It's Frightening How Little They Know

I read the El Paso Times' big Sunday piece on city council candidates and their thoughts on eastside growth.  I came away with the idea that nobody involved in that article, including the author, has any idea about the issue.  At least, ideas based on facts or simple realities. 

I take that back - Representative Holguin was exactly right when said that attempts to stop sprawl have only spurred it on (they didn't quote him directly so I didn't quote their indirect quote of him).  I stand corrected - by myself.

The dumbest comment in the article goes to Mayela Mejia.  The paper had this to say

"Mayela Mejia, candidate for the East Side District 5 council seat, said the intersection of Joe Battle Boulevard and Montwood Drive is one of the city's most dangerous.

"We need to address issues like these instead of building highways way out there," she said, referring to Rich Beem Boulevard."

We can only assume that Mejia reason that urban sprawls creates dangerous intersections.  I guess poor design and bad driving aren't to blame?  The building of houses is, I guess????  It's like the old joke - Statistics say that most accidents happen within five miles of your house.  I don't want to get in accident so I'm moving! 

If the intersection of Joe Battle and Montwood is dangerous, it doesn't matter how many cars travel through there each day - it's dangerous to all that drive through there.  Now, if the intersection isn't dangerous, but inconvenient because of the amount of traffic, that's a different story.  Drivers who are trying to escape a wait may make poor decisions when trying to navigate themselves out of a traffic jam.  Running red lights or suddenly darting into a turn lane tend to be the cause of many accidents at these high use intersections.  The obvious culprit here is not the intersection, but impatient/bad drivers. 

And guess what?  More highways fix the problem for which Mejia couldn't properly associate blame.  She was wrong on all accounts and it's strange because I'm the only one who picked up on it.  I figured you'd guys would be all over it. 

Representative Lilly missed the mark when she mistakenly refereed to "smart code" policies as "smart growth."  They are very different things and "smart code" does nothing to curb growth.  We don't currently have government mandated "smart growth" policies, so they're not applicable.

Then the the author - Marty Schladen - interjects his own incorrect synopsis of "smart growth," which is comically opposite of the "smart code" people want.  He wrote:

"Put simply, smart growth seeks to build communities in which houses are closer to each other and to shopping, entertainment and work. It also seeks to make them easier to get around on foot or by bicycle."

First of all, "smart growth" is many different things to many different people.  Some proponents of "smart growth" principles talk about large lots and huge setbacks.  Others push development of extremely high density "town centers" where many people can live and get all the things they need for life in a very small area - think Japan.  The "small growth" movement isn't a "movement," more than it is a marketing term used by real estate developers to get municipalities to approve their projects. 

"Smart growth" as Representative Susie Byrd and others have talked about it for El Paso resembles what Schladen claims minus the houses being close together. They hate new developments with high density housing. 

The person proving himself to be a socialist in the article is... Gerardo Rosiles.  His portion of the nonsense goes:

"Development in the far east is a reality, and the city should work to bring amenities there, said Gerardo Rosiles, who is running for the District 6 seat, which represents the far East Side and the Lower Valley.

"The East Side is getting isolated," Rosiles said.

"On the East Side, there's nothing to do from a cultural perspective."

The city needs to do what?  They need to  "work to bring amenities there" - what?  Since when is it the city's job to bring you a skating rink and a Peter Piper Pizza?  This guy is delusional.  Knowing our luck he'll win.

I could go on and on, but what's the point?  Even Representative O'Rourke gets the bottom line argument between the free Americans (us) and the communists (council's progressives) - they want our tax revenue and they want us to live how they see fit.  It irks him to have to annex county developments because the people aren't living how he thinks they should live, but by God he loves their tax dollars.  It's a hard choice for him.

The whole article serves as a sad scene that is our local government and the people who wish to become a part of it.  They don't get the issues.  They don't get the law.  Some of them don't get simple logic.

Comments

[Jose Sandoval]

Susie is right and so is the City Planner. Sprawl has been and will continue the road to our economic failure. LID has a better method in LINU, and has proven cost benefits.

Sorry that you only know how to design sprawl.

[david k]

Jose,

Susie doesn tknow much about economics and neither do you. The city planner isn't for limiting sprawl, he's a smart code guy. Big difference.

[sick and tired]

What an embarassment. I am so tired.
Lilly must have been asleep when they explained the difference between smart code and growth.
Mayela and Beto and Susie were probably just high.