KVIA ABC-7 is the best and highest rated television news outlet in El Paso, but they occasionally botch their reports.
Andrew Polk, the new host of ABC-7 XTRA, interviewed Justin Churchman, who sold the City three properties for the Convention Center expansion for $3.2 million, and Juan Uribe, a major real estate broker.
Polk failed to mention that Churchman’s recently renovated apartment block, built in the 1920s and eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places, will be demolished!
It will be removed from the tax rolls along with the other two properties, denying the City and other local taxing entities much-needed revenue.
City Representative Chris Canales, District 8 promised us the historic buildings on the north side of Overland Avenue would not be touched by the Convention Center expansion, but then he changed his mind.
The City could have easily come up with a viable plan for expansion without sacrificing our history, but mass demolition has always been its special brand of “progress.”
El Paso deserves better.