The real news isn't that Colorado Springs is suffering through a budget crunch -- that can be said for just about every city in the United States right now. The real story here -- the story I keep trying to convey to reporters who call me, the story that truly merits national attention -- is how average citizens and non-governmental entities step in to fill the void left when city services are threatened. Steve Immel's one-man initiative to help with parks maintenance, highlighted in Daniel Chacon's City Desk blog, offers one case in point. But there are dozens more I could point to (and that I do point to when I get a call from some out-of-town reporter, who only seems interested in our darkened street lights and homeless camps).

But even some local reporters can miss the story, though it's right under their noses. Wednesday's report in The Gazette about the partnership initiative had virtually nothing to say about the success stories that were reported at the Tuesday event: about the fact that friends groups have raised nearly enough funds to keep the Starsmore Center and Rock Ledge Ranch open through the year; that our aquatic centers are working with USA Swimming to come up with a new operating model: that local organizations and activists are stepping up to help our community centers through the crisis. The Gazette focused almost exclusively on the fundraising aspects of what's happening (and our supposed "pleading" for more money), though that is a secondary focus for me and only one small part of what's happening.

The Independent's Adrian Stanley understands this, resulting in the top-notch piece of reporting on the partnership efforts published today. But that's because Adrian has taken the time to study the issue, attend the meetings, get to know the people who are rolling up their sleeves to get involved. Give the piece a look, Gazette -- maybe you can find some story leads.

There are two stories we can tell about Colorado Springs. The one the national media has focused on so-far is a gloom-and-doom story of draconian budget cuts -- a cautionary tale about the municipal Armageddon that awaits cities that have relatively low taxes and vote predominantly Republican, according to the simplistic analysis of liberal reporters and pundits. Or we can provide a more balanced, positive and (in my view) accurate picture, of a city that's confronting fiscal adversity with creativity, innovation and the can-do spirit of average citizens -- people who, like Steve Immel, are stepping up to fill the void.

The problem is that some city leaders (and some on city staff) are so heavily invested in sky-is-falling thinking and rhetoric (which they used to try and sell an unsuccessful tax hike) that they can't change gears and get with the new program. We've been beating up on ourselves so much in Colorado Springs that we're reluctant to fight back when outsiders join in on the beating, in order to make some lame political point. This self-defeating sort of thinking is the biggest single barrier to getting us safely through this crisis.