Unemployment Dropping in Colorado Springs

The unemployment rate for the state of Colorado and Colorado Springs is dropping, according the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment. A 7.2% unemployment figure for September is welcome news to the local area, and should help stabilize the housing market, along with everything else that has been hit by this recession. We'd rather be at 4%, but compared to 10%, 7.2% looks good!

The new Costco on North Nevada near I25 (University Village) opens later this month, making the 2nd Costco to open in the area in less than 2 years. I finally bit the bullet and joined yesterday, figuring that while Sam's Club on Woodmen is a more convenient location for me much of the time, with 2 stores that are both in major travel corridors (the other store is at Barnes and Powers), the prices and selection will make it worth it.

The sun is out again after yesterday's minor snow event. This time of year it goes back and forth between summer and winter a lot, and with 80 degrees last Sunday, we knew it was bound to go the other way at some point. Very little snow actually stayed on the ground, and it is melting as fast as the sun can find it.

Today's photo was taken Sunday up in Basalt (near Aspen, about 4 hours away), where there was still some color left on some of the trees. Early season wind storms stripped a lot of the hillsides of their aspen leaves, but the valleys of the Frying Pan and Roaring Fork Rivers were very pretty. Independence Pass was still open, but normally closes later in the month when the snow gets more serious in the high country.
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This is a special day for us, our newest grandbaby is scheduled to be born today. Of course you never know for sure until it happens, but they are planning on inducing labor, so the odds go up considerably!
The weather seems to be warming up a bit after a cold winter, we should be back in the 50's today. March and April are our snowiest months normally, so we have no illusions that winter is close to over (the best skiing is still ahead of us!), but the warm sunny days are a nice break that you kind of expect when you live here. I did not ski this weekend, Presidents Day is kind of a zoo up in the mountains with all the kids off from school, but maybe after the next storm.
The new Costco at Barnes and Powers opens tomorrow. I am a little skeptical as to how much better of a shopping option it will be over Sam's, but I like choices, so we'll see. A lot of people seem to be waiting for it like it will change the city, the Gazette even gave it front page coverage today. Maybe that says more about the lack of news than it does about Costco! We'll see.

The Colorado Springs Economic Development Corporation does a great job promoting the city for business. In their latest newsletter they included a link to the new University Village retail development at Nevada and I25, and I have to say I am impressed at how large this is going to be. They are mentioning Costco, Lowes, Petsmart and Kohls (although I don't see the Kohls building labelled in the diagrams) as anchor tenants. This will be a large development! We've all been waiting for the freeway to get finished so they could get this thing going. Hopefully it won't be delayed substantially past the Summer 2008 schedule shown on the web site, but this looks like it will be a very nice addition to the shopping landscape, and a nice replacement for some of the blighted motels that used to be spread along this ection of North Nevada.