#KeepGOGFree I attended yesterday's Colorado Springs City Council meeting regarding the proposed photography permits in the Garden of the Gods. Fortunately, signed language interpreters were provided, which I greatly appreciate.
The presentation provided by unelected government bureaucrats yesterday was terrible. Instead of clarifying their reasons and proposals, the bureaucrats made everything murkier and more confusing. Again, there was not a single issue or problem to be solved with the proposed photography permits.
In short, the proposed photography permits will do nothing but give unelected government bureaucrats more authority to harass and extort money from anyone in the Garden of the Gods. They want to regulate who uses the park and how. While the news report indicates the photography permits proposal is only a proposal, unelected government bureaucrats are acting as if their policy has been written in bureaucratic stone, disregarding the majority of the public's views.
In late 2017, with Colorado Springs mayor Suther's blessing, unelected government bureaucrats drilled a giant blue metal frame into a rock formation at the Garden of the Gods. One stated purpose was to encourage people to take photographs of both the blue frame and Pikes Peak in the background, essentially commercializing the Garden of the Gods for government bureaucrats and politicians. And that's a dramatic change between late 2017 and yesterday when a former politician claimed at the meeting that the Garden of the Gods was being "loved to death," and therefore, the proposed photography permits, among other things, were necessary.
Was there any concern the park was being "loved to death" in late 2017?
Was there any concern to require professional photographers to pay a fee to take pictures of the frame?
As one Councilwoman noted yesterday, the Garden of the Gods is one of the world's most popular tourist attractions. It's been like this for many years without photography permits being required. And if you think about it, local photographers do a far better job promoting the Garden of the Gods than the Visitors Centers and Visitors Bureas that are subsidized by the City.
And on that note, if there's a need for more money for the Garden of the Gods, then the City should FIRST reduce the subsidization of visitors centers and visitors bureaus, and use that money to help with park maintenance at the Garden. But that's not what this is all about: this is an effort to further micromanage the park for the benefit of unelected government bureaucrats and their political enablers.
Finally, while commercial uses of the park and filming curently require permits, they shouldn't. The park is free to all, therefore, if a corporation wants to shoot a film at the park, they'll just have to deal with other humans in the park like everyone other person does. Making exceptions to this freedom is how government bureaucrats sell their authority at the expense of everyone else.
Let's make the park free for ALL again.
News article: https://krdo.com/news/top-stories/2020/02/10/colorado-springs-city-council-debates-controversial-park-photography-fee/
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