If you want, say, to buy a new phone, there are lots of resources you can turn to. There are websites with reviews, there are store clerks, and there are probably friends you could ask. There is a large body of expertise from which you can draw.
But if, suppose, you, as a voter or elected official, had to make a decision about something like Quality of Life Bond Projects, to whom would you turn? You’re trusted sources may all have their fingers in the pie. What’s good for them may not be good for you.
If your trusted sources are the Borderplex Alliance, they may be more focused on regional development than community well-being. They might be willing for you to foot the bill for public amenities that El Paso taxpayers will fund for the benefit of people in Southern New Mexico, or Juarez. You might find it especially galling that any economic development that takes place in our neighboring communities will in no way affect your local property taxes.
When you consider that the Borderplex Alliance has turned their focus to regional development, and that City Manager Joyce Wilson is an ex-officio member of the Borderplex Alliance, and that the City’s new Director of Economic Development worked for the Borderplex Alliance as recently as last week, you may begin to suspect that El Paso’s economic well-being is only incidental to the larger plan concocted by our ruling class. You may also become aware that El Paso has a ruling class, and that you’re not part of it, except as a necessary accessory around election time.
You may also wonder why nobody called any of this to your attention when the Quality of Life Bond Election took place. Maybe it was inconvenient for the local media, or your elected officials to illuminate this glaring conflict of interest. Or maybe they were co-opted by the Borg. Or maybe they were duped, too.
This recent interview with the leader of Borderplex. nee REDCO and PDNG, says it all. Note his denial that there’s any more violence in Juarez (“completely subsided” he says); note emphasis on campaign to counteract media about unpleasant realities of the border with feel-good media; note also his recommendation that El Paso develop Creative Class-style perks like “good music” to spur economic development. Finally, note his discussion about how good government is needed in El Paso (i.e., no more corruption) in order to ensure economic prosperity. Not democracy, mind you, but — as PDNG’s Woody Hunt has been saying for years — incoming corporate investment. By firms desiring to do profitable biz in the smoothest way possible, without being nickeled and dimed by crooked, penny-ante locals with names like Chilo. (This is where Ray Caballero/Elliot Shapleigh’s populist/clean rule movement intersected with Hunt’s elitist development vision. It’s the ideological origin of Hunt’s move to majorly fund the new Newspaper Tree and encourage it to focus on corruption.)
http://thetexaseconomy.org/business-industry/business-development/articles/article.php?name=borderplex
Good catch! Thanks for that.