Downtown El Paso's Three Railroad Yards? (Houston, Dallas: real estate, city hall, home)

[Ms Kitty 98]

In downtown El Paso there are three railroad yards! to the west there is the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad Yards southwest of Paisano Drive between the U.S. Mexican Border.
In Central El Paso there is the huge Union Pacific Railroad Yards bounded between Interstate 10 and Texas Avenue, and to the southeast of it is the no name Southeast railroad yard which is probably an extension of Union Pacific. Bounded by East Overland Avenue to the North, East Paisano Drive to the South, South Cotton Street to the East and North Virginia Street to the West.

So here we have these three railroad yards that occupy several hundreds of downtown acreage would be valuable prime downtown real estate. But the later one that I mentioned, the one with no name Southeast railroad yard sits idle most of the time. And here is where out city council along with Paul Foster and Woody Hunt should have championed to build a new downtown baseball stadium.I only question if they ever even bothered to inquire about this property;This property has anywhere between ten and twenty acres of land.

Had they! there would be less feud by fellow El Pasoans including the cave dwellers and the naysayers including the Westsiders who never have nothing to give back to El Paso. There would be more support to get this deal done and saving the trouble of knocking down city hall; Instead there would be talk about expanding City Hall and adding a few more floors to it.

Now that a Mega 400 million dollar Railroad Yard is under construction in Santa Teresa New Mexico, that should help free up some downtown properties,there's way to many railroad yards in downtown and just maybe even as a last resort there's eminent domain, get the trains running and move em out.

With this being said,seem's there are those that can't see past their nose.

[atrabilius]

If the railroad yards between I-10 and Texas Avenue are being vacated, then they should build their stadium there, if Cohen Stadium isn't good enough anymore, and maybe some other stuff as well; Ray Caballero's Central Park idea for that land makes sense to me.

[Ms Kitty 98]

The railroad yards between Texas and I-10 are not going to be vacated, and Ray Caballero's downtown Central Park idea was nothing more than a pipe dream even though it sure make a heck of a lot of sense.
However those same railroad yards are also on the Plan El Paso agenda;but can anyone imagine how long that is going to take to become a reality? None of us here on the forum board will be still be alive if they ever do change El Paso to make it look better.

[SA2EP?]

Hey...I'm only 27...it could happen in the next 70 years or so!

[Ms Kitty 98]

Originally Posted by SA2EP?

Hey...I'm only 27...it could happen in the next 70 years or so!

I was thinking more like in the year 25/25.

[SA2EP?]

haha...well in that case...I might still be here

[ocean2026]

The park would have been a good idea. I don't see why we need more development of DAYTIME business downtown. NIght life yes. The reason is I go to Dallas,Houston, Austin, San Antonio and Ft Worth -every other week somewhere else.

Traffic and congestion are horrible. What have they gained?Are their taxes lower? Schools better? What exactly do we gain from growth downtown?

[Ms Kitty 98]

Originally Posted by SA2EP?

haha...well in that case...I might still be here

Unless you are you a member of ALCOR Life Extension Foundation www.alcor.org. I don't think the link is active further more but this company does things
like research for cryopreservation.

[Ms Kitty 98]

Originally Posted by ocean2026

The park would have been a good idea. I don't see why we need more development of DAYTIME business downtown. NIght life yes. The reason is I go to Dallas,Houston, Austin, San Antonio and Ft Worth -every other week somewhere else.

Traffic and congestion are horrible. What have they gained?Are their taxes lower? Schools better? What exactly do we gain from growth downtown?

So then you think that we should just leave all those empty buildings in downtown alone sitting there wasting away, while the cities you visit enjoy prosperity with their downtown's?
What exactly do we gain gain from downtown growth? Common sense! like in the form of new jobs,end of blight,entertainment,utilizing our resources to attract more commerce and reinvent our decaying central core. An example would like what they are going to do at the Medical Center of the America's and they old neighborhood.

[Chuco]

Originally Posted by Ms Kitty 98

So then you think that we should just leave all those empty buildings in downtown alone sitting there wasting away, while the cities you visit enjoy prosperity with their downtown's?
What exactly do we gain gain from downtown growth? Common sense! like in the form of new jobs,end of blight,entertainment,utilizing our resources to attract more commerce and reinvent our decaying central core. An example would like what they are going to do at the Medical Center of the America's and they old neighborhood.

Good response Kitty.

Other cities have thriving downtown's and with that they also have large tax bases in their downtown's. The property taxes on the home owners aren't as high in other cities where their downtown's have way more life (In both economic and urban life development) than ours.

Right now, as Ms Kitty said, many of the buildings in downtown are empty and just withering away. Many of the building owners do not renovate them or improve them in any way to keep their values down, that way they can keep their property tax bills really low. The really bad part is that we the home owners are the ones that end up having to foot the majority of the bills and that's why our property taxes are really high. It's time for us to change that and improve our downtown as many other cities have done. Improving downtown will not only benefit the people in downtown, but it will benefit everyone in El Paso in many ways.