by Rich Wright
You may have noticed that the deck park is still in play, even after funding sources have dried up.
Here’s Mayor Renard Johnson talking about the Deck Park in an article by Diego Mendoza-Moyers on ElPasoMatters.com:
“We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity with the deck plaza. We need to seriously look at getting that done, because other communities are building deck plazas,” Johnson said, highlighting the Klyde Warren Park that opened in 2012 and covers a central highway in downtown Dallas.
. . .
“The Klyde Warren deck plaza in Dallas is the number one tourist destination of Dallas, Texas. They already moved on to the other deck plazas. So is Austin, Texas. They’re going to be building a few deck plazas,” he said.
“So, our deck park can have open space on the top, bike trails, food courts, soccer fields, whatever we want to do as a community,” Johnson said. “We deserve it.”
“Tourist destination”.
“We deserve it.”
We’ve heard all that before.
El Paso has a long history to catering to the interests of people that aren’t here yet while ignoring the needs of residents.
Remember the “young professionals” who were going to be lured here by our Quality of Life?
Have you ever hosted a party that no one came to? El Paso has been setting the table and decorating the house for more than 20 years. A long line of El Paso mayors have stood on the sidewalk and watched the cars go by, while the people that live here have wait outside wondering why they weren’t invited.
I hate to break it to Mayor Johnson, but El Paso isn’t Dallas, or Austin.
Dallas and Austin both have vibrant downtowns with no space for expansion. El Paso’s downtown has vacant lots and vacant storefronts. And why would Mayor Johnson suggest that we build a deck park for tourists? Why should local taxpayers support vanity projects for tourists?
I get it. I understand why some well-heeled well-connected El Pasoans want a deck park. TxDOT has committed to spending a billion dollars on the I-10 freeway expansion, and some of that money will probably stay in town, spent on hotels and restaurants and bars. But probably most of that money is going to out-of-town contractors. And even if those contractors aren’t from out of town, none of the money that TxDOT is spending will trickle down enough to lower your property taxes.
(Wait a minute. Didn’t candidate Renard Johnson promise to lower our property taxes? How’s that working out for you?)
Why don’t we just take care of the people that are already here instead of setting the table for a dinner party that no one is going to attend?
Face facts that the people pushing for this don’t think of or don’t care about. First, the freeway can be widened without tearing down historic buildings and the Holocaust Museum. Second, the plan for the park means cutting out 3 of the 6 streets connecting downtown with the area north of the freeway. This means more traffic congestion downtown, more pollution, and a mess when there’s events down there. The question to ask is cui bono.
No need for costly projects like that. Yaxpayers get screwed always.
Tjks not Dallas or Austin youre right.
Early reports stated something about this being planned long ago by the oligarchs not to relieve congestion, not due to old bridges, not for green space, not for tourism, but for soccer fields. Somebody, rich dudes, most likely are invested in owning a soccer team and just came up with this in order to be able to make more money off their private team(s). Remember the ballpark and how that was supposed to make more money for El Paso, but we’re barely getting anything out of that investment while Mountainstar is raking it in at the City’s expense thanks to a rotten deal by Joyce Wilson. Here we go again.
El Paso Matters is looking more and more like El Paso Inc.
More places for the homeless to occupy and create more filth. I had to reroute my family around the El Paso Electric Building because the sidewalks were defiled with urine and feces….