SC4 gives me an outlet for my frustration.  For once, I'm in charge and there will be lots of grids and no tangled mess of spaghetti.

[Meastro444]

I don't like grids. I prefer the spaghetti personally, but that's because that's the only thing we have here in Europe.

[banditp61]

Im still in HS and I've been talking to Dan Kregier (idk his name) and I might be able to get an internship with him at the city's Civil Engineering Department. I live near I-25 and Nevada..worst intersection in the city ever!!!!!

[Kevin1a]

I don't like grids. I prefer the spaghetti personally, but that's because that's the only thing we have here in Europe.
And Europe knows how to deal with spaghetti.  I can only speak for Germany, because that is the only European country where I have spent a considerable amount of time, but they know how to use unsignalized intersections (roundabouts, grade seperated, yield with islands, etc.) and yield signs to make things work.  Here in the Springs, every road is 4 or 6 lanes wide and has a traffic light (with extremely long cycle length) every 20 meters.  I also noticed something cool in Germany, that they put up signs even at signalized intersections, and during off-times they turn off the lights and let the signs do the work.  No more waiting 2 minutes for ghost cars to cross a deserted intersection.  Also, Europe knows how public transit and pedestrian facilities can help decongest a city centre.  Parkleit systems, and dynamic traffic management solutions, are finally starting to pop up in the US, which excites me.

Im still in HS and I've been talking to Dan Kregier (idk his name) and I might be able to get an internship with him at the city's Civil Engineering Department. I live near I-25 and Nevada..worst intersection in the city ever!!!!!

You're right.  Even the city has admitted that.  There are just too many lights in a small area.  Motor Way joins Tejon way to close to the interchange, and why in the world would you build a huge bridge, then put a parking lot under it?  Stupid, stupid, stupid.  I'm also annoyed by how short the city and CDOT like to make their merge lanes (which they stripe with regular long stripes instead of the short dotted stripes they should be using)  I call them "death merges," because by the time you pop up parallel to the roadway, you have 20ft of ramp left and are facing a big concrete wall or something else unpleasant.  Almost all the merge lanes along Powers are like this.  The most trafficked section, between Galley and Stetson Hills would be improved if they added auxiliary lanes that go from intersection to intersection.  It's not a perfect solution.  It introduces weave conflicts, but at least there will be enough merge lane to speed up past 30mph before jerking to the right cutting off traffic on the main roadway and causing everyone to slam on their brakes.  If you haven't seen the powers freeway plans (they have full layouts for almost every intersection, C/D roads, land acquisitions, and lane alignments all worked out), they might be on the cities website.  They also told me they would do some grade mitigation on Powers North of Barnes road, because everyone gets stuck, or slides down that hill when it snows really bad, and when it's dry they go 40 uphill and 70 downhill.  But all of this is only a band aid on our cities ridiculous obsession with uncontrolled, unsustainable, low density growth.  I'm glad to see more people getting interested in downtown and walkability.  I would really like to hear what became of the Street Car Study.  I went to the meetings, and the planning seemed to go very well, and they figured out just about everything, including a good portion of the funding.
There are also some plans to create a regional transportation authority like Denver's RTD that would serve C Springs and the surrounding areas.  This would also be a great step forward.  I think right now, Colorado through Old Colorado City, and Manitou Ave could easily support a streetcar.  I'm more skeptical of downtown, but I'm willing to prop up an unprofitable system for a few years if it will help stimulate more sustainable downtown development.

[banditp61]

I also think we need to worry about FREX (my father is the Safety Trainer for FREX). We need some sort rail system between Denver and the Springs. Nevada and Platte , somehow, needs to be rebuilt; along with the widening of US 24. I agree Colorado can probably have some sort of street car, but I think the city should figure out a way to have street cars or light rail reach the MANY military bases, thats our main problem with traffic.

[Kevin1a]

That's our main problem with development.  A lot of the military in our community aren't concerned with the problems facing the city because they will be here for four years tops, and the military provides them with a lot of what they need.  For them, low density suburban sprawl and big box stores aren't a bad thing.

My brother, a student in the Denver area sometimes rides FREX back and forth when he comes back for the weekends.  I would use it, but the buses don't run nearly late enough.  I know a fair amount of people who go to Denver for nightlife, entertainment, concerts, etc. but the last FREX bus runs pretty early.

I remember them saying they had completed the environmental assessment to move the freight traffic out onto the eastern plains, but apparently the few angry ranchers drowned out the hundreds of thousands of people living in front range cities and towns.  My one stipulation for a rail system would be that it has to be fast.  The Ranger Express (I think this was the name for one of the proposals) was only going to run at 70mph.  I can drive faster than that in a car, and I don't have to stop at stations along the way.  I'm thinking 100mph with stops in Pueblo, Colorado Springs, Monument, Castle Rock, Denver South Light Rail Terminus, and Union Station as a starter system with future expansions north to Fort Collins, Cheyenne WY, and south to Albuquerque to potentially connect to their road runner system.  The primary thing for me, is that it has to be faster than driving, and not too much more expensive, or I won't have a motivation to ride it, other than not driving drunk if I go up to Denver for some nefarious nighttime errands. 

I think the biggest obstacle right now, and one of the reasons cited for wanting to kill FREX is that C Springs is shipping it's sales tax revenues out of town by making it easier for people to shop in Denver.  That's why this would probably work best on a State or Federal level.

[banditp61]

I would use it, but the buses don't run nearly late enough.  I know a fair amount of people who go to Denver for nightlife, entertainment, concerts, etc. but the last FREX bus runs pretty early.

My father was in charge of the schedule change, he tried to make in convenient for people, but he couldn't with the money the city gave him. He does mind to ride FREX too its just the times suck. A teacher of mine use to ride FREX everyday from to Denver to the Springs but after they changed schedule she had to stop riding it and move down here.

[Kevin1a]

I know.  Our traffic engineers and transit planners get blamed for a lot of things that they can't change because of budgetary issues.  Tell your dad I appreciate what he does, even though it doesn't work out for me.  I think if we solved some of our core issues, a lot of things like bus schedules would improve in a cascade effect.  You can see this on the Air Force Academy to an extent.  CS's roads are falling apart, striping is missing and they are poorly planned, but the AFA has money, and because of this, they have really nice (though not perfect) roads.