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With that, enjoy this week's selection of news and features.
News
Historic Correction? City Will Work With Home-Builder to Fix Permit Mistake
by David Crowder
The city will make it right with the property owner, West Central city Rep. Susie Byrd said. And the city staff will need to get better at checking building permits, something for which the department previously had been warned.
Apartment Owners File Stormwater Lawsuit
by NPT Staff
The lawsuit charges the stormwater fee is really a tax prohibited by the Texas Constitution, and also that it violates the Fair Housing Act of 1968 and is discriminatory because most apartment renters are minorities.
Reyes Comments on Border Fence
by NPT Staff
"From the testimony we heard today, it is clear that DHS is not communicating with the border communities that would be most adversely affected by this project." -- Reyes speaking at a subcommittee hearing titled “Walls and Waivers: Expedited Construction of the Southern Border Wall and the Collateral Impacts on Communities and the Environment.”
Elections
NPT Special Report: District 3 Candidate Guide
by NPT
City Council District 3 candidates answer questions regarding industry, stormwater, development, and the challenges of the district.
Opinion
District 3 Race a Milestone in a Long City Election Cycle
by Sito Negron
Is the anger real, or ginned up? What direction are we as a city headed, where do we want to head, and what are the alternatives? The District 3 special election is a window to view some of these questions in action.
To the Editor, Re: Obama, Clinton and McCain
by Bill Tilney
The Neanderthals and talking vacuum heads in the media have also done this great nation a great disservice by focusing on irrelevant issues.
El Paso Needs the Rebirth of Cool
by Rich Wright
The problem, I think, is that El Paso has never marketed itself as a young person's town. We've never developed the assets. We've never cultivated an appeal to the prized 18 to 35 year old demographic. We've never cultivated cool.
Politics
Development Rules Approved
by David Crowder
The vote in favor of portions of the new subdivision ordinance -- the rules for how new neighborhoods will look -- sets up next week's final vote on the package of changes.
Culture
Photo Essay: Lucha Libre
Photography by Mark Paulda, Henry Delgado, Julie Hammink and Rebecca Reza
The theatrical sport made its way onto our own city streets with a recent match on Zaragosa Avenue. Several El Paso photographers attended the event and came back with these up close and personal images.
The Best Saxophone Player in Mexico. George Harrison Said So.
by Alejandra Gomez
Only four of the seven members of The 7 Teens are still alive. One of them plays jazz at Yankee’s bar on Avenida Juarez. Beto, who met George Harrison on the Ed Sullivan show in 1963, teaches music at the University of Juarez.
Features
Fasting at the Plaza de Los Lagartos
by Jessica Valdez
Despite winds that reached about 48 mph Thursday, about a dozen fasters and their supporters spent hours in the Downtown Plaza to promote immigrants' rights.
Lomas de Poleo, and the Value of Land and People
by Kent Paterson
Ringed in by mean guards and forbidding towers that evoke images of J.R. Tolkein's Mordor, long-settled families are locked in an ownership battle over hundreds of acres of land with members of the Zaragoza family, one of Ciudad Juarez's most powerful clans.
Interview with City Redevelopment Manager Veronica Rosales-Soto
by Sito Negron
Veronica Rosales-Soto, redevelopment manager for the city of El Paso, discusses how she got into planning, the philosophies at work in urban planning, and issues related to the Downtown Plan, including the next step.
Media Watch: It's Raining Media on Saturday
by NPT Staff
Two Saturday events at which you can Meet the Press. Early, it's NPT at the Pearson Group, and later, Gary Warner at the El Paso Press Club.
