This map was part of the water park presentation given to city council the other day.
What the map does not show is that the company is building a similar resort in Scottsdale Arizona (Phoenix) that is scheduled to open in 2019.
Our circle will be considerably smaller.
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
Plus a competitor has one in Albuquerque that isn’t doing well.
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Misleading? Outside influencers to our city council? Nahhhhhhh. That could never happen. Our city council would protect us by questioning anything that was told to them before making a move with our tax dollars.
They would also recuse themselves if they were voting on an issue that could enrich one of their campaign donors.
They would also make sure that they were maximizing ways to reduce property tax burdens on homeowners.
Isn’t that their job? Isn’t their job to make life better for all of us? Aren’t they supposed to be honest and transparent so that we all know what they are thinking and doing on our behalf on City Council?
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You forget, it’s a representative government where a handful of large contributors buy a representative via campaign contributions that enable that rep to outspend everyone else and win Then they pull the strings on their representative. The puppets on city council are being transparent and telling the truth when they defend their decisions on the basis of the fact that we have a representative government when you look at it that way.
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Doug Schwartz nailed it. Good for him for speaking up and explaining in detail how and why it’s a bad deal. He stops short of accusing anyone of anything nefarious, but the facts he lays out make it clear that something unethical or illegal is happening right before our eyes.
https://www.elpasotimes.com/story/news/2018/11/12/great-wolf-land-swap-hurts-el-paso-ratepayers-developer-schwartz-says/1948279002/
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I wonder if any of our esteemed “leaders” bothered to answer…my emails to them have not elicited any reply although the City Manager has an automatic reply to the effect that “I get so many emails I can’t answer them all but thanks for taking the effort.” The lease of the 44 acres on I-10 to Great Wolf at $1,000 a year and then sold for $10K, a total of $20,000 for land valued at $18.6 million, is itself all you need to know about this “deal.” Great Wolf is going to eat us for lunch. Sadly, none of the “leaders” in office now will be there when this “deal” falls apart, leaving us with a White Elephant Lodge and hundreds of millions of tax dollars lost to this stupid and/or corrupt plan. IF this location is so great, and the proximity to Mexico so valuable, why does Great Wolf need a near-billion dollar bribe to come here?
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So City Manager Tommy Gonzalez was the keynote speaker that addressed EPISD students today at a symposium.
However, I found it audacious of Mr. Gonzalez to convey to our kids that they should not settle for the mediocrity of our city, and contrasted us to Irving, Dallas, and Austin.
He went on to say that his mission was to change the landscape of our city, to one that includes businesses such as Great Wolf Lodge Water Resort, TopGolf, Alamo Drafthouse, and even Pappadeaux. I found it dismissive of our renowned and established local offerings.
What City Manager Gonzalez neglected was the fact that many of the kids in the audience hail from single-parent immigrant households, of which many parents have to work more than two jobs to make ends meet.
These families certainly cannot afford the luxury of spending $250 a night at such venues. To further rub salt in the wound, many El Pasoans already consume reclaimed water as a result of our conservation efforts.
So to have our water supply diverted for recreational purposes, at a resort located in the desert, does not make much sense to our students.
At the conclusion of his self-adulation and sales pitch, I posed economic-related questions, but he refused to answer, stating he would only address the students.
Since the kids did not pose any queries, he wrapped up his “Socratic” speech and made a quick exit; neglecting to talk individually to audience members.
Perhaps I am biased in this account, however, EPISD or City media personnel filmed his presentation, of which allows for the public to discern the nature of his speech.
It is not acceptable that our kids will bear the $2.6 billion debt that he and the mayor are leaving, while merely offering them service industry jobs that pay minimum wage.
Respectfully,
Xavier Miranda
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What people aren’t aware of is that the Great Wolf Lodge is nothing more than an average 3-star hotel. All these moves which continue the pattern of financial idiocy in the name of “El Pasoans getting what we deserve” is for nothing more than a Holiday Inn garnished with an indoor waterpark, a rock-climbing wall and 5-star prices that El Pasoans can’t afford.
Watch my Nov. 1 Facebook live commentary on this potentially corrupt at worst and plain stupid at best “deal” that mayor Margo , City Council and city leaders are swinging at our detriment.
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