My good friend M. T. Cicero alerted us to an article in El Diario the other day. He used Google translation. Just getting the article was an eye opener, El Diario will now become a source of news about El Paso for me.
I don’t think it would be fair to quote the article directly since Google was used to convert it to English. It was in the April 18, 2013 edition if you want to read it yourself.
The reporter wrote about city council’s decision to close several streets as part of the ball park deal with the railroad. Evidently school districts, neighbors, and other agencies were not informed by the city. Government officials and citizens were interview and some of their concerns were discussed.
The manager of El Paso County Water Improvement District Number One spoke of the 532 water users who would evidently suffer because of these closings.
The Ysleta Independent School District (YISD) learned of the situation from a third party, not from the city. Students use the Cadwallader street crossing to go to and from Riverside High School. YISD held an emergency meeting. Also some 16-22 buses will have to be re-routed.
We don’t know how many others will be affected by the closings yet.
The article tied the closing of the crossings directly to the construction of the ball park and the parking lot east of the new city hall. It pointed out that city council will be discussing (and probably taking action) on this next Tuesday at 8:30 AM in the downtown library.
We have been writing here about the closings. Train wreck was our most recent article about them.
Once again the city is acting with disregard for the public. It appears that there will be some opposition from other agencies at Tuesday’s meeting.
It’s about time.
One more thing. According to the reporter the city did not return her calls. Had it been a call from the city’s media outlet and real estate partner The El Paso Times I suspect the call would have been returned.
Let’s vote for a change and for change in May.
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 