Now we are at $250 million

February 10, 2019

This is part of an email that came in from Max Grossman:

Vic Kolenc of the El Paso Times just published a report which includes new information on the City of El Paso’s intentions for their “Arena”. Most importantly, City Engineer Sam Rodriguez confirms that the “Arena” will cost around $250 million rather than the $180 million that voters expected. Moreover, he claims “that number could change.” Ladies and Gentlemen, brace yourself for the eventuality that the City will announce an even higher price tag, impacting our property taxes even further!
We deserve better
Brutus

12 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Bring up your topic for consideration

February 9, 2019

Once again it is open line Saturday.

Sound off!

Brutus

10 Comments | Uncategorized | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Another dismal quarter for Sun Metro

February 8, 2019

Sun Metro’s numbers for the first quarter of the 2019 fiscal year are out:

Ridership fell another 5.6% from last year’s lows.

Yet they stubbornly continue to show a goal of more riders this year than last.

If somehow they reached their goal they would still be 19% below where they were back in 2012.

Their cost per trip for the quarter went up 21% from the same period last year.

Isn’t it time that we rethink how our bus system operates?

We deserve better

Brutus

 

7 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

A little help here

February 7, 2019

Several people trying to get through the traffic mess on alternate routes that was caused by the closure of I-10 the other day have commented to me about the lack of assistance from our local traffic people.

They commented about stop lights that held traffic back when there were few if any cars coming from the perpendicular side of the intersection.

In this day of electronic communication couldn’t we have a system where someone or some computer changed the traffic signal controller to compensate for the massive change in traffic conditions?

Or maybe people could be dispatched to the intersections to manually control the signals to maximize traffic flow.

These situations are bad but measures could be taken to lessen the problems.

We deserve better

Brutus

9 Comments | City government, County Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Last and evidently least (at least in their minds)

February 6, 2019

I cannot think of anything that could more clearly demonstrate the city’s attitude to the public than the below slide:

The city is telling us that they start with their internal project management employees and then involve

  • Process (whoever they are)
  • Vendors
  • Support staff
  • User departments
  • Stakeholders/utilities
  • Admin (that’s the fifth internal group in case you are counting)
  • Service/Purchasing/OMB (I guess we are up to 8 internal groups at this point)

And finally after they have all made up their minds

  • The public

We deserve better

Brutus

4 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

« Previous Entries
Next Entries »