El Chuqueño Podcast

May 26, 2024

Corruption and the Decline of El Paso

<h2>A Buck a Month</h2><p>Come on. If everyone who read El Chuqueño donated just a dollar a month, I'd have a few more dollars. Make a difference. Invest in the alternative narrative. <a href="https://www.paypal.com/donate?token=yFv15hFJW2UCBLAUkedY0c5ktiDY4b_b6UiR1o3eSwmr2bhK3L5z19y-dtfuHpJHuR6PYyIT5lS_Yb6G" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">PayPal</a> </p><br><p><br></p><p>Some people would have you believe that El Paso’s apogee was 1950, and we’ve been in steady decline ever since.</p><p>Here’s Woody Hunt, in&nbsp;<a href="https://www.elpasoinc.com/news/q-and-a-with-woody-huntthe-real-cost-of-corruption/article_b26c9519-3d5d-529f-91fd-a319e9b27be2.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">an interview with ElPasoInc.com</a>, talking about the effect of corruption on El Paso’s economy:</p><p><br></p><blockquote><strong>Q. What prompted you to start researching corruption?</strong></blockquote><blockquote>My interest is really driven by economic development. In 1950, El Paso’s median family income was 14 percent higher than the state and was on par with the nation.</blockquote><blockquote>By 2000 the medium family income was 30 percent below the state and 35 percent below the country.</blockquote><blockquote>That long slide in our income indicated to me that we were not economically competitive and we are becoming less so.</blockquote><blockquote>So I began to ask, what can we do differently, first to stop the slide in income, then to turn things around and close the gap?</blockquote><blockquote><br></blockquote><p><br></p><p>Mr. Hunt would have you believe that corruption crippled El Paso’s economy since 1950, but 1950s the represented a technological change, not just in El Paso but the entire United States .</p><br><p>Before 1950, El Paso’s success resulted from it’s role as a railroad hub.</p><br><p>From&nbsp;<em>Out of the Desert</em>, an El Paso history by Owen White, published in 1923:</p><blockquote>In the beginning El Paso occupied a position on the frontier of the United States, whereas today it occupies a commanding situation as the central point within a circular frontier which is all its own. Stretching away from El Paso in every direction, north, east, south and west, for a distance of seven hundred miles, there is a vast territory over which it is El Paso’s logical destiny to dominate.</blockquote><p><br></p><p>El Paso enjoyed its status as the Queen of the Desert because it was the hub for intersecting railway lines, east to west and north to south.</p><p>Railroads began to lose their unique value after World War II.&nbsp;</p><br><p>From&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_Highway_System" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a>:</p><blockquote>After&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwight_D._Eisenhower" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Dwight D. Eisenhower</a>&nbsp;became president in 1953,&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidency_of_Dwight_D._Eisenhower" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">his administration</a>&nbsp;developed a proposal for an interstate highway system, eventually resulting in the enactment of the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal-Aid_Highway_Act_of_1956" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956</a>.</blockquote><p><br></p><p>Thus began El Paso’s loss of status as a logistical hub. Over the following years, as the Interstate Highway System developed and improved, trucks supplanted rail as the principal means of transportation for goods and raw materials.</p><br><p>Read the rest at <a href="https://elchuqueno.com/corruption-and-the-decline-of-el-paso/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://elchuqueno.com/corruption-and-the-decline-of-el-paso/</a></p><br /><hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>