Who's To Blame for Trash Collection Site Next to Keystone?

These water fowl do not know that the City of El Paso has only put the trash collection site next to their habitat on hold . . . for now.

Although officials from Tommy Gonzalez down say that the nasty, dirty, ugly trash collection site next to Keystone (open space, wildlife preserve, archaeological site and botanical gardens) Park is on hold, they always add "for now" or "in the near future" or "for the time being". Rep. Niland claims that nobody in her district (District 1) has complained about the station. Of course, she only listens to a few Country Club Facebook friends as she did with our Christmas Tree in the San Jacinto Park when she wanted to take it down or destroy it by pruning it in a more triangular shape. Ask the people of the Upper Valley Neighborhood Association. Ask the parishioners of St. Jude's what they think about the collection station next to them. They are outraged. It's not just a bunch of tree huggers, animal lovers, heritage hippies who are angry.

Now we learn that the District 8 Rep along with the District 1 Rep want to put the blame on Ellen Smyth, the Director of Environmental Services. The truth is that Ms. Smyth was doing her job - the Reps of District 8 and District 1 were ignoring the situation for four years! Joyce Wilson, the perfecter of closed door deals, took money from the Environmental Services as part of the land swap that procured the City of El Paso the land next to Keystone. Naturally, Ms. Smyth saw this as land for her department's use. Now that there is a big brouhaha, Ms. Niland and Ms. Lily are calling for Smyth's head rather than acknowledging their responsibility. It is akin to a drunk driver who is oblivious to what's happening on the road and, thus, causing an accident and then blaming it on the sober driver. 

The Open Space Advisory Board will discuss and take action on the whole issue of a collection station next to Keystone at their next meeting, April 1st at 3 PM at City Hall #3, 801 N. Texas (red brick building at the corner of Texas and Virginia) in the Thorman Conference Room (downstairs). MAP

There is an online petition as well as a petition circulating through the Upper Valley Neighborhood Association and St. Jude's. 

Such a site does not belong next to an open space with a wetlands and animal habitat, an archaeological site, a neighborhood and a church. How would people feel if it was put next to St. Matthew's or St. Mark's in the Upper Valley or St. Clement's downtown. Hmmm?

Council Ready to Jetison Smart Code in Northwest Master Plan?

Click image to enlarge.

City Council may have taken the first steps toward re-zoning the NW Master Plan by going from smart code to conventional code. It is just one more way in which the El Paso sprawlers are on a land grab and arroyos and natural open spaces be damned.

Last week I announced a contest to identify a place in a picture. The prize: a $20 gift certificate to Amigos, 2000 Montana Avenue. (If there is better Mexican/Tex-Mex food in El Paso, I haven't found it.) The scenery in the picture no longer exists. That is why I asked for a place. The picture above is what you see today. It is on the west side of Mesa just past the new light at Montecillo and across the street from Montecillo. So much for El Paso protecting arroyos. One wonders how safe the deal with the City is regarding the NW Master Plan.

When our petition certified, a deal was struck with the City to redo the NW Master Plan as smart growth development. Land was transferred to the Franklin Mountains State Park. Arroyos will not only be preserved but roadways across them must be bridged. 

Yesterday City Council voted unanimously to reassess whether land in the NW Master Plan, NE Master Plan and Painted Dunes can be sold off in increments of less than 100 acres (I guess never mind a Memorandum of Understanding with the PSB); and whether or not to reconsider smart code. (Emma Acosta and Carl Robinson spearheaded the affront on smart code.) After the Council meeting, City Manager Joyce Wilson offered assurances that "Council did not take any action to undo the updated master plan for NW area, and that we were clear that it was a settlement that should not be tampered with." In an email to me she went on to say that "the focus is really the NE master plan and the two [NW and NE] are just getting comingled.  I have made it clear that your group bargained in good faith and expects the agreement to be honored."

However, in spite of her assurances, one must realize that Wilson's time with the City is about up and that she doesn't vote on zoning. Council didn't take any action on the NW plan but that doesn't mean that they won't. Moreover, this Council has already demonstrated that it favors sprawlers when it comes to discussions about growth, smart code, Plan El Paso, impact fees and land sales. The Mayor's office has kept all members of the conservation community out of discussions on land sales, impact fees and even considerations about the new City Manager. One can expect a City Manager who will be in line with those who want to sell and develop all the land that they can, believing that will be best for taxpayers in spite of the realization that our property taxes keep going up and up and up. Their building feeds their pockets, not ours.

I can tell you that my phone has not stopped ringing off the wall since Council voted yesterday. It's not just that yesterday was alarming (and it could be just by itself). It's a whole string of things.

The 2013 Petition (posted on another page) never really caught fire. Most of the signatures are over 180 days old and, so, invalid. Now there is a huge ground swell to do a new petition. People unexcited about the 2013 petition are suddenly excited. The energy is there. 

What Council, the Mayor, the sprawlers, the Chamber must understand is this. We don't want to preserve land just because it's pretty. The biggest issue is water and a sustainable future for El Paso. Is there a discussion going on at City Hall about water? Hell no and, in fact, the build-it-one-way-only-ers pretty much killed the EPWU smart home idea. The other issue is healthy living. Allergies, asthma, respiratory illnesses have gone up because of development. Moreover, El Paso also suffers from an epidemic of diabetes and obesity. Studies throughout the country for many years now show that you can't grow your way to prosperity. All we are really doing is taking away the future for our grandchildren and their grandchildren. We are heading toward extinction.

So, with a vote to reconsider smart code in spite of assurances from a lame duck Manager, those who care about the future of water and the health of each and every El Pasoan are rightly alarmed and have begun to meet and mobilize.

Finally, a number of you had good guesses about the place for the picture in the contest. Only Judy Ackerman got it right. She emailed: "[It] is the place where the new theater is going in, across Mesa from the Montecillo.  That’s how it used to look.  Now it looks like sh--!"

Memo to Judy: I love Amigos. Remember your friends.

  

The Fix Is In

I'm tired of this endless saga of bike share and TxDOT. Today's Transportation Policy Board of the MPO convinced me beyond a shadow of a doubt that the fix is in and has been in for some time. Here's how it is going to go down and why.

In answering a question from Courtney Niland, TxDOT's Bob Bielek once again repeated in many more words than necessary the bottom line: TxDOT sees no benefit cost to spending CMAQ money for a bike share program. Mayor Leeser then stated it best: "In other words, the answer is 'no'." It doesn't take a B.S. (and I don't necessarily mean an undergraduate Bachelor of Science degree) to figure this one out.

The motion from Joyce Wilson basically stated that we will wait one more month to be told the same thing again so that we can use the money for the Border Patrol bridge project. Bielek made clear that CMAQ money could not go for personnel but for structure. You watch and see how the money taken and spent on personnel will be justified as structure in some way. Wilson and others repeated two new themes (new to the public not to themselves). The first was that, if we can't do this big bike share program, we will do a smaller program and then fund it more as more money comes available (or not).  The other theme: let's all make sure that this current fussing over money doesn't damage our relationship with a great agency - viz., TxDOT. They're worried about ruffled feathers!? I don't think so. They (the City Manager's office) wants to make sure that this appearance of a disagreement is sustained but that anyone who really, truly believed it will now be ready to make nice and move on.

The mantra from city of El Paso officials was this: Just tell us if TxDOT will release those funds or not. How many times and how many ways can Bielek say publicly that the will of the people of El Paso and their elected representatives means nothing to the most powerful agency in the State of Texas especially when they are most probably in cahoots with the top people in El Paso city government (who were probably driving this from the beginning) and there is a stupid belief that throwing away the CMAQ money will really help improve bridge times - until the money runs out and there is new federal bloat to pay for in perpetuity never mind that the the better answer is to re-prioritize the personnel that the Border Patrol already has.

Here's how the deal went and how it will go down. I already related to you an August 12th email gathered from an open records request in which Bielek says: "Why are we complicating this? The discussion prior to the MPO meeting with the Mayor [Leeser of El Paso], Representative Pickett and Mike Medina (Director of EPMPO) was based on deprogramming the bike share program so that those funds could be used in the pilot program to decrease congestion at the bridges. The city would look for funds elsewhere."

Elpasonaturally has learned that Wilson was already looking for money for the bridge project and  was hoping for some money from the MPO for her "smaller program" (throw the bike riders a spoonful of refried beans). All of this back and forth has gone on first because we do have representatives like Senator Rodriguez and Naomi Gonzalez and Joe Moody who have principles; and, second, process window dressing to convince us that everything that could be done was done: We talked to everyone. TxDOT won't release the funds. We've got to get along. Let's put the money for the bridge and give a token nod to bike share. 

Somebody please tell me why the City is fixing a federal government problem and, for that matter, not even fixing it - or, what they propose won't really fix it. 

I hope that those who see a future better than Big Oil, automobiles, consumer economies will really start pointing out that those currently in power are playing games and doing it behind closed doors - all of the public process is just for show. I also hope that our representatives will continue to stand up against this current city sham. After all, it really would just be easy to release the CMAQ funds intended for a bike share program in El Paso to go to a bike share program in El Paso. This would be a lot easier than months of putting on a show.

Joyce Wilson to Stay with El Paso!

My first post back after a long campaign is a good one: Mayor-elect Leeser has announced that City Manager, Joyce Wilson, will stay until she retires in September 2014.  Here's the press release:

Mayor-Elect announces City Manager to stay with the City, declines Florida job offer

  

El Paso, Texas – Earlier today City Manager Wilson advised City officials that she contacted the Lee County Chairman earlier this morning to let him know that she was ceasing negotiations and declining the job offer.  

Over the past two days as Mayor elect, I have met with Ms. Wilson for several hours and have asked her to stay on board to assist with the transition of the new council. I felt it was only appropriate to have the City Manager see the City’s critical projects through to a successful conclusion.

I want the public to know that I am staying true to my word that I was not going to rush through things; which is why I feel it is best for City Manager to stay through the end of her contract.

Ms. Wilson has committed to work collaboratively to allow for a smooth transition for her replacement.   Her decision to stay will allow the incoming Council and I to do a proper national and local search for our next City Manager.

Oscar Leeser

Mayor-Elect

City of El Paso

Modify the New Landscape Ordinance?

Here’s the issue that is now bubbling up: some developers are asking City Council to amend the recent Landscape Ordinance arguing that the new ordinance will mean huge usages of water and, thus, undermine El Paso’s great conservation efforts. Mr. Richard Williams of Jerry Rubin’s River Oaks Properties has taken the lead on attacking the new ordinance. That new ordinance goes into effect on October 3. The Boards that reviewed the ordinance before (Open Space and Parks and Recreation Advisory Boards) are rushing to review the modifications and make recommendations to Council before September 27^th. It would be best if there could be a 30 day review period.

No doubt, water conservation is key. However, more of the right kind of trees and the right kind of landscaping will reduce water usage, harvest rainwater, and minimize stormwater run-off and damage. When the PSB was first implementing conservation measures long ago, they recognized the fact that trees are critical to reduce urban islands of heat which require massive amounts of heat in a City that uses evaporative coolers – the most affordable cooling by a large segment of the El Paso population. In fact, EPWU’s Desert Plants List is one of the best resources for homeowners, builders and landscapers in El Paso. (Here in another month is a good time to plant and that list is very, very valuable.)

David Kania, the City’s Landscape Plan’s Examiner, reviewed Mr. Williams’ numbers and reported:

“River Oaks is miscalculating what an emitter is to what a drip hose is. Each emitter, whether it is a 2 gallon or 1 gallon per hour has only 6 outlets. So for every three shrubs you are using one emitter and for every tree you are using one and a half to one and three quarters of an emitter. I believe the way they calculated it was based on two full emitters per shrub and eight emitters per tree. In that case you would get four maybe even five hundred percent more.”

Williams has been described as being “very smart” and a “good developer”. But, says a keen observer, he “ just doesn’t ‘get it’, and will absolutely not try anything new. Ever.” You may recall his op-ed piece for the El Paso Times earlier this year in which he attributed high crime rates to Smart Growth/Smart Code. Huh? City Manager, Joyce Wilson, wrote a rebuttal.

Perhaps Mr. Williams has made some wrong assumptions: “we can’t use very low water plants, like natives”, and “We can’t afford to swale for water collection”, and “We can’t collect enough rainwater for cistern collection”, and “We can’t afford to incorporate organic matter into the soil prior to planting”. All of these are strategies that make smarter landscaping possible in a City keen on water conservation.

Still, it is worth seeing if there is some water “going down the drain” although it won’t be as much as Williams has calculated. Perhaps a good trade-off would be requiring a bit less landscaping in exchange for more landscaping whenever there is a request to upgrade an existing structure.

"If you want trees, I have trees."

City Manager, Joyce Wilson, was the featured speaker this morning at Mayor Pro-Tem Susie Byrd's monthly Thursday public meeting now at Tierra del Sol Restaurant on Alabama Street. Ms. Wilson principally addressed economic concerns and the City budget along with some comments on the PSB and stormwater management.

When she took questions from the audience, I asked her what the City was doing now to be more "green" and energy efficient in spite of the current economic challenges. What amazed me was how quickly she listed many of the efforts of the City currently to be more green - to be more energy efficient. Her alacrity told me that this is an issue near and dear to her heart.

Here is the Litany:

The City has a contract with Johnson Controls to modernize controls at City facilities. There will be solar panels at the pools and LED signalization for traffic control. Everything that they are doing will pay for itself in five years.

All future City facilities must meet LEED Green Building Standards.
Landscaping projects are being done with water smart plants and with the goal of "cooling" more areas of the City.

More City vehicles will be converted so that they can use liquid natural gas. The City is also buying hybrid cars for their carpool.

The City is offering green incentives for businesses.

Finally as a board member of the West Texas Urban Forestry Council and a former member of the Tree Board, I asked how she plans to increase the native tree canopy. She responded by saying the City has a Tree Farm. "If you want trees," Joyce said, "I have trees."

Sounds like a good start.