Over Labor day weekend we decided to visit the El Paso Zoo.  It was a great time to visit. The weather was cool and it had rained some the night before so most of the animals were out.

The Zoo recently opened its Animals of Africa wing this year on the site of the old “Dudley Dome” opening up a whole new area to walk around in.  Some new additions include Giraffes:

If I counted right there are 5 to the herd and they are pretty play full with each other. Zebras have also been added:

Other smaller animals added to the African side include meerkats, various birds and by far the coolest is a pride of lions:

The lions were very playful, chasing each other around, tackling and in general doing what lions do.   A small train rings the African exhibit that you can ride for a few bucks. The entrance has been reworked as well making the African side the entry point linked by the bridges over the Franklin Canal to the older part of the Zoo.

Over in the Asia exhibit two of the tigers were out, the male and one of the two females:

It seems like no matter how much good the Zoo does, they get hit hit with sad news. As reported in the Times, the male tiger was recently killed by its mate. Considered a freak accident and happening in a split second this only underscores the dangers of these wild animals.

When we were there, we saw no indication of any issue between the two.  They were walking around the enclosure with the male being very vocal.

The Zoo’s plan is to replace the male with the ultimate goal of the tigers reproducing. All of the other exhibits were open with the exception of the reptile house which is being reworked.  A full Flickr walk through is here: Labor day at the Zoo

This is from January 1998.

WTC from Empire State Building

I was on a work related trip to New York and on this day we had some free time to see the city. The first thing we did was hit the Subway and ride to the World Trade Center.  The experience of riding in the subway was wild and worth it in and of itself.  Once we got to WTC we were amazed at how big the two towers and entire complex was.  Sadly though, the observation deck was closed and we couldn’t go up. Bummed, we hopped back into the subway to go to the next best thing: the Empire State Building.  Even though we couldn’t go up I’m still thankful I at least got to visit once.

At the center of Jan Jacinto Plaza is a Luis Jiménez sculpture titled “Plaza de los Lagartos.”  The piece pays homage to the parks unique history, once being the home to live alligators.

View San Jacinto Plaza in a larger map

The tale of the alligators is a sad one.  Three were added to the park in the late 1800’s and were the main attraction for decades. Unfortunately they were frequently targeted by vandals until they had to be permanently removed from the park. Their last appearance in the park was in 1974.

The sculpture was part of a mid 90’s attempt to revitalize the downtown area.  It originally was more kinetic, featuring water fountain and misting elements. Currently the fountain has been drained and the water features turned off. The ever present desert sun has faded the fiberglass sculpture quite a bit.

San Jacinto Plaza had served as the Sun Metro transportation hub for the Downtown area.  This lead to an abundance of people waiting in the park for the bus as well as pan handlers and vagrants who slept in the grassy areas.  To prevent that, the grassy areas were fenced off making the park not very park like.

Recently Sun Metro has moved the hub and now the park is rather empty.  The revitalization bug has once again been caught by city council so to make the park more people friendly, the city has removed the fencing surrounding the grassy areas.

Surprising that little change really opens up the park.  If I still worked downtown I would certainly eat my lunch here.  More changes may be afoot though as a polarizing plan to revitalize the park even further has been drawn up by an outside design firm.  One of the most prominent changes was the removal of the sculpture from the park altogether: San Jacinto Redesign

The alligators now have their own Facebook page (Los Lagartos) in protest to the redesign and others around the city have voiced concerns as well.  I agree that a redesign should include some elements from the parks past.  Jimenez’s sculpture could be refurbished and better incorporated into a water feature prominently drawing from the parks historical significance.  If removal is still in the cards, then one would hope that any reuse of the sculpture doesn’t wind up being an affront to the original artist intent.

The city should follow the recent revitalizations of the Plaza Theater and the Mills building.  Both have been brought into this century while maintaining their heritage.  The Mills building even added back some nice architectural elliments that had been removed by the previous owners refurb in the 70’s:

That’s the one thing that El Paso really has going for it, architectural history.  After being largely neglected but left intact, we are finally waking with the desire to improve our downtown.  We should resist the attempts to go whole hog modern, we are never going to be “that city”.   Lets move forward by better using what we have.

A larger flicker walk through is here: San Jacinto Plaza

For a few months I’ve been exploring an abandoned industrial plant located at the corner of Executive and the Border Highway, the Southwestern Portland Cement Plant.

View Southwestern Portland Cement in a larger map

In this trip I concentrated on the back portion of the complex. There is a cluster of buildings that are interconnected and appear to be in better condition than the front sections of the plant:

The walls were painted and boxes of equipment were scattered around. One portion had the remains of an office complete with a 2006 calender on the wall.

This area was quite striking in comparison to the older portions.  Sure, it was still a mess but it had some cool items of late 90’s vintage:

Continuing on through the warehouse to the outside, there was a small yard diesel parked out back.

As I began to make my way back into the warehouse, I heard a truck coming around the corner.  Since I’m not sure if the owners would like me wandering around their abandoned factory, I darted behind a shed.  The truck parked out of my view by the warehouse and soon I could hear somebody whistling a tune.  I figured I wasn’t in much danger and continued to take pictures outside while the pied piper was inside.  After a few minutes, he appeared in a doorway nearby.  As he turned to me I greeted him, “Hi”.  Startled, he let out an “Aye cabrón!”. Luckily he wasn’t security, just a Cemex worker.

We chatted for a bit and he told me that Cemex rents this portion of the plant for storage explaining the somewhat refurbished condition. Seeing that I was taking pictures, he asked if I was interested in buying the place. I told him “No” and he said that was good because it would take a lot of money to clean up the asbestos.  I now had my answer to this plants demise.

I still have one area left I would like to visit, the old front office. I may try to get to it soon because I’m not sure how much longer ill have access through the front.  The road has been recently torn up by the ever advancing El Paso Water Utilities purple pipe project:

The full Flickr set can be viewed here: Portland Cement (pt.4)

The previous Flickr sets can be viewed here:
Set Three 6/21/2011
Set Two  5/16/2011
Set One 5/10/2011

A few days after mowing down the last batch of mushrooms a whole new crop came up.  This time around they were more developed and much larger:

I had 4 areas were they popped up in nice little clusters. They were in full bloom for about 2 days before they turned brown and started to dry up.

Sadly no Smurfs ever appeared.  This Sunday I mowed down this batch so it will be interesting to see if I get any more after the nights rains.

Full set can be seen here: More Mushrooms