September 14, 2018 • Local News
El Paso mayor pushes for new police HQ, gives Khalid key to city at State of City speech
El Paso Mayor Dee Margo made a pitch for new police and fire headquarters during his second State of the City address Thursday.
Margo also said the city must continue to fight in court so it can build a Downtown arena, or what he called a "state-of-the art multipurpose performing arts and entertainment center, the MPC."
Historic preservationists have been fighting city officials in court to stop their plan to put the arena in the Union Plaza District's Duranguito neighborhood in Downtown.
Margo said El Paso "cannot sit on our laurels" as one of the safest cities in the United States.
"We need to keep our eye on the future; we need to consider the need for a new headquarters for both the police and fire departments.
"We have an old police station in an old Sears building and a (adjacent) parking garage that is collapsing," Margo said. "We need to evaluate what is the best use of available funding. Is it $2 million-plus to repair a (parking) garage, or is it to look for a new (police) headquarters possibly combined with our fire department? And what's the valuation of our Five Points (police headquarters) property if we sell it?"
Margo said after his speech that the city is already doing a study on the possibility of replacing the police headquarters at 911 N. Raynor St. The fire department headquarters is inside a Downtown office building at 416 N. Stanton St.
"I threw it out as a future thing" to consider, Margo said as he left the Downtown convention center with several plain-clothes police officers next to him. He provided no other details about replacing the two departments headquarters.
Margo spent most of his speech slogging through the nuts and bolts of what he said are the city's three priorities as determined by a survey of about 1,200 El Pasoans: Improving public safety (beefing up the police and fire departments), streets (paving more streets), and quality of life (adding more parks, recreation centers, and museums).
He also said the city is making progress in its fight to build the Downtown multipurpose arena, or MPC, as he referred to it.
"Ultimately we are committed to building the MPC that was voted on and approved by the people of El Paso," he said.
The arena, which is proposed for a location across the street from the Downtown convention center, also will add more convention space, which will be needed in the future, he said.
Margo's speech, delivered before several hundred people at the Downtown convention center, was overshadowed by the glitter of Khalid Robinson, the Americas High School graduate who is now an international musical sensation.
Khalid, who is performing at sold-out concerts in El Paso on Friday and Saturday, was at the State of the City luncheon to accept the key to the city from Margo.
At a press conference after the speech, Margo said he told Khalid "that with all due respect to (the late singer) Marty Robbins, I’d a lot rather have his 915 ('Location') song as recognition for El Paso than I would on the 'West Texas town of El Paso.' " Those are words from Robbins' 1959 hit song, "El Paso."
Khalid said during the press conference that he makes sure people know El Paso "isn't some ghost town with horses and carriages;" that it's an up and coming city, and "a city of grace."
Margo complimented Khalid for telling people about El Paso during his world travels. One of El Paso's biggest problems is that people don't know about El Paso, Margo said.
Toward the end of his speech, Margo urged the lunchtime crowd of business and community leaders to do more to sell this area.
“We are a great community with much to offer our residents and visitors. It’s up to each of us to inform and educate (people) about our jewel that is El Paso," Margo said.
It's important for people to know that El Paso is the largest U.S. city on the Mexican border, he said.
El Paso is best when it works with Juárez and New Mexico in economic development and other endeavors, Margo said.
"We are strongest when we are three states, two countries acting as one region of 2.7 million people," he said.
The annual State of the City luncheon is organized by the El Paso Chamber.
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