Old Upper Valley Home vs. Garage Row |
Photos Courtesy Brax -Valley Publishing Co. |
Opinion: Iraqi Voters: An Example for Valley Voters.
The Upper Valley is under siege and it is up to the voters in the Upper Valley to unite and focus on the upcoming El Paso Municipal and County elections.
What this means is that the interests of the Upper Valley within the clutches of the El Paso City Council does not stop at Borderland Road. All Upper Valley Residents have to focus on assisting all portions of the valley one at a time. The last two District #1 City Council Representatives have assaulted the valley by discarding the Master Plan and the value of the valley's farmland to the neighborhood and those residents that have put down roots because they wanted to live in the country.
It is a disgrace to the heritage of the Upper Valley to see it covered in asphalt and rows of garages with attached apartments. When you have thousands of acres of desert to build "affordable housing" it is nothing more than greed and "bought" elected officials that dictate the doom of the valley.
It is beyond the realm of reason to pave over the only portions of land that have water rights and the ability to actually grow something on them. Where does it say that it is "patriotic" to rape the land and sell to the highest bidder only so they and the developers can make and extra 10% profit margin to add to their multi-million dollar bundle.
When will there be enough common sense in the El Paso City Council to understand that it is a fair compromise to parcel out a farm at five (5) acres sections for homes and horses and an orchard. The current City Council was presented these options. They were presented graphic depections of how to layer the land from Artcraft outward. They failed and to make matters worse they followed Representative Austin's lead in granting larger tracts of land at the corner of Artcraft and Upper Valley for commercial interests.
The reason that Laguna Meadows, Artcraft and the "garage row" were approved is because the Upper Valley was fragmented. People thought that it would just be that portion and it wouldn't affect them on Gomez Road or north of Borderland Road. But the truth is that the developers want it ALL.
There is no finality on the Gomez Road Bridge proposal. Contact the Metropolitan Planning Organization to see if that is forever off the table. See Gomez Road Bridge
The Upper Valley and the Mesilla Valley are historical national treasures and they are treated as so much sand. When contemplating the nature and psyche of the developoers and elected official; one can only hope that they knew not what they did.
It is time to go to support a candidate for Dirstrict #1 who is inteligent enough to understand the playing field and ethical enough to actually stand up to the developers greed machine... not be bought by it.
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Editor, Upper Valley Beacon
Copyright 2004 Valley Publishing Company
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