You Go Girl!

On Monday, my son and I ran into his basketball coach at mini dribbler's practice. John ran up to his coach with his big Johnny smile. "Coach, are we going to have a team this year?" The coach explained that they didn't have enough boys to make the team. I asked about the girls that played on the team last year. Weren't they going to play? "No," Coach Joey said, "the City won't let the girls play on the boys' teams anymore. They said it is a liability to let the girls play with the boys because the boys might hurt the girls."

Last year, my son John played on an under 10 basketball team at the Marty Robbins Center on the east side. They were undefeated. Two girls played on the team. The leading scorer was a girl. The other team that Coach Joey coached was under 8. They had a couple girls on the team. They were also undefeated. One of their best players was a girl. John's coach, who likes to win, is obviously very upset about losing some of his best players to a rule that doesn't make sense to him.

Johnny's real sport is baseball. He's been playing since he was four through t-ball, onto coach pitch and finally at kid pitch. There have always been girls on his team. One of the best players is a girl named Alisa who played short stop and was always dependable at bat. This was her last year to play on the team because her dad wants her to start getting used to girl's softball.

I played soccer most of my life but always liked playing football. The only opportunity I had to play football was neighborhood football that we used to play in middle of the street with one kid always posted to watch for oncoming traffic. In middle school, I spent a good ten minutes every day trying to convince the football coach to let me try out for the football team. I didn't ask him to put me on the team. I just asked him to let me try out. He refused even though he knew that I could kick farther than any of their punters and at that age, I was just as tough as any of them. Even though he knew that I could compete, he told me that I would not be allowed to compete because I was a girl. I would not have been able to compete in high school. By then, the boys had gotten a lot bigger and a lot stronger.

Studies show that there is little physiological difference girls and boys before the onset of puberty. Since more and more girls are encouraged to play sports from an early age, they have the ability and the skills to compete with boys. So, why won't we let them?

I asked our Parks and Recreation Department for an answer. Here is what I got back: "We do not currently offer co-ed youth sports leagues for programs managed by our Sports Section; we offer boys divisions and girls divisions. Girl players who are exceptional usually play up in age group. There are instances when girl age groups do not have enough players to make enough teams. When this happens, we do allow girls to play on boys teams, but staff also explains that if the girls division does make they would have to move to a girls team. Staff is guided by UIL and NCAA rules which are guided by Title IX. Paula states that she has been offering the program this way for 10 years with much success and has doubled the girls' programs."

I'm glad to hear that we are increasing participation in our girls' programs, but this still doesn't answer my question. If a girl under the age of 12 wants to compete and can compete on a boys' team, why can't she? The answer "because she is a girl" didn't seem fair to me in middle school and it doesn't seem fair to me now.

At Tuesday's meeting, I am going to ask City Council to reconsider the City's postion on this issue.

Thank you!

Well, we made it through Dancing with the Stars. Thanks to everyone who contributed to the cause, either buying tickets to the event or writing a check to Big Brothers Big Sisters. I raised $3,000 through your support. We did not win in any category but had a great time competing. The event itself raised $57,000 for Big Brothers Big Sisters, an organization that helps kids in needs by pairing them up with a community mentor.

Sometimes, its the small things that make it feel like there is movement afoot

Yesterday in City Council, there was lots of heated debate about the Public Service Board and the stormwater utility district and user fees for senior aerobics classes. We didn't get out of the meeting until 4:30 P.M. We didn't break for lunch. The meeting was punctuated every now and then by some drama (Eddie Holguin wanted some advice on how to subpoena Ed Archuleta while an embarrassed council walked out leaving him without a quorum) or a temporary loss of cool (Ray Gilbert screamed, Steve Ortega screamed back, the mayor intervened).

Buried in yesterday's marathon meeting was a request by the owners of 300 Florence to put an historic overlay on their property. The owners are converting an old Trost designed warehouse into downtown lofts. The item was moved and approved with almost no comment or conversation. No passions were inflamed. There was no drama.

There should have been.

This was the first time in over a decade that a property owner has voluntarily signed up to put their property under an historic overlay. With an historic overlay comes a whole host of additional obligations and processes aimed at preserving the architectural significance of a building. It used to be if the City even whispered historic overlay to a property owner, the property owner would lawyer up and charge down to city council to beat those efforts down with a stick.

But we've been trying to change all of that. We re-wrote the historic preservation ordinance to streamline the process and to include tax incentives for both commerical and residential property owners who are willing to invest in old buildings. We waived the $1500 fee required to sign up for an historic overlay. We hired a full time Historic Preservation Officer dedicated to the preservation of our historic assets, rather than depend on a city planner with a pile of other work to do. This last budget cycle we gave the HPO some more staff support. We've been fixing the city's administrative processes which seemed to make it easy for property owners to ignore their obligations under the historic preservation ordinance, but very hard and time consuming and mind numbing for property owners who wanted to do the right thing. We told the City that if we were going to make property owners comply with the historic preservation ordinance that city departments had to do the same with parks and public space in historic districts.

We still have a lot more to do, but a lot of good work has been done so that people who want to invest in preserving an historic property view the City as an ally and a partner in that effort.

Mr. Perez

On Monday night, we stood outside of Mr. and Mrs. Joe Perez' house on Joyce Circle to celebrate a huge victory for the neighborhood: the completion of a drainage project that they had been fighting for for 10 years. We drank hot chocolate and ate tamales and sweet bread. Mr. Perez' sons told me stories about growing up with flooding as an everyday event. One son told me that his friends used to ask if their dad was setting up a bunker because sandbags always surrounded the house.

I met Mr. Perez at one of my first District 2 Community meetings. He came with a crowd of angry neighbors and some photos of what his neighborhood looks like under water. Every time it rains, they explained, the neighborhood floods. No matter whether it is a tiny drizzle or a downpour, it is under water. What finally drove them to my meeting is that one of their oldest neighbors got trapped in her home by a flood of water pouring into her home and had to be rescued by the fire department. Some residents had moved out because they couldn't take the hassle and the property damage anymore. They had had enough.

I called the Streets Department to alert them, thinking I was the first on the scene. Turns out they knew the scene all too well. Every time it started to rain, they had the troops out at Joyce Circle with sand bags. Joyce Circle had been on the books for 10 years but had never been funded. This is what stormwater management looked like under the City. The Streets Department had been asking for the money for this project and other stormwater projects for 10 years but couldn't get anyone to listen. We finally funded the Joyce Circle project using certificates of obligation but not without some resistance from other members of council who wanted to wait and take it to the voters. One of our most basic obligations--public safety and the protection of property--had been ignored and underfunded to the detriment of many property owners in our city. This was starkly highlighted by the Storm 2006.

On Tuesday, the City Council will introduce an ordinance and then hear the issue on December 16 on the stormwater utility brought to us by a citizen initiative petition. The initiative petition was signed by 2,400 registered voters in El Paso. The signers of the initiative petition are asking that the responsibility for setting the fees for the stormwater utility be taken from the Public Service Board and given to city council.

I supported the creation of the stormwater utility, and I supported handing over the fee setting and the management of the stormwater utility to the Public Service Board. While it has been a bruising political battle, I still think it is the right thing to do for our community.

Here is what we were trying to accomplish in the creation of the stormwater utility:

1. One of the biggest deficiencies of the stormwater system under the City of El Paso was the regular and routine maintenance of the system. If culverts are clogged, if inlets are blocked by trash, if retention and detention basins have years and years of built up silt, the system loses its intended capacity to handle stormwater runoff. This is when flooding occurs. This is when property damage occurs. During the public hearings on the stormwater utility, the public indicated that they wanted a system that had dedicated resources to regularly maintain our existing stormwater system.

2. A second defiency of the system under the city was that there was not regular capital improvements made to the system. After the damage from Storm 2006, the City determined that at least 46% of the new projects that we had to undertake in order to fix the system had been on the books for at least 5 or more years, 20% of those (like Joyce Circle) had been on the books for 10 or more years. If we had taken on those projects when they were identified, we would not have seen the kind of damage we did in 2006 and the projects probably would not have cost us that much. During the public hearings on the stormwater utility, the public indicated that they wanted a system that had an annual amount available to begin chipping away at the millions of dollars in capital improvements needed to make the system function better.

3. The final consideration that was very important to me in representing an older area of the city that is more dense is that the system be funded based on a property's contribution to the need for stormwater management. If you own a sixteen acre asphalt car lot, you are contributing much more to the stormwater problem then if you own a a 10-story building on an acre of land. If you own a large home, you are contributing more to the stormwater problem than someone who owns a modest-sized home. Those who contribute more to the problem should pay more or find a way to offset their impact on the stormwater system.

So the stormwater utility got going in March. Since that time, we have seen more regular maintenance of the stormwater system. For example, five retention ponds up near Scenic Drive in my district have been de-silted for the first time in 15 years. The stormwater utility, under the Public Service Board, has begun a master planning process that will determine the priorities for capital improvements. Right now, the recommendations are being reviewed by a community advisory board and those final recommendations will come to the City Council for approval. Once approved, the stormwater utility will begin to make annual capital improvements to our stormwater system. The Public Service Board has responded appropriately to concerns about the fees being too high, but the fees are based on a property owner's contribution to the problem. I think there is still some work that needs to be done on fees, especially working with large property owners to find ways to reduce their impact on the system and thus their fees. I've suggested to the City Manager and will suggest the same to City Council that maybe we assign someone to work with property owners to identify ways to reduce their fees (ex. more landscaping, less asphalt).

So who knows what will happen on Tuesday, but I just wanted to refresh everyone's understanding of how we go here.

Meanwhile, Mr. Perez and the Joyce Circle neighborhood is happy. They told me that this will be the first time they will get to enjoy the rain. Mr. Perez told me once when I visited him during construction with the streets all dug up and workers everywhere and tractors moving dirt and laying pipe, "Susie, this is like Disneyland to me."

Thanksgiving Parade

Don't forget the Sun Bowl Parade is tomorrow and don't forget your canned goods. The Sun Bowl Parade is asking for everyone to bring their canned goods. All canned goods will go to the West Texas Food Bank who makes sure that needy families in our community have food to eat. Representative Ann Lilly and I will be pushing shopping carts down the parade route to accept your canned food donations. Look for us.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Some quick city notes before Thanksgiving

Neighborhood Traffic Managment Program. The City recently introduced a neighborhood traffic management program that gives us more tools and resources to solve dangerous traffic problems in neighborhoods. This is a reminder that the second round of applications are due on Monday, December 1. Don't forget to turn in your applications.

Trash. I've catching up on my emails and noticed several emails from constituents wanting to know just what the heck we were doing trying to take over commercial trash hauling in the city. Seems like there have been some newspaper ads and some notices from the Wastehaulers Association to individual businesses asking people to contact us to set us straight on the issue.

First off, while there was some conversation about what the advantages might be to the City taking over commercial waste hauling, I don't think this would be a real benefit or priority for the city and it isn't really the problem that we need to be prepared to solve.

I wanted to make sure everyone knew what we were working on and to let you know that it has much less to do with commercial trash hauling and much more to do with landfills. About two months ago, Environmental Services came to the City Council and said, "We might have a problem." Commercial waste hauling is a private affair in El Paso. Most of the waste from businesses goes to the Sunland Park Landfill in Sunland Park, New Mexico. The landfill recently applied for a 10 year permit to keep things going and the State of New Mexico responded with a one year permit, leaving in doubt the future of that landfill. While it is certainly not a settled deal--the landfill have vowed to fight the one year permit and has followed up with another 10 year permit application and the residents of Sunland Park have vowed to continue to fight the landfill--it leaves El Paso with a big question that we need to be prepared to answer. If the landfill is not granted its application, what do we do with all of that commercial trash?

If we have to build capacity in our landfills for that waste, we will probably need to re-0pen the McCombs landfill in Northeast El Paso. The upfront capital for preparing a landfill is pretty hefty so Evironmental Services would like us to consider an ordinance called flow control which would assure that we had enough revenues to cover those upfront costs and the ongoing operational costs. Flow control allows a city to mandate that all of the waste produced in a city is dumped in municipally-owned landfills. This would guarantee that all people producing waste in the city are contributing towards the costs of opening and maintaining the landfill and would therefore spread those costs over a larger customer case. So Environmental Services was given the go ahead by Council to look a little deeper into the costs of having to re-open McCombs and just how we would go about paying for this with the future of the Sunland Park landfill being in question.

Here is a little more background on the issue from Newspapertree. El Paso Times has covered the issue also but they don't archive their stories.

http://www.newspapertree.com/news/3093-garbage-fight-picking-up

http://www.newspapertree.com/news/2844-garbage-takeover

http://www.newspapertree.com/news/1931-long-cold-and-dark-at-the-camino-real-landfill-hearing

http://www.newspapertree.com/features/1922-sunland-park-landfill-hearings-test-new-mexico

http://www.newspapertree.com/politics/1875-camino-real-landfill-permit-fight-begins

Finally, We're Getting to Impact Fees

Tuesday, City Council will be asked to kick start a process imposed by state law for when a community wants to impose impact fees on new development.

As a taxpayer and a resident and a representative of Central El Paso, the question of how we grow and who pays for it has always been an important one for me. The developers argue that we need to keep the infrastructure obligations and expectations that we impose on development low. We are a poor town, they say. If we want folks to be able to afford a new home in Far East El Paso better not to ask too much from the developer or homebuilder.

The development community wants to focus the community's discussion on affordablity for the new homebuyer. This is an important considertation but it should not be the only consideration. How about affordability for existing homeowners? If we don't ask for new development to pay all of the costs of new development, who picks up the rest of the bill and how does it impact affordability for existing homeowners who pay taxes and utilities?

As we start this community conversation, I think it is important that we all start with the same basic facts. In early September, the Builders Association fowarded a letter in opposition to impact fees to all of their members, asking them to sign and send the letter to City Council. I'm assuming that these are the talking points that they will carry to the media and to meetings. It concerns me because it is full of so much misinformation and is coming from an industry that knows better.

The Builders Association says that an impact fee would be double-billing new homeowners. An impact fee would not be double-billing new homebuyers because it is paying for infrastructure that is currently not paid for by developers or builders. No item that is currently paid for by the developer would be imposed through the impact fee. By State law, cities can only impose impact fees to pay for water and wastewater infrastructure, roadway infrastructure and stormwater infrastructure. Staff is recommending that we not impose any fees related to roadway infrastructure because our current subdivision ordinance and annexation agreements allow us to adequately capture the costs related to building out arterials that serve these subdivisions. Staff is also recommending that we not impose any fees related to stormwater infrastructure because the stormwater master plan is currently not complete.

The only impact fee that staff is currently recommending is for the costs related to building out water and wastewater infrastructure. These costs are currently not paid for or built by the developer. In the Association's letter, they state that “when a homebuilder builds a new home, he/she must pay all costs to extend the water and sewer lines to the home. Therefore, all costs for water and sewer are already included in the lot price and the construction of the new home because the developer and the home builder have incurred the costs.” While it is true that developers do pay for water and sewer lines to the homes within the subdivision, they do not pay for water-wells, water treatment, water storage, water distribution pumping, wastewater collection, pumping, treatment and reuse distribution. Therefore, the costs for these items are not paid for by the new homeowners. They are paid for by existing homeowners through the water rates.

Our water rates increased last year by 10%. 35% of the water rate increase was due to new growth that was not paid for by new homeowners. While I think it is important to be conscious in our decision making about affordability for new home construction, I think we have to be as equally conscious about affordability for existing homeowners. Because some portions of growth do not pay for themselves, existing homeowners foot the bill and increasingly these costs are harder to bear, especially given the rising costs of other goods and services.

Additionally, the Association states that “developers pay (both directly and indirectly) for all capital improvements and facility expansions related to new development.” This is not correct. Under the old subdivision ordinance, developers pay for street, sidewalk and utility infrastructure, a portion of arterials that is attributable to their development, neighborhood lighting and parkland. They do not pay for or contribute to park equipment (approximately $75,000 an acre), arterial lighting, fire stations, police stations, recreation centers, library branches and other regional municipal facilities. Also, as mentioned above they do not pay much for the water and wastewater infrastructure. We did fix some of this in our new subdivision ordinance. For example, we now require that developers provide a basic amenity package (playground equipment and park benches) for neighborhood parks so that existing taxpayers don’t have to pay for that. Unfortunately, many developers have opted to vest under the old ordinance so that they don’t have to follow the new subdivision rules and pay for these items. While most of this, except for the water and wastewater infrastructure, would not be recouped through impact fees, it is important to note that not all capital improvements required by new growth are paid for by the new homeowner.

The question really that we have to answer as a community is how much of new growth should be paid for by existing taxpayers through their water bills and how much should be charged to new homeowners.

There are other considerations that should be tackled through this process. Currently, the Public Service Board is recommending a standard fee that is applicable throughout the city regardless of where you are building. For example, if you are building on an infill lot in older area of the city that already has existing infrastructure, you would pay the same as if you were building out at the edges of the city in an area that requires totally new infrastructure. I will ask City Council to consider setting different service areas and fees to account for varying costs of infrastructure and to encourage developers to build in parts of the city where it is less costly for us as a community to build out infrastructure.

My understanding is that State law also allows for some rebates of the fees if you are building affordable housing for low and moderate income families. I will ask City Council to consider this option as we go through the process.

The important thing is to begin the process and the discussion. It has been a long time in coming.

For more news about the debate on impact fees, check out Newspapertree.com.

An El Paso Story

I want to know that El Paso is moving in a different direction. I want to know that poverty is not our ultimate destination. I want to know that there is plenty of job opportunity and business opportunity. I want to know that we are digging ourselves out of years of low wages and zero confidence and even less expectation. So I mine the numbers and dig through data and keep my ears to the ground to see if I can spot a shift, a subtle seismic movement that shows a different trend emerging.

There's been some things worth shouting about lately: unemployment is low, three significant downtown buildings are under major reconstruction, a prominent Wall Street Journal article featured El Paso among the up and coming cities to be noticed, Beck decides to play at the Percolator and it makes it into Vanity Fair... Its all good.

But this one story made me think that times, they are a'changing:

A friend of mine took her tribe out to Orlando, Florida to brave three days of Disney World. One night, they took a break from Mickey Mouse and went out for a fancy dinner in the city. Their waiter was friendly, wanted to know where they were from.

"El Paso."

"El Paso? You know, I've been looking for a change of scene. I've been thinking about moving to El Paso."

"Why El Paso?" my friend asked.

"Seems like a cool city. I'm thinking about heading there or Dallas."

Who knows how he heard about us. But what he heard makes him think we are are a cool city. When folks in other cities have El Paso on their mind, I have to think that that is a very good sign.

Travel Green

So after Al Fresco a couple weeks ago, my mom and dad called me from a PediCab. A PediCab? In El Paso? They were very excited. My dad took a bunch of pictures and some video. They wanted me to make sure everyone knew about it.



The next week Charles Lauser, the owner of Green Leaf Pedicab, showed up at City Council to talk about their business venture and to ask Council to ammend our codes regarding Vehicles for Hire to include a provision to allow him and other pedicab services to be able to charge for their service. Green Leaf Pedicab is starting out in the Downtown area with tours and trips from here to there. My understanding is that other pedicab services are also applying to be able to provide this unique and fun service for El Pasoans and tourists to El Paso.

This week, we will be introducing an ordinance to allow for pedicabs to charge for their service. So if you are Downtown, look for them.

I need your help

I have been asked to dance in the upcoming Dancing with the Stars. The event will raise money for the Big Brother Big Sister program that hooks up at risk kids with community mentors. Big Brother Big Sister does great work in our community, but they need your help. So do I.

Here is the problem. I love to dance, and I love to win. Both of these attributes have caused me to shamelessly and continuously brag to my fellow competitors that I plan to win and I plan to win big.

There were some things that I failed to take into consideration prior to my loud mouth ways getting the best of me. I have a partner. His name is Al Velarde. He is the director of the Child Crisis Center. Alas, having a partner requires a woman to follow. It has been suggested by every dance partner I have ever encountered that perhaps I have not fully embraced my role as follower and that dancing with me is more like wrestling than dancing.

Al and I are dancing the cumbia. I grew up in Central El Paso and in Central the cumbia is pursued with wild abandon, much hip shaking, bent arms, elbows as much a part of the dance as the hips and lots of wide wild steps. Apparently, according to our dance instructor who is trying to prepare us for the event, this is not exactly the way it is supposed to happen at the event. Hers is a tamer version with short steps requiring that I actually follow and elbows and hips are no where to be found. At least not yet. It is taking me awhile to transform my being and my history in order to accommodate the dance. This is not to say that we won’t win. It is only to say that my bragging has far outpaced my actual abilities.

So here is where you come in. There is another way for us to win. You can either win by being the best dancer ever or you can win the old fashioned way by bringing in the most money. Al and I could win by selling the most tickets and raising the most money for Big Sisters Big Brothers. So you can buy a ticket to the event and come and holler loud when we dance making it that much more likely for us to win the dancing portion. Or you can donate to Big Sisters Big Brothers under our name. Either way, the kids served by Big Brothers Big Sisters win. And we win. This is, as we say way too many times at city hall, “a win win situation.”

Here’s how you can help:
Email me at susiebyrd@elp.rr.com if you want a ticket. Ticket prices are $50. The event is Saturday, October 25 at the Scottish Rite Theatre, 301 West Missouri in Downtown El Paso. Cocktails are at 6 P.M. Program starts at 7 P.M.
If you want to donate, go to our donation website and pledge all sorts of money to put us over the top.

Okay, thanks.

A Tus Brazos Otra Vez

To El Pasoans, mariachis are our everyday. They are backyard birthday parties with the brinca-brinca. They are 40-year anniversary parties in big halls with old people dancing close while little kids in their starchy best glide along underfoot and teenagers in clothes too tight and too short smirk from the edges. They are Music Under the Stars with all of El Paso packed in next to friends and family. They are Saturday at the Tap with a plate of chiles relleños and a Tecate Michelada while a moon-eyed mariachi dressed in a powder blue polyester suit dudded up with a whole lot of razzamatazz belts out Volver as if you are the only woman he has ever, or will ever, love.

In El Paso, mariachis are there for our most special days, and they are there to make our most everyday special.

So if you want to tell the rest of the world about what makes El Paso the place to be, better be sure to send some mariachis.

Which is what we did.

And we sent our very best—Mariachis los Arrieros.

At the Smithsonian’s invitation, the City’s Museum and Cultural Affairs Department sent Los Arrieros to the 42nd annual Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington, D.C. The festival is an annual event held on the National Mall. Every year, it features the culture, music and food of a particular part of the world. This year, it featured Texas, NASA and Bhutan.

El Paso was front and center at the festival. UTEP's close ties to Bhutanese architecture and culture were highlighted with a Bhutanese temple and traditional dance, music and song and heralded by our own President Diana Natalicio. Avila's Restaurant was dishing out Mexican food, reminding the rest of the world just what they were missing out on when they brave a taco in Georgia or an enchilada in Minnesota.

And then there were the mariachis.

One of the best parts about this Mayor Pro Tem business is that if the Mayor can't make it out, I have to go to DC to introduce Mariachis Los Arrieros to the rest of the world.

Which is what I did.

On a sticky hot evening in July, I stood before a mob of people from all around the world gathered under a big tent on the National Mall to tell them that I had no doubt that they were about to fall in love with El Paso.

Which is what they did.

They had no choice.

Mariachis Los Arrieros took the stage with a brash, full mariachi sound that left us breathless. Los Arrieros is a 15-member band of young men in their late 20s and early 30s. Juan Contreras, the musical director and one of the lead singers, mentioned to me that initially the Smithsonian folks only wanted him to bring out a handful of the group to save on costs. He wasn’t having any of that. It was all or nothing. Their sound is big, and it needs all 15 guys to be able to deliver.

Most of the group comes out of Del Valle, Hanks, Ysleta and Bowie High School. Some of them came out of formal high school mariachi programs. Others were trained classically in orchestra or band and took to the mariachi sound later at UTEP. They came together in 1996 through the mariachi circuit of regional competitions and performances. Of the 15, ten of them are educators in area high schools, teaching the next generation of mariachi performers. They are evangelical about the tradition of mariachi music. Every one of them that I talked to hammered home that their work as a group is more about passing on the tradition and love of the mariachi sound than it is about making money and being rock stars.

Even so, in the world of mariachis, Los Arrieros are rock stars. They have performed for thousands of people in Mexico and the United States. They are one of the top ten mariachi bands in the world. In 1997, they won the Best Mariachi in Texas competition in front of a crowd of 80,000 people in the Houston Astro Dome. In 2004, Los Arrieros became the premier mariachi group for the Chandler Mariachi Conference and will remain as the host mariachi group in the coming years. They have performed with extraordinary artists and groups including; Vicente Fernandez, Pepe Aguilar, Lucero, La Banda Recodo, Guadalupe Esparza, El Groupo Bronco, Marco Antonio Solis, El Buki, and Graciela Beltran.

They perform the songs that we all know and crave and ask for every chance we get: Volver, Cielito Lindo, Guadalajara, the boleros, the rancheras. You name it, they got it. They will play a bolero like Amor Eterno and whether you understand the words or not, you are crushed by the familiar emotion of a yearning heart. But from the very start, Los Arrieros wanted to set themselves apart. This is where Juan Contreras comes in. As the musical director, he started digging up the past, listening to old records, finding songs that weren’t part of the everyday repertoire of the mariachi. He found inspiration from old timers such as Juan Luis Guerra with his song Ojalá que llueve café. It is more of a salsa song so he remade it in their own sound, adopting it to their instruments and rhythms and style. He has taken jazz standards such as Moon Dance and Ojos Españolas, re-shaping the rhythms and the tempos, mariachi-style. And Juan has also written his own songs, such as Llegaron los Arrieros, evolving a tradition so that it continues to have a place in the heart of our culture.

In DC, Los Arrieros played twelve performances. Thousands of people from all over the world heard their music and heard them talk about their home in El Paso. Every time, the crowd went crazy nuts for Los Arrieros. They couldn’t get enough. They loved Mariachis los Arrieros and because they loved Mariachi los Arrieros, they loved El Paso.

The Smithsonian had recruited official male dancers whose job it was to be the shills. They would eye a woman dancing about in her seat and invite her out for a dance with the hopes that a throng would follow. This was a new approach to me since paseños are never shy about taking to the dance floor and don't need involved schemes to get the party started. The dance volunteers did not have to do much convincing with Mariachis los Arrieros on stage. Even with the bruising heat, people pushed themselves to the dance floor.

For several hours, Mariachis los Arrieros crooned love songs. They belted out boleros and rancheras, trading out singers, one a deep soulful base, another pitching a high note, holding it, holding it, holding it, until the crowd had to take a breath. They stomped the zapateado Veracruzana out on the dance floor, moving in and out of the audience, still playing their instruments. They played Niño Perdido, one trumpet player the mom calling for her lost child, the other trumpet player the child hiding in the crowd, losing his mom. We all left exhausted, satisfied.

After the show, several El Paso ex-patriots came to me. They would hug me and kiss me and thank me. They looked home-sick and sad. They had forgotten what they were missing out on. Mariachi los Arrieros reminded them, and they missed their home.

This event and watching the world respond to Mariachi los Arrieros reminded me that as a city our most valuable assets are our art, our culture, our traditions and those, like Mariachi los Arrieros, who are willing to share what is special about us with the rest of the world.

El Paso Gets Ready to Move on Mass Transit

We are a city that is continuing to grow in all aspects. As we prepare to deal with expanding residential and commercial developments and as we are in the midst of revitalizing our city's core, we must also look at how to quickly move people to where they need to be.

On Monday Aug. 18 at 1:00 p.m. in City Council Chambers on the second floor of City Hall, the city council will hear the Mass Transit Strategic Plan, a plan that will open up the possibility for rapid transit programs that would serve all reaches of the Sun City.

This is a very important presentation, so I urge all of you to attend if you can. Whether you are a constituent of District 2, a daily long-distance commuter or simply want to hear how we are planning our community's future, please join us and give us some of your valuable insights.

Two Great Meetings

This Saturday, there are two events that will surely be interesting for my fellow District 2 residents.

First, I will host my bi-weekly community meetings at the Memorial Park Library at 3200 Copper. My guest this week is Mr. Michael Hill, the director of the City of El Paso Health Department. Mr. Hill will be present to discuss his role as leader of the new department and what that department offers to El Paso residents. Stop in, pick up a cup of coffee from Le Squirrel Café and join us for a great discussion on the important city entity charged with your health and wellness.

Next, join me and residents from across the Sun City for the second annual Neighborhood Summit to be held at the Ysleta Independent School District Administration and Cultural Arts Center, 9600 Sims

If you are a member of a neighborhood association, this is the perfect opportunity to meet peers from other neighborhoods and see what projects they’ve undertaken to make their streets and neighborhoods better places to live. If you are not a neighborhood association member, you are more than welcome to attend the event and learn what resources are available to you for anything from graffiti removal, street paving and neighborhood revitalization programs.

So, that is what’s happening in El Paso this weekend. I hope to see you at both of these events so that we can find ways to make El Paso the brightest place to live in the Southwest.

Paper or Canvas, Just not Plastic.

Over the past months, there have been several discussions among residents, elected officials and City Hall staff on the best way to bring forward a policy that would limit and eventually eliminate usage of plastic shopping bags.

As our desert landscape is one of our most precious natural resources, it is sometimes marred by plastic bags blown into trees, cacti and shrubs whenever seasonal winds blow into town. Since the bags are not biodegradable, they remain as unsightly ornaments until they are removed by stronger winds or by the hands of volunteers looking to clean up the mess.

In a few other cities in the U.S., local governments have sought to curb the standard issuance of plastic shopping bags at convenient stores, grocery shops and other retail outlets. Some plans call for the complete elimination of plastic bags at these stores while other municipalities have sought to discourage their use by offering economical yet environmentally friendly options, such as recyclable paper bags or low-cost canvas bags.

El Paso City Council is continuing to study the issue and will again reconsider the item in the coming months.

There are ways to both make shopping convenient for consumers and still help to keep serene beauty of the El Paso desert environment, and with as much input as possible from Sun City residents and consumers just like you, our city’s government will be able to make the best possible decision.

Environmental Services welcomes the public’s input and ideas on a plastic bag ban. They will be incorporated into proposals that Environmental Services will present to City Council early next year.

The meetings are all scheduled for 6 p.m. The meeting dates and locations are:

• Aug. 18: Polly Harris Senior Center, 650 Wallenberg Drive.

• Aug. 19: Memorial Park Senior Center, 1800 Byron Street.

• Aug. 25: Richard Burges Library, 9600 Dyer Street.

• Aug. 26: South El Paso Senior Center, 600 S. Ochoa Street.

• Aug. 27: Judge Edward S. Marquez Mission Valley Library, 610 N. Yarbrough Drive.

• Sept. 2: Carolina Recreation Center, 563 N. Carolina Drive.

• Sept. 3: Father Martinez Senior Center, 9311 Alameda Avenue.

• Sept. 9: Pebble Hills Regional Command Center, 10780 Pebble Hills Boulevard.

For more information the public may call (915) 621-6754.

Get on the bus. Ride your bike. Walk, already.

(Some notes written in response to Sito Negron’s Newspapertree article, The Billion-Dollar Status Quo.)

A couple of years ago, the Mayor and City Council mapped out our strategic goals for the community. One of the five strategic goals is to make El Paso one of the least car dependent cities in the Southwest. For El Paso that is no mean feat. We’re the Ford 150 capital of the world. We love big gas guzzling man trucks. This City Council inherited a broken down bus system that was built and funded to accommodate only those who have no other choice but to get on the bus. All of our land use regulation, infrastructure requirements and public financing favored neighborhood development that practically imposes two-car ownership on every family if they think it is necessary to get to work or go grocery shopping or if they want to hang out at a public park. At the city and regional planning level, most of the thinking and planning and understanding and staffing and political will was about moving 1.1 persons per car on miles and miles of asphalt.

Run away gas prices, the uncertainty about gasoline always being an affordable and accessible commodity, a shallow tax base that demands that we have to get a lot more out of very few dollars, many families who cannot afford car transportation, poor air quality and the awful degradation that car dependence has imposed on the way that we build our city are some of the many reasons that we need to build for other alternative modes of transportation besides just the car.

In his article, Sito Negron asks City Council the billion dollar question. If our strategic goal is to make El Paso less car dependent, how come transit only got 2.5% of a billion dollars in the Comprehensive Mobility Plan approved two weeks ago by City Council and by the Metropolitan Planning Organization? Big giant goal. Seems like approving only $27 million of a billion dollar budget for transit is a status quo response to the big giant goal. Transit got scraps. Asphalt and concrete and the Ford 150 got the mother lode.

Sito assigns this to politics as usual. Big fat cats sitting behind closed doors scheming the future of El Paso. Fact is our transportation priorities weren’t decided last week by the City Council or the Metropolitan Planning Organization. They’ve been years in the making. Southern relief route. The completion of the loop. The Spur. These projects weren’t hatched yesterday, and since they weren’t hatched yesterday no one is going to give them up without a fight. Communities small and large have held endless public meeting and have been jockeying to get their projects in the near term funding plan for ages.

The last go round, El Paso didn’t have any projects lined up at the trough so TXDOT gave our money to communities that were ready to go. Texas Department of Transportation (TXDOT) Commissioner Ted Houghton was determined that this wouldn’t happen again and so hurried TXDOT staff to shake loose some projects so he could shake loose some money for El Paso. It seems to me like the list of transportation projects was fashioned from a realistic view of the politics of regional decision making and what projects were ready to go in a hurry. The unanimous vote at City Council and the unanimous vote at the Metropolitan Planning Organization coming on the heels of an rancorous year-long debate about whether transportation funding should include tolls and regional mobility authorities seem to affirm the rationale behind the projects that were selected.

With the Mayor at the lead, we’ve been pushing the idea of Rapid Transit for about two years now. Some folks think that Rapid Transit is just a prettier bus and there isn’t much chance of inducing more transit ridership with just a prettier bus. The thinking is that those folks that can afford single car occupancy just won’t take the bait. They aren’t switching over until light rail hits the ground. Depending on how you build it out though, Rapid Transit can be much more like light rail, only with wheels. Here’s where I think we need to go with it: dedicated transit lanes, pre-emption of traffic lights, loading bays that allow transit riders to board at grade, a pre-payment system that cuts out the hassles and the time of pitching nickels into a fare box, a high frequency system that doesn’t keep people waiting long and yes, a system designed and marketed as a different kind of transit. Every detail of the system (the way you pay, the way you get on and off, the way that it moves through the road system,) is about building speed and reliability that competes with your commute to work in a car all by yourself.

While Rapid Transit didn’t get much in the scheme of a billion dollars, it got much more than people understand that it got. Rapid Transit has been conceived as five fingers emanating from the connection between Juarez and Downtown El Paso. Mesa, Dyer, Montana, Alameda and North Loop would be the best candidates for moving lots of people where they want to go on rapid transit. Problem is they are all state roads. If we want to use them, if we want rapid transit to have dedicated lanes on these roads, TXDOT has to be on board. TXDOT, like transportation agencies throughout the nation, is making a slow, strained, tense transition from “all asphalt, all the time” to looking at other alternatives for moving people. Two months ago, we were asking them to commit to dedicating transit lanes on these key transit corridors. TXDOT made it clear that we were going to have to do a lot of work to convince them that people would transition from sitting in a car all by themselves to getting on rapid transit. Rapid transit has the capacity to carry many more people than road lanes. A typical freeway lane can carry about 2,300 cars per hour. Typical auto occupancy is 1.1 persons per car. So a freeway lane can move about 2,520 people in an hour. Rapid transit systems that have been built out with designated lanes have shown capacity performance between 7,300 to as many as 19,500 passengers per hour. Even so, transportation agencies like TXDOT aren’t willing to bank on the fact that people actually will transition from car usage to transit usage. The catch being that the only way to really make rapid transit competitive with the car is if you get the lanes dedicated.

So in committing $27 million to Rapid Transit along Mesa and Montana, TXDOT is committing two lanes to transit. That’s miles and miles of roadway that we would have had to acquire and build out if we didn’t get TXDOT on board. Their willingness to work with us on transforming these roadways for transit use is invaluable and historic.

In the history of the agency, TXDOT has never committed their funding to transit in El Paso. It’s mostly been about asphalt and concrete and traffic signalization. The way I see it is “One small step for rapid transit, one giant step for building a city that is less car dependent.”

The other significant change in TXDOT’s and the City's thinking about moving people is that they are beginning to understand that roads shouldn’t just be about moving people in cars occupied by 1.1 persons. All new road projects have to be designed to better accommodate all forms of transportation including transit, bicyclists and pedestrians.

I am committed as ever to our goal of getting El Paso become less car dependent, but I’m telling you right now it is a long and perilous road with not as many allies as one would like. On Monday night, I sat through a 2 ½ hour meeting about bike lanes on Hondo Pass. Except for a few strong individuals who spoke out at their peril, the proposal for bike lanes on Hondo Pass was met with screaming hostility. One of the proposed designs for the roadway did not take out any existing car lanes, added protected parking lanes, slowed down traffic AND added two bike lanes. No matter, it was viewed as an all out assault on the average Joe who was just trying to get by in the world. How dare we suggest that bike riders have as much right to the road as someone in a car?

So in the end, I didn’t ask for more dollars for transit. My assessment was and still is that it was better to move quickly with what transit got and prove up to the public and the policy makers and the funding agencies that if you build it right, people will begin to make fundamental changes in the way that they get from here to there.