MAY 8, 2025 | OPINION | By Veronica Bianco
I grew up in Portland, Oregon and reached adolescence when the city was at its peak as a bubble of liberalism and social justice. Everyone said they had the same beliefs. We all reviled conservatives. I know I grew up around some, but it wasn’t apparent until after I went to college. The pendulum began to swing right post-pandemic, as it did in urban areas all around the country (Portland still remains a liberal haven, but it’s grown more moderate and politically diverse).
When I was deciding whether to commit to play soccer at Colorado College during my junior year of high school, the location was on my con list. I wanted to be in Colorado; my dad grew up here and I’d visited my Grandma in Copper Mountain and Steamboat Springs countless times, but I wasn’t sure about Colorado Springs. Family and friends would grimace and mention its conservative population and strong gun culture; seven months after I committed, Anderson Lee Aldrich walked into Club Q and shot 24 people, killing five.
After I committed, when people asked where CC was, I always said some iteration of “I’m not sure about the Springs,” or “I know the location isn’t great,” just to get ahead of the inevitable eyebrow raise and apprehensive comment.
I was preparing myself to move to a mid-size, conservative city with a potentially mediocre food scene and not much to do, redeemed only by its proximity to the mountains and smaller urban density than Denver.
Now, two years later and halfway through my college career, I look forward to coming back to the Springs after every break, not just because I’m excited to get back to school and my friends, but because I love the city.
I love it because of the mountains, the sun and the picturesque neighborhood around CC, yes, but what’s given me a more deep-seated appreciation for the Springs is seeing the different communities that are present and active everywhere I look. The Springs is a city that shows up.
The spirit of the Springs is exemplified for me at Switchbacks games on summer evenings, where families wearing matching blue jerseys gather to watch a team that stunned the United Soccer League or USL, (the second tier of professional soccer for men in the U.S.,) to win a national championship last year. No one cares that the Switchbacks aren’t in the MLS (the first tier). They’re still proud of their team.
Even further, it’s exemplified by the Switchbacks Unified team, the first Special Olympics soccer team in the USL. My teammates and I spent an afternoon training with them this spring, and it was abundantly clear how much their players and coaches cared about promoting inclusion in athletics for people with disabilities and encouraging teams in other cities to do the same.
It’s the people at Concrete Couch, who taught me how to build a bench and spread fertilizer at the park they’re building. It’s everyone who writes for The Gazette and everyone who reads it. It’s the miscellaneous gatherings I see at Building Three Coffee some mornings, discussing a book or something of the like.
The political scene in the Springs is more complex than the conservative hellscape I was promised. Our mayor, Yemi Mobolade, is a politically independent Black immigrant from Nigeria. It’s the first time the Springs has had a non-Republican at its helm, and the first time I’ve had a non-Democrat mayor. Colorado Springs residents elected Mobolade just a few years before a majority voted for President Trump in 2024.
Nothing felt more emblematic of those complexities than standing in a thousands-strong crowd of residents in front of City Hall protesting against President Donald Trump’s reckless, hasty slew of executive orders, as a procession of pickup trucks flying MAGA flags of all sorts slowly circled the blocks we occupied. As much as I might disagree with what they stand for, I can’t help but appreciate the peaceful exercise of speech and assembly rights. And, coming from such a homogenous political environment, it was, in moments, refreshing.
I love the Springs for all of the simple reasons, too. There are few things I enjoy more than walking to a coffee shop through the Old North End on a sunny morning and sitting outside as people pass by on the Shooks Run trail. I love being so close to the mountains and seeing how they glow on clear mornings, behemoths on the horizon painted pink. I love being able to drive ten minutes and find myself in Red Rock Canyon Open Space or the Garden of the Gods and discovering new restaurants to add to my list.
I no longer caveat my status as a CC student with a dismissal of the Springs and what it has to offer, and I shouldn’t have ever done so in the first place.
I probably won’t live here after I graduate — it doesn’t rain enough, and I can only live in a landlocked state for so long — but I’m lucky to spend my college years here. I know I’ll miss it when it’s time to leave, so I’m doing my best to intentionally appreciate it every day.
So, when you’re here, be thankful not just to be at CC, but to be in the Springs specifically. Step off-campus. Go to a Switchbacks game. Pick up a copy of The Gazette. Volunteer at Concrete Couch. Drive the back way up to Copper Mountain and be thankful you’re avoiding the traffic on I-70. Cherish your time at the foot of the Front Range, because I bet you’ll miss it more than you think.