Here’s an article from Reason that describes the plights of three cities who paid for ballparks.
“Any normal business person says ‘well, if you can’t afford to build your factory, that’s not a very good business.’ But baseball has convinced someone else to build their factory for them.”
If you changed the names and a few of the details, this story describes the future of El Paso.
And the soccer stadium over the freeway is right around the corner.
Did we not try to tell them? Did they listen? Are they listening now? The El Chuco train is about to come to a screeching halt when we have to declare bankruptcy. Meanwhile, we just got our 2019 Notice of Appraised Value. Once again, the value of our home has risen, and I have to admit – after running a quick market analysis – that it is in line with homes currently for sale in our area. That is all well and good. The bad news is that obviously our property taxes are going up for the second year in a row. It is not a huge amount, and it shouldn’t hurt us too badly, but we are still retirees, trying to get by on our fixed income. Any increase in life’s basics hurts, and we are still driving on streets that mostly suck.
Which reminds me. We’ve noticed some repaving along parts of Yarbrough lately, and have concluded that perhaps, since it has been so long since any repaving has been done in El Paso, the contractors have forgotten how to do it properly. The new surface is obviously new, but driving along is not smooth at all! There is constant movement of the car’s shock absorbers because the pavement is not smooth and flat! So, given the shitty maintenance our streets routinely receive, I expect these new repaving jobs to all expire long before a normal expiration date.
Sadly this is true..I used to work at El Paso sand long a go and when we went out to check the quality of the asphalt we sent to the pavers we noticed how smooth and level it would go down. Now the quality of the paving sucks..as you mentioned John..uneven stretches of road and not smooth at all..so much for the quality of life for El Pasoans..
City-funded stadiums are a boondoggle.
broken link? https://reason.com/2019/04/01/70-million-minor-league-stadium-fail/