Downtown, the Heart from El Paso. completely different on the other side; more people walking around, lots of stores, the mix of

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1 Davila 1 Ana Davila Prof. Alvino Hernandez State and Local Government November 2017 Downtown, the Heart from El Paso When I was a child, I used to live in Juarez. During the weekends my family and I would come to El Paso crossing at the Santa Fe downtown bridge. It was a threshold where things were completely different on the other side; more people walking around, lots of stores, the mix of Spanish and English language, clothes, shoes, and of course George Washington's face smiling at me like a partner in crime ready to spend. Now, years later, downtown is looking more and more like a ghost town with deserted streets, empty or closed businesses and no life there. I was curious to know what was happening in downtown and decided to investigate. I walked throughout downtown to see for myself what exactly was happening. I was going to investigate. The truth is that it is a very big part of our city and I needed to choose just a certain part as my sample. I started my research by having a better understanding of what was in downtown. I went to the El Paso City Hall City 2, to the department of Zoning. Mr. Jaime, a GIS specialist, assessed me by providing me three different maps of downtown. A simple black and white one, a satellite view, and a zoning one. He also, showed me the interactive maps available in the City of El Paso website, that later were very useful. After, looking to these maps I traced the specific area I wanted to research.

2 Davila 2 Stanton Street. I choose the area from Ninth Avenue to Wyoming Avenue and from Santa Fe Street to Fig. 1 The area highlighted was the one chosen for the research What first moved me to do this project was Stanton St. since it was sad to see this once very active street now abandoned. I wanted this area because this is where I observed most of the activity of El Paso s downtown going on. In here we can find the little businesses along the El Paso Street and Stanton Street, the Sun Metro Downtown Terminal, the Chihuahuas Ballpark, the San Jacinto Plaza, among other places. Also, the interactive map of zoning, (Table 1 below) found at the City of El Paso website, shows the major part of this area is C-1 and C-4 commercial districts and C-5 central business districts, M-1 light manufacturing districts, and little of S-D special development districts.

3 Davila 3 Table 1 Zoning Categories Description Example C-1 Commercial District; compatible neighborhood convenience goods and services serving day-to-day needs C-4 Commercial District; general business area with major locations of commerce, services and employment activities C-5 Central Business District; more intensive commercial uses M-1 Light Manufacturing District; lightintensity industries like manufacturing, assembling, distribution, warehousing S-D Special Development District; mixeduse projects in some older residential areas allowing a variety of nonresidential uses while maintaining established residential appearance It is a little area, but it is a big part of downtown. Businesses along El Paso St. and Stanton St. Businesses along El Paso St. and Stanton St. Mills Building Railroads along Santa Fe St. Areas along the border. To start this research, the Downtown Management District (DMD) provided the demographics and a public input survey found in their website, and an approximate number of the businesses within their boundaries. My observations and survey's result differ a little from the DMD's results. This may be because they had a larger sample within their boundaries, more resources, and different techniques than mine. The latest demographics found on their website were from The 2011 DMD census showed that downtown employees were 67% Hispanic, White, Non-Hispanic (28%) and all other ethnicities surveyed were under 1%. From my observations around downtown, the majority were Hispanic individuals who talked to me a lot about what was going on in the businesses, and Chinese/Asian individuals who refused to talk to me about their businesses and were more reserved on their businesses or there was a lack of communication. On gender, the survey shows nearly 60% of female and 39% male of downtown employees. About age, it seems that 22% are

4 Davila 4 between the ages of 25-34, years old, nearly 29% were between the ages of years old, and 19% between years old. The majority of the people I saw and interviewed seemed young, maybe around their late twenties and early forties. The results from the DMD about the demographics did not differ much from my observations. The Downtown Management District organizes a survey each year to see how things are going on downtown. According to the DMD's webpage, "The survey represents the opinions of downtown property owners, downtown businesses, downtown employers, downtown residents, visitors and members of the general public who voluntarily participated in the survey." This survey was distributed during July, their survey was also online, and was responded by businesses, residents, and visitors. This survey asked the participants what attracted them to downtown, if they felt that downtown was progressing, and asked for the three top elements for the redevelopment of it. The DMD public input survey of 2017 results were the following (shown in Tables 2-5). Table 2 On the input survey of this year, the majority of the visitors responded that what attracted them the most to visit downtown where the events.

5 Davila 5 Table 3 Out of the events, the sporting events where the ones that attracted the more, following by the street festivals and in third place was other kind of events. Table 4 The majority of the participants answered that they felt that downtown was progressing.

6 Davila 6 Table 5 Finally, the survey showed the results by category of the most important elements for the redevelopment of downtown and overall what the majority demanded cleanliness, family friendly atmosphere & business, and events. Also, the executive director of DMD, Joe Gudenrath, provided an approximate of the businesses downtown. Within the boundaries (Fig. 2) of the Downtown Management District there is: Fig parcels -Approximately 224 property owners -1,562 individual addresses. For example, the building where the DMD is located 201 E. Main is one parcel, with one property owner, but includes a large number of individual addresses.

7 Davila 7 Before finding all this information at the DMD webpage, I had a conversation with the Borderplex VP of Economic Development, Mr. Ramirez. According to the Borderplex website they are a nonprofit organization dedicated to economic and policy advocacy in the El Paso, Las Cruces, and Cd. Juarez region. Basically, they are an organization working with the government to help grow these three regions. I asked Mr. Ramirez about downtown current businesses situation, the effect of the trolley, the constructions and DACA & immigration had over these. He responded that the major challenge that downtown and every business is now facing is the technology, which is now replacing traditional stores. The businesses need to adapt to the time, start using technology, he asked me how many of the businesses downtown counted with a social media (a website, Facebook, Twitter) and if their customers were able to easily access it on their mobile devices. With the construction of the trolley and other things people are not going downtown as often as they used to go. Downtown businesses cannot rely on the people in the streets, they need to go out and chase their clients. He also said that despite the retail businesses closing we would observe a major increase in the service sector (salons, drycleaners, hotels/motels), El Paso was going to be better soon, many businesses were waiting for the buildings to be in better shape. More than $250 million are being invested in downtown, including for the renovation of Martin Building, Bassett Tower, the Banner Building, the Paso del Norte and the Plaza hotels, creating new jobs beside attracting businesses and investors (Perez pp. 3). The local government is making a big effort to restore downtown. On the immigration side, Mr. Ramirez commented that on the DACA/Immigration issue Mr. Trump needs to reconsider his decision. These people are already educated and part of the workforce of the nation. The DACA issue is more of a problem deeper inside the United States, El Paso is not really being impacted by it. Mr. Ramirez conversation was insightful to the project.

8 Davila 8 With the help of Mr. Hernandez, EPCC Government teacher, and Mr. Ramirez a fourquestion survey was created directed specifically to downtown businesses. I interviewed twenty businesses. Figure 3 shows the area I covered and the red marks the businesses interviewed, Table 6 are the businesses' categories, the number of businesses of each category, its names, date of interview and if their sales were up and down, Figures 4-7 are my results: Fig. 3 The businesses interviewed for the research are marked in red.

9 Davila 9 Table 6 Categories No. of businesses Businesses and interview date Food 2 La Pasadita (Oct. 17) 70% Dollar Snack (Oct. 17) 10% Retail/Whole sale 10 Popular Store (Oct. 12) 50% Beauty Supply (Oct. 17) 40% Aldair (Oct. 17) 40% Jewelry Box (Oct. 17) 50% Casa Camacho (Oct. 17) 20% Outlet Decoration (Oct. 17) 50% Starr Western Wear (Oct. 30% 17) Flower Fashion (Oct. 17) 30% Alex s Boots (Oct. 17) 30% Ferreteria Oregon (Oct. 17) 60% Grocery 2 Mata s Fruit Store (Oct. 17) 10% Ruidoso s Supermarket 30% (Oct. 17) Services 6 Hernandez A+H Insurance 15% Group (Oct. 12) EP-LA Limousine (Oct. 12) 30% Are your Sales going up or down? Eagle Finance (Oct. 17) Vary Parking Systems of America 30% (Oct. 17) Rodela s Tax Services (Oct. Stable 17) Geneva Loans (Oct. 17) 80%

10 Davila Whole sale/retail Grocery Food Services Fig. 4 On average the businesses sales, except for the food, are going down. The retail and whole sale businesses were the lowest, followed by the services, and grocery is the less low with a twenty percent decrease Businesses closing 10% Politics 10% -43 Bridge rate 3% Causes of Up or Down Increase Decrease Peso Construction Fig. 5 Of the causes that may have influenced their sales the majority said that the peso devaluation and the various constructions were the biggest. Lack of parking Economy 3% Peso 47% Don't know Economy Politics Don't know 7% Businesses closing Bridge rate Lack of parking 3% New variety Construction 17%

11 Davila Do you think the DACA/Immigration is affecting your business? 16 4 Fig. 6 Out of the twenty businesses 16 are being affected by immigration. 1 out of those 16 businesses was affected in a positive way, the other 15 were affected negatively. 0 Yes No Does your business depend on or use any social media? Fig. 7 No 45% Yes 55% Yes No Out of the twenty businesses 11 responded yes, with most of the websites could be easily accessed in a mobile device. The other 9 did not count with a social media out of these one responded that they used to have one, but no one managed and was simply deleted it.

12 Davila 12 When comparing the results from the DMD survey to mine, my results had a less positive outlook. The negativity reflected in my results compared to the DMD s are likely because they had a larger sample than I had. Also, many businesses I interviewed were small and some are outside of the DMD s boundaries. The food sector was the only category with positive numbers. It is followed by the grocery with had the lowest reported loss amount. While consumer confidence may be low, we know from Maslow s hierarchy of needs that people must eat and therefore will overcome obstacles to eat. Since food is a basic necessity, sales in this category will be higher than others affected by negative influences. In the service sector, some employees told me their businesses depended on Mexican customers and others told me their sales were up, stable, or varying. One business, Rodela s Tax Service, told me immigration would benefit the business in a positive way. These three sectors, overall were not performing that badly. The lowest performing category was retail/wholesale. Employees were concerned and sad about their sales going down at a fast rate. Many said their businesses depend on Mexican clients. The peso devaluation and the current politics were blamed. Some comments were that a lot of the people are saving their money in case they need to get back to Mexico, that Mexican s pride was hurt and they feel anger towards President Trump. One man told me the trolley is all a whim from the government, a $97-million-dollar project that has caused trouble to the El Paso downtown community (Perez 1). It is true a lot of money is being invested in the trolley, but it can benefit downtown. The trolley is going to have a route of 4.8 miles, traveling along North Stanton St. from downtown to UTEP. There it loops around it and crosses over heading south on Oregon St. (Perez 2). If it is necessary to restore downtown and the city is already investing so much on the trolley, it would be a good investment to support improvement of businesses along

13 Davila 13 the trolley s route. It might be possible for the retail and whole sale businesses now experiencing a decline in sales and service to see a beneficial change as a result of the trolley. After collecting the information, it seems downtown business is clearly declining. But it may see revitalization soon. I believe in the revitalization of downtown mainly because Mayor Dee Margo said it during his State of the City, "There has been more than $300 million in private investment in Downtown, 21 incentive project agreements and new hotel rooms built, with more in the works" (Perez 2). However, I also believe the local government is not taking into account the little businesses, like the ones that were part of this study. If downtown is going to be revitalized, it should not exclude the downtown community. If they were to do that it will cause gentrification. One cannot force the change; the change needs to come from inside. Another fact is the city seems to be concentrating only on creating attractions that are single, one-time events that would only attract people for only the duration of the event. People would go downtown, attend the event and leave. It would not be likely they would stay downtown but travel back to their home. One man told me El Paso is like that because people would only stay for a day and leave, la gente solamente viene de paso a El Paso. The objective is to keep people downtown for more than an hour or two. Downtown needs more businesses; not only local ones but big retail chains and nationally known service sources. My major concern is that inclusion of the small businesses is vital to restoring this part of El Paso. If this type of effort is put into action, it is possible that downtown could be restored to what it once was, a bright, exciting and prosperous part of the city.

14 Davila 14 Works Cited Downtown Management District. "Downtown El Paso Survey Census 2011" DMD - Downtown El Paso. July Downtown Management District. "Downtown El Paso Survey Census 2011" DMD - Downtown El Paso. July Final.pdf. Downtown Management District. "2017 Public Input Survey" July Results_PresentationFormat_ pdf. Perez, Elida S. "City leaders highlight Downtown historic preservation projects, development" El Paso Times. 26 Sept Perez, Elida S. "Infraestructure phase of $97 million Dowtown streetcar project months ahead of schedule" El Paso Times. 16 Oct Perez, Elida S. "5 takeaways from Mayor Dee Margo's State of the City address" El Paso Times. 18 Oct Zoning - City of El Paso. "Appendix "A" Title 20 (Zoning) BZAC" City of El Paso. %20Title%2020%20Zoning.pdf.