Abdicating power?

November 10, 2014

The federal influence is evidently infecting Texas.

Our state’s secretary of state offers a web listing of “Election Night Returns” with a button for a “Statewide Race Summary”.

You can see it here.

The listing provided starts with the contest for United States senator.  Personally I think that the state offices are more important to us but at least the senatorial race was actually one that included the whole state.

The site then goes on to list the races for United States representative, all 35 of them.  By definition they are not statewide races but evidently someone at the secretary of state’s office thinks that these federal district elections are more important than our state races.

The state races are listed last.

By the way, if my counting is right Texas will be sending six democrats to Washington next year.  None of the six winners had a republican opponent.

It seems that some of our state officials consider the federal government to be more important than our state government.

We deserve better

Brutus

2 Comments | Federal Government, State Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

City–get off your duff!

November 9, 2014

How can we get the city to pay attention to the road and park disruptions that they are in charge of?

Many El Paso streets have been under construction for months stretching into years.  Country Club road and Fiesta drive are just two examples.

San Jacinto Square is not only an example of the incredibly slow pace that the city allows but it also will eventually show us again the dangers of making purchases from buy boards.  Good contractors were hurt in favor of a city favorite.  The cost overruns will be paid by the taxpayer.  No consideration will be given to getting rid of the people who wrote the bad specifications, or if the specifications were good then holding the contractor responsible.

On the other hand we have seen how quickly the city can move on some projects for some people.

We deserve better

Brutus

9 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Former mayor underperforms

November 8, 2014

Our former mayor just ran against one of the Bush family members for the office of State Land Commissioner.

The results?

Winning a statewide race is a challenge for democrats in Texas.

Their candidates for governor and lieutenant governor got 39% of the votes.  Most of their other candidates received about 38%.

Our former mayor posted a 35% result in his race for land commissioner.

I don’t recall reading about that in the Times.  One would think that the story would be of local interest.

There is a reason for what you don’t get to read in the Times.

On a positive note we can be relieved that he didn’t win.  He might have torn down the Alamo to make way for a ball park.

We deserve better

Brutus

3 Comments | City government, State Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Running total

November 7, 2014

Some readers have asked recently if anyone knows what the total cost of the ball park is at this point.

These numbers are ones that I attribute to the cost.  I hope that the readers of this blog will help us to build a more accurate accounting.

Double your pleasure showed us that the $61 million in bonds will cost us $137,286,965.10 by the time we pay them off.  That is unless the folks down at the city refinance the deal again.

Opening day was about a “guaranteed maximum price agreement” with the ball park contractor.  The document excluded certain things from the price, like:

  • railroad platforms and bridge
  • railroad platform foundations
  • Missouri and Durango street improvements
  • offsite improvements/work (this probably includes the water and sewer work the city is not talking about as well as the pedestrian and road work around the park)
  • special construction provisions required at railroad
  • porcelain/art signage
  • 4 TOPP or 2 TOPP tables and loose chairs
  • aluminum and fabric sun shades

Train wreck was about the deals the city had to cut with a railroad in order to get a sliver of the land that the ball park now sits on.  In addition to the $238,810 the city had to pay for 8,684 square feet of land, paying $27.50 per square foot, the city had to sell two acres of land adjacent to the $27.50 land for $11.10 per square foot.  Citizens suffered the economic consequences of the city agreeing to close eight railroad crossings throughout the city as part of the land deals.

Shameless told us about a deal where the city gave the state $5 million to enhance bridges between Portfirio Diaz street and Missouri avenue.  The state will spend $2.7 million for two pedestrian overpasses going over the depressed train way leading into the ball park.  The state will also spend $800,000 dollars for pedestrian wayfinding in downtown.

Baseball art showed that the city was going to spend  $850,000 with three artists for work to be done at the ball park.

In El Paso quality of life update the fact that the city was spending $500,000 from quality of life bonds to build a pedestrian pathway into the ball park.

Shoes dropping addressed the fact that “El Paso Water Utilities will handle the work and pay to redo the water and sewer lines in the area…”

Various studies have been paid for relative to traffic, congestion, noise and vibration.

In addition, the sports group has agreed to pay up to $10 million outside of taxpayer money.

Moving city hall has now cost us over $70 million.

That gives us:

  • $137 million to pay off the bonds
  • $239 thousand to buy land from the railroad
  • $5 million to the state
  • $850 thousand for art
  • $500 thousand from the quality of life bonds
  • unknown amount for the water utility to do their work
  • $70 million to move city hall

I come up with about $220 million in capital costs.  Operating costs are another matter.

Not bad for a $35 million stadium that Inside job told us about.

We deserve better

Brutus

 

 

 

3 Comments | Ball park, City government, State Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Is bus service every 65 minutes convenient in the city?

November 6, 2014

While not being known as a tree huger I am hopeful that somehow mass transit can play a bigger part in our community.  I don’t agree with how they are spending money to do this but I do realize that once they have spent the capital I should at least try to work with what we get.

The bus service operates several “circulator” routes in town.  These bus routes typically cover a small area of town and terminate in one of our several transfer stations.  Once a passenger gets to a transfer station they can take a different bus to continue their journey.

I freely admit that I am not an expert on mass transit systems.  That being said, some of the other routes seem wasteful to me.  Route 11, “Mesita via Kern Place” is an example.  This graphic is from the sunmetro.net web site:

route 11

This route offers service every 65 minutes during week days and every 80 minutes on Saturdays and Sundays.  That is better than nothing but is hardly convenient for someone who does not want to wait over an hour to catch a bus.

It seems to me that the portion after Baltimore that heads downtown is not needed.  Baltimore Drive turns into Glory Road, the location of a transfer station.  Instead of running down Florence the bus could continue on Baltimore down to the transfer station.  Passengers could transfer to a different bus at that point.  If the goal is to get downtown there are four different routes that run up and down Mesa in addition to this one.  Brio is one of these.

Looking at the timetable the route from the northern end at Camelot Apartments to the Glory Road transfer station would take about 10 minutes.  Our route 11 could then head back into the neighborhood giving patrons service at 20 minute intervals.  The buses could even expand their route in the neighborhood making access more convenient for some residents.  They could cover additional streets and still offer 30 minute service.

Would offering more frequent service increase ridership?  We won’t know unless we try it.  As it it now service every 65 minutes is only attractive to those who must use the service.  People with their own cars don’t want to wait an hour.

We deserve better

Brutus

7 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

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