Pueblo, Colorado Slice of Life; Good People, Great Place

Pueblo, Colorado Slice of Life and Economic Attitude - We interviewed people in Pueblo Colorado and asked them what they thought about their city. People of all ages and income levels. We learned a lot about the area and the real truth about consumer confidence and why the consumer confidence studies are often wrong. Opposing political parties often use them when it is of value and then deny them when it serves them. Such is the scientific game of political use of junk science. Liars Figure and Figures lie, it just is the way things are you know? During our visit here to several locations around Colorado on a recent business trip for the company I run and specifically the interesting information we attained in Pueblo Colorado we found many things have changed since last years survey and visit. Back then there was a lot of talk about Droughts and it dominated the Colorado State Fair.

We met with Jen who makes $5.50 per hour at Mervyns and her friend Bill works for Target at $6.75. Jen is taking a year off from school to afford to live and shares an apartment with her female friend who is a single mom. Her friend is on welfare and probably will not get off anytime soon and may even have another child out of wedlock. She is somewhat over weight and cannot do some jobs. Another young lady we met was busy studying Criminal Justice but admitted that there were not enough criminals for all the criminal justice people graduating so she was studying psychology, unfortunately she was not far along yet to tell me what the heck is wrong with me. Nice kids starting out looking to participate and achieve their American Dream.

Amy another young gal had achieved her degree and was working for the Barnes and Noble in the café in Pueblo waiting to start her next job, she was hired by a rural school district out side of town as a Librarian. God bless the librarians in this country and even better think of it Pueblo is an old Carnegie steel town. Carnegie gave to the world Libraries and she is not losing the faith, she is following the greatest tradition of the area. The local McDonalds franchisee is paying a little higher wages after 6 months at $7.00 and owns six stores and considering another in the north end of town, which is growing. Also growing is West Pueblo and construction jobs are good. The River Walk, which seems to be a growing concept for tourism dollars and point of destination downtown rehabilitation is alive and well here in Pueblo along with the rest of the Downtown revitalization. I am also impressed with the entire Mid West with regards to the river walk idea, which started in San Antonio and has done extremely well everywhere it has been taken. On the River Walk in Pueblo you can rent a boat and hang out, many car shows and several really great restaurants and good retail employment, now that the Arkansas River has filled back up again.

There is a slight problem with tradesmen and luckily PCC-Pueblo Community College has all kinds of great programs for retraining and it is not too awfully expensive. Also in the area is CSU Colorado State University has a big medical department but many of the kids who are going there are not wanting to get into medicine for fear of lawsuits. They have nursing programs, but even the nurse students know that they are targets and even said that the law profession would not exist if it were not for the medical profession.

One lady we talked to listening to all these conversations came up to me later and said, I heard your talking and I want you to know that Pueblo is a great city and we are working hard to make it even greater. She said she volunteered for many groups and worked closely with the chamber of commerce, city leaders and said they had really worked hard to build up the arts there. They are committed to Pueblo and even with some of the younger crowd talking about going to Denver or the Springs to spend their weekends or weekend evenings. She said do not let anyone tell you that Pueblo is a second rate town, this town is great. Well there you have it a slice of life. We talked with people in Retail, Laid off from Manufacturing, Engineers at the DOT research facility, Restaurant owners, city volunteers, young up and comings and we learned that Pueblo Co is never ever, ever, ever going to give up. They are committed and making progress and are confident to come out of this recession with rocket fuel to spare.

I think you would enjoy it in Pueblo, the people are down to Earth and very real. It is a very nice place to stop during your travels.

"Lance Winslow" - If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs