Making downtown vibrant was always a tough task.
COVID made it harder.
Sealed office buildings where the windows don’t open? That makes going to work a super spreader event.
Do you think that we are ever going back to “normal”?
Will we ever go back to blowing out the candles on a birthday cake, or kissing the bride?
Will COVID ever stop mutating and evolving? We’re two years in, mostly vaccinated, and the ICU beds are still overflowing. New COVID variations aren’t even news anymore. New COVID variations are the new normal.
A recent study shows that over 45% of Americans have a comorbidities that could lead to complications from COVID. That number is probably higher for overweight, diabetic, El Paso.
Are we going to encourage El Pasoans to engage in the risky behavior necessary to create a “vibrant downtown”?
Or is this whole “vibrant downtown” thing a scam designed to fleece the taxpayers for the benefit of some developers? For all the public money we’ve spent, what benefits have we got? A Streetcar that runs three days a week for seven hours a day? A ballpark that’s dark for more than two hundred and fifty days a year?
A community that’s riven by dissent, and a City Government that’s oblivious to the needs and concerns of the majority of the citizens?
The “planners” aren’t concerned with the citizens, or the pandemic, or reality. They want us to use our imaginations, so they can use our tax dollars.
Imagination can only take us so far. Sooner or later, we’ll have to reckon with reality.
The elected liberal socialist clowns lead by the Biden administration ignore the open southern border of the USA. Citizens are expected to obey the mandates, yet illegals are transported, in the dead of night , to various northern cities. Our southern border needs to be secure before we worry about a vibrant El Paso, TX downtown.
Maybe if you pulled trumps cock out of your mouth, you could stay on topic with your comments.
What does any of your comment have to do with El Paso, and Rich’s article? Open border? Are you blind? Or, just ignorant of reality? “illegals are transported, in the dead of night?” Who is doing that transporting? And, what is the source of your information?
The truth speaks for itself:
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/video-westchester-new-york-migrants-night-contractors
These flights are on-going at the EP airport. I witnessed this in July, and November, 2021.
More truth for the non-believers:
https://www.bizpacreview.com/2022/02/05/independent-journo-exposes-who-is-funding-illegal-immigrant-flights-1197261/
The figures put out by the governments can’t be trusted. There’s money involved. Spanish Flu killed, depending on which figure you accept, of the population .004% to .007%; Covid has killed around .0025% of the population. A reminder also is many of the deaths attributed to Covid had Covid as a contributing factor.
What does the mean about downtown? We were played by government while the rich cats got every break. Remember when everything but essential construction was closed down? Why did the new Westar building get a waiver? Almost EVERY building erected downtown benefits the owners rather than the citizens, and we gave tax breaks to billionaires.
The French Revolution started out as a bread riot.