Readers Respond: Buses in Union Plaza
We at Lynx Exhibits attended every posted meeting with the consultants designing the bus relocation. While they were very professional and claimed to be involving all interested parties, they were light on specifics originally locating a bus stop in our loading zone. We felt that there was little actual visiting of the proposed stops and this is primarily a paper design.
The merchants on the Plaza do not want to lose the customers. The streets around the parking garage are far too narrow to handle the bus traffic. After the first round of meetings, the city and consultants closed the streets to 'test the routes' and learned that even a single bus cannot make the turns. Solution? Cut off the beautiful curbs and sidewalks in Union Plaza. They still have never tested trying to have two buses on the same street much less having one or more turn.
This idea was designed on paper, argued on paper and approved on paper with no real regard for actual reality of driving in the area. [At one bus stop, when the bus opens its door it was within 5 inches of our building!] The amazing declaration from these meetings is that the city will provide FREE 'circulator' buses to move the people between downtown, the bridge and Union Plaza...Duh! Isn't that why they're moving the bus stops in the first place? ...to get rid of the buses?
We strongly support downtown development and are happy to see Paul Foster joining Lynx in making significant investment into our city's downtown, but this plan is ill conceived and will not work. Unfortunately it appears that it is on a fast track to 'fait accompli' and that when it fails it will have destroyed many other businesses in its wake, probably including ours. We attracted 50,000 people downtown to attend our Bodies Human exhibit and encouraged many of those to also visit Insights, the Art Museum and the new History museum. We continue to try to bring world-class exhibits to El Paso, even though they are not yet well supported, in the hopes that eventually the community will change and downtown will blossom.
Moving 20,000 people a day into the streets and sidewalks, along with the attendant trash and incidental damage to buildings does nothing to further the plan or help those that have stepped out to support it. -- Michael Churchman
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Barack Obama/Bill Richardson: America’s Dream Team for President
Bravo to Joe Olvera. He is an outstanding journalist who tells it like it is. El Paso has always been on the cutting edge. He is absolutely right about blacks in El Paso. They have made a difference in both academics and sports. I agree wholeheatedly with his comments about Obama and Richardson. They would make a great team. As I have said in the past, Richardson represents the future of the United States of America. By the way, I just wanted to point out that my father was on the Jefferson High School track team in Los Angeles, California in 1933. It was a fully integrated team with American Indians, Mexican Americans, African Americans, Chinese Americans and Anglos. In 1956, I was a halfback on the Santa Fe SuperChiefs football team in East Los Angeles. The quarterback was Manuel Orozco and the fullback was Ralph Espinoza. The backup quarterback was Joe Gibbs, who went on to coach the Washington Redskins to 3 Super Bowl Championships. Lets push for an Obama/Richardson ticket. As Commodore Perry was once quoted "Damn the torpedoes." Also with all due respect to Senator Hillary Clinton, tell her to send that pathetic parasite, James Carville, back to Arkansas or Mississippi to stew in his own venom. What a rattlesnake. Congratulations again to my compa Joe Olvera. -- Bill Tilney
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I agree wholeheartedly with your opinion piece. Hey, with Obama and Richardson, we get a whole white guy and two of our country's greatest "minoirities." I say this with reason. I am half-Japanese--my mom was a War Bride. It was an incredible lesson growing up in a Long Beach, Calif., suburb following WWII in the 1950s and 1960s. Being told, "We can't play with you because you are a Jap," stunned my little sister and me. The United States has been touted as a "Melting Pot," or more recently, a "Salad Bowl."
Well, in my opinion, the United States is like the produce section of a grocery store. Some of the fruit are rotten, but for the most part, they are fresh and ripe. It is about time our country's citizens truly adopt Martin Luther King's admonition: "(Be) judged not by the color of their skin, but the content of their character."
Lest we forget, every single person is an immigrant on this continent. It is only a matter of how far in history one's people came. It is also apparent that (some) people in the United States should drop their wayward sense of entitlement. After all, Europeans stole North, Central and South America from the Indian natives. I would also assert, we are all a mix of all the people who came before us. There is no such thing as genetic purity. If there were, we would have become extinct hundreds of thousands of years ago.
So, let's fast forward to now. As the writer asserts, Barack Obama, and, yes, Bill Richardson, as I have come to know him better, are truly an American Dream ticket. Thanks,
-- Roberta Westerfield, Bakersfield, Calif.
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Officer Endorsements Shed Light on Sheriff Candidates, and Unions
I think this is a great article and very informative for those of us who don't understand the inside of these departments. However, I do think the public knows that Wiles was tougher on his officers and how that raised the standards at the EPPD. The public trust in the police department went up during the time Wiles was there. However, it is hard to be popular with your officers when you are tough. Wiles receiving the amount of votes he did in the primary, with as many candidates as there was, is amazing and a credit to the job he did with EPPD. I don't know how much these endorsements will help since the runoff voter usually knows who he or she is going to vote for. I do. -- Laura Enriquez
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This is an awesome race, having two highly distinguished and professional individuals with indisputable qualifications; it is unfortunate that one of them will not become Sheriff. -- RB
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While I believe that Chief of Police Wiles has managed to help keep El Paso one of the safest cities in the nation, I also strongly believe that Wiles doesn't have the necessary credentials to be the new Sheriff. That is, he doesn't speak Spanish and he is not bi-cultural. To me, these two issues are vital and necessary.
Wiles, in an earlier interview, said that he didn't need to speak Spanish because a Spanish-speaking officer will generally translate for him. Chief Carlos Leon, however, doesn't need this luxury. Leon is not only bilingual in English and Spanish, but he's also bi-cultural. He understands the dynamic issue of stopping scofflaws, without stepping on the toes of undocumented immigrants. The Sheriff's job is to catch criminals, not to catch illegals.
On another note, Wiles needs a translator? Does this mean that he's taking one officer off the line so that he/she can translate for him? We need that officer to be out patrolling the streets, we don't need him or her to act as an interpreter. Also, what I'd like to know is what either man will do to curb the burgeoning crime level that is rising in Northeast El Paso? G.I.s are not allowed to go to Juarez because it's off limits to military personnel. So, what do they do? They go to Dyer Street, where drugs, prostitution, and other illegal activities are there for the taking.
With the new influx of troops coming in through BRAC, that problem will become exacerbated. What are the young, horny G.I.s going to do to satisfy their most basic needs? Is the Army going to build them a red-light disttrict outside the city limits? Let's face reality, folks. We need a bilingual, bi-cultural Sheriff for El Paso County. That would be Chief Carlos Leon. I'm voting for him, are you? -- Joe Olvera
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I still feel that Wiles will be a much better sheriff. Why? Because of the "tight ship" he runs and will run. We need that in a police dept as well as in a sheriff's dept. -- Minnie
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Carlos Leon was a good chief but Richard Wiles was better. Wiles was tougher and that angered the unions. Endoraements by unions have to be suspect. -- Ken G
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National Protest Grows over Assassination of Chihuahua Farm Leader
The important, humble work of the agricultural worker is once again trampled. It's sickening to see the government system in any country repeatedly denigrate and unvalue the people who grow food crops. This murder is proof of that. -- Juan Arturo Muro
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Appraisal Surge Means El Paso Home Values Keep Rising, Despite Market Slowdown
Interesting to note that of the largest cities in Texas, only El Paso is run by Democrats and also has the largest home owner tax increases, year after year. Has the most unemployed. Has the highest cost of living. No wonder new businesses go elsewhere. Let's rename it to North Juarez Texas. -- Jim Thomas
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More protests -- Ken G
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