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MANY VOICES ... ONE COMMUNITY • VOL. 2, ISSUE 3 • MARCH 2020
Primed for opportunity Amazon announcement stirs excitement, visions of growth By Jeanne Davant
Special to the Southeast Express
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COURTESY PHOTO/JEANNE DAVANT/COLORADO SPRINGS BUSINESS JOURNAL
Amazon's announcement that it would build a 4 million-squarefoot fulfillment center in Southeast Colorado Springs spurred excitement in the business community.
mazon’s Feb. 13 announcement that it plans to open a 4 million-square-foot fulfillment center in Southeast Colorado Springs has stirred excitement in the economic development community. The project has broken ground and the facility is scheduled to open in the summer of 2021. It’s expected to bring more than 1,000 new full-time jobs starting at $15 an hour, with full benefits. The new center will be built just north of Amazon’s current distribution center in Peak Innovation Park at the Colorado Springs Airport. Colorado Springs Economic Development Manager Bob Cope said the new fulfillment center will produce major economic benefits. “We are going to be a growing community because of our quality of life and people wanting to move here," Continued as AMAZON page 8
On the search for a solution
Panel, community dialogue opens rebuilding process By Regan Foster
The Southeast Express
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or seven months, city law enforcement leaders and Southeast Colorado Springs residents have pondered some difficult questions: How can we come together and heal following a tragic event that drove a wedge into the community? And how can we work together to improve accountability, communication and transparency, should another tragedy occur? The questions were spurred by the Aug. 3 fatal police-involved shooting of 19-year-old De’Von Bailey. Although a grand jury ultimately declined to indict the officers, Bailey’s friends, family and supporters in the Southeast Colorado Springs neighborhood in which he was shot were unhappy with how Springs police and some city leaders handled the situ-
ation. In early February, six months after Bailey’s death, a group formed to explore how to improve accountability in policing. From that citizen-led group, the Justice for De’Von Bailey Editorial Board, arose the Law Enforcement Accountability Project. A delegation of Springs residents is slated to head to the University of Texas Law School in Austin, Texas, for a March 6 academic symposium on civilian oversight of law enforcement. The delegates are expected to report back April 2 as part of an accountability project program on oversight models and the benefits of such programs. The trip and update follow a tense-but-respectful community gathering that took place on a snowy Feb. 6. A standing-room-only crowd flocked to Relevant Word Christian Cultural Center in the Hillside neighborhood for a panel discussion on police accountability, transparency and community relations. It was the
first in a series of planned meetings designed to foster dialogue among the stakeholders on the quest to find a solution. “The tragedy of De’Von Bailey has traumatized the community and the community has been severely torn, but not torn apart,” said the Rev. Promise Lee, pastor at Relevant Word and the evening’s moderator. The panelists included: Florencia Rojo, an assistant professor of sociology at Colorado College and adviser to a student-led project studying police transparency and best practices in Colorado Springs, Aurora, Denver and Boulder; the Rev. Stephany Rose Spaulding, chair of Women’s and Ethnic Studies at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs and a candidate for U.S. Senate; Colorado Springs Police Chief Vince Niski; Kevin Mitchell, Colorado Springs NAACP Continued as DIALOGUE page 9
INSIDE Making college accessible page 10
Classes from the heart page 12 Meet Sierra's history maker page 21
Faces of a community
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