El Paso Inc. published an informative article last week about how the downtown management district (DMD) may have improperly doubled the assessment on it’s property owners.
I find it remarkable that a feel-good weekly newspaper scooped our local daily newspaper on an article this important.
My view of the Inc. is that they try hard to celebrate what is good about El Paso and attempt to stay out of reporting with negative articles. I respect them for that. They have a business model and the integrity to follow it.
The Times also seems to have a business model. I think that they pander to the cabal that captured our city government a few years ago. I don’t see how they can continue down their same path for very long.
Brutus pointed out the other day that it seems that city council is gaining control from city staff. Our new mayor unfortunately voted to raise taxes with an already bloated budget.
I suspect that his problem was that he was too new to city government finances to do as much as he wanted. We will have to wait until next year to see if he will be able to do more for us.
It will be interesting to see if the Times changes it’s allegiance to its subscribers or if it continues to pander to the ones that think they know better than the voters.
I would be embarrassed if I was running the only daily newspaper in a city the size of El Paso and got scooped by a weekly that goes out of its way to stay neutral.
Muckraker
elpasospeak 
Trumped? Bah! Even if they had the story handed to them, they probably would choose not to print it … or maybe they’d hide it deep in some inconspicuous spot.
LikeLike
Speaking of downtown shenanigans, I see today that the Camino Real Regional Mobility Authority Board may commission a study on Downtown parking needs to determine whether it should build another garage. So what’s wrong with this picture?
— People have complained about a lack of downtown parking for years. However, while trying to sell the downtown ballpark, city management said there was already sufficient parking,
— Now that the ballpark is underway, parking suddenly becomes a concern that might require investment of tax dollars.
— They want to hire a bunch of consultants and pay them tens of thousands of dollars to do a feasibility study and provide a recommendation.
— They need a year to do a parking study.
— The CRRMA is the same group to which the city has redirected certain revenues.
— Coincidentally, he CRRMA recently awarded a nice little $7,000,000 project to Foster Jordan Construction, the newly merged Paul Foster and Paco Jordan construction company.
Draw your own conclusions.
LikeLike
And the reporter who wrote the story in El Paso, Inc, David Crowder, used to work for the Times. The EP Slimes obviously is on its last leg and cannot pay reporters — good reporters.
I do not subscribe to the print edition, yet the carrier has been throwing it in my yard since mid-Sept. It’s gone in the recycling bin because if I read the Times, I read it online (where else can I find out about garage sales?). Then, last week the EP Times has the gaul to send me a bill. That’s called adding insult to injury.
I’ve seen the paper in more yards than usual all over the neighborhood. I think this is an effort by the Times to “increase readership” so the numbers will look good to potential buyers. I think the paper will either change hands or close in the next year.
That would leave El Paso, Inc, the only really good English language paper in town. Tom Fenton has the experience to take over an English daily but would he want to? Print newspapers are dying.
LikeLike
Dear El Diario, Please come out with an English language version.
Sincerely, All of El Paso
LikeLike
How about starting with just one page in English each day?
I would buy the paper.
LikeLike
lf l was El Diario, l would put at least 1 or 2 pages in English on the internet (they can recoupe some of their costs by running ads) as a trial balloon. Then l would ask the peeps who are reading it, to please let us know what part of town they’re from. lf enough people from a certain part or parts of town continue reading their news, they might decide that it might be profitable to place newsstands in those parts. As far as the EP Slimes goes, there’s NO way they are going to do the right thing by being honest. lt would be a nightmare for them to admit, ‘ Well, now that you taxpayers were kind enough to give us plenty of $ for our building, maybe now we should admit that we were wrong.’ Let’s face it, most 915ers don’t care what’s going on in their community, which means that The Slimes can get away with there caca de toro. Besides, serious local news comprises just a small portion of the paper.
LikeLike
The EP Times has laid off their “reporters” and only use AP & other out sourced sources…I cancelled my subscription. I was a daily reader for many years and tilted way to the left.
It will cut down on my recycling!
LikeLike
l realize that in a previous comment, that l mentioned that our local fish-wrap doesn’t even cover hard-hitting, policy-centric local news. l’ve decided to put that claim to the test by doing some in-depth investigating. That’s right, l’m going to count the # of “real” local stories in today’s (11/14) paper. l want all of you to realize that it’s not easy to flip through the pages while trying not to get any potato chip grease or french onion dip on them. l’m not doing this tedious task for my benefit, l’m doing this for YOUR benefit. Ok, the ONLY two stories l found was the ‘PSB delays’ and the ‘Transportation panel.’ lnexcusable.
LikeLike