Welcome to Rapture: Colorado Springs Goes Bioshock

OK, so the lede is a little unfair.  The Underwater City of Rapture, the setting of 2K Games Bioshock, was a hellhole due to the logical failures of Libertarianism/Objectivism.  Colorado Springs on the other hands is a hellhole because of the logical failures of Conservatism.

Via the Denver Post:

COLORADO SPRINGS — This tax-averse city is about to learn what it looks and feels like when budget cuts slash services most Americans consider part of the urban fabric.
More than a third of the streetlights in Colorado Springs will go dark Monday. The police helicopters are for sale on the Internet. The city is dumping firefighting jobs, a vice team, burglary investigators, beat cops — dozens of police and fire positions will go unfilled.
The parks department removed trash cans last week, replacing them with signs urging users to pack out their own litter.
Neighbors are encouraged to bring their own lawn mowers to local green spaces, because parks workers will mow them only once every two weeks. If that.
Water cutbacks mean most parks will be dead, brown turf by July; the flower and fertilizer budget is zero.

Welcome to the Ownership Society!

Colorado Springs is the town that brought us Ted Haggard.  Colorado Springs is the town that brought us James Dobson and Focus on the Family.  McCain took Colorado Springs by 19 points.  And then there's this:

Voters in November said an emphatic no to a tripling of property tax that would have restored $27.6 million to the city's $212 million general fund budget. Fowler and many other residents say voters don't trust city government to wisely spend a general tax increase and don't believe the current cuts are the only way to balance a budget.

This is Grover Norquist's government that's small enough to drown in a bathtub.  Or it would be if there was any water left in Colorado.  You get what you pay for, and the voters have chosen to pay for a city with Third World level of services.

Welcome to Rapture.

h/t Daily Kos Diarist Bink