Save Alamo Elementary School

Our compadres in the Segundo Barrio are looking for our support. Neighborhood Association President Osvaldo Velez writes:

Dear Friends,

Residents and members of the Southside Neighborhood Association recently voted and agreed for Alamo School to be an El Paso Historic Landmark.

Let's Keep It Historic!!!

Houchen Community Center, 609 S. Tays, El Paso, Texas 79901 (Map)

Wednesday, October 19, 2011, 6:00 p.m.

Do check out Segundo Barrio Scene.

Recycling Electronics the Right Way

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Celebrate Native Plant Week

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Farewell to Chief Justice David Chew

From El Paso Bar Journal, Oct./Nov. 2011, p. 13

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From El Paso Bar Journal, Oct./Nov. 2011, p. 14

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At midnight on October 11, 2011, Newmanista David Chew will resign as Chief Justice of the Eighth Court of Appeals. Read the above El Paso Bar Journal interview by Clinton Cross. David and Mandy are planning a move to McAllen, Texas where David will be working in the industrial real estate industry.

Gov. Rick Perry has appointed Justice Ann Crawford McClure as the first woman Chief Justice of the Eighth Court of Appeals.

David is the brother of Newmanistas Linda Chew (Judge of the 327th District Court) and Patricia Chew (Judge of Probate Court Number One).

Inventive Piña Brothers to Upscale When?

Piedras Quality Food Mart on September 26, 2011. Compare with picture posted on September 30, 2009.

According to Rep. Susie Byrd, grocer Mike Piña indicated that it was his company's intent to really spruce up the Quality Food Mart on Piedras and Porter as they had done to other stores they had purchased. He made the same claim over two years ago!

Compare the picture above taken today to one taken from the same street corner in September 2009! See the September 30, 2009 Newman Park blog post. See any differences? Anything spruced up? There's a new tortilla factory inside but that's about it. Meat selection is poor and the produce must be what's left over from the Vista stores.

Byrd recently inquired what Piña and his brothers intended to do with the other Quality Food Mart on Wheeling and Alabama. It has been closed for several months now. Owners of the Vista Markets, the Piñas have decided to close it because of low volume sales and that they had it under contract for a Dollar Store. A Dollar Store!

I might add that, while I was taking the picture above, I was briefly approached by a woman who seemed to me to be a hooker. She left me alone (and didn't solicit me) as she could probably tell I was more focused on the photography. I saw her later working the ticky-tacky bars a block up and across the street from the non-spruced up Quality Food Mart.

These places border our Newman Park neighborhood where great things are happening. But it is time to do better with our businesses on Piedras and Alabama. Time to do a lot better.

Help Police Track Crime Patterns

Commander Mark Austin addresses concerns at a meeting of the Newman Park Neighborhood Association Board.

Commander Mark Austin of the EPPD Central Regional Command visited with members of the Newman Park Neighborhood Association Board during their regular meeting last Saturday. Commander Austin was accompanied by Neighborhood Relations Coordinator, Leslie Canada.

Addressing several recent concerns voiced by Association members, Austin stressed the need for neighbors to help police identify crime patterns. Even if someone takes a small item from the yard (a flower pot, a solar light), it should be reported so that police can track the pattern or trail of the thief. He mentioned that storage sheds have been a recent target of thieves and asked that people keep their sheds locked. He also said that suspicious persons or situations should be reported - vehicles parked in alley ways or persons or cars not normally "belonging" to the neighborhood were two examples. He emphasized that neighbors should talk to their neighbors and know what is happening.

Byrd Gets Park Olympics Trophy

Rep. Susie Byrd, Chuy, Jim Tolbert, Judy Gutierrez

This past Saturday Representative Susie Byrd received the coveted traveling trophy won by the Newman Park Neighborhood Association Fighting Chihuahuas at the 2nd Annual Park Olympics. Newman Park Neighborhood Association President Jim Tolbert presented her and her Assistant, Judy Gutierrez, with the prize. They will display it proudly at the El Paso's District Two office at City Hall during the coming year. Although Chuy, the trophy, will be up for grabs again next year, Las Vegas odds makers are already saying that the Mexican mongrels are the odds-on favorites to win again.