They’re back.
Item 15.1 on the regular agenda of the May 13, 2014 city council meeting proposes the closing of yet another rail crossing in the five points area. This time they are after Maple street.
The April 23, 2013 city council meeting had a long and contentious discussion about the closing of several other crossings. The closures were made necessary in order for the ball park to be built. Our city administrators failed to tell us that we did not own all of the land under our old city hall. The railroad extracted the street closures as part of the deal to sell the city the sliver of land.
Train wreck explained parts of the issue.
Public outreach
At the 2013 meeting several people including the then superintendent of schools for the Ysleta district complained that they had not been informed about the closings. The public asked for more time.
Some city council members as well as members of city staff maintained the position that the city had done a remarkable job of reaching out to the public. Another city council member pointed out the truth. The city had conducted meetings about “quiet zones” for the railroad. Quiet zones can be created without closing rail crossings. The city failed to tell the members of the public that the kind of quiet zone they were talking about would close streets.
Once the die was cast some city council members repeatedly asked city staff for assurances that there would be plenty of public notice if further closings were going to be contemplated. City staff made the appropriate promises and assurances.
Surprise, surprise!
Just one year later the city and the railroad are back at the table. They want to close Maple street. Have the public safety agencies, the schools, the citizens, the property owners been warned? I have not heard a word.
A change in management at the city may be the only way that we can change their secretive method of operation. City staff frequently lies to the citizens and city council. People need to go. We do not need a continuation of the current administration.
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
When we say that people need to go, imho, that means we no longer need to have anything resembling a City Manager, with all that attendant staff, to cost more and to treat the taxpayers and City Council in this manner. We need to return to a strong Mayor and a City Council that is in touch with it constituency.
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I think it is more about a change in attitude in city hall. The Wilson years have crafted a FY stance toward the public when it comes to how they react to city plans, the stadium being the culmination of this organizational culture.
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John, I think that’s taking it too far. Other cities have a “City manager system” that functions quite well. What I think happened is a combination of a city manager who stated that she thinks we,the people, (citizens ) who disagree with her are “crazies” plus a weak mayor surrounded by a cadre of “progressives” who follow her like puppy dogs. We are lucky we have anything left and soon we will find out how much they really re-appropriated for their progress in our tax bill.
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We’re being railroaded.
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No we’re not. The people are full of apathy, complacent and just too lazy to vote. The small voting lines are reminiscent of sheep being herded into a pen so they can be flee he’d.
Blame city hall all you want, in the end look in the mirror as the cause.
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Gee! It was a joke.
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