elpasospeak

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:

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

Brio, our new rapid transit system was launched Monday, October 27, 2014.

One of the features we have been told about is the ability of the bus operator to hold an already green light green.  I’m not sure this is a good idea.  People will probably learn how to follow closely behind or beside the buses to take advantage of the extended green lights.

Frightening

One of our regular readers told me about a harrowing experience she had on the first day of  Brio’s operation.

She was driving on Mesa in the northbound direction.  She needed to turn left onto an intersecting street.  She had a green light and was positioned to turn left.  A Brio bus passed through the intersection in the south bound direction.  When the light turned yellow on her side she proceeded in order to get out of the intersection.  Her supposition was that the south bound traffic would also have a yellow light soon to be followed by a red light.

As she turned left she was almost broadsided by a south bound vehicle.  She realizes that it was her responsibility to yield and that had an accident occurred it would have been her fault.  Shaken, she looked up at the light from the south bound side and saw much to her surprise that the south bound lanes still had a green light.  Evidently the Brio bus had succeeded in holding the south bound light green but the north bound lights were operating independently.

When I expressed disbelief and my thoughts that she might have been seeing things she was adamant that she had experienced what she had related.

Word to the wise

If she is right we are going to have some problems.  They will ultimately have to fix this.

Please be careful.

We deserve better

Brutus

From Jerry Kurtkya:

EL PASO – AFFORDABLE STEPS TO RENEWAL

# 2 – Save the Land

A city has few opportunities to preserve its land for future generations. El Paso is fortunate in that much of our land is under control of the PSB and its charter to assure the city’s continuing water supply. Plan El Paso, created by the city’s Planning Department, is actually a pretty good template for how El Paso can use its land endowment to best advantage. In its preface. The document states, “Plan El Paso establishes priorities for public action and direction for complementary private decisions. Plan El Paso contains illustrative plans, diagrams, maps, and pictures to make its concepts clear and accessible to City officials, residents, developers, community groups, and other stakeholders.”

It is hard to argue with that but a lot of people do, as El Paso has observed these principles more in the breach than in the spirit. Still, there is much that could be done and I want to say to El Paso, why don’t you try being beautiful? A city is not renowned for its proliferation of billboards and urban sprawl but rather for its visual control and balance of the necessary elements of commerce, housing and recreation. So ignore Courtney Niland’s bellowing for a while and try this approach.

Priority #1 is to save the mountain slopes from development on both sides of the mountain north from Transmountain Road in perpetuity. This beautiful part of the mountains can be saved by an ordinance of City Council as a natural heritage for future generations before it is consumed by housing development or quarries. There is an active petition effort to the City Council – The Franklin Mountains Conservation Petition – on Jim Tolbert’s blog that you can access, sign and get your neighbors to sign, too. http://elpasonaturally.blogspot.com/p/2013-initiative-petition.html Do it.

This one act will define El Paso nationally as an urban leader in the conservation of wilderness. And, by the way, an environmentally progressive city is one that attracts the kind of people you want for neighbors, too: educated, professional, engaged.

Priority #2, per Plan El Paso, is to save the natural foothills, bosques, wetlands, critical arroyos, and other natural features owned by private or public entities but currently without protected status. Examples include the Castner Range and private tracts in and around the Franklin Mountains and Hueco Tanks State Parks. City regulations and policy decisions should help keep these lands in their natural state for drainage, natural habitat, and scenic protection. Public acquisition should be considered especially when key drainage features can be protected, as we have learned so well recently. Make environmentalism the city’s theme. Then, maybe, it will be “all good” someday. Once it’s gone, it’s gone. And when it is all gone, the people who built it will leave for the next place they can sprawl over.

Priority #3. A more compact city (and I’m not talking stack-and-pack because we have plenty of space on which to grow) is a more efficient city. Planners have found that, for every doubling in population, a city gains a 15% increase in productivity; there are real economies of scale. And we need the productivity because our growth is not producing prosperity at the same rate. See it at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vp6eKjQHNl0&feature=youtu.be But in order to gain the productivity, we need to compact our growth instead of continuing to spread outward. At 45 miles end-to-end, El Paso is one of the most spread out cities in the country. Infill and Smart Code are good ways to start.

When I was executive director of the Housing Finance Corporation, I looked at many vacant lots in the older areas of town such as Rio Grande, on Cotton and above Arizona. The lots are scattered among the old craft homes that define the area and city codes have been relaxed to encourage the redevelopment of these lots. But little has happened. Back then (2005) builders were too occupied with the housing boom on the east side to worry about one-off infills.

One reason little has happened, I discovered, is to just find out who owns a vacant lot in order to acquire it. There is always an address to which to send the tax bill, but identifying an owner is not as easy and then there is the issue of acquiring the land, sometimes divided among multiple heirs. To me, this is one great make-a-job-for-yourself business opportunity for some bright UTEP grads. It certainly beats answering a phone in a call center and it would be worth having the city encourage such businesses, perhaps through organizations like The Hub of Human Innovation. Maybe even the Builders Association can kick in some help? No, it’s not high-tech, but it is high-value and low risk and it is just waiting for someone to find the key to unlock its potential. There are hundreds of such vacant lots in El Paso and, if we can find a way to acquire them in bulk, the city can solicit bids for builders to redevelop these lots.

Recently, a Joint Land Use Study was drafted that encompasses multiple counties in the Borderland Region. This is a worthwhile process in which to educate and involve yourself, as there are many different and sometimes competitive land uses in this huge area: urban; housing; agricultural; recreational; military. In case you haven’t noticed, the country is preparing for decades of warfare. The military and its demand for sequestered land is a looming presence on our horizon, not all positive.

Get informed. Get involved.

NEXT – #3 Socialize the Benefits of Growth

Also on the Tuesday, October 21, 2014 city council agenda is an item that would appoint John Karlshruher to the Camino Real Regional Mobility Authority.

I’m not in favor of the existence of the authority.  To me it is just another way for council to do things that we don’t want and then deny responsibility.  I recognize that some good can come from the authority but would prefer that city council not hide behind an appointed board.

If the Karlshruher in question is the one that I am thinking about, he is eminently qualified.  His company’s web site includes this statement from him:  “I bring a no-nonsense approach to applying engineering principles to construction with the firm knowledge of the needs of the owner and the design professionals.”

No kidding.  His reputation for competence, honesty, and straight shooting are well deserved.

On the other hand

Part of the executive session will evidently include consideration of the software piracy case that an out of town vendor has brought against the city.

Companies rarely sue their clients.  It isn’t good for future business.  In this case two companies have taken the unusual path of taking their client into federal court.  There evidently was at least one mediation session that has failed to bring results.

The former city manager, the former chief financial officer, and the former budget chief are no longer with the city.  The city is using out of town lawyers to defend itself.

This doesn’t look good for the taxpayers.

We deserve better

Brutus