Economic fact

October 9, 2014

At least two of our local blogs have been addressing the topic of economic development recently.  The restaurant/bar situation in downtown has been a big part of the lively discussion.   What economic impact will the ball park have on the downtown area in the short and long runs?

Not being trained in economics, it is probably better that I stay out of the discussion.

We do know one thing for certain and that is that taxpayers are paying for a part of the construction costs (contrary to what we were told)  and a lot of the operating costs.

And while Top of the list showed us that in 2012 El Paso had the fourth most expensive property taxes of the top 50 cities in the United States, our property taxes went up again this year and will continue to go up because of capital spending that we have committed to already.

We deserve better

Brutus

 

7 Comments | Ball park, City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Bilingual Times

October 8, 2014

The day after I wrote the article expressing hope that things at the Times would improve, I saw this image on my ipad El Paso Times app.

 

hp

Click on the image to make it larger.

The article was written by the Associated Press.  The image was evidently inserted by a Times employee.

We deserve better

Brutus

2 Comments | El Paso Times | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

New story at the Times

October 7, 2014

Things might be getting better over at the Times.  It seems that they have a new reporter that knows how to write a newspaper article.

She had this article in the Sunday, October 5, 2014 edition.

The article was informative, well written, fair and thorough.  Unlike much of what we read in the Times it was not a publicity piece for some organization.  The reporter actually investigated the situation and told the story.  Even more surprising is that the article was about one of our local governments, EPISD.

Hurrah!

On the other hand this article appeared in the same edition.  The reporter spoke of a fund raiser for a “pay as you can” restaurant that opened in El Paso eleven months ago.  Patrons pay a “suggested price” if they can afford it.  Otherwise they can eat for free.  Some patrons volunteer their time in exchange for the meal.

Wanting to help support the restaurant I read the article twice looking for mention of the restaurant’s location.  Evidently the press release the reporter was given did not mention the location.

Who, what, when, why, and how are essential elements to reporting a story.

Hope

We should hope that this new reporter can help raise the bar at the Times.

This was better

Brutus

 

5 Comments | El Paso Times | Permalink
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Another inconvenience

October 6, 2014

The Tuesday, October 7, 2014 city council agenda has an item on it that once again shows who they think is important.  The answer certainly is not the taxpayers.

As part of the destruction of city hall and the moving of city departments into several buildings the city leased about 8,000 square feet of office space in what we now call the Wells Fargo building.

The department that the city placed in the space is the city tax office.  Taxpayers must now go to the 3rd floor of the building in order to do any city tax business that they want to do in person.  At this point no other city office that they have told us about is in that building.  Before they tore down the old city hall a taxpayer could go in, conduct his tax related business, and then drop by his city representative’s office or the mayor’s office to speak with their elected officials.

Placing the tax office in a building away from every other department and away from the elected officials has resulted in less opportunity for taxpayers to communicate with the city officials. The tax office was probably chosen as the department to be banished to a separate building because it would limit communication.

Now citizens have to pay for parking when they go to the tax office.  The most convenient place to park is in the Wells Fargo parking garage if space is available.

Part of the lease agreement that the city signed required the landlord to provide parking for the city tax office employees “within walking distance” of the offices.

That evidently has become inconvenient for our city employees.  The agenda item proposes a no-cost modification to the lease that requires that the parking spaces be made available in the Wells Fargo parking garage.   Walking distance seems to have become inconvenient for our employees.

If they pass the amendment and the parking garage is full then taxpayers will have to do the walking.

We deserve better

Brutus

9 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Downtown arena

October 4, 2014

On August 14, 2012 the mayor of El Paso signed ordinance 017849 ordering our 2012 quality of life bond election.  The ordinance outlines the specific projects that were to be proposed and voted on.  From the ordinance:

“… an election shall be held on the 6th day of November 2012, in the city … for the purpose of submitting the following measures:”

“Shall the City Council of the City of El Paso, Texas, be authorized to issue general obligation bonds of the City in the principal amount of $228,250,000 for permanent public improvements and public purposes, to wit:  acquiring, constructing, improving, renovating and equipping new and existing library, museum, cultural and performing arts facilities and improvements, including the acquisition of land and rights-of-way for such projects, and acquiring and installing public art related to and being a part of some or all of the foregoing; such projects to include the following:

Arts & Entertainment

Multipurpose performing arts and entertainment facility located in Downtown El Paso;

Downtown

The ordinance specifically proposes a performing arts and entertainment facility located in Downtown El Paso.  City council has been kind enough to publish maps telling us what they consider to be downtown.

The election was held. The public voted in favor of building the performing arts and entertainment facility.

One little problem

However on May 28, 2013 (7 months after the bond election) the city signed a lease with a baseball team group relating to the new ball park.

Section 15.3(c) reads:

neither City nor any Affiliate of City, shall, directly or indirectly, develop, finance, facilitate or otherwise participate in the development or approval of any other outdoor concert venue in downtown El Paso that is reasonably anticipated to compete with the Ballpark, with the exception of a soccer stadium for a Major League Soccer team.

Concert venue, downtown

It would appear that we could have a conflict.  The city got us to vote for a downtown performing arts facility.  Then they signed a lease prohibiting them to build one.

Will we have to pay the sports group for this?  Will the city just build it’s performing arts center somewhere outside of the downtown area.  Will the performing arts money be “repurposed” to build something different?

Texas law requires that bond money be spent the way the bond ordinance specifies.

The actual signed lease with the sports group is not available on the city’s web site.  The document that I have quoted from was presented to city council as part of the change process when the sports group agreed to pay for any costs above $62 million.

Outdoor

The key word here is outdoor.  The city agreed to not build an outdoor venue.  That will limit our design of the new facility.  It will need to be enclosed in a building.

 

We deserve better

Brutus

7 Comments | Ball park, City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

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