Tag Archives: Amarillo

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Amarillo is snow-wise on the road

I am happy to report that I live in a city where drivers actually do know how to drive in the snow and ice.

Amarillo, Texas is the place.

It snowed today. Not a lot, but it snowed for most of the afternoon. Not sure when it’ll stop. I think I heard a forecast that called for 3 to 4 inches.

Here’s what I saw on my way home from work this evening: Cars streaming down three busy streets very slowly and carefully. That was a good thing to see.

Amarillo gets usually a total winter snow accumulation of about a foot every winter. Last winter, we got nearly twice that amount in one heap. It paralyzed the city, which is really saying something. It takes a great deal of snow to close school systems here. Last winter, they closed for three or four days before enough snow melted to make the streets passable.

This evening was not an unusual event. I call attention to it only because I hear so many stories — constantly, it seems — about folks in cities where residents do not know how to handle the snow. I’ve lived in a couple of them, actually: Portland, Ore., where I was born and where I grew up, and Beaumont, Texas, where snow and ice are quite rare, but not totally out of the question.

Portland gets snow most winters. However, for some reason Portlanders seem to get caught on hilly streets with cars skidding out of control. Beaumont? That’s another story altogether. I remember just one winter during our nearly 11 years there when snow fell and ice coated the streets. You would have thought the world had just come to an end.

We moved to Amarillo in early 1995 and we’ve seen our fair share of severe winters. We’ve had some mild winters as well, but the long-timers around here remember the old days when blizzards would blind everyone. Highways would close. Livestock would freeze to death.

Through it all, they managed to get through in their vehicles.

It’s still true. Yes, I know some folks have seen madness on the streets during snow storms on the High Plains. I’ve seen it, too.

Still, I’m glad my normally five-minute drive home from work tonight took me 30 minutes to complete. Go slow and be very careful out there.

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How did we sink the ARC?

It’s one day short of a month since an election in Amarillo that defeated a $30 million-plus recreational center.

I’ve been thinking about why it went down in flames, what factors contributed to its defeat, how the city could have done better to sell it to a skeptical public. I’ve been asking some folks in the know around town.

Here are a few preliminary conclusions:

* The Amarillo Recreational Complex was sprung on voters with little discussion. It would have cost $36 million or so to build. It would have included ball fields, indoor tennis and basketball courts, proximity to public golf courses and swimming facilities. I’m not suggesting here that the Amarillo City Council pulled this notion out of its hat at the last minute. Yes, there was some discussion — but not nearly enough of it.

* The light turnout played against it. Turnout was in the teens, meaning that fewer than two in 10 eligible voters cast ballots on Nov. 5. Who are the most dedicated voters in any community? Old folks like me. The young people who would have the most to gain from the ARC didn’t turn out. That’s just the way it has been in this country for as long as I can remember.

* The city had just spent $2.6 million on an abandoned railroad depot. The timing of the election came just after the city plunked down a big chunk of cash to buy the Santa Fe Railroad Depot downtown, just east of the Civic Center. I realize that the money was available and it wouldn’t affect our municipal tax rate, but there well might have been a feeling among voters that the city was adopting a spendthrift philosophy with public money. Why give the city more of it?

* There well might be a latent tea party movement that stirred to life. The pro-ARC signs became almost part of the city’s landscape in the weeks prior to the election. They were everywhere. It made me think the measure was going to pass by a huge margin. The tea party movement across the country operates largely under the radar. It comprises people who are just fed up with government. There might have been some of that at play in Amarillo.

I hope the ARC — or some version of it — comes back. Quality of life issues are difficult to quantify. The pro-ARC gang did a good job of explaining how the complex would keep business here, how it would attract out-of-towners to Amarillo, how it would benefit the city’s economic well-being while providing families here significant new recreational opportunities.

There will need to be a cooling-off period to be sure of perhaps a year, maybe longer. If and when it returns, I would encourage the city to get ahead of the story in a major way, stay there and put forth a serious marketing campaign to sell this worthy product.

That’s how you win elections.

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Lawsuit may muck up downtown plan

Just when you thought Amarillo was set to take a major step toward downtown revival, something gets in the way … maybe.

The Amarillo Economic Development Corporation announced plans to file a lawsuit to recover $1.6 million from the company that built the CenterPort Business Park in east Amarillo. Yes, it’s some distance from downtown.

But hold on.

The CenterPort site is now vacant. Another business lured here by AEDC gave up on its wind-turbine construction project and left. The city wants to relocate the Coca-Cola distribution center, which is currently downtown, to the CenterPort site. Except that it’s structurally unsound. The foundation is a mess, according to AEDC. It needs to rebuilt.

The firm that built the place, Commercial Industrial Builders, muffed the job. AEDC wants the company to pay back the money that AEDC says it will have to spend to fix the site.

What does this mean for downtown’s revival? Well, the Coca-Cola site is supposed to become home to a multipurpose entertainment venue to be built, along with a downtown hotel and a huge parking garage. The legal action just might gum up those works if CIB fights hard to keep from paying the money AEDC wants.

AEDC President and CEO Buzz David said the agency sought to resolve the dispute without going to court. The efforts so far have failed. Perhaps the threat of a lawsuit might spur CIB to pony up the cash so that AEDC can fix what it says is wrong with the building.

If the threat doesn’t work, I’m afraid we’re in for a lengthy delay on downtown’s move forward.

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Bring on the red-light cameras

Amarillo city officials are about to expand the use of those pesky red-light cameras in use to catch those who ignore the command to stop at red lights.

Go for it, City Hall.

I’ve been all for the cameras since their initial deployment about six years ago. Too many motorists these days seem to believe the red light hanging from the power lines over the intersection is a suggestion, or a request, to stop their vehicle. No, it’s an order. Where I come from, lawful orders are meant to be followed.

The city will impose a grace period that will last until Nov. 1. After that date, the city gets serious with the new cameras.

I’ve long thought that public knowledge of the red-light cameras has enhanced motorists’ awareness. If a motorist knows — or believes — an intersection is being patrolled by an electronic device, he or she is likely to be more obedient when the red light glows at them from above.

No, the cameras aren’t the perfect solution. Indeed, the city is deploying the new devices because of continued law-breaking by motorists. The city has used the revenue generated to help pay for the additional cameras as well as enhance other areas of traffic management — which state law requires of cities that use these cameras.

Past city commissions have shown a tendency toward passivity at times when issues like this arise. The current commission has taken on the challenge, just as those who sat on the commission immediately prior to them.

One bit of good news comes from City Traffic Engineer Jerry Bird, who says recidivism is low, meaning that those who get cited by the city aren’t repeating. Fine. Keep them deployed.

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AMA to stay in the game with new airline

American Airlines and US Airways want to merge. Texas officials had protested their merger … until Tuesday.

The state has reached an agreement with the potential new airline giant that seeks a guarantee that the airline will serve 22 Texas cities for at least the next three years. The announcement came from Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott — who also is running to become the state’s next governor.

http://www.texastribune.org/2013/10/01/abbott-appear-american-airlines-ceo/

What does this mean for Rick Husband Amarillo International Airport? It means AMA stays in the American Airlines network of terminals now being served.

AMA has some additional skin in this game, given Amarillo’s unique relationship with American Airlines. The city once poured several millions of public dollars into keeping jet service at AMA. It came in the form of sales tax money collected by the Amarillo Economic Development Corporation. Some communities, even some media, scoffed at Amarillo for paying more than $1 million annually to American Airlines to keep the jets flying between AMA and Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. The strategy served to boost the city’s business climate.

That was then. American flies jets exclusively now in and out of AMA.

The merger likely now will go through, even though the federal government is protesting it. The feds contend the merger likely would be bad for competition and would drive the already-expensive cost of air travel even farther upward.

American Airlines and its parent company AMR have been huge corporate partners in Texas. The deal also means the airline will keep its headquarters in the Metroplex and that D-FW Airport will serve as the airline’s major hub.

Communities such as Amarillo, though, need the service to D-FW. Let’s hope the deal struck between the state and the company will lead to a longer-term commitment to this growing community.

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NM knows how to build highways

Albuquerque, N.M., along with the New Mexico Department of Transportation, ought to market themselves as the highway interchange construction champions of the nation.

They know how to do it.

Albuquerque is home to what the locals call the Big I, which is shorthand for the Interstate 40/25 interchange in the middle of the city. The state rebuilt the Big I over the course of many years. My wife and I drove through it a couple of times when it was under reconstruction. The experience was harrowing to say the least.

It’s done now and the Big I actually is a thing of beauty, if you consider highway projects to be works of art.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:I-40_approaching_the_Big_I.jpg

The link here really doesn’t do the Big I justice. Suffice to say, though, that NMDOT has done a fabulous job of creating a piece of civil engineering that is quite pleasing to the eye.

The landscaping is quite spectacular, featuring native flora — desert cactus and other plants that require little irrigation. One overpass on I-40, just a big west of the Big I, actually has multi-colored indirect lighting that glows at night.

I bring all this up because the major interchange in Amarillo, where we live, is far less appealing aesthetically than the one in Albuquerque. I’ve heard complaints from Amarillo residents over many years who say, in effect, that the I-40/27 interchange — which also was rebuilt some years ago — as in “eyesore” to motorists passing through the city.

One friend, a local lawyer, once griped to me about the terrible impression the Amarillo interchange leaves on motorists who may never come back through the city again.

I happen to agree with him.

Albuquerque has done it the right way.

Other cities should take note and follow the Albuquerque’s lead.

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News hits like a punch in the gut

Well, I’ve just taken an emotional punch that takes my breath away.

Word came out today that William Hughes “Buddy” Seewald has died in an auto accident. I don’t know the details, except that a good man — and someone I called a friend — has been taken from us.

I won’t linger too long over this post, except to say that Buddy was one of the smartest, most politically astute and decent men I’ve had the pleasure — and honor — of knowing.

We shared a lot of views over many years during my time as a daily journalist in Amarillo and his time as a contributor to our opinion pages. He could be biting in his critique of the prevailing attitude among most Panhandle residents. He was a distinctly progressive voice in a community dominated by conservative thinking. Buddy was fearless in his belief in liberal political causes.

I admired him as a political thinker and activist. Moreover, I always enjoyed our time together — usually over lunch — in which we would kick ideas around and occasionally share in some common political fellowship.

I had not seen much of Buddy in recent years. His myriad business interests kept him busy. I exited my career in daily journalism a year ago and have moved on to other pursuits.

But I will always cherish my memories of this larger-than-life soul. I’ll miss him terribly.

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Stay the course with red-light cams

I am tipping my proverbial cap to the Amarillo City Commission for showing the courage of its convictions relating to the red-light cameras it has deployed at intersections throughout the city.

Rather than buckling to a vocal minority of critics, commissioners are increasing the number of cameras. They’re adding even more electronic eyes to watch for those individuals who cannot seem to avoid running through red lights and endangering other motorists and pedestrians.

It’s an interesting display of backbone. Lubbock installed red-light cameras some years ago and then pulled them down when the critics got too loud. Amarillo, on the other hand, has stood firm against the critics, telling them flat out that if you don’t want to get slapped with a fine, simply obey the law.

This criticism, incidentally, has puzzled me.

I cannot prove it from my perch, but I cannot get past this nagging notion that if someone were to conduct a thorough public opinion survey of residents regarding the red-light cameras, there would be a substantial majority of respondents who would favor them. I suspect there might be a large “no opinion” result in the sampling, but those who do have an opinion on the red-light cameras would endorse them — in my humble view.

However, the red-light camera critics in Amarillo have been vocal. They’ve managed to bluff and bluster more loudly than their small numbers would suggest.

Let’s understand one key element of the cameras’ deployment: The city isn’t raking in large sums of money for frills and needless expenses. State law requires cities to use the revenue derived from the fines they collect to go directly toward traffic improvement projects. Amarillo has done that.

So now the city is marching ahead with its program to persuade motorists to obey the red traffic lights that command them to “Stop.”

Maybe one day, the scofflaws will get the message.

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West, South Texas running dry

A University of Nebraska study has produced a U.S. Drought Monitor survey that provides some grim news for West and South Texas.

Three significant cities in the region are running out of water.

http://money.msn.com/investing/5-cities-running-out-of-water

Are you ready for this, Lubbock, McAllen and Harlingen? Of the five cities profiled, the other two are in Colorado: Pueblo and Colorado Springs, according to the study.

What do all these communities have in common? They’re all served by the once-massive Ogallala Aquifer, which sprawls under 11 states from Texas to the Dakotas.

The good news — if you’ll forgive the parochial nature of this observation — is that Amarillo isn’t among the endangered cities list.

But what about our neighbor to the south, Lubbock? Not so good there, the Drought Monitor says.

MSN.com reports: “Nearly half of the Lubbock area has been in a state of exceptional drought since 2011, conditions that are worse than any other U.S. city with a population of 75,000 or more. During that time, more than three-quarters of the area has been under exceptional drought in an average week.”

Lake Meredith, which once supplied Lubbock with surface water, is out of commission. The Canadian River Municipal Water Authority has stopped pumping from the lake because, um, it’s running out of water. Last I heard it was down to 26 feet — and receding. CRMWA has purchased an enormous amount of groundwater rights from T. Boone Pickens. Amarillo, meanwhile, is purchasing water rights on its own while trying secure water security for the next century or two.

I’m guessing that Lubbock is heading toward some serious water rationing. Get ready, South Plains residents.