Zuri Horowitz is a Colorado Springs native.
Background
Her grandparents moved to Colorado Springs in 1954 after driving around the US to find the best place to live. She has also lived in Alaska, Israel, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, and California.
She graduated Colorado College with a BA in History/Political Science and graduated from California State Dominguez Hills with an MS in Occupational Therapy.
The 2016 election made it very clear that the United States is only “a Republic, if you can keep it.”
After sitting on the sidelines and just voting in elections it became clear to Zuri that a functioning democracy requires our active committed participation.
Advocate
She leads People Centered COS, advocating for people centered planning over car centered planning in Colorado Springs and El Paso County. The group works to improve multimodal transportation, transit and affordable housing. The group strives to educate and promote policy that melds best practices with expert and community feedback.
For the past two years the People Centered COS has held remembrances at City Hall in Colorado Springs and placed memorials across El Paso County for road crash victims from the last calendar year. In conjunction with this event we’ve advocated for school zones and traffic calming at all middle schools and high schools. Since then, Colorado Springs has installed four school zones and identified 21 other schools that would benefit from school zones.*
We’ve also worked with grieving families to advocate for safer infrastructure, including helping a grieving mother collect public comments which ultimately led to a $294,000 study of the intersection at Peterson Rd. and Constitution Ave. intersection.
Fighter
Zuri has served on the Citizens Transportation Advisory Board for Colorado Springs since January 11, 2022, advocating for Safer Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) grant program along with improved multimodal and transit infrastructure. Colorado Springs obtained a Safer Streets and Roads for All grant in November, 2023, prior to that the city hadn’t had a Safer Streets and Roads for All grant in over ten years.
Previously, she served on the Behavioral Health Workforce Taskforce (BHWT). On the BHWT she advocated for improved pay and staff-to-patients ratios with a focus on staff retention to reduce turnover and improve working conditions.
Additionally, Zuri volunteers for local progressive candidates who share her values like River Gassen, Naomi Lopez, Amy Paschal, and Steph Vigil. She was part of the El Paso County Democrats team that worked on County Commissioner Redistricting. The El Paso County Board of County Commissioners hasn’t had a Democrat on the board for 40+ years. The team was able to advocate for fairer County Commissioner redistricting, resulting in two competitive seats in District 3 and District 5.
*All advocacy happens in community, it isn’t just one group or one person that makes the difference.
