The incline closed, the cog was shut down and it was like, whoa, this is wonderful. “We had become almost to the point where it's like abuse, where you just sort of go into a coma and you don't think anymore, it was so bad. ![]() Quinn said the pandemic gave residents a break and also provided a sharp contrast. The cog railway is owned by the Broadmoor and the i ncline is managed by the Colorado Springs Parks department, so the city of Manitou Springs doesn’t fully control either of these major tourist attractions. ”Some people can't find parking and they don't stay.” “It's a little rough over here for parking in the summer,” he said. The Pikes Peak Cog Railway depot and the Manitou Incline are located on Ruxton Ave. Shanna Lewis/KRCC News Traffic comes down Ruxton Avenue in Manitou Springs. “The people who live here, they have to expect growth.”īut business owners like Gray see the challenges too. I think it's good for the downtown businesses,” he said. Matthew Gray owns The Loop, one of the oldest restaurants in town. ![]() Not everyone thinks all those tourists are trouble. ![]() “But I will not say that it hasn't crossed our mind, do we want to live in this kind of congestion?” “It would be very very difficult to find anything that's as incredible as what we have here,” she said. Long-time resident Robyn Barker said they’ve sometimes considered moving away. Quinn worries about the environmental impact of all those vehicles, so much so that she and some of her neighbors have set up air quality monitors at their homes.īut residents like Quinn and Ahlen also realize it's the price they pay for living in Manitou Springs. Shanna Lewis/KRCC News Construction on Manitou Avenue in Manitou Springs.Īnd it’s not just the traffic. “I do not invite people to come to my house on the weekend because they may be sitting in traffic for 45 minutes,” said Ahlen. Many other residents said the same thing, like Christina Ahlen. I think I would be a much angrier person if I had to do that.” I'm thankful I don't have a job that I have to be in a certain place at a certain time or come home at a certain time. That was the draw for many of Manitou’s residents.īut now it’s, “almost to the point of unbearable … Traffic is horrendous. She remembers the small-town feeling back in 1995 when she moved here. Real estate broker Ila Quinn’s neat little home is in the same canyon as the cog and the incline. Lines of cars rolled past several construction zones. They’d have to wait another 20 minutes for the next shuttle to arrive.Ī few blocks away on Manitou Avenue, the main street running through downtown, people were browsing for jewelry, clothing and art, dining on cuisines from burritos to beignets and sampling mineral waters from eight natural springs. ![]() When the bus arrived, it filled quickly and De La Cruz and others were turned away. Shanna Lewis/KRCC News Kansan Donna De La Cruz (at left) waits for the free shuttle bus to the cog railway. It's horrible, but I hope it's going to be worth it.” And I got all the way up there and they told me I had to come back,” she said because it was too busy to park up there. “I drove all the way up to the railway, because I didn't see anything about additional parking elsewhere. One August weekday, Kansan Donna De La Cruz waited there along with a couple of dozen other people. The shuttles link the main drag to the Cog Railway Depot and incline, both at the end of the same residential street. The city also serves as a starting point for the signature Pikes Peak Marathon and Ascent.īut Manitou Springs has just 5,400 residents, and that many people coming to town can have an effect on the people who actually live there.įree shuttle buses run along downtown's main corridor and also pick people up from a parking lot just outside of downtown Manitou Springs. Many of them come to ride the Broadmoor Manitou and Pikes Peak Cog Railway to the summit of Pikes Peak or climb the Manitou Incline’s 2,700 steps. Hundreds of thousands of people visit Manitou Springs each year.
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