July 3, 2008
Simon raises question about Sanders, Foster business ties
All this back and forth...at the end of the day, who cares?! The point is we have people in this community who want to make it better - what's so bad about joining the 21st century with everyone else. Does anyone realize that regardless of our size we function like a small town?
The Fountains concept looks very similar to what I've seen in Arlington, VA, Austin, and Dallas to name a few. I think it's wonderful that El Paso is fortunate enough to have people who care about the growth and prosperity of this community. Bravo! Keep up the good work! -- Jessica K
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I'm sorry but that concept art looks exactly like what we already have- Las Palmas Marketplace. I want something mindblowingly innovative and bold, the way that shopping center in San Antonio (I forgot the name) is built around three smokestacks that used to house a factory. Or that Uptown Center in Albuquerque.
At least have a massive fountain in the middle of the plaza in which all architechture encircles; a really beautiful, tall fountain where shoppers can intermingle and admire. And walkable would be nice. Hide all of the cars in parking enclosures so that the area is compact. Our tax dollars are worth a lot more than this. -- Will
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This is for WILL
The San Antonion Shopping center you are referring to is called "The Quarry". I agree with you. Something like that in EP would be nice. -- Sal Ramirez
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I posted this on Strelz's forum back on June 11th......beat ya to it!
Bill Sanders and Regency Centers are pretty cozy.....should Beto recuse himself from voting on the tax abatement?
Follow the links below or just Google 'Regency Centers+William Sanders'
14. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT:
Presentation by West Miller, Regency Centers, on plans to revitalize the
8889 Gateway West property (aka Farah) into a retail center. (District 3)
[Economic Development, Kathryn B. Dodson, (915) 541-4760]
http://209.85.215.104/search?q=cache:L3dZ08ir8oYJ:findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_gx5202/is_2000/ai_n19122970/pg_2+regency+centers%2Bwilliam+sanders&hl= en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=us
http://www.realestateportfolio.com/portfoliomag/06janfeb/feat2side_a.shtml
-- TrickDaddy
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Closing in on "Capital of the Border" agency
"Capital of the Border" couldn't come as worse time in our region. The economy, shutting down the border to illegal entrants, the dwindling of traffic to/from Mexico because of the Cartels and the high taxes are all part of this regions demise. The name couldn't have come at a worse time. -- Shawn
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Nah...too pretentious for El Paso. The "Big Burrito" says it all. -- Jerry K
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Interesting that while the news seems to be that this concept is still just a concept, there is actually a billboard using the phrase "El Paso: Capital of the Border" already on I-25 south of Albuquerque. Perhaps this is just a pilot project, but it works in my opinion.
Having driven this road many times for 15+ years, I have always found myself somewhat embarrassed by the City's history of past highway billboard efforts to market itself to vacationing travelers. Finally, it looks like we have something that could be a winner. -- DJ
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"Capital of the Border." Lame. Uncreative. Uninspired. Retrograde. So 1985.
Here's a free slogan: "El Paso Rocks!"
It's simple, self-explanatory, uncontroversially grammatical -- and most importantly, highlights our great outdoors, weather, and rockin' music tradition (from the Night Dreamers to At the Drive In).
Someday, someday we'll get this branding thing right. -- Anthony
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Branding has become the new neurosis for the new millenium.
You all need to read "OBD: OBSESSIVE BRANDING DISORDER" by Lucas Conley. I heard him on his lecture tour and asked him about city branding. He stated that when a city hires a "branding" firm it ALWAYS turns out to be a rip-off. Branding for cities is ineffective. It does nothing and is just a waste of taxpayer money. The list of cities and towns that have been fleeced by these illusionists is ever-growing and it looks like El Paso is next.
Get with the program El Paso. You've come down with a case of OBD. -- vato
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Branding El Paso will not bring visitors here. We need to continue to work on the "cleanliness and attractiveness thing." Our medians are looking great and there City is doing a good job of keeping them relatively clean. (Too bad we can't get rid of plastic bags! And too bad some people think rocks alone make an attractive landscape.) But back to the slogan, Capital of the Border... it's a bad idea and branding is a waste of money. I agree that the Dodson lady is sadly out-of-the-loop and will soon be in the pocket of a slick ad agency. -- Jenny
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Spanish or English for 40 million-plus U.S. Hispanics?
Entertaining and informative article. My wife has always been confused by the term "chicano". While there are more rigorous explanations behind the socio-political movement that coined the term, I think this can be a good starting point to understanding the complexity inherent in defining the hispanic demographic. -- Omar
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Good article, since when did the US become"ours" believe it belonged to the indians till the anglo population "immigrated here and stole the lands they wanted" indians ended up on reservations or just dead depending on the circumstances. The brown race lol good name for indians hispanics puerto ricans and all the others will one day make the anglo the minority in this country, then we will see what we will see....... -- William
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Informative article, but I believe the term “Hispanic” is now out of vogue amongst more liberal circles. It certainly was even when I was in school. “Latino” was the preferred nomenclature because it encompassed anyone from Latin America (itself a problematic term). On the west coast at least “Hispanic” was resented because it was a term innovated during the Nixon administration to create a category for the U.S. Census. It was resented because it reflected the dominance of the Spanish Colonizer, especially to Chicanos.
However, in all of your recounting of U.S. demographics I seem to miss your point. Why should the fact that Hispanics will soon dominate the population necessitate that any publication should change its content policy? A subtler point missed in your recounting is that Criticas is literary publication focused towards a Spanish literary crowd, which most likely means higher education. The college grad rate among minorities, no, even in general is only about 8%, and of those only an even smaller fraction are interested in literature. Most of all those people you cite are probably not interested whatsoever in Criticas, indeed in any literary publication at all. So why blame Criticas for knowing their market?
But on top of that, anything that encourages the retention of the Spanish language should be applauded. Language is our primary carrier of culture. There may be French and English people of all shapes and colors all over the world too -- they were both colonial powers -- but you can bet that they preserve and protect the integrity of their language like their life depended on it… look at the Alliance Francaise, the King’s English, etc. They do so because they know language is the life blood of culture.
Criticas certainly does seem to have some kind of cognitive discord happening, reviewing Spanish titles in English, but that certainly speaks to your argument of accommodating the mixed bag of Hispanics you describe. If they can’t read works in Spanish then at least they can read about them in English. This is quite to the contrary of Criticas thinking that U.S. Hispanics are linguistically monolithic. If anything it seems to serve the purpose you talk about, providing reviews for someone who might not otherwise fully read a work in Spanish (for lack of full proficiency in reading Spanish) unless they could read something interesting about it in English. It seems like a reasonable marketing tool for Spanish literature publishers. Why should they dilute their product?
I don’t think this is about identity politics…it’s about audience and marketing...an audience that craves Spanish literature regardless of their language proficiency.
p.s. English bigotry notwithstanding, multi-lingualism IS the future of the U.S.A., as it is already in almost every other part of the world. -- albert r
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Hi! Rich, it sounds to me like you are starting to see thru the keep-the-rich-rich/serviced servitude-infested felony pyramid scheme called capitalism! Well done! The pyramid scheme symbol is right there on the back of the USA one dollar bill. Do an image search for "pyramid of capitalist" and you can see an EXCELLENT picture of AmWay (American Way), the sham/con. All its creators have died of old age, so there's nobody to linch, but man, did folks buy into it! I suspect it was all the luxuries in the redemption catalog (stores). AmWay (capitalism) got "the exclusive" (legal tender) on the TYPE of coupons (money) accepted in the supply depots(stores). Since the free-marketeers put THEIR pricestickers (rationing gates) on all the survival supplies (and luxuries too), the 18 yr olds... when tossed "out there" into "the great shark tank"... are forced to join the church-o-competing (or die/starve), and thus they must leave behind the church-o-cooperating (Christianity/socialism). Felony pyramid schemes like capitalism, are fairly easy to understand. Just like the servitude-infested pyramids we failed-at as children in the farmyard, the upper 1/3 are "heads in the clouds", while the folks on the bottom ALWAYS GET HURT from the weight of the world's knees in their backs. Toybox tug-o-war pyramids such as 'the free marketeers'... always self-destruct... and would have been "leveled" a lot sooner... had servitude (caused by inequality) been illegal in the USA. Its not, though, and parents condone and promote the servitude-infested immorality festival called capitalism, and its pricetags, timecards, bills, entitles-of-ownership, and classing/rankings (earning, deserving, pulling weight, measuring-up, and all the other cap self-BS). Parental policy is SHARE SHARE SHARE prior to 18 years old, and FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT after 18. (after sharktanked) Quite a policy reversal to happen in a single birthday, eh?
There, I've advanced your march toward fair survival systems, a bit. Scared? Look to military supply/survival systems, and USA public libraries... for socialism and morals done right. Economies need to be abolished.... worldwide. Economies just cause rat-racing, which leads to felony pyramiding. Railroadings, bandwagonings, movements... all a phenomenon called "conduction"... based-upon "ducting" or in-lining. (conned into hoop-jumping for trinkets dangled from skyskrapers). Heavy, eh? "Everyone is doing it"=normal, so normal=ok, so ok=good, so good=right (chain of substantiation and justification) (chain of self-BSing). Co-condoning 101. Bandwagoning = playing a mobile (movement) noisemaking (hoopla) device SO OVERWELMING "yay America" loudly, that folks fall in behind it and parade/march... to a certain beat. They get "con-DUCT-ed"... or to shorten it, they get CONNED... and march right off a cliff of illegal and immoral activity... via riding the hayride of a maniacal tractor driver called "hope of becoming set-for-life". SUPER-heavy, eh?
Larry "Wingnut" Wendlandt
MaStars - Mothers Against Stuff That Ain't Right
(anti-capitalism-ists)
Bessemer MI USA
-- Wingnut
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Reasonable thought, except for the crux of the argument: pirated DVDs are still just that: stolen intellectual property. The free market theories you cite usually disregard black markets, or so-called 'underground economies' (which have always existed) and are usually meant to explain and dissect legitimate trade.
In strict economic terms, I could save thousands of dollars by buying YOUR stolen car off of someone. Is it right? No. Moral or not, it shouldn't be reflected using a free market model. Pirated DVDs are just the same as counterfeit medications and software; the economic loss experienced by the respective industry is very real and very significant. Bloated corporate models are irrelevant to the argument.
It really says something about our culture these days about the lack of personal responsibility that is developing. Individually, we're never the bad guys. It's always the ambiguous 'them'. Feel like you need to justify buying stolen goods? Its the greedy Hollywood guys' faults, not yours. Just watched a documentary about global warming? Its corporate America's fault, because they feed people their hyper-consumerist culture and make you buy that gas guzzler to commute to work. Seldom do we admit that market change is an adaptation to the consumer, us. SUVs never would have taken off if we didn't buy them so readily, and bootleg DVDs and software would never have become so widespread if we didn't at some time make the conscious decision to buy them, knowing full well the circumstances of their creation.
Yes, its a silly offense; buying bootleg DVDs is no grave crime and its fairly common. But we really need to drop the whole 'big bad corporate culture' spiel. Instead of passing the blame onto larger institutions and industries, let's remember that the bootleg DVD market flourished because of our own social acceptance of it.
And more important than everything above: bootleg DVDs suck, and I'd rather pay my eight bucks and watch a movie in all its glory than watch a grainy shaking image with the tops of peoples head occasionally poking through the bottom of the frame. Maybe thats the film purist in me. -- Will
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Good argument and fun to read but the core of the matter is still that the creator or originator does not get all the deserved credit (or in this case, money or royalties).
It'd be good to find out how our favorite artists get paid and if we really like them, buy in a way that favors them and not the middle-man sellers.
More artists, writers, and musicians should follow Ani D'Franco's example and start their own record label, publishing house, or gallery to reap in all that's coming to them.
But as participants of this free-enterprise economy, we do have the choice to either buy and enjoy without regards to the creative force that produced the item or actively become a supporter and ensure that each cent goes where it belongs. I cite the following example:
When I first heard ZZ Top's "La Grange" song on the radio, it was already 10 years old but I bought the CD and found out that they admired and supported older blues music artists through their work with a blues museum in Clarksdale, Mississippi (a special place where a lot of the blues began, near the famous "Crossroads" sign where supposedly Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil in exchange for brilliant guitar playing, and the birthplace of blues giant, foot-tapping, soul-stirring, primitive style-playing John Lee Hooker.)
Anyways, "La Grange" imitates Hooker's voice in the beginning part and transforms into a modern, pulsing hard-rock beauty of a song.
Since 1992, the year I discovered that song, I've bought nearly 100 Blues CDs (but heard about 1,000), purchased 5 books (but read hundreds on the subject), practiced on an old Dreadnaught guitar (which I still have and use as a hobby--and no, I'm not that good to play "live"), and completed a trip to the Clarksdale Blues Museum to absorb its essence. I supported Blues acts anywhere I can find them.
I am happy I spent what I did. It did something for me and I did something for the genre, and when I attended a live gig, I paid the artist directly.
In conclusion, we should praise the originators directly, if possible; If not, using the middle-man is the next best thing, but definitely, I know they won't receive anything with pirated goods.
-- Juan Arturo Muro
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Hey Rich, I often buy used DVDs at any of several places that sell them like Ameoba Records in CA, or the local used bookstore that has a DVD shelf, or even at a Saturday morning yard sale. I can get a DVD like Scarface (Al Pacino) for 5 bucks or less usually.
What occurs to me is that the original owner might have bought it for the 14.99 retail price, viewed it for a while, tired of it then plopped it on the yard sale table one weekend. I got it for five, she got at least five dollars back from it, if she even was the original owner. Maybe she originally got it used for $6 and sold it for $5 in which case she got all but $1 back. This would be cheaper for her than a pirated DVD.
So my copy of Scarface might have had as many as 3 maybe more owners with only one full retail price ever having been paid to the holders of the "intellectural property" rights, and nothing was ever stolen because in each case it was a simple and direct free market exchange of property. Who knows how many owners it could have after me. This isn't pirating but the end result is nearly the same.
God knows I would never pay full retail price for any recorded material. I say everyone should just recirculate all of their "scalable" media as you put it, for ever and ever once its out there. Really, an artist will always get his/'her recognition contrary to what another of your responders said. It is the corporate machinery that makes everyone subject to this celebrity worship on which the record and movie industry is based. Film and recordings were the mass marketer's miracle dream-come-true.
-- albert r
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