Atlantic Article Highlights El Paso’s Tug of War Between Urban Development and Sprawl

The Atlantic published an article touching on the ideology conflict between developers’ penchant for building homes on the outskirts of town and the city’s urban-planning initiatives which are trying to make El Paso more compact and public transportation friendly.

The article’s author, Alana Semuels, begins by pointing out that El Paso first began talks to revitalize downtown 10 years ago.  Semuels mentions the streetcar line project and Southwest University Park as positive downtown developments and also touts the Monticello community on Mesa Street as a prime example of how to successfully implement the Smart Code that El Paso won an award from the EPA for back in 2011.

The Atlantic goes on to say that on the flip side there are those that feel plenty of people in the region prefer not to be confined to an apartment.  Jason King of Dover, Kohl & Partners which worked with the city to come up with a comprehensive plan says in the story that for a lot of people who grew up in urban communities and Juarez, their vision of the American dream is “their own house on their own lot, with their own fence.”

It’s an interesting article which ultimately hints that our future may lie in a melding of these two ideologies.  You can read it for yourself right here.