We write a lot in this space about thermodynamic economic and cultural growth that has made Colorado Springs a world-class city and a model for other communities to emulate.

Meanwhile, The Gazette’s Pulitzer Prize winning news department has worked for two years to understand why the city’s southeast neighborhoods have been left behind, struggling with high unemployment, low median household incomes, high rates of murder and other crimes, low-performing schools, poor health, vacant commercial properties and slum apartments that continue getting worse.

The work culminated in a five-day series that concludes Thursday. It highlights problems in an area that contains a fifth of the city’s population and accounts for:

– 30 percent of all violent crime.

– 40 percent of the city’s gang population.

– 42 percent of the city’s poor children.

– 34 percent of all city residents living at or below the federal poverty line.

– Colorado’s highest rate of deaths by gunshots among federal census tracts.

And more. That’s just a small glimpse into a series built on diversified public records research and interviews with a broad swath of the community. The stories are rich in detail about residents, schools, crime, housing, businesses, public health and prospects for the area’s future.

The packages should serve as a catalyst for positive change, as it illuminates the causes and effects of problems much of our community has long tried to ignore.

Few journalists get rich. Strangers don’t typically thank them for their service. Mostly they are criticized and blamed, and occasionally acknowledged for comforting the afflicted. This is one such occasion.

“Check out the Gazette’s phenomenal series about Southeast Colorado Springs,” wrote a Gazette reader. “It looks at issues this region faces from a fascinating array of perspectives, and we hear voices from politicians, activists, analysts and many, many residents. It really gives you a real feel of the place, and, through it all, tries like hell to find hope among the abandoned strip malls.”

Another reader wrote:

“Journalism is the check system against corrupt individuals, corporations and politicians. Without true journalists to question, search and verify what is being done out in the real world we would be sliding into the abyss of darkness. Thank Ben Franklin for bringing the word to the streets. Buy a journalist a dinner if you see them out in the field. They work in fear for their families and their own safety to get the truth out.”

We thank these readers, and others, for such kind words. The Gazette strives to fulfill the media’s difficult role as “The Fourth Estate” – responsible for casting light in dark spaces of governments, corporations and other powerful institutions.

Colorado Springs is the country’s 40th largest city, and nearly all major cities have a blighted, low-income section. Planning and zoning practices that eliminate low-income private-sector housing, and low-rent commercial properties, don’t reduce or end suffering. They don’t magically elevate that poor to live like the middle class and rich. Instead, they tend to drive low-income residents and business owners out of town, with onerous regulations and ensuing gentrification. We don’t want to make that mistake in pursuit of a snazzier image.

To help southeast Colorado Springs, civic leaders and other residents should strive to elevate standards of living within the community without forcing people to flee. Help this area succeed with the people who live there. As shown in the series, the struggles of southeast Colorado Springs are accompanied by a rich cultural diversity and sense of community other parts of the city can only stand back and envy. Much is good about our southeast neighborhoods.

In our relentless quest to improve, we should innovate and invest to enhance safety, health, education, incomes, property values and the business climate of southeast Colorado Springs. Our city is one connected, living entity. If one region needs help, it should be everyone’s concern.

Read this series and get ready to get involved. Let’s make the southeast quadrant a place in which more will want to invest, work, bring up children, buy homes, start businesses, and live in safety and peace.