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Stop asking everybody--just do it
by Joe Muench / El Paso Times (June 4, 2006)
If you need something done, don't start asking for the public's input.
Today's subject: the Downtown plan and everybody's two cents of yak, yak, yak. It's just holding up our chance of having a nice city like everybody else's nice city.
There is a plan presented by the Paso del Norte Group. It's a good one. Outlined are the ways and means to redevelop. It's simple: Bulldoze the blight and rebuild on the targeted 127.5 acres.
But the city, amid outcries from a few people with other agendas, took a step back. Now the city is asking for everyone's input.
What do you think? How about you. You over there. Can we come to a conclusion?
No, we can't.
To me this is no different than when our five children were young and I was faced with ... "THE GREAT PIZZA DILEMMA."
"I want pepperoni."
"I want black olives and jalapeņo peppers."
"Can we get sausage instead of pepperoni?
"Let's get everything on it."
"I won't eat onions."
OK, so the five had spoken.
With that in mind, I'd walk up to the counter and say, "three plain cheese pizzas, please."
That way we had pizza. The other way meant we'd have stalled, and there wouldn't have been any pizza.
So goes the Downtown plan.
Some said the PDNG proposal was just too mean-spirited.
So Mayor John Cook stepped in. After all, he represents everyone in town -- even blight preservationists. The city is now holding meetings, asking input and hearing, "pepperoni" ... "no sausage."
At first, everything in the 127.5-acre redevelopment zone had to go. OK, except Sacred Heart Catholic Church and maybe a few other things.
Now it's:
No.ooo.o, you can't tear tha..aat down. That's my property (somewhere under the pile).
OK, so we'll see about saving that especially for you.
No.ooo.o, that's historical. The sister of Pancho Villa's fourth wife once stayed there.
OK, so we'll see about saving that especially for you.
Now there's another possible holdup. Some of the blight preservationists plan on running that area's city rep, Beto O'Rourke, out of office unless he stops talking about fixing up the neighborhood. They're threatening recall.
Will Beto cave?
Will City Council, which now appears to have enough votes to redevelop, cave?
Remember how council backed off on the Lee Treviņo extension project because it may have caused some people to relocate? We really need a major north-south artery out there in the population center. But council caved.
It was getting re-elected -- politics -- that weighed on council's minds, not what was best for El Paso.
Getting Downtown fixed is best for El Paso. And, no, not by just letting it happen. It won't happen. It'll just rot more.
There have been umpteen Downtown revitalization plans before. They all stalled out amid asking everybody's opinion.
Yes, people will have questions. Something this big will always have questions.
I have a question: I'm wondering if the city is getting what it ought to, let's say in property taxes. If this area is home sweet home and my hard-earned business, how come property taxes on the 127.5 acres is only $414,000 a year?
A simple neighborhood block in many parts of El Paso account for more taxes than that.
This PDNG plan is tough-minded, but needed. And it will work:
Let's hope the mayor and City Council say, "three plain cheese pizzas, please."
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