At the Neighborhood Associations Coalition meeting this past Monday (November 17, 2008) we were fortunate to have Mayor John Cook join us and give us his “State of the City” address. It was so important to him to be with us that he was almost 2 hours late to his father’s 88th birthday party. I think that we are blessed to have John Cook as our Mayor – the man who says that he is “blessed” whenever you ask him how he is. (I threw him off when we shook hands. I asked him, “How’s it going?” He stumbled for his answer – with a smile, of course.)
You can see a final draft of his address. Here is my summary of his address given to the Coalition:
To become a great city we need to strive to have greatness in 3 areas:
1. A great downtown
2. Great parks and open spaces
3. Great mass transit
There are challenges facing El Paso:
Asarco: Because of plummeting copper prices, the lack of interest in the plant as an asset or liability, and a new EPA under the Obama administration, there is a good chance that this major polluter will not open again.
Ft. Bliss Realignment and Expansion: The upside is the creation of new jobs. The challenge is the need for more housing – apartments as well as single family homes. Because of the desalination plant, the water problem has been resolved. We also need more medical facilities and schools. Good employment opportunities for young people today include jobs in medical services and teaching and educational support.
Medical services have greatly improved with the 4-year Texas Tech Medical School here in El Paso. The new Children’s Hospital will be a big plus. The Medical Center of the Americas is also part of the vision to make El Paso the medical Mecca for West Texas, Northern Mexico and Southern New Mexico.
The big downtown improvement so far has been the remodeling of the old International Hotel to a beautiful Doubletree – a good first impression for visitors traveling along I-10. Paul Foster’s redevelopment of the Mills Building and the old Plaza Hotel will add to the quality of downtown El Paso.
Since 2003 17 new companies offering nearly 7,000 jobs have come to El Paso. Another large (yet unnamed pharmaceutical) company may soon come and provide 600+ jobs. El Paso’s economy continues to consistently grow in spite of the downturn in the rest of the country.
A big advantage of having more companies is the tax relief they will bring to homeowners. To attract more companies requires working on the quality of life in El Paso. Some ideas for improving the quality of life are:
1. An Aquarium
You can see a final draft of his address. Here is my summary of his address given to the Coalition:
To become a great city we need to strive to have greatness in 3 areas:
1. A great downtown
2. Great parks and open spaces
3. Great mass transit
There are challenges facing El Paso:
Asarco: Because of plummeting copper prices, the lack of interest in the plant as an asset or liability, and a new EPA under the Obama administration, there is a good chance that this major polluter will not open again.
Ft. Bliss Realignment and Expansion: The upside is the creation of new jobs. The challenge is the need for more housing – apartments as well as single family homes. Because of the desalination plant, the water problem has been resolved. We also need more medical facilities and schools. Good employment opportunities for young people today include jobs in medical services and teaching and educational support.
Medical services have greatly improved with the 4-year Texas Tech Medical School here in El Paso. The new Children’s Hospital will be a big plus. The Medical Center of the Americas is also part of the vision to make El Paso the medical Mecca for West Texas, Northern Mexico and Southern New Mexico.
The big downtown improvement so far has been the remodeling of the old International Hotel to a beautiful Doubletree – a good first impression for visitors traveling along I-10. Paul Foster’s redevelopment of the Mills Building and the old Plaza Hotel will add to the quality of downtown El Paso.
Since 2003 17 new companies offering nearly 7,000 jobs have come to El Paso. Another large (yet unnamed pharmaceutical) company may soon come and provide 600+ jobs. El Paso’s economy continues to consistently grow in spite of the downturn in the rest of the country.
A big advantage of having more companies is the tax relief they will bring to homeowners. To attract more companies requires working on the quality of life in El Paso. Some ideas for improving the quality of life are:
1. An Aquarium
2. An IMAX Theater
3. Preserve historic buildings
4. Have income generating parking in our downtown
5. Good International Relationships
6. Police and Fire: El Paso is not short on police and the Fire Department has recently earned a Class 1 ISO rating which means 8.2% lower insurance premiums. (Talk to your agent and review your homeowner’s policy.)
7. An efficient Sun Metro: The model comes from Orange County California where the bus mass transit is run like a subway. Passengers pay to get on a platform not on a bus. Have routes that go a mile at a time and shorter routes for stops at every other block. TXDOT has already shown how lights can be synchronized to the moment a bus leaves a station so that there are fewer or no stops.
8. Parks and Open Spaces: Developers must build communities/neighborhoods and not just houses. These communities must have real parks with swings, lighting bathrooms.
A big improvement for the City came when the voters said “yes” to a City Manager form of government that allows for professionals and not just a Mayor’s cronies. Another big change in government was going from 2-year terms to 4-year staggered terms for the City Council.
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