Thursday, June 6, marks one year since Mayor Yemi was sworn in as the 42nd Mayor of the City of Colorado Springs. Based on community input since assuming office, Mayor Yemi has organized his administration around the following priority areas: public safety, infrastructure, housing solutions, economic vitality and community activation. He has also taken action to provide a government that is transparent, proactive and approachable.
Among the hallmarks of Mayor Yemi’s first year have been engaging with the community and building Solutions Teams by bringing together a team of rivals to solve some of our community’s most challenging issues. In his first 100 days, more than 1,000 residents participated in a citywide Listening Tour and the results – including 2,300 pieces of feedback – were all shared online. This feedback has directly informed the City’s 2024 Strategic Doing Framework, which is the City’s annual action plan, and the 2024-2028 strategic planning process. The strategic plan will be final by the end of June. In addition, the mayor has reached more than 13,000 residents through 250-plus speaking engagements since he started.
“It’s important to me to bring the Mayor’s Office to the people, and I’m proud of how engaged we’ve been with the community and how welcoming the community has been to this approach,” said Mayor Yemi. "I concluded my inaugural address, by stating, “it’s time to get to work.” I hit the ground running and, today, I continue to serve with the same drive, passion, and belief in the great things we can accomplish by working together. Many of our early efforts have been to intentionally lay the groundwork so that significant progress can continue to be made. And I still believe, greater things are yet to come and greater things are still to be done in this city.”
Here is a summary of some of the progress the City has made in the last year around the five strategic priorities. Much of this work has been driven by the 2024 Strategic Doing Framework.
Public Safety
- The Police Department is nearing its authorized strength of 819 sworn officers thanks to concurrent training academies. When Mayor Yemi started, the department was facing a shortage of 70-plus officers. Now, the department is expecting to reach full bench strength by the end of this year.
- Implemented 5 new school zones at middle and high school across Colorado Springs to improve student safety. These are expected to be operational at the start of the 2024-2025 school year with an additional 5 locations to be implemented before the end of 2024.
- Launched a new speed radar program through the Police Department to deter speeding in school and construction zones, residential areas and roads that border parks.
- Broke ground on Fire Station 24, which will serve the growing northeast area of Colorado Springs, near Interquest Parkway and New Life Drive.
Infrastructure
- Repaved 179 lane miles and replaced 47.5 miles of sidewalk with 2C funding. With operations and maintenance funding, filled 104,181 potholes.
- Achieved 20-year passenger highs at the Colorado Springs Airport and a record number of riders on Mountain Metropolitan Transit.
- Opened the first dog park in Downtown Colorado Springs in the historic Antlers Park, located behind the Antlers Hotel.
- Launched a new development tracker review webpage that makes it easier than ever for residents to learn about proposed development projects.
- Started to draft AnnexCOS, the city’s new annexation master plan.
- Revised the land use development review process to make it clearer to residents that City team members are not advocates for land use items.
Housing Solutions
- Created the Housing & Community Vitality department.
- Commissioned a housing needs assessment that will collect data around what type of housing is needed in Colorado Springs to meet the 16,000-27,000 home deficit identified in a report by the Common Sense Institute. When completed, the needs assessment will help guide housing solutions.
- Construction has begun on 345 affordable housing units.
Economic Vitality
- Signed six economic development agreements that will add 1,872 new and high-paying jobs and generate a projected investment of $450 million.
- Helped secure U.S. Space Command in Colorado Springs.
- Bolstered the City’s commitment to supporting workforce development and small businesses by hiring a Workforce Development Administrator and Small Business Development Administrator.
- Developing a robust Business Navigator program that will launch this year to help entrepreneurs and small businesses navigate government processes.
Community Activation
- Launched the 1,000 Neighborhood Gatherings initiative on May 18 to support collective health and well being and offer an upstream solution to mental health.
- Created the Mayor’s Office of Community Affairs to bring the mayor’s office to the people.
- Launched the AskCOS AI chatbot to improve the search function of the City’s website.
For more information, visit ColoradoSprings.gov.