Those of us that contribute to elpasospeak.com encourage people to send material to us for publishing on the blog. As always we like to avoid name calling and getting personal. We also try to avoid profanity, although we sometimes allow it to get through in the comment process.
Today we have a piece from Mr. Jerry Kurtyka. El Paso Inc. published this as his biography:
Jerry Kurtyka, a former banker and technology strategy consultant, has held several positions with the City of El Paso. He was the first executive director of the Housing Finance Corporation from 2003 to 2006 and most recently led the library’s Virtual Village computer literacy project from 2011 to August of 2013. He is now semi-retired and involved with environmental advocacy.
Mr. Kurtyka’s article:
EL PASO – WHAT’S THE NAME OF THE GAME?
Remember the 1977 Abba song, “The Name of the Game”, that enjoyed a recent reprise in the hit musical, “Mama Mia”?
What’s the name of the game?
Does it mean anything to you?
What’s the name of the game?
– Abba, The Name of the Game
Great feel-good music. I think of it when I ask myself about El Paso because I am the kind of person who looks for a rationale in events, a story that ties the threads together. If El Paso, were a song or movie or book, what would be its title? What’s the name of the El Paso game, assuming there is one? Does it mean anything, i.e., does it explain what we are seeing?
Since I have been here (1996), I have observed several stories emerge that community leaders used to spin a narrative to support their policy actions, like the recent AAA stadium. These stories are important because the city and others have invested and continue to invest millions in them, consciously or not. But we are always captive to our past narratives, so when we invest in a new story, what happens to the old one? Unless consciously acknowledged, it will continue to live alongside the new stories we tell ourselves, even if it has to go underground to do so.
Well, Brutus and Cicero have asked me to put some of my thoughts together on the subject and have kindly offered a little space to do so. I admit at 68 that I have a kind of dystopian worldview. So here it goes for several pieces to describe what I think are the games or stories El Paso has played and still plays, plus a few positive ideas on how a new story might yet emerge here.
Game #1 – Don’t Put on Any Airs (Low Wages)
Just after I moved here in 1996, I attended a class at UTEP to learn about the local economy. The professor, whose name I can’t recall, explained that in the 1970s, business leaders here promoted El Paso around the country as a low wage resource for manufacturing, such as the piece-rate model of the garment industry. Apparently, they succeeded beyond their dreams, because 40 years later, El Paso is still a pretty low wage place if average household income is any guide. Back then, migrants from Mexico flooded in bringing few skills and education with them. It worked in the garment plants until NAFTA resulted in our manufacturing tax base migrating across the river and El Paso was left holding the bag.
The problem with positioning yourself on a low rung of the economic ladder is that there are places in the world where the ladder rungs go even lower, such as Asia or Central America, and the garment industry migrated to these places. Just look at the label on your shirt. By the end of the 90s, the garment business was abandoning even “low cost” El Paso for lower wage countries, leaving thousands of mostly unskilled, poorly-educated workers unemployed and with few prospects to replace what they had lost. There was nothing here for them to move up the ladder. I mean, who wants to go back to Mexico?
Lesson learned? Next time you send out invitations to your game, think about who might show up and what happens when the game ends, because nothing lasts forever.
When you’re lost in the rain in Juarez
And it’s Eastertime too
And your gravity fails
And negativity don’t pull you through
Don’t put on any airs
– Bob Dylan, Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues
elpasospeak 
That’s it? That’s all he’s got? First, I believe he could have rephrased that rhetorical question there towards the end (” I mean, who wants to go back to Mexico?”). No, he SHOULD have said that differently. Personally, I like Mexico, and the writer should know that it is not as bad as it was back in the 70’s. I’ve been here since 1967, and he is correct about this being the low wage center of the U. S. And, it will remain so as long as we are controlled by the people who sold us that bill of goods about “revitalizing” downtown with a ball park. And, as long as we have idiots on City Council who talk about how we can “grow” our tax base, while seeking “new revenue streams.” We have the government we deserve, and until people take that first step, and actually go to the polls, we will continue to have this government.
LikeLike
I should have indicated that the next article in the series is: Game #2 – I Have Dream (High Tech). I am trying to explore the various strategies (stories/games) played out here to make development happen, but that always fail or fall short. Why? I can identify 4 such games, but need to think about the End Game and how New Economy initiatives, that are neither costly or risky might help. But not without civic engagement.
I have to say, too, that El Paso is the most complex city I have ever lived in. Not the smartest, wealthiest, or cultured, but the most complex with so many layers of power, vendettas, and agendas. You could take a lifetime to unravel them all.
Stay tuned if Brutus is kind enough to keep me in print:)
LikeLike
You got that right. Can’t wait for the next. Brutus isn’t barking so
far.
LikeLike
Mr. Kurtyka NAILED IT. Cheap manufacturing, low education, low wages and low expectations made a lot of people rich in this town. Until those jobs ended up in Mexico and now China. Our so called progressives should have shifted gears decades ago. Instead, we got a ballpark, crippling public debt and a rapidly shrinking economic base. From now on the name of the game will be misdirection, misinformation and out and out lies and propaganda from our media. Our experts and leaders will tell us everything is fine until they leave in the dead of the night to “spend more time with their families’.
LikeLike
The idea of someone mentioning my name in the same breath as Abba nauseates me. If you’re quoting that milquetoast music, you must not be very pissed. And if you’re going to quote me, the least you could do is use some of my better lines.
“An’ though the rules of the road have been lodged
It’s only people’s games that you got to dodge”
In case you don’t remember, those words are from “It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)” off of my “Bringing It All Back Home” album. From the sound of things, you guys will soon be singing “It’s All Good Ma (We’re Only Broke)”.
If you’re really outraged, my “Masters Of War” has a few choice lines that apply:
“You that hide behind walls
You that hide behind desks
I just want you to know
I can see through your masks.
…..
Like Judas of old
You lie and deceive
…
You want me to believe
But I see through your eyes
And I see through your brain
Like I see through the water
That runs down my drain.
….
You could send the opening to “Positively 4th Street” to your city reps, especially those who care so little about the homeless:
“You got a lotta nerve to say you are my friend
When I was down, you just stood there grinning
You got a lotta nerve to say you gotta helping hand to lend
You just want to be on the side that’s winning”
….
So how do I see the big picture? That’s an easy one. I don’t even need to write any new lyrics.
“You never turned around to see the frowns on the jugglers and the clowns
When they all come down and did tricks for you
You never understood that it ain’t no good
You shouldn’t let other people get your kicks for you
You used to ride on the chrome horse with your diplomat
Who carried on his shoulder a Siamese cat
Ain’t it hard when you discover that
He really wasn’t where it’s at
After he took from you everything he could steal.
Princess on the steeple and all the pretty people
They’re drinkin’, thinkin’ that they got it made
Exchanging all kinds of precious gifts
….
How does it feel
How does it feel
To be on your own
With no direction home
Like a complete unknown”
LikeLike
I drove up to the Gila with a friend last week and, after dinner in Silver City, we plugged my Dylan CDs into the car player and sung along all the way back to El Paso: “the times they are a changin’…”
Don’t I wish.
LikeLike
You said it Bob D! Like a rolling stone!
I’m glad to see somebody else giving a little lesson on compassion to some of those on CC.
LikeLike
Yup, it’s low wages/no bennies for the common worker from Farah to McDonald’s to WalMart to call centers. But the owners, the managers have gotten rich and continue to do so. The gap has gotten so wide, it may never change. Take a look at the real estate pages …million dollar, half million dollar homes out there and somebody’s buying…. Our city manager, city managers’ assistants, school superintendants’ pay packages have gotten ridiculous with extra payments included for the house, the car, the phone, health insurance, the miscellaneous, and then there’s severance deals, annuities, and the like; all this plus the salary which is icing on the cake instead of having to pay all those things with the basic salary like other employees do. And nobody bats an eye at these deals. It’s let the big boys and their cronies get rich at the expense of the little guy…that’s the way it is. How can we stop the greed and achieve some equity for the common worker? I’ll look forward to coming “games” from your guest writer.
LikeLike