The Three Keys to a Great City
by Mayor John Cook

It’s been said that all great cities have three things in common; great downtowns, great parks and great transportation systems. Everyone knows that our Downtown is prepared for a long-overdue renaissance. The Real Estate Investment Trust is busily acquiring properties as are other investors. The level of interest in Downtown is truly encouraging, and the signals indicate that the Downtown plan is proceeding right on schedule and, more importantly, right on target. So getting back to the things great cities have in common, we’ll have our great Downtown and in our lifetime.

The current administration has been aggressively addressing the second great cities component: great parks. In the past year alone, the City Council has approved landmark land-use reform, including the first-ever formal Parks and Recreation Plan, an Open Space Preservation Plan and a tree and landscape ordinance. While the city’s 175 parks indicate a civic strength, we must consider that 24,000 acres of our parks are in the Franklin Mountains State Park. If that number were backed out of the equation, we would certainly fall far short of 16.5 percent of our land that is currently used for park space. Our goal is to have a neighborhood park within two miles of every residence. The community support for developing and maintaining our parks system became obvious when, in the year 2000, the overwhelming majority of El Pasoans voted in favor of building new park facilities. We are not there yet, but progress is being made to improve our infrastructure. Before too long, we’ll be able to claim we have great parks.

That leaves our transportation system as the only factor that could keep us from being a great city. While transportation and mobility are very complex issues, I will only focus on one aspect of mobility, and that is public transportation. Less than 3 percent of El Pasoans use mass transit to get to work. Compare this with New York City where more than half of the citizens use buses and subways to commute to their jobs. OK, I know what you’re thinking— that’s New York, and they have always been different. I’ll concede that New Yorkers are different, but a few weeks ago, I traveled to Los Angeles to study their public transportation system and was surprised to find that 10 percent of its citizens are using the system, helping them earn a rating of eighth in the nation for commuting while we are ranked 32nd. Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) played an instrumental role in helping them achieve such a high rating. BRT is a system of above-ground infrastructure, with lanes or roads dedicated to bus traffic. In Los Angeles, they not only use traffic signal preemption to speed up the service, but they also are on the honor system to relieve the drivers from having to collect money. At about 10 percent of the cost of light rail and with “fast start” federal funds potentially available, El Paso could implement a BRT pilot program in as little as two years.

So move over, New York! Get out of the way, Los Angeles! El Paso is ready to become a great city!

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TAKS Testing Dominates Our Children and Our Schools
by Bill Coon, CPO Boys & Girls Clubs of El Paso

Tests are a part of our everyday lives. We are tested at home, work, in sporting events, etc. We spend our lives not only being tested but hopefully learning from each test. We can pass with honors, barely pass or fail at a moment’s notice. Some tests are stressful, like hearing from your doctor about your test results, but whatever the outcome, it is how we pass the test that matters.

As a child, I remember when we would have national testing. To me, it was another day in school. Yes, we had to spend the entire day testing; this was different, but the most important part of the day was still recess and lunch. There was no stress on my part. I did not have to worry about passing “the test.” Maybe my parents did, but they did not share that with me. I did not have to worry about the scores of my school, my district or if my teacher was going to have a job next year. None of these issues were brought up.
Today in Texas, things are a lot different. Working with the Boys & Girls Clubs of El Paso, I see the stress on the kids when TAKS comes around. When a child comes into the facility thanking God that the test is over with, I see a problem. At TAKS time, the kids are stressed; the teachers are stressed about the kids’ performance and their jobs; and all administrators are stressed about everyone’s performance. In our infinite wisdom, we placed the future of school funding and jobs on test results. It seems like it is more important to pass a test than what children have learned.

Passing TAKS has reduced time in physical education. Have you seen reports that our nation is overweight, especially our children? Are the two issues related? I do not know, but it is a great coincidence. We have put less emphasis on the arts. Band, choirs, art, etc. have been deemed less important than math and science, but where is the creativity? Character development values that have been taught in schools carry less importance. Who teaches these important lessons? Parents? Church? Neighbors? Others? We have relied on the schools; but TAKS does not test these values, so they are not important.
Added to the problem, we have teachers who were taught how to teach subjects not how to administer tests. Have we set our educators up for failure? I pray we have not.

Our kids need to be taught English, math, science, music, social studies, etc., not how to pass a test. If we begin to train our kids on all of these subjects, we enable them to become well-rounded individuals. We need to teach subjects and not tests.

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Downtown Road Trip Diary
by District 8 Rep. Beto O’Rourke

Four hours after I left El Paso city limits, I was in Tucson. I took the downtown exit and saw the Congress Hotel. I poked around in the hotel lobby, walked across the street to take in the historic Fox Theater (their version of the Plaza) and then walked down Congress and some of the side streets, stopping into an instrument store and a sheet music store along the way.

I noticed art spaces, record stores and loft apartments on the upper floors of many of the buildings. I ducked into a greasy spoon, had a hamburger and a Coke and then walked around some more, got bored and drove on to Phoenix. Tucson had a nice downtown but nothing spectacular, and there was nowhere near the volume of shoppers and pedestrians that we have on Stanton and El Paso streets. Also, nowhere near the character, energy and history of our Downtown.

Another two hours on Interstate 10 and I was in Phoenix. Downtown wasn’t easy enough to find from the freeway, and I was forced to use my limited navigation skills, based on trajectories figured from speed, direction and the tallest building I could see out the window. I made it downtown, drove around for awhile, and after I spotted the San Carlos Hotel, I decided I’d try my luck there and pulled over. The hotel was a great old gem of a place. What it was missing in modern amenities it made up for in style and history. It was also incredibly convenient.

I checked in and then decided I’d take a walk to find some dinner. I stumbled across Chase Stadium (only four to six blocks away), discovered that the Diamondbacks were about to play the Red Sox, bought tickets and sat through the first five innings. Afterwards, I repaired to an Irish bar for dinner and Guinness and watched the rest of the game (Red Sox won). Along the way, I couldn’t help but notice the streets choked with pedestrians going in and out of different establishments or sightseeing with family, while bicycle cabs shuttled people too tired or lazy to walk anymore. The light rail stations and tracks that were under construction throughout downtown also caught my eye.

Los Angeles was the biggest surprise and adventure of the trip, a world-class downtown. Within walking distance from my hotel, they had historic theaters, office buildings, apartment buildings and public buildings up the wazoo. They had striking modern architecture, like the Frank Gehry-designed Disney Concert Hall. They had packed museums, like the Museum of Contemporary Art. They had outdoor concerts in the streets, public markets selling fresh produce and locally-crafted goods, open spaces, like Bunker Hill, filled with ambling couples and locals. They had public art and street artists and an all-night, all-day hum of energy and excitement that renewed my faith in the potential for our Downtown.