Was anyone inspired by our mayor’s recent column in the Times where he told us “El Paso has turned the corner when it comes to economic prosperity”.
We have to ask which corner and in what direction?
From his column [with some of our comments in blue] :
The City of El Paso has been an active participant in the majority of the restoration projects (downtown) by providing tax incentives that east the burden of private development [at the expense of the taxpayers and for the financial benefit of the developers].
City leaders, in collaboration with private development partners have been aggressive in attracting new companies to El Paso and the results are compelling: Top Golf, Cabelas, Alamo Drafthouse, Sprouts and Dick’s Sporting Goods have all opened in El Paso providing the community with more options to work, shop, eat and play. [These are all retail stores. Each of them requires local El Pasoans to spend money with the profits going out of town. Not one of them creates jobs where goods or services are exported to other places and the profits stay in El Paso].
First steps have been taken to develop a comprehensive master plan for the reimagining of Cohen Stadium. [Good grief! They finally got around to thinking about doing part of their job and we should be happy with them? One can only wonder what they will give away to a developer at our expense.]
Near completion is the $15.5 million Westside Pool Natatorium. [The voters approved an $8 million pool five years ago. The latest word from the city is that the pool was to be finished this month, but he just told us that it is somewhere near completion].
Wouldn’t it be nice if the mayor could write about how taxes are being lowered through increased efficiency and how the city has attracted great new businesses to the area?
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
Great column, Brutus. The sad thing is that new retail simply hastens the death of old retail because this town has a finite amount of disposable income. Worse, the traffic jams are encouraging folks to make the switch to shopping online even faster. So, virtually all the new jobs are in an industry that is being killed by tech and they will contribute to job loss in established businesses. Sunland Park Mall is on life support. But five years from now when retail is closing, major construction projects are over and our unemployment rate is spiking, city officials will be amazed it happened and frantically trying to push a bond issue to artificially create more jobs. This isn’t sustainable.
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We recently lost two of our largest most established local retailers.
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I was at the meeting about the Cohan Stadium master plan. Best line of the night from Sam Morgan, “We couldn’t come here without a plan to show you.” That’s the idea behind community meetings in insufferable jerk. And why were two developers sitting with city council members?
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Because the corruption in our city is so acceptable, donors know longer care if you see them pull the strings.
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People were invited to give input on Cohen and Morgan said something like “all options are on the table.” Wrong. We were duped because the city already had plans developed and who knows what “public input” was invited for those plans. Morgan sold out his NE constituents. Now said plans will be “revised.” Also I wonder if the city is working on the Cohen plans as a strategy to counter arguments that the Arena should be located there, thus it must be located downtown in Duranguito.
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He won’t tell us that our taxes are going down; because he’ll need more money as this Barrio Duranguito issue continues. Why doesn’t he just tell us that taxes will be rising due to his greetings. He just can not wait to line his pockets with MSSG pay off money, that he’ll get if he is able to build a sports arena for MSSG. Which the tax payers will pay for causing our taxes to go up.
He continues to drag on this issue with Barrio Duranguito, causing him to spend the 180 million designated to build the multi culture center. A judge in Austin has already ruled twice that he can not build the multi culture center for sports; but MSSG continues to pressure him to make it a sports arena. Of course must likely he has already recieved a pay off from MSSG. Now another court has taken up the issue with Barrio Duranguito and make a ruling on what they can do. I’m wishing they uphold the ruling of the Austin judge, it’s time to stop the Mayor and all involved in making it a arena.
It’s time for all voters against this to tell the Mayor no more money from the tax payers, time to remove him from office.
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Yes and we should all recognize the signal Bruno’s post about revenue being higher than the projections used to justify this year’s tax increase sends. Basically, we are so underwater from the operational expense that all the bond issue projects will create when finished that that they are now in a cycle of raising taxes as much as possible every year so they won’t have to go for voter approval for an even bigger increase when everything is operational. It also indicates that our leadership has given up on the promise of new business growth picking up that tax burden.
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This piece of nonsense was also published in El Diario…Apparently Tweedle Dee and T-Rex wanted to make sure that everyone who can read knows what a wonderful job they are doing.
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who are tweedle dee and t-rex?
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Mayor and Manager!
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Westside “natatorium” … how they like to pull out fancy labels. Just call it what it is…..the usual bias lavishing on the Westside while ripping off the rest of the city to leave us the crumbs.
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Really appreciate that somebody “fills in the blanks”, when actually comes to the TAXPAYERS of El Taxo KNOWING the TRUTH about something, anything. We will never get that from the Mayor, City Council, Commissioners in El Taxo. All that WE can expect from THEM is lie, deny, deceive, cover up, lie AGAIN. All THEY know is tax, waste, spend, tax some more. The Mayor is close to right about EMPLOYMENT picking up. There. are few of those “Turned Corners” he talks about that don’t have BUMS “Employed” on them. Some of these “Businesses” employ lot of people. Saw one van drop off five guys, down on Fred Wilson, at the intersection, to sell candy out of jugs for “Donations”. Another drop off at the Gateway. Still another drop off of women, young girls at Kenworthy, the Gateway, cruising for donations. One thing the people of El Taxo will NEVER see is a TAX CUT, any DECREASE in FABRICATED, INFLATED Property “Values”. WE just have way too many politicians pockets to fill, too many MILLIONAIRES to support with their businesses.. El Taxo, BANKRUPT, BROKE.
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Per our Liberal friends “paying Taxes is Patriotic”.
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Growth does not necessarily equal prosperity that is rising incomes, personal wealth and educational levels.
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And the delusions of grandeur continue in spite of facts to the contrary.
When 2/3rds of your residency positions stay vacant that is not a good sign.
Sadly KVIA ignored the obvious question – Why not focus on filling the empty 200 residency positions with potential new doctors from across the US who might stay once finished?
Also they might have more credibility if they used facts and real world math to calculate the actual cost of living in El Paso.
Here’s some quotes and the link to the report :
Keeping graduates in El Paso a challenge for Paul L. Foster School of Medicine
ABC-7 AT 10: ABC-7 has learned not many students stay in the Borderland to complete their residency.
http://www.kvia.com/special-reports/keeping-graduates-in-el-paso-a-challenge-for-paul-l-foster-school-of-medicine/658042282
When Paul L. Foster School of Medicine at Texas Tech University in El Paso received full accreditation in 2013, the hope was the school would help spur economic growth and increase the number of doctors in the Borderland.
ABC-7 has learned not many students stay in the Borderland to complete their residency.
Over the past four years, 2%-8% of the students listed El Paso as one of their top choices for residency and the percentage of students from El Paso is declining.
Half the students in the class of 2013 were from El Paso, but only 1/3 of the class of 2021 are from El Paso.
Dr. Meza said there are about 300 potential residency positions available in El Paso. In a typical year, they fill about a hundred of those slots.
He said the school is working to show students the advantages of staying, like low cost of living and a short commute from their homes to training sites.
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Just build the damn multimillionaire center at cohen.
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I have read about potential class action lawsuits against current and former city councils mayors managers….etc….for making massive erroneous financial decisions that have nearly wiped out cities’ rainy day funds and pushing massive debt bonds on the public and include sexy wording like open spaces brand new art neuvo and world class nataroriums
….the fire and police pensions are having a large group of employees set to reach eligibility now and the next six years. Those hired in the early to mid nineties may get only .60 to .70 on the dollar. These are the guys and gals who have put in 25 or more years that will hit the pension fund hard. Go look at dallas police pension had to set limits after paying so much over the last year and dallas as a city spends money like drunken sailors. Or like el paso leaders. Recall is needed. It will put a thumb on the leaking dam. Them we need tx attorney General to audit and investigate back to cook and wilson days. Put em all in the brig
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Recalls are wishful thinking. They only help if you can replace incumbents with honorable people. Recalls also do not address incompetency in management positions.
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[…] More options to work a minimum wage job for an out-of-town company siphoning profits from the local economy, as Brutus points out in this post on ElPasoSpeak. […]
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Anyone else note that the Times article about Topgolf opening headlined the FIVE HUNDRED JOBS being created…only at the very end did we find that 400 of said jobs are part-time!
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And of course ALL paid MINIMUM wages to serve drinks, make hotdogs, pizza, polish golf balls. NO different in the MULTI-BILLION$$$$ bizness the TAXPAYERS were SCAMMED into building, paying for, the baseball field. “Cold beer, popcorn, rake up the dirt, clean the toilets”. Nothing more. Nothing ever changes with the politicians, Carpetbaggers in El Taxo. NOTHING ever gets better for the PEOPLE. EVERYTHING THEY do for US is just another SCAM, another TAX INCREASE. Nothing more.
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