Friday marks two years since Yemi Mobolade was sworn in as Colorado Springs’ 42nd mayor. His achievements so far have drawn mixed reactions from the city’s residents who attended the Report Out Community Tour events this week.

Mobolade launched the tour on May 23, holding a meeting in each of the six Colorado Springs City Council districts to hear how residents felt about the progress made on the goals. The largest turnout was Tuesday night, when several dozen people sat in the auditorium of The Classical Academy for the District 2 meeting.

The crowd was unhappy to find out that Mobolade would not be appearing. City staff and council members said he had attended Monday’s town hall while sick but had begun feeling worse. Mobolade was absent from the events Tuesday and Wednesday and the city rescheduled his telephone town hall to June 25.

The town halls were organized around five categories Mobolade has identified as strategic goals: public safety, infrastructure, economic vitality, housing solutions and community activation. Staff held live opinion polls for the attendees about how the city was doing on those goals and later split into breakout tables where residents could provide longer answers.

The auditorium was where hundreds of neighbors gathered in December to speak to Mobolade about their issues with Ford Amphitheater and ask the city to end or heavily restrict the venue’s noise hardship for the 2025 concerts. Issues with the amphitheater were still in the air Tuesday, even though it wasn’t one of the city’s topics.

“We have things that concern us and these are very real, personal concerns. But tonight is part of a conversation that needs to transcend some of that to look at the things that affect the city more broadly,” City Councilmember Tom Bailey told the crowd.

During the live polling segment, 34 of the 55 residents said the city did a very poor job reflecting resident input. It was the only opinion question where more than 60% of the audience gave the same answer.

Public safety and police were the top concern from the city’s list, though a significant majority of residents said they were confident in the police responses and happy with their neighborhood’s safety. The room applauded when Chief of Staff Jamie Fabos mentioned that the Colorado Springs Police Department had more than 800 officers for the first time.

Sheryl and Rick Hobbs said they mainly came to the town hall to talk about safety concerns, especially tied to Colorado Springs’ drop in the most recent U.S. News and World Report rankings. Sheryl said they have not experienced as much concert noise as their neighbors but sympathized with them and joined in the roundtable discussions that focused on the amphitheater.

Sheryl and Rick suggested that District 2 should be prioritized for infrastructure repairs and other projects based on the extra taxes and revenue the city receives from the amphitheater.

“If there is harm from that or people are inconvenienced, then we should be the ones who get the revenue back,” Rick Hobbs said.

Bailey and Councilmember David Leinweber jumped between conversations with residents, along with around 15 city staff members who helped run the various table discussions. Bailey said he was trying to limit his comments about the amphitheater and wanted to hear the other issues that residents had.

At the District 1 meeting on Wednesday night, housing was rated as the top issue for the 20 residents who attended. Residents raised concerns about annexations and investors flipping houses, but many used the forum to criticize the recent ICE raids and the ways they caused fear for immigrants who had not committed a crime.

“There is a bigger threat to the community. If an undocumented woman gets raped and she’s too afraid to report it, who is that benefiting?” resident Joe Reagan asked at one of the tables.

Councilmember Kimberly Gold attended Monday night’s town hall report in District 4. Like Bailey, Gold was new to the City Council and said it was interesting to hear what issues resonated in her district.

One result that stood out to her was the district’s very negative response to a question about how well Colorado Springs’ economic success crossed between neighborhoods.

“We’re fortunate to have leadership that takes time to be intentional about reporting out to the community, and we’re more fortunate to have community members who consistently show up and give that feedback,” Gold said.

Gazette reporter Grace Brajkovich contributed to this report.