Its open forum Saturday.
Last week was interesting.
Brutus
elpasospeak
City of El Paso debt=$2,670,400,000, county and school district debt=$1,600,000,000. Total $4.27 billion. Your share $19,350
Its open forum Saturday.
Last week was interesting.
Brutus
elpasospeak 
Keep posting to Great Wolf Lodge facebook page that:
“El Pasoans do NOT want Great Wolf Lodge here”, so the INVESTORS will get the REAL MESSAGE.
(INVESTORS in these places READ comments about places they own . .)
Post – reply on any post they have.
We do not want them to take our Drinking Water.
We are having to drink recycled sewage water.
We do not HAVE extra water to waste.
We do not want the El Paso Taxpayers to pay for their land and give them kickbacks from our sales taxes.
(Shame them as much as you want so they will get the point.)
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They’re not getting rebates from out sales tax. That’s just a lie that City Management told because the truth is much worse. The City will pay Great Wolf Resorts four million dollars each year for the next ten years from the money they sliced from the Electric Company’s user fees, aka, the Economic Development Fund. The Great Wolf Lodge is not a “Convention Center Hotel,” and the West Towne Market is not “ancillary” to the hotel.
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what is the point of posting anything if you are just going to delete the ones you don’t like? you should add a codicil to you tagline to the effect of “opinions and comments we like”
we do deserve better, censorship ain’t it
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Who is deleting what? Are you saying that you have submitted comments that did not get posted? Since you choose to hide behind anonymity, one wonders just what it is that you want. Speaking as a former forum owner/moderator I can tell you that there are certain standards that must be met by the web sites that allow these discussion groups, and even if the writer chooses to mask their identity, the owner/moderator is still left out there. So, either come out from behind your mask, or be a bit more specific, please.
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John – Stop with your constant policing of anonymity. It’s tiresome. The person asked a question and you go into full attack mode. You’re retired. You don’t answer to anyone and don’t have to worry about your paycheck. Stop acting like you’re so brave and righteous and everyone else is a coward and wrong.
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You know what? Your take on why attempts at anonymity bother me is so far from reality as to be absurd. I spent some years working as a investigator, and I will tell you that there are two factors at work here. One, the accused has the right to confront his/her accuser, and an anonymous complaint takes that right away. And, two, people who evaluate complaints for investigation give less credence to the words of people who are not willing to identify themselves (that’s partly human nature, and partly experience). If you and others who fail to tell us who you are, you will be viewed as just another voice in the wilderness. Have the courage of your convictions, or keep it to yourself.
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Your argument is so intellectually dishonest it’s absurd. This blog is published and moderated anonymously and Brutus is a pen name for an unidentified person, but you don’t seem to have a problem with that because you keep reading and commenting here. Yesterday, you decided to defend one anonymous party from the comments of a second anonymous person, but you only have a problem with one of those persons being anonymous. If you really think identity is imperative to honesty and credibility, you shouldn’t be here. You also seem to think that you’re speaking for everyone when you say that anonymous commenters will be viewed as just voices in the wilderness. Don’t assume that you know what everyone else thinks or believes.
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We have not deleted any comments.
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It is heartening to see the outpouring of support by our community for the immigrants being callously released on our streets. The various individuals and organizations are rendering much needed housing and sustenance. which they’ve done for many years.
Sadly, we see support of immigrants as an opportunity to campaign or grandstand, yet these actions bring the public’s eye to the travesty that is occurring. Hoping awareness brings an end to such cruel government actions.
Where is highly compensated ($330,000 a year) City Manager Tommy Gonzalez during this development? Where is Mayor Dee Margo, aside from privately meeting with HHS Kirstin Neilsen? Should they not be making our Civic Center, city recs, and other large venues available to house these folks? They leave it to the Fire Chief to coordinate efforts.
Adding to the list of MIAs, is our city council. Odd that the folks that ran for Districts 1 and 8 are playing prominent roles in assistance efforts, yet our elected officials are conspicuously absent.
Unrelated, the film “Vice” is an insightful look into how current circumstances were developed, and how some government officials seek to profit from the misery of others. Highly recommended.
Respectfully,
Xavier Miranda
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Why should we as taxpayers be forced to pay for these criminals? Call them what you want. Immigrants, regufees. BS. They are criminals that invaded our country and we should not be paying for their care.
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These people have been released to join their families elsewhere in the country…hardly criminals, unless you are accusing the Border Patrol of wantonly putting criminals on the streets.
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Actually it is more a case of the Border Patrol being forced to release these criminals because Open Borders groups file lawsuits every time the government tries to exercise common sense measures. We are being invaded by groups who are being recruited in large numbers to overwhelm our immigration systems.
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What is it that you think you, as a taxpayer, are being asked to pay for? And, have you looked up the word, “invader” lately?
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The caravans are large, organized movements of people who are being coached in how to claim amnesty. These organized mobs are invaders because they structured to overwhelm our immigration systems and exploit the loopholes in our systems. Remember the videos of them hijacking semis at Mexico’s southern border to break through their barriers and then trying to mob the TJ port of entry. When our government tries to change tactics to discourage this type of mass migration the open borders crowd files lawsuits to prevent it. The open borders crowd in Congress blocks any attempt to reform immigration policies. So, yes I see it as an invasion using poor folks as pawns. What I don’t understand is the agenda. Long term the migration of masses of folks who have limited employment opportunities in a 21st century automated economy will simply create a permanent underclass of people. The language barriers and lack of education will limit their assimilation into this country and their ability to earn a living wage. Read the history of Chiapas because this isn’t the first time this has happened. In terms of what does this cost me as a taxpayer? At the Federal level, we pay far more to house and process these folks than we would pay for a wall and border enforcement procedures. We are now also paying for health screenings, medical care and lawsuit payoffs when kids neglected on a long journey die of dehydration or a weak immune system. Longer term we will pay to house some of these folks in prisons. Folks in TJ have already complained about a rise in burglaries related to the caravan. At the city level we pay in several ways. They are consuming some city resources during the drop off period. Annunciation House is tax exempt so no HOT tax is being charged on the $150k a month they are spending on local hotels. The news coverage we are getting nationally is not good for tourism. The Mayor of TJ is actually measuring amount of tourism dollars he is losing now. With the amount of public sector dollars we’ve invested in redevelopment in support of attracting folks who will spend money (and associated sales tax) here, anything that discourages that costs us money. Our school systems aren’t well set up for kids who speak Mayan and come from a region with a 50% literacy rate so longer term that will cost taxpayer money to support as well. And those are just the most obvious costs. Take off your rose colored glasses and look at this for what it is. Today’s ideological wars aren’t fought on the battlefield. They are fought economically. This invasion is too well funded and organized to not involve some entity with a political agenda. Instead of worrying about Russia’s troll farms we should be more worried about about who is behind mass migrations of folks with skills ill suited for our economy.
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They likely realize that these hordes of illegal aliens are a hot potato. They turned down amnesty and jobs in Mexico where there are actually jobs and workplace training that would be more in line with the needs of folks for whom Spanish is a second language. The region they come from has a 50% literacy rate. Between the language difficulties (Mayan) and the lack of training in the types of jobs available here, these folks will be just as unemployable here as they are in their home country—even agricultural methods are different. The family of the father whose son just died has made the news by admitting he was just looking for work and dragged his son along because he was told that with child he would have a better chance for catch and release. Instead of trying to turn these mobs into folk heroes we need to understand what they represent: masses of unskilled folks that are being sent to our border with promises of a better life. Whose political agenda is a work there? How exactly does Annunciation House have $150k a month to spend on hotels? Most charities in EP struggle—where is that money really coming from? These folks have been lied to about their opportunities here, women and children are being used as pawns to game our immigration system. There should be outrage about Congress’ inaction in fixing the immigration loopholes that cause these migrations. There should be outrage about the recruitment activities in Central America apparently being used to form these caravans. The open borders crowd’s insistence on avoiding any short-term solutions that would quickly send these folks back and discourage this dangerous behavior that is killing kids, is sad as well. I recognize some folks will say I’m heartless, but the reality is that I realize that if we continue to allow mobs of unskilled poor to cross our borders, we will overwhelm the safety nets supporting the poorest folks already here and eventually we’ll have the lawless slums you see in the parts of world these folks are migrating from. It’s already happening in parts of the EU. It was also part of the problem in Chiapas. Immigration quotas exist to ensure that the flow of immigrants matches the ability of our systems to support the integration of new immigrants. These illegal migrations and the lawsuits from the open borders crowd that limit the ability of our officials to deter that behavior are harming a lot of people.
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Unfortunately you are correct. But the sight of these people on the streets and in the cold tugs even at my cynical heart and we should be as kind to them as we can while they are here.
Is there a place where we can donate in-kind goods? I remember when the Cubans arrived here a few years ago there was a call to donate simple toiletries, which I did and it felt very good, too, even though most were young men talking on their iPhones 🙂
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JerryK,
The Annunciation House is accepting in-kind goods, but I believe they want you to call first. Here is the link with the list of needs for your reference.
https://annunciationhouse.org/support/house-needs/
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My favorite quote from that last Cuban invasion was the guy who said he wanted to come to the U.S. because our government would pay him more than the Cuban government did.
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Read the beginning of your post and the comments by others. If local politicians and government officials did try to help, some people would assume the worst and call it campaigning or grandstanding. Others would attack them for helping.
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I’m thinking the EPISD is going out for another PR manager to get out of district students to attend EPISD at an extra cost to EPISD Taxpayers.
I see where Cabrera was up for Urban Superintendent of the Year and Mr. Hatch told us how wonderful he was and how much education has improved on his watch. Below is how the EPISD was rated by TEA this month. Student Achievement dropped to a “C” with 42.5% of other districts doing better than the EPISD.
December 2018
Student Achievement 77 C
STAAR Performance 46 78
College, Career and Military Readiness 56 85
Graduation Rate 87.3 60
He did not win but I wonder why he was even considered. Maybe it was the checks he wrote to this
Group. Dues and Fees of over $213,000. He also paid his dues on time $43,275 per year for the last 4 years. Paid to Council of Great City Schools of which he is a Director or some title like that. I guess spending EPISD taxpayer money like this makes him a big shot and maybe he deserves Urban Superintendent of the Year.
After spending all this money on WHAT, he still wants to put neighborhood children on buses and ship them to other schools to save money and open up areas of the
COUNCIL OF THE GREAT CITY SCHOOLS
25 El Paso $43,276 8/7/2017 1/24/2017 8/6/2015 2/17/2015
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the last line correction”
schools to save money and open up area of the city for Charter schools. The Council of the Great City Schools is just the name of the organization that the 4 checks for $43,276 each were paid to.
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Sometimes l feel like l’m in a matrix that’s inside of a matrix.
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I would be curious to see the following:
1. El Paso ranks xxxxx in education in the US.
2. El Paso ranks xxxx in English literacy in the US.
3. UTEP ranks xxx of all colleges and universities in the US. (No Hispanic honors, please.)
4. El Paso ranks xxx in manufacturing.
5. El Paso ranks xxx in technology corporations.
6. El Paso ranks xxx in refining, or oil industry related employment.
7. El Paso ranks xxx in providing local employment post high school graduation.
8. El Paso ranks xxx in providing local employment for college graduates.
9. El Paso ranks xxx in tourism.
10. El Paso ranks xxx in transportation.
11. El Paso ranks xxx in property taxes.
12. El Paso ranks xxx in average income.
13. El Paso ranks xxx in anything that could possible draw businesses and industry to the county and city.
Before you tell me that Rome wasn’t built in a day, I’m from here. Returned here and taught in EPISD for 15 years, watching the decay of education. I’ve watched the swell of illegal immigrants move in, demand education for their children and government subsidies for themselves. I’ve watched bright, intelligent, aspiring students become discouraged and move away where careers(not just jobs) exist. I’ve watched city and county government become arrogant and uncaring about the trillions of dollars in debt they’ve incurred with no way to repay it. I’ve watched proud, hard working families give up because it was easier to take the government subsidies than continue to battle in jobs where profit became king, and they were asked to do the work of three or four or more. I’ve watched teachers, instructors, and professors become disillusioned with providing an education to students whose parents accept failing grades but want the student to advance anyway. These parents then pressure administration with threats of being racist, or prejudiced or sexual predators, or anything to force the administration to accede to their demands.
I love this city. From the time I could reason, I wanted to serve my country and come back to find a career to support the citizens. I came back to find pseudo-homeless mixed among real homeless on the streets, more renters than owners, beautiful homes in Central abandoned, horrendous tax rates but equally horrific collection rates, a public utility that cared more for profit than maintaining generators and power stations, a water utility that acknowledged it was incompetent and wastes taxpayer money-then asks for more to correct inadequate maintenance, and a city administration that enriches a very few, yet penalizes many.
I’ll be waiting for the answers, but I don’t have them. And as poor as this sounds, the solutions would be difficult and painful for many.
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The City of El Paso loves to use rankings to make people feel better, but they never tell you about the negative rankings.
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Saw a couple of demographics that had Somalia with better literacy and education. Couldn’t be correct. Shouldn’t be correct. El Paso is ranked 4th worst in literacy in the US, though.
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Makes sense. Margo was on Fox News the other day (from Houston because our movers and shakers can’t seem to spend the holidays here in EP), talking about how we in EP understood immigration and Federal officials could learn from us. All I could think of at the time was: have you looked at your demographics lately—they don’t tell a good story about the benefits of a porous border—depressed wages, an economy with limited industry diversity, few corporate headquarters, over dependence on public sector employment and safety needs, failing schools, high levels of uninsured, low median income….He did do a great job of sounding tough without saying anything that could offend Republicans or Open Borders advocates. That level of weasel wording (particularly since the interviewer was trying to get him to be specific one way or the other) is pretty hard to do.
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The mayor said that Congress needs to “man up” and fix immigration. He must not think the women in Congress have anything to offer.
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Mike,
Poverty Pimps have been in control of El Paso for decades.
Poverty is big business and is the primary industry in El Paso.
What you have listed is the consequence.
The more people living in and under poverty, the more money is made from other peoples’ misery.
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Poverty Pimps- that is a good description. And while many will say those are the Democrats, they would only be 75% correct, for the Repubs and Independs do just as much damage. And before anyone goes on about taxing the rich, what good would it do? If you tax the rich out of existence, you’ve created a super middle class who will soon be the target of “tax the xxx”. This city has never lived up to its potential and has instead focused on how poor or how illiterate or how underprivileged it is. I believe it is on its last legs before a collapse into a Detroit without the manufacturing base, or any industry base.
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3 -5 years until retirement then I’m getting the heck out of this crappy city. 50 years is enough. Wonder if Montana has room for one more white dude!!
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Why do so many people in our city throw their trash on the ground? Where is the sense of pride?
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