moni Posted April 24, 2007 Share Posted April 24, 2007 I live nearer to El Paso than Houston, although Houston was my home for over 20 years, I raised my children there and do go back to visit my son whenever possible. I love that town! However, since I do most of my heavy shopping in El Paso, I noticed an article regarding the building of an Inner-Loop freeway. BTW, I remember when the 610 in Houston was practically new and had very little traffic! Ages ago, I know. The new $350 million Inner Loop freeway gets approved -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is great news for El Paso and Ft. Bliss. With 23,000+ soldiers and their families coming to the area in the next 5 years we will really need this. http://www.elpasotimes.com/military/ci_5104127# When you consider the population of El Paso, you nearly have to include Juarez because many people from El Paso cross the bridge to work daily, NAFTA you know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
editor Posted April 24, 2007 Share Posted April 24, 2007 Cool. But $42 million per mile sounds like a lot. Does anyone know how this price compares to freways in Houston?Still, it's good to see some news out of the other side of the state. I've always had a fascination with El Paso, even though I've only been there once.Keep us updated! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plumber2 Posted May 7, 2007 Share Posted May 7, 2007 Cool. But $42 million per mile sounds like a lot. Does anyone know how this price compares to freways in Houston?Still, it's good to see some news out of the other side of the state. I've always had a fascination with El Paso, even though I've only been there once.Keep us updated!I like El Paso too. I lived there in 1989-90 while on a construction project at one of the hospitals. Most of the military people live on the east side of the Franklin Mountains, the local mover and shaker types live on the more affluent west side. Combined with Juarez it's as big as Dallas or San Antonio. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tamtagon Posted May 8, 2007 Share Posted May 8, 2007 El Paso is the next Pheonix. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrfootball Posted May 11, 2007 Share Posted May 11, 2007 El Paso is supposed to experience a mini-boom with the expansion of the Army base there. I know Texas Tech is about to open up a new 4-year Medical School there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luciaphile Posted September 22, 2012 Share Posted September 22, 2012 Mr.luciaphile was compiling a GIS data set of publicly-owned land in Texas that is not conservation land for his own nefarious purposes when he came across some failed -- nonexistent -- development in the desert an hour or so from El Paso. Lots held by a number of academic institutions:Oglethorpe UniversityWittenberg Univ.Seattle Univ.Lubbock ChristianOklahoma BaptistUTUniv. of OregonConcordia Univ.Univ. of ShalomJohnson Bible CollegeStrake JesuitBoise Bible CollegeGoshen CollegeSouthwestern Adventist CollegeVassar!Me: "Why?"Him: "Oh, probably donated by people to their alma maters when they figured out they'd been had, to institutions that have no filter for judging gifts of land."But all those Bible schools -- surely the speculator must have targeted them. It's not like they were going to drive out there, I guess. UT might have known better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plumber2 Posted September 26, 2012 Share Posted September 26, 2012 There is an enormous section east of El Paso laid out in a grid pattern. You can see it from the air when landing at the El Paso airport. Horizon City was the name of it and it stretches for miles into the horizon . I'm guessing that is where all this school land is located. Curious as to why this speculative type of development occured in such a god forbidden part of the state. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LTAWACS Posted September 26, 2012 Share Posted September 26, 2012 El Paso is the next Pheonix.I have a feeling that's not a very good thing... right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luciaphile Posted September 26, 2012 Share Posted September 26, 2012 I think Horizon City is a real place. I think I may have noticed it because I was permitted to drive for an hour last time we left El Paso. The area referenced was maybe in the vicinity of Hueco Tanks SHP.I realize academic endowments like to invest in land -- I think when the paper companies pulled out of East Texas, Harvard became a huge landowner, or timber-rights owner, there for awhile -- but these lots in the desert were just on the order of five to twenty-acre parcels maybe.El Paso: I'm not that familiar with it, but I like it -- the downtown seems very appealingly-scaled (HAiF-ers wouldn't like, I suppose) and I love that the architect of UTEP looked to the "land of the thunder dragon" for inspiration. It's too bad the Franklin Mountains aren't a little higher so that they could act as cloud-catchers (or cloud-creators, I don't know which, my ignorance is pleasingly total, though I find that doesn't prevent me from talking like a weatherman, "afternoon heating may spark a thunderstorm or two," or, "if only this high pressure would move off," etc.). It was an effect I saw that same day with every succeeding mountain range in AZ, each having its own dark blue weather system above, very dramatic. Curious cases of ownership compel me to mention AZ's Mt.Graham in the Coronado NF, which has a fairly vertigo-inducing guardrail-free drive to the top (HAIF-ers would like, I suppose) -- that seemed a bit harrowing in the rain. It is home to a federally-listed endangered species which is easy to catch sight of, because it's a squirrel. At the top are some big telescopes, jointly owned, if memory is correct, by the University of Arizona and .. the Vatican! I figure they are either looking for God or trying to make up for what they did to Galileo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
editor Posted September 26, 2012 Share Posted September 26, 2012 All land is worthless until you find someone who values it. Look at the upper and lower tiers of Pennsylvania and New York. Land was super cheap there for a hundred years. Then someone invented fracking, and all the energy companies are rushing in.The universities can afford to just sit on the land (so to speak) because they don't operate in human timelines. They think in generations or longer. Maybe 100 years from now someone will figure out how to get food from a particular rock that only exists in those plots of land; who knows? Institutions can think in those terms. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luciaphile Posted September 27, 2012 Share Posted September 27, 2012 Maybe 100 years from now someone will figure out how to get food from a particular rock that only exists in those plots of land; who knows? Institutions can think in those terms. Thank you for that insightful comment, editor. Maybe we should begin irrigating the desert with Gatorade (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiocracy) to coax forth this non-carbon-based bounty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheNiche Posted September 28, 2012 Share Posted September 28, 2012 The universities can afford to just sit on the land (so to speak) because they don't operate in human timelines. They think in generations or longer. Maybe 100 years from now someone will figure out how to get food from a particular rock that only exists in those plots of land; who knows? Institutions can think in those terms.I was all set to blame their athletics departments, but if they're thinking in these terms then that would most assuredly would explain their budget problems and ever-increasing tuition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luciaphile Posted April 13, 2013 Share Posted April 13, 2013 There Will Be Dust when El Paso's very tall, iconic (for once the word is not too strained, I think) smelter chimneys come down in a couple hours: http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_22999917/prep-work-finished-demolition-at-asarco?source=most_emailed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RxGibbs Posted December 18, 2013 Share Posted December 18, 2013 ASARCO stack is gone, City Hall is gone, the El Paso Chihuahuas new stadium is midway through construction and an 11-12 story apartment tower has been proposed for a site nearby. Fountains at Farah, a 600,000 sq. ft. shopping complex has opened and Montecillo is moving deeper into its phased development with a town center shopping development on tap. More later... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nativehoustonion Posted December 18, 2013 Share Posted December 18, 2013 It is very odd that El Paso is closer to San Diego then Houston. It's cool there is growth over there keep us updated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChannelTwoNews Posted December 20, 2013 Share Posted December 20, 2013 There really is a fair amount going on over there, it seems as of late. I'm quite interested in seeing how the improvements in the core pan out as well as how the master plan for the Medical Center of the Americas takes shape. Have been keeping an eye on the website below - they have pretty frequent updates on activity around town. http://www.elpasodevnews.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RxGibbs Posted December 20, 2013 Share Posted December 20, 2013 El Paso is experiencing its biggest development boom in 40 years. Part of it is the big expansion at Ft. Bliss, another element is the steady growth of the border logistics hub. When the Verde Group sold out to Brookfield properties for $888 million, the area got hooked up to a $150 billion development powerhouse with a direct line to Wall Street. The formation of a major regional bank is also underway which will finally match local needs with a lender that actually cares about El Paso. Finally, El Paso has a Fortune 500 benefactor in Western Refining and billionaire Paul Foster who was behind the new ballpark. Throw in the New Medical Center of the Americas and Texas Tech Medical Center and the stars are aligning for El Paso. Some highlights: New William Beaumont Army Medical Center: $1 billion Montecillo new urban development: $700 million TXDOT projects $1-2 billion Tenet Healthcare hospital projects: $120 million New ballpark: $50+ million MCA-Texas Tech Medical center: $500+ million Aldea SmartCode development: $100+ million Union Pacific intermodal hub at nearby Santa Teresa NM: $400 million (this eliminates a major east west bottleneck for the railroad) 15 story downtown hotel 11-12 story downtown apartment building And a variety of retail and residential projects including the $70 million Fountains at Farah. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
august948 Posted December 20, 2013 Share Posted December 20, 2013 ASARCO stack is gone, City Hall is gone, the El Paso Chihuahuas new stadium is midway through construction and an 11-12 story apartment tower has been proposed for a site nearby. Fountains at Farah, a 600,000 sq. ft. shopping complex has opened and Montecillo is moving deeper into its phased development with a town center shopping development on tap. More later... Wait a minute...someone named a sports team after a yappy little dog? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
august948 Posted December 20, 2013 Share Posted December 20, 2013 It is very odd that El Paso is closer to San Diego then Houston. It's cool there is growth over there keep us updated. Just goes to show how big the state of Texas really is. Half of a car trip from Houston to Los Angeles is in Texas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RxGibbs Posted December 22, 2013 Share Posted December 22, 2013 Wait a minute...someone named a sports team after a yappy little dog? Yep, and it was hugely controversial. Probably a marketing gimmick intended to get people talking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sellanious Caesar Posted December 22, 2013 Share Posted December 22, 2013 The Mexican state of Chihuahua is across the border from El Paso. Pretty sure they named it in honor of that IMO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
august948 Posted December 24, 2013 Share Posted December 24, 2013 The Mexican state of Chihuahua is across the border from El Paso.Pretty sure they named it in honor of that IMO. Ok...that makes more sense. I kept picturing Paris Hilton's little purse dog. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plumber2 Posted December 28, 2013 Share Posted December 28, 2013 What happened to the Diablos? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.