Sometimes I like to pretend that our city leaders occasionally roll down the windows of their luxury sports coupes and
Category: Economic Development
The Pitch – Low and Outside
You know that when Mayor Oscar Leeser and Borderplex Alliance President Rolando Pablos hit the road trying to entice businesses
The Falling Peso
In the past year, the Mexican peso has lost more than 25 percent of it’s value. A year ago it
Downtown El Paso: Field of Dreams
Been downtown lately? There are lots of things happening downtown. Unfortunately, there aren’t a lot of people. Maybe the people
Downtown El Paso: Creating an Ambience
This morning I posted a piece about Sense of Place. Now I’m going to tell you about something similar: Ambience.
Sense of Place
Here’s a nugget from Urbanland, the magazine of the Urban Land Institute, written by Edward T. McMahon: In 2010, the
Urban Removal Redux
Demolition in our urban core not only destroys historic buildings, it destroys any chance of revitalizing downtown. What’s going to
A Motive for the City Manager’s Raise?
Could the power brokers behind El Paso’s city government have arranged for the City Manager’s $61,000 a year raise? According
Regional Economic Development
The Borderplex Alliance, an entity dedicated to regional economic development, commissioned a study by Angelou Economics to develop a plan
Another Two Bite the Dust
The bar business is dynamic. The barriers to entry in Texas are relatively small, and almost everyone who’s been in
The Price of Gasoline: Updated
Update: According to this story in yesterday’s English language daily, business is good for Western Refining. Western Refining beat analysts’
The Price of Gasoline
One time, years ago, I stopped for gas at the 7 Eleven at the corner of Mesa and University. At
Who Represents El Paso?
If you only read the local newspapers, and maybe watch the City Council meetings on the internet, you might not
El Paso: A Metaphor
El Paso is like that really nice girl with the shitty boyfriend who treats her badly and maybe hits her
More Good News
David Crowder at the El Paso Inc. reports this week that airline passenger traffic has dropped twenty percent over the
“There’s no need to fear. Underdog is here.”
Maybe you’re one of those people who think that the litany of bad news coming to light about El Paso’s
DestinationElPaso’s Branding Campaign
Branding isn’t advertising. It’s not marketing. A brand is more like the gestalt of a good or service. A brand
The World is Round
What I’m about to suggest is heresy. What if downtown El Paso will never be a high-end destination? That’s the
El Paso: No. 1 Again!
El Paso is getting national recognition again, this time in a Bloomberg survey of the Top Twenty Cities Americans are
Juarez Rumors
The word on the street (literally, a taxista told me at the corner of Juarez and Begonias) is that the