Did you see this opinion piece by former City Manager Joyce Wilson at ElPasoMatters.com?
This is why political leadership is important. If you look at cities that we want to emulate, the difference is ultimately political leaders with vision. This is why it’s important to recruit and elect new leaders who commit to a grander vision for El Paso. Small minds lead to small visions and mediocrity. Which is exactly what this bright idea is.
I’m not just being critical but willing to help with better solutions. I’ll volunteer to help do better due diligence. All I ask is we go back to the original 2012 report that looked at the Tulsa center, and similar venues, as the best model for El Paso, and update that study.
I’m sure that what she meant to say is that El Pasoans are “Small Minded Crazies!”*
All the new hotels in Downtown weren’t looking for a rinky dink outdoor facility on the railroad. They were looking at a signature project to bring in major attractions and heads in beds. These were major high risk investments that relied on city leadership to deliver its part of the deal.
Will somebody please think of the poor billionaires?
Where, can you tell me, were all those heads on beds coming from? Any big show that El Paso might get will likely also play Phoenix, or Albuquerque. We might be able to attract the creme de la creme of Casas Grandes, or Ciudad Chihuahua, but they might opt to go to Phoenix, or Albuquerque instead.
Poor Joyce. Doesn’t she know that her time has passed? She had her shot and she blew it.
And now she wants to do “due diligence”. Maybe she should have done some due diligence when she was City Manager. Maybe she should have looked at all the economic studies that support the idea that municipally funded stadiums are a bad use of public money.
I reckon that if Joyce had done her due diligence, she would realize that El Paso isn’t Tulsa. The Tulsa metropolitan area has 1,034,123 residents, and a median household income of $63,396.
Maybe Joyce should move to Tulsa. Can we all chip in for a bus ticket?
*KVIA reports that Ms. Wilson wrote “This latest idea for a performance center is a joke and represents the small pea-brain vision of recent El Paso leadership. This is total waste of money.” Now that’s the Joyce that we know and love.
Why do you suppose that ElPasoMatters left that part out?
In case there were any doubts where her loyalties were then, and still… Now it even looks like Mountainstar could make a case that the proposed Union Station venue is a contract violation by the City. The contract Wilson negotiated for us peons.
Christ! When does it end and the community gets its city back from these vampires?
I almost spit out my coffee when I saw that report yesterday, in the online “El Paso Matters.” Meanwhile, isn’t it disturbing that this woman thinks she still has a voice here?