The Opportunity Costs of the Deck Park

The estimated cost of the deck park is more than $400 million before it’s done.

The initial phase is projected to cost $207 million, just for the park itself.

Some vague undefined improvements are projected to cost another $204 million. I take those vague undefined improvements to mean a soccer stadium for MountainStar Sports Group’s futbol team.

I guarantee those cost projections are short. By a lot. A lot. If their plans go through, the taxpayers are going to be on the hook for six or seven or eight hundred million dollars, maybe even a billion. The deck park is another bait-and-switch proposition like the other ones City has been so fond of for the last fifteen years.

But let’s pretend that the deck park and proposed amenities are only going to cost $400 million. What else could the City of El Paso spend $400 million on?

Come on. Every hundred million dollars the City spends on something is a hundred million dollars the City could have spent on something else.

Like, for instance, improving our potholed streets. Why isn’t improving the streets a priority for the City of El Paso? City Council has ignored our crumbling infrastructure for too long, and now they’re plotting to foist another boondoggle on the taxpayers for the benefit of their campaign donors.

Would you rather have a deck park you might use never, or, at most, twice a year, or driveable streets you use every day?

Whose side are your elected representatives on?