Progress in Del Rio

I am from up north where a lot of the states make you pay a deposit on the cans and bottles. I was in Michigan when the law was passed; littering of cans and bottles went away the very first week. They showed camping grounds before the law then after. It was amazing the difference.
Just a thought
bob

OK LIVE!

It's time to resurrect this forum on the progress or lack thereof of our great city.

Can someone please explain to me as to how the city can pave alleys behind houses and not pave main streets that are sorely in need of repair? The other day I turned off of Veteran's onto 17th street heading west toward Main street and saw an alley on the left that looked like it was freshly paved. Huh? I don't understand the priorities of this city. I overheard someone say, didn't know who they were mention that there was a plan to pave some or all (not sure) of the alleys. Is this true? How can this happen? Are alleys more important than main thorough fares, like main street for example???...

This city's fiscal priorities are way off kilter in the wrong direction in MHO...

Here is what AP said in an earlier post above:

"Submitted by Amor Patriae on Wed, 03/14/2007 - 10:35pm.

Well, "1Cardinalsfan" I can only "hopefully" answer one of your questions, maybe others can answer the rest.

From what I have been told; the City, is loathe to repave vs. repair the streets that have not had the old water pipes upgraded. From what I have been told, the City's growth has caused the pressure in the pipes to increase exponentially, thus the leaks we all see from time to time erupting in the middle of the streets. In fact I understand that they are still finding non-clay piping or rather wooden piping when digging in Western Del Rio. Yep, no kidding. So in a monetary sense I can see why we are waiting “no sense in re- re- paving" after the pipes are dug up and replaced. If you go by the City offices it's my understanding that there is a re-paving plan and you can ask for it. Although I haven't asked to see it myself."

How long will it be before the water and sewer pipes are upgraded? 5 years, maybe 10 years?

Please Bill or someone find out what this city is doing as far as repaving some of the worst bumpy streets I've ever seen. But the city can throw patch on top of patch on a lot of the streets in my neighborhood. Ever drive down Kingsway toward Buena Vista Park? The low water crossing is full of patches, just one example.

Oh, and how about repainting the lines/stripes on some of the streets as well? Go buy some reflective paint and have the kids out of school during the summer paint the streets or maybe the prisoners from the jail. Can't they be used in a work detail? I'd like to see some freshly painted lines/stripes on our streets...

Come on Del Rio??

Cheers! Go Cards!!!

i remenber wen i was a kid thad one day my father took me with him and wen he was driving itrow a can of soda iwas drinking out of the car window,and i still remenber the slap he give me in the leg and stop the car and make go pick the can off.if we act like pigs? how our childrens are goint to act?

Since this forum is titled "Progress in Del Rio" Let' discuss just that.

1. I'll admit I haven't set foot inside a city meeting but I wonder where are all the tax dollars spent? I see new housing construction going up around Buena Vista elementary school and north out of town towards Lake Amistad. With all of the new tax revenue coming in, why can't they repave some of the main streets in the city? For example Main street. Anyone driven on that tank trail lately? Your vehicle needs a front end alignment after steering down the street like its an obstacle course. Any one from the city read these?

2. Why not start a recycle program? For instance, why can't the city give a penny for every plastic bag that is collected in vacant lots and fields? Then turn all that in to a company for recycling? There are many companies that seem able to make money in the recycling business.

3. How about some of the city clubs and organizations (the Lions club and Rotary club are good examples, I like their parks) plant some flowers and a nice entrance into the city from highway 90 and 277? A new visitor driving into Del Rio needs to have a nice first impression of the city scenery.

My thoughts for tonight.

What a load of horse manure. If you don't like our country, instead of pissing and moaning, why don't you either: (1) live elsewhere, (2) shut up, (3) become a responsible, informed, voting citizen and work for productive change. Since the birth of our country, people came because they wanted to be AMERICANS. They LEFT BEHIND a country and culture that failed to nurture them. They LEFT IT BEHIND in order to become something better. In order to do that, however, they accepted the responsibility to MAKE this country better. Why did you come? What have you done since you got here? Is this or is this not the best country in the world in which to live? Put up or shut up. QUICHERBITCHIN!

Latin = Spanish (almost), literally love for a FATHERLAND.

Hey, what's with Bill Songtag? He missed all the jokes in my posts?

My point is not to buy an old car; just don't buy a new car and avoid the instant depreciation when you drive it off the lot, save the money for your kid's education.

The real point is not to drive around a TWO THOUSAND POUND PERSONAL STATEMENT, or jewelry, to ostentatiously proclaim your affluence (and probably your internal insecurity about the size of your wallet, house keys, and other things in your pants or vest).

My most succinct two words on the subject, MASS TRANSIT = freedom from America's number one consumer problem.

Next time you drive down the road, count all the businesses related to automobiles, (and their parking lots!) and say aloud "Bill Sontag" to give yourself a laugh.

For those who really care about the future, look up Curitiba Brazil, or check out the San Diego to Tijuana corridor, with a trolley system you can put your bike on, and bike rentals to cross the border.

Otherwise, lets keep giving tax cuts to war profiteer corporations and thier investors.

Your kids will pay for it, right?

Happy retirement.

Oh, and what does "pinche" mean?

I bet your hispanic friend doesn't use a dictionary. That's the problem with Del Rio and the border in general; instead of seeing Spanish as a legitimate intellectual subject, they internally denigrate it due to misguided pressures from a xenophobic "dominant culture."

Use a dictionary, not your friend.

While your at it, look up pendejo.

The toughest word is Güey, which Mexicans now use like United Statesiens used to say 'guy' or 'man,' as an over-used impersonal address, ubiquitous and disgusting.
Unfortunately, the true meaning of Güey reveals as much about Mexican culture as their new laws, like November 2005 making it illegal to rape your wife, and the recent legislation that does not allow a wife to forgive a wife-beater to avoid the state's prosecuting him.

If Del Rio and America respected Human Rights, (right to language and culture) then people wouldn't need to go to Guatemala or Costa Rico to learn decent Spanish! They could come to our progressive, intellectually stimulating bi-national community with the best freshwater resources in the USA!

A Hispanic friend of mine told me today what "pinche" means. Classy.

Not that I have any real room to talk.

Sorry pinche, I’m still confused. First about my “sig”, yes I know you’re joking, so no prob. But here’s a little background for you, Amor Patriae isn’t Spanish, its Latin for “love of one’s country”. I chose this pseudonym to basically make a small point, that for some in these border towns it is hard to climb past the ethnocentric knee jerk “if it looks like Spanish it must be Spanish”, reaction.

From your statement, I did understand that you did and do use your bicycle. My issue with what you said was that you were “advising” people to buy old cars. Advising them to buy and ride a bike I can and do agree with. If they already have an old car fine, but its fallacious “to say the least” to advise someone to buy an old gas guzzling beater vs. a higher mileage less polluting newer car in order to save our environment.

Believe it or not pinche, you are not the only one who has been out of the country and has met and talked to, well let’s say interesting people. I know good and well why people hate us. Among other things “of which there are legion” we come across as an entire nation of hypocrites. But I absolutely refuse to say our system is bankrupt. Believing that is simply a refusal on many levels to see the facts of the matter. Many who do so are in fact doing so only for personal gain and the uninformed masses simply follow like myrmidons, shouting the “party line” and vehemently reviling all those who disagree. One of the leaders of the “blind” would be Michael Moore. He expounds what he claims to be the new American Standard. Yet what he is, is well fed, convinced of his own rectitude, looks at the downtrodden and disadvantaged as if that status is something to attain to and is unable to see through the smoke screen thrown up by his own iniquities. In short he can’t practice what he preaches.

And for example;
Lets see didn’t a pair of Canadian filmmakers just try to do a movie espousing Michael Moore’s many “cough” virtues and ended up doing a show called “Manufacturing Dissent” that is incredibly scathing of Moore and his ways? To quote the; “The Times Online reports the two were, "disappointed and disillusioned" after following Moore around and learning about his methods. They say that Moore used the same evasion and avoidance tactics on them that he criticizes others for in his movies. Anyway this film is set to premiere at the Texas film festival on Saturday.

As to global warming, I’m on the fence “really”. I can find cogent arguments, both for and against it. Here’s a new one though, a British TV station is coming out with a scientific rebuttal to Al Gore’s movie, “An Inconvenient Truth” and it’s called “The Great Global Warming Swindle”.

Of course we should carry in our hearts, Amor Humana and or Amor Biosphere. But as with all things, I attempt to temper that with reality. The reality is “Amor Humana right now”. I simply refuse to cut the electricity off until I find a better and affordable option. No one should die from cold and hunger, period. Nor will I ask anyone else to do so.

As for Hugo Chavez, sorry to see you put him and his decidedly odd behavior on a pedestal. If you really think that his actions were even partly altruistic, then you should take a class in “detecting dictatorial megalomaniacs 101”, with the follow-on of “and the dangers they represent to free thinking 102”.

Also please don’t use a visit to Havana as an example of what the rest of Cuba is like because its not. That is what is called a model socialist city, there’s another one called Beijing and it works the same way. The Cuban officials will allow foreigners to visit a small number of towns/cities that do not show the depredations caused by the socialist culture. If you go beyond those you get arrested plain and simple, so don’t be fooled by the “party line”.

No no and no again children should not and can not be allowed full access to the internet. And no no and no again all information as you have suggested should not and can not be out there for just anyone to obtain, digest in their own way and act upon it or not. I’m sorry but I just don’t have the blind faith that you do in my fellow human beings. I absolutely refuse to allow the maniacal nut balls living down the street from me, free and easy access to something like information on making an explosive device or anything else that could harm my family. And that’s just one example of a straight up, no no.

From your statement “the liars that annihilated the lives and property of hundreds of thousands of people, the greedy bastards that send children from lower socio-economic communities like ours into harm's way.” It can be assumed that you mean our Government. First off, if you have a problem with the Feds offering service as a way to get a college degree then say so. What exactly is or are the lies that you are referring to? Rich people “who are a minority” in this country by the way can afford to pay for College. Others cannot, and not all of us were smart enough to obtain a scholarship. If you call that target marketing then I can’t do anything to help you. Personally I was glad to have the College money I was offered. Remember that the military is and has been voluntary for many years. If you call the offer of health benefits, steady pay and college money a scam then I suggest you direct your anger at a lot of lending agencies and credit cards as well. And Secondly, at our current rate, it will take over 100 years to kill as many as Saddam did. So I'm not worried yet. And at least we stick to some semblance of the law vs. just killing people for their ethnicity and so on and so forth.

You say that “That's the trouble with information. There's too much for any one of us.”, and yet you want an unformed individual “a child or young adult” to have access to this plethora of unconstrained and unfiltered data? You say you are a teacher but didn’t they teach you that you have to structure your classes? For example a college class could be called Eng 101, but you will not find one called “we will study anything you are curious about 101”. Yes our kids and young adults should be taught to negotiate the information superhighway, but it should be done so with reason and structure.

My dear Amor Patria;
Thank you for you reasoned, intelligent response.
I am an educator, I believe people must educate themselves. I consider myself a life-long autodidact with a college degree; I've listen to shortwave radio all my life, studied three languages, lived in four countries, and like to travel. I've hitchhiked and been picked up by perverts, Christians, businessmen, and criminals (whose discussions compared the holes of San Quentin and some other prison I've temporarily forgotten the name of). I went to school in a one-room schoolhouse, and graduated from an extremely high socio-economic school district's high school. I've danced with the wife of the Shah of Iran, and slept on the floor in hovels of Amer-Indians.
In your comments about my old gas-guzzling emission-spewing old car, you're right on, but you miss the point. I have used a BICYCLE for most of my transportation needs.
You probably derive your ideology from that "Greatest Generation" of WWII warriors, who got into the war too late but for all the right reasons, and in hindsight, the moral issues seem simpler now than they did then, at least to those contemporaries that lived through those years.
The moral issues remain simple for those that do not live in a wet dream of Amor Patria (isn't that homosexual? Just kidding, alright!?!), My Country Right or Wrong. The Nazis felt the same way, as do most people. It's a tribal instinct to yell at those unlike ourselves "You come from the village of pimples and pus."
But it is not so. We should all carry in our hearts the screen name Amor Humana, or Amor Biosphere.
To decide that Global Warming lies beyond human control simply because geologic history reveals cataclysmic climate change and global extinctions ignores our responsibility as reasonable creatures, as the "eyes of the universe." We have this God-given opportunity, through scientific evidence, and now can choose between order and disorder, good and evil, and plan for a better tomorrow. Just because we might have a heart attack while driving doesn't mean we should close our eyes and straddle the yellow line. I want to die in my sleep like my grandfather, not kicking and screaming like those in the car with him.
You want to filter information, and ignore the utility of access to knowledge and the responsibility that entails. You want to control information, and practice an active ignorance, an action verb, not the usual ignorance due to lack of resources. You think everything's alright with all the violence on TV and sexual objectification in advertisements, all the glamour of Hip-hop with music and drugs intertwined?
Of course not, I don't think you do. Today, people must learn to negotiate the marketplace of ideas, because they exist, because others believe, and that alters each person's reality. Ethnocentric chauvinisms make no sense in a modern, interconnected world.
Last week the Inuit ("Eskimo") people filed a lawsuit against the United States of America in the Organization of American States. They believe our American 'culture', our greedy unsustainable poisonous inhuman consumer lifestyles, create so much carbon emissions that the resultant global warming now melts their permafrost and threatens their way of life.
You might want to say "So they can come here," right? What's the problem? Our immigration problem stems from at least the last fifty years of our foreign policy. We use, by some estimates, 25% of the WORLD's resources, and control perhaps 60%. Dumb luck, or subversive military interventionism? Of course people want to come here, we (actually, a super-class of investors like the families Bush, Cheney, Dulles, Rumsfeld, the Kuwaitis, House of Saud, and maybe Michael Jackson) looted their country's natural resources, and left little behind to guarantee their children a bright future.
As far as quality of Life, the quasi-socialist countries of Northwest Eurasia rank highest. Only one oil company refused to raise its prices during the Operation Iraqi Liberation (OIL) and forego obscene windfall profits- Venezuela's Citgo, and they use their profits for education and healthcare. Cuba sends a hundred times more doctors and nurses abroad than we do, and citizens enjoy enviable quality of life, especially compared to America's inner cities. I walked around downtown Havana one night till dawn, and no one feels paranoid about crime. Pity those innocent Cubans who raft over to Miami! I lived there, too.
I canceled my cable TV to avoid the 20 minutes of ads per hour, all the gratuitous violence, the brain-wash xenophobic news with the sensationalism of the next kidnapped bride or suspected serial killer. I order films through the internet. You should watch "Turtles Can Fly", a recent Iraqi-Iranian film about hundreds of war orphans, many maimed, legless, armless, etc. that clean mines out of landowner's fields along the Kurdish border. They really understand that America makes quality mines. They clean the same fields every three weeks.
I hope someday you will respect FREE and OPEN access to information. I've known about the secret CIA torture bases in Europe for over a year, because of shortwave radio. I hope you read about the effects of pornography on the young (not much) verses the effects of mind-numbing violence where the good guys never get hurt. I hope you share with me the notion that everyone deserves lots of quality sex and honors the temple of their body, and that no one should ever experience violence.
My feeling of security would improve most if the real criminals would face justice; the liars that annihilated the lives and property of hundreds of thousands of people, the greedy bastards that send children from lower socio-economic communities like ours into harm's way.
In terms of quality of life, I don't think that both parents working full time for two weeks of vacation, with 50% divorcing while their children attend school, in competition (with neighbors they rarely talk to) for the best fleet of automobiles on the front lawn, does anyone any good. (A good scientific book by four doctors titled "A General Theory of Love" comes to an eye-opening conclusion about why this happened.)
Unfortunately, it's hard for people to see alternatives in a community that practices active ignorance through a homogeneity of opinion (mostly gossip), instead of the excitement of a truly democratic and multicultural society that reinvents itself through respect for each person's informed opinion.
That's the trouble with information. There's too much for any one of us.
Luckily, with enough FREE ACCESS to information, we might get closer. A group of people can guess the number of jelly beans in a jar (the average guess) much better than any one of us.
After all, these ill-educated children in this community, who see only criminology or trade in controlled agricultural products as career choices, will vote in a year or so. Better they learn to negotiate the marketplace of ideas, instead of become accustomed to a militaristic authoritarianism with information controlled (by who, for what purpose?) on a "need to know basis."
We all need to know, and at this point in history, the possibility exists.
I'm hopeful, how about you?