RIP New Urbanism in El Paso

There are several reasons. First, in 2013 voters, upset by the city's financing of the ballpark and other issues, elected a regressive City Council. In many respects it is the best Council ever bought and paid for by developers of land mainly in east El Paso. Following that election, the new Council hired Tommy Gonzalez to be the City Manager. Pushed by powerful players such as Ted Houghton, more miles of freeways and freeway loops have been built and will continue to be built and expanded over the next few years as westsiders know all too well. Freeways create sprawl. Rather than boulevards, we built freeways. Why? So we could move construction equipment and materials more easily around the city in order to build more developments and eventually more freeways not to mention ticky-tacky strip malls. The trend has been away from smart growth, Plan El Paso, building codes which could have encouraged sustainable, energy-efficient housing and soon-to-be changes to the landscape ordinance.

Note how Plan El Paso appears on the city web site. Scroll through the first few pages and you will see unreadable gibberish. 

Along with clamping down against New Urbanism, the new "regime" has now opened the doors to a new El Paso brain drain. Many of the city's best and brightest city planners are beginning to look at work outside of El Paso. 

The new regime has also stymied work by the Open Space Advisory Board. Recommendations are held up. The new Director of Planning has covertly taken over what will and won't be on agendas. Agenda items today are largely for "information" rather than discussion and action.

What can be done? It goes without saying that we need more innovative, progressive policy makers on Council. It also means that we all need to become aware of city codes and work to change those that lead to unsustainablility and the destruction of our environment. Especially it means that as consumers we begin to choose other options for housing, neighborhoods, connectivity, walkability and transportaion. If they build it, they will come? No, if the sprawlers want to sprawl, let's have nothing to do with it except to do everything that we can to limit it and regulate it. Then let's build better and smarter.

If they can't handle a tree, how can they handle a lake?

If they can't handle a tree, how can you expect the City of El Paso to handle a lake - Cement Lake in fact? That was the rhetorical question that a friend posed to me earlier today. His point is well taken seeing the city's negligence with the beloved Holiday Christmas Tree in San Jacinto Plaza.

When TxDOT purchased the land on which Cement Lake lies, there was still the possibility of the City taking possession and preserving it as a wildlife area. TxDOT Engineer, Bob Bielek, told Dr. Rick Bonart that, if the City wanted to discuss the lake, just send him a letter saying so. The letter could have come from anyone - the Mayor, a City Council Rep, Tommy Gonzalez, anyone. Dr. Bonart even went before Council and informed them about Bielek's offer. The City's response? The perfect vacuum - something that no one thought existed in nature. Thus, the inspiration to lease it to the Boy Scouts.

The lease agreement between the Boy Scouts and TxDOT is now I understand a done deal. I have two friends who have persisted in their defense of the Scouts and their ability to preserve the land. I have my doubts and I certainly would never get any pleasure out of saying "I told you so". We will just have to see and I hope that I have to eat my words.

I don't trust the people behind the deal. On the other hand, I do admire their committment to Scouts and the fact that some of them were Eagle Scouts especially Ted Houghton who has three sons all of whom are Eagle Scouts. That's something to be very proud of.

Time will tell. I still hope that the Scouts (and TxDOT) will, at the least, make a good faith effort to use local wildlife and ecology experts when developing a conservation plan for their Cement Lake camp. At the most, they could enter into a conservation easement agreement with a third party ensuring that the land is preserved and well managed rather than merely mining and exploiting the land's resources.

Are Sprawlers Behind TxDOT-Boy Scout Deal on Cement Lake?

The Boy Scouts are green all right - green as cash. In spite of their unquestioned reputation as conservationists, they really manage land for its resources. Their record as deforesting clearcutters (its a resource that pays big bucks) is abominable. 

In a previous post I mentioned instances of environmental destruction by boy scouts. Sadly there is much more to this beast. Read about their environmental hypocrisy. When BSA clearcut land that provided habitat "for a host of protected species, including salmon, timber wolves, bald eagles and spotted owls . . .", they defended their reprehensible deed. And, although the BSA has backed down on other clearcutting projects, Planetsave documents more cases where they haven't. They leave no trace all right - no trace of natural land.

On the other hand, one could argue that such acts of deforestation and habitat destruction happened years ago and faraway. But what about the local Yucca Council of the Boy Scouts of America. Here though we encounter the footprints of El Paso sprawlers.

In spite of a successful camp in Cloudcroft, Camp Dale Resler, the Yucca Council Scouts have looked for other campsites most recently near Kingston, New Mexico. When scout leader, Bill Hagan sought to obtain land, he ran into stiff opposition from locals who did not want their land disturbed. You can read about this affair HERE. What should pop out about this story is Bill Hagan's involvement. Let's connect the dots. 

Mr. Hagan is the Vice-Chairman of the Rocky Mountain Mortgage Company of which Harold Hahn is the Chairman and CEO. Harold Hahn's buddy is none other than Ted "TxDOT" Houghton. Rocky Mountain is associated with sprawler Doug Schwartz. (BTW, you can see Rocky Mountain loan officer Adam Hagan's Boy Scout affiliation on the company web site.)

It's obvious how the deal between the Boy Scouts and TxDOT went down. Does anyone seriously believe that this group will preserve Cement Lake? Shall we let the fox guard the henhouse. Please!

No matter what, the deal is just wrong. The land around and including Cement Lake should be an El Paso Commons - a wilderness and a wildlife preserve for all El Pasoans to enjoy and not just an exclusivist, homophobic organization. Of course the argument is made that it is TxDOT land and they can do with it whatever they like. But I say that any land owned and managed by TxDOT belongs in trust to the people of Texas - us. Any decision about that land should involve us. In this case it was a deal done behind the closed doors of an elite oligarchy: Houghton, Hahn and Hagan - and let's not forget Schwartz.

No matter how above reproach and question the Boy Scouts are held, any lease agreement involving Cement Lake between them and TxDOT should be opposed. This El Paso Commons should be preserved.

Sign the petition to save Lincoln Center and its murals from being destroyed.

About twenty or more people attended the Metropolitan Planning Organization this morning to speak out against the destruction of Lincoln Center and a number of murals painted on pillars of an overpass. 

Although Judge Veronica Escobar explained that the MPO really doesn't own and therefore has no final authority over Lincoln Center (I am told that she does not favor saving this historic building whose heritage is cherished by Hispanic families, ancestors of the Ascarates, Rosa Guerrero and many more), Rep. Pickett, Senator Rodriguez and others pointed out that the MPO has control of the funding of projects. Somewhere along the line they could defund a project that requires destroying the Center. The fear is that, once the MPO, votes to include the HWY 54 project in a Transportation Program, TxDOT really has all control. Indeed the MPO voted to include HWY 54 into a TIP. 

Although MPO has agreed to a process (which some say doesn't predetermine an outcome), there has already been a de facto determination. Ted TxDOT Houghton has already stated publicly that Lincoln Center will be destroyed. TxDOT Regional Engineer, Bob Bielek, in emails to Sen. Rodriguez and Joyce Wilson has said that the building will be destroyed. Moreover, even if there are a number of alternatives now, Bielek speaks of them as Platonic abstractions not ready for the scrutiny of the public. We know this routine all too well. When the final process is trotted out, it will be done at a public meeting so that there is the window dressing of public input. However, the decision-making going into determining which alternative will be used to connect the Border Highway with I-10 will be done behind closed doors. Never mind, heritage. Never mind the will of the people who want an alternative that preserves Lincoln Center. (Bielek said today that the pillars would be left standing thus preserving the murals.)

The MPO may not have final say. But the MPO is the only place where people can go and, in a civil manner, voice objection to Houghton's and TxDOT's desire to destroy Lincoln Center. Sadly, TxDOT does own the Center. However, TxDOT is an agency of the people of Texas and WE are the people. That is why we look to our Congressman, our State Senator and Representatives and our City Council to voice our opinion - and all have agreed on the rightness of saving the Center. We also look to the MPO. Through these elected people and institutions we have a civil manner to press our case. However, given the royalism and the elitism of TxDOT, one begins to wonder whether the voice of the people must be expressed in manners less civil, by civil disobedience or perhaps with greater force. Those alternatives must also now be weighed.

TxDOT - The Texas Taliban

Certainly presaging the horror of September 11, 2001, the Taliban destroyed two 6th Century monumental statues of the Buddha in Bamwam Valley, Afghanistan in March of 2001. Both representations of classical Gandhara art were revered not just by Buddhists throughout the world, but by historians and art lovers. Here is what the Taliban did to these works of art:

Now we learn that TxDOT threatens to do the same thing to the beautiful murals at Lincoln Center. 

The Texas Taliban, TxDOT, threatens to demolish Lincoln Center art.

Read the El Paso Times story. The El Paso Inc. this weekend also reported that TxDOT is proposing the destruction of the artwork, along with Lincoln Center and many homes and businesses to make room for a new ramp to Juarez. It seems that nobody - nobody - even was aware of this plan, not even Rep. Joe Pickett, a powerful member of the Transportation Committee. 

TxDOT under Chairman, Ted Houghton, pursues its own behind closed doors, secret plans. Try to get information about those plans via an open records request and you will run into roadblocks abetted by gubernatorial candidate, Attorney General Greg Abbott's office.

TxDOT Assault on Popular Bike Share Program Just Won't End

Back room politics is the modus operandi when it comes to TxDOT - especially if they feel that they may not get their way.

Dr. No and Courtney Niland put an item (Item 11A1) on tomorrow's agenda which would, if passed, scuttle Bike Share in favor of a TxDOT proposal for the money. However, elpasonaturally has learned that Niland will ask for a two week postponement of the item. In the meantime, Mayor Leeser will ask the Transportation Policy Board of the MPO this coming Friday for an up or down vote on Bike Share. (They have already approved it.)

It is obvious that TxDOT does not want to spend the CMAQ money for a bike share program. Some believe that, without TxDOT's cooperation, El Paso will simply lose out on federal money. When it comes to TxDOT, resistance seems futile. Elpasonaturally has also learned that City Council Representative Courtney Niland has said that nobody can go up against TxDOT. "They are the most powerful agency in Texas," she is quoted to have said. Never mind representative democracy where the people elect their policy makers. In the case of TxDOT, elpasonaturally believes that there is one Dictator - Ted Houghton. He has cronies and he hobnobs with others who care not one bit about democracy. (An agency that is so powerful that the people and/or their representatives cannot go up against it should be abolished.)

The big question is why does TxDOT want to scuttle bike share in favor of giving federal money back to the federal government by way of a program that would employ more Border Patrol people in order to speed up bridge times? Who is behind this attempt to divert (steal) funds from one federal program to another? 

To begin be sure to read Cindy Ramirez's excellent story in the Times this morning about this latest assault on Bike Share as well as the fact sheet from VeloPaso below that well explains the situation and the debate: 

CMAQ Fact Sheet 091913

TxDOT wants the money transferred to a program (the P3 Pilot Program) to reduce border crossing wait times. They argue that the bike share program does not meet their emissions reduction threshold. However, TxDOT cannot impose such a threshold. Talk about a cooked up deal. What is TxDOT's interest? 

The P3 Pilot Program which funds the Border Patrol has not been nominated and may not even be eligible for CMAQ funds because the Feds do not fund salaries beyond that of statewide bicycle coordinators. An FHWA (Federal Highway Administration) official said that they would have to make an extraordinary case for CMAQ to apply. 

Prior to the last MPO meeting, the P3 Program had not been discussed publicly. However Open Records Requests show that it was discussed at a breakfast meeting behind closed doors and away from public scrutiny (how Houghton and his cronies like it). In an August 12, 2013 email from Bob Bielek to a number of officials, he writes: "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."

By the way, if the goal is to reduce border crossing wait times, then I suggest that there is a means of doing so rather than throwing more federal money at it: transfer half of the border patrol personnel who are currently marching up and down the bridges with sniffing dogs to gate posts so more car lanes can be opened up. I'm a conservative guy who hates to see government waste. I'm also a conservative guy who believes that we the people make decisions and not little dictators and their cronies behind closed doors. The CMAQ money belongs to Bike Share and nothing else. TxDOT should either release the money or be compelled to release the money. If they do not, they should be dismissed and jail time ought to be a consideration. 

MPO Unanimously Rejects TxDOT Proposal

Pay attention everyone.

If you or your organization have ever been told "No" by TxDOT...

If your community and all your stakeholders have ever supported one thing and TxDOT has rejected your proposal...

If you have ever been part of a public meeting to give TxDOT input and then heard them tell you how things really are going to be...

Pay attention. 

This story is all about local control versus a very powerful agency which does not have to answer to you the people.  That agency, of course, is TxDOT which is only answerable to the Texas Transportation Commission which is only answerable to Gov. Rick Perry. (More on this relationship in an upcoming post. For now, just look at the recent contributions of Texas Transportation Commission Chairman, Ted Houghton, to Rick Perry.)

At last Friday's meeting of the Transportation Policy Board for the El Paso Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO), TxDOT asked that the El Paso Bike Share program be deprogrammed and that federal money (Congestion Mitigation Air Quality - CMAQ - funds) be used differently.) See Items 7 and 8 on the agenda. Never mind that CMAQ funds had been given for the express purpose of the El Paso Bike Share program. Never mind the fact that the City of El Paso, the County of El Paso and UTEP had already pledged to the program. Never mind the fact that all of El Paso's elected representatives in State and Federal government stand for the Bike Share Program. Never mind any of this. One very powerful state agency with no accountability to the people and with no regard to the will of the people, will do whatever they want and take money for whatever project they deem to be worthwhile.

So, here's what happened at the Transportation Policy Board for the El Paso Metropolitan Planning Organization last Friday. Each and every member of that Board voted against the proposal to deprogram bike share (only El Paso TxDOT engineer, Bob Bielek, voted in favor). That was Item number 7. The Board deleted Item number 8 - where TxDOT wanted to take money they would steal from bike share. The message was loud and clear: We the People having local control of our government, vote to accept CMAQ funds for bike share and, dearest TxDOT, you had better deliver.

Senator Rodriguez: "Local decision making IS the issue. The Federal Highway Administration has approved funds. We, the local community, decide - not a state agency."

Mayor Leeser: "City Council and the community support bike share."

Representatives Marquez, Gonzalez and Moody were adamant for bike share and against the usurpation by TxDOT.

Can TxDOT still torpedo bike share? You bet they can. They can refuse to spend the money that way (the Federal Highway Administration gives that right to the state agency). They can refuse no matter what the local community wants. 

But they may have a harder time this time. They have no support among elected representatives from El Paso. Word on the streets is that the Federal Highway Administration is now investigating them. I suggest to Senator Rodriguez and all of our elected state representatives that they visit with their fellow legislators in Austin and find out how many stories like this one there are throughout the State regarding TxDOT's disregard of local government and community decision-making.

I suggest to many in El Paso that they pay attention. I know many of them know stories about TxDOT's total disregard of stakeholder and public opinion.

Hey TxDOT Teddy - this is just the first post in a series. Much more to come.

Let Your Will Be Heard; Don't Let TxDOT Dictate

The email address that TxDOT is giving out for public comments about the park entrance is still no good.  Truth is - they don't give a damn about your opinion.  

At the public meeting last week, Bob Bielek asked how many people in attendance wanted the TPWD alternative entrance (4) into the FMSP.  Over half raised their hands.  He announced that about half the people were for it.  His aim was to show that there is no consensus in the environmental community for the entrance.  Judy Ackerman then asked for those who were with TxDOT to raise their hands.  The other half did so.  The real point: the game was rigged.  Must be tough when your boss tells you that you must show up for an event to overturn public opinion.  Bielek announced that he and only he will decide what will happen.  Isn't history littered with dictators who believed that they and they alone can decide?  The question is this: how long will we allow one person or one agency to have such profound power? 

Bobby wants his Lone Star doodads - aesthetics they are called and not a safe, attractive entrance to our park - safe for humans and safe for wildlife.

Here's the email rejection notice:

-------- Original Message --------

Subject:	Undeliverable: Tom Mays Park Entrance
Date:	Sun, 14 Apr 2013 23:24:27 +0000
From:
To:

Delivery has failed to these recipients or groups:
elp-fmsparkentrance@txdot.gov
Your message can't be delivered because delivery to this address is restricted.



TxDOT and Bob Bielek don't want what you do.  I'm reminded of the first meeting of the Mayor's Blue Ribbon panel regarding PSB land management. Bulldozing Ted TxDOT Houghton (Rick Perry's personal pick as Chairman of the TxDOT Commission) didn't want the meetings to be open to the public.  It's the same arrogance. 

Again: how long will we allow one person or one agency to have such profound power?

Go to Franklin Mountains Wilderness Coalition and read and respond to "Our State Park Needs Your Help".  Spread the word.

Attend tomorrow's MPO meeting:
Date: Monday, April 15, 2013
Time: 4pm
Location: 10767 Gateway West, Suite 605.  Arrive before 4 pm and sign up to speak in favor of Oprtion 4 and let Mayela Granados (915-591-9735, ext. 11, mgranados@elpasompo.org) know that you want to speak.

This may be a good time to re-read (or read for the first time) Ralph Waldo Emerson's Concord Hymn.

Outraged? Email Bulldozing Ted "TxDOT" Houghton

Apparently not all comments about the State Park entrance sent to the email provided by TxDOT are getting through.

Note this response to one person who wished to comment:

From: <postmaster@txdot.onmicrosoft.com>

Date: April 3, 2013 11:23:15 AM MDT

Subject: Undeliverable: Please choose Entrance Option 4

Delivery has failed to these recipients or groups:
elp-fmsparkentrance@txdot.gov
Your message can't be delivered because delivery to this address is restricted.

If you are outraged by TxDOT's pulling funding and support for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department's preferred entrance to the Franklin Mountains State Park, send your email comments to:

Robert Bielek  Robert.Bielek@txdot.gov

Ted Houghton  ted4@houghtonfinancialpartners.com

Water Scarcity, City Land and Development

There are some who, in the name of economic development, want to speed-up the sale of city-owned land for development. Most of this land is in the hands of the PSB which has historically been slow to declare land inexpedient - i.e., okay to sell. If land is required for utility infrastructure, flood control or the like, it won't be sold. If the land isn't required for those things and is good deal on the market, it will be sold. Although I've been critical of the PSB's failure to conserve land and their CEO's tight-fistedness in working out any immediate compromise in NW El Paso, I see the value of a land management strategy that is judicious, slow, deliberate and conservative. At the heart of such management should be the need to conserve the City's precious little water supply - a supply getting lower year by year. Factor in drought and global climate change and that scarcity is scary.  By some conservative estimates, El Paso is only 30 years away from needing to import water - a solution not necessarily guaranteed because of shifting political policies and realities in other localities - again because of dramatically decreasing supplies of water. 


Yet, some in the City and on City Council seem hell-bent to sell land faster for development. The Mayor's Blue Ribbon Committee on PSB land management policies has met twice now. At their last meeting on July 16, they voted 5 to 3 to recommend that a new committee be formed to determine whether land is inexpedient. The committee would consist of 5 members: the Mayor as Chair, 2 City Council representatives and 2 PSB members including the sitting Chairperson. They would short circuit what the PSB currently does more carefully: declare land fit to sell.


The Blue Ribbon Committee seems to be dominated by Bulldozing Ted "TxDOT" Haughton who has made it clear that there is only one reason to sell land: to make money and make it now. He was the one who made the motion for a new committee. His initial motion called for more money out of land sales and water revenues to go to the City. When asked by OSAB Chairman, Charlie Wakeem, to remove the additional revenues from his motion, he replied, "I was just trying to get you more money." TxDOT Ted employs a Kindergarten rhetorical style. He bullies by interrupting speakers and saying "you're wrong" or similar as someone makes a point contrary to his own. Haughton is also the one who has not enjoyed the extra audience of PSB member, Dr. Rick Bonart, myself and, at the July 16th meeting, Chris Roberts from the El Paso Times. At both meetings he has asked whether the proceedings were closed. After all, bulldozing TxDOT Ted prefers to do the people's business behind closed doors without the people. When his horrific recommendations finally get sent to City Council (and the PSB?), one hopes that the people will show up because at stake is the most valuable commodity in El Paso: WATER.


Also at the last Blue Ribbon Committee, Rep. Cortney Niland actively engaged the committee. She suggested that estimates of rapidly diminishing water supply are scare tactics and that the solution to our water problems is to drill more wells. If the lakes are running dry (and that is what the bolsons are that help supply our water - underground lakes from the ancient Lake Cabeza de Vaca - then all the drilling on either side of the mountain will find no additional water. 


Read Chris Roberts EP Times story about the blue ribbon meeting and Ms. Niland's comments. Unfortunately, the clueless EP Times Editorial Board endorsed the joint committee and stated that Niland is right that faster land sales means more jobs - well, at least, construction jobs.


Keep in mind that Niland's big campaign contributors are from the development, mortgage and insurance industries especially through the Citizens for Prosperity PAC. The top contributors to that PAC are from the very industries who would benefit from an expedited process to sell City of El Paso land. The El Paso Times (the same paper that rushes to endorse a scheme to sell land based on market benefits rather than water conservation) reported during last year's campaign that Gerald Rubin's River Oak Properties was giving Niland free office space.  They reported that Citizens for Prosperity gave Niland nearly $25,000.


It's not all about economic expansion and jobs. It's also about the City with a bloated budget finding more revenue sources. Behind the move to control the water utility more tightly is a need for greater revenue. If the City succeeds, expect your water bill to go up - and I mean way up. If the City is also successful in expanding the economy by developing land more quickly without regard to water supply, expect a boom and then imagine a site not unlike Chaco Canyon, where a long drought finally brought down the advanced Anasazi Culture. Imagine, El Paso including its new ballpark some day looking like this:

Photo by James Gordon, Chaco Canyon

Sorry, guess those are scare-tactics. However, just for once it would be nice to know that our El Paso developers and friends made decisions not just on the basis of the immediate gratification of exorbitant wealth but with a sense of community and what is good for their grandchildren's grandchildren. 


What's another reason for declaring land inexpedient? Conservation of that land in its natural state in perpetuity by conservation easements. Wouldn't it have been great if the PSB/EPWU's CEO had embraced that policy rather than attempting to keep the power to control sales to himself. Those who want economic expansion now only want to be more efficient than Mr. Archuleta and the PSB. But efficiency shouldn't be the issue. Saving our water for future generations should be.