Segundo Barrio is a neighborhood located south of Paisano in the downtown area extending to the Mexico border. It is currently targeted for elimination by an association styled Paso Del Norte Group (PDNG). The PDNG's current leader is Myrna Deckert. Ms. Deckert is best known for her impressive work building the YWCA. Under her leadership and singular ability to attract federal grant dollars, she built the YWCA into what it is today.
With the tool of eminent domain (the taking of property by the government) the PDNG is proposing to buy, trade or take property in the downtown area in order to establish a "new" downtown. Such a new downtown would eliminate the poorer undesirable segments of local society by removing low-end retail establishments and replacing them with grander, up-scale, progressive and modern retailers. The effort is strongly supported by the trustee majority on El Paso City Council.
According to a study done by Glass-Beach Consultants for the city manager and adopted by Council members in a special meeting in July, the city needs to move away from being perceived as "Mexican," "dirty," "gritty" and "lazy" and instead needs to create an image that is stylish, middle class and progressive. The image of the older Mexican man in a white straw hat needs to be replaced by 30-something, smartly dressed, light-skinned upwardly mobile professionals.
One City official commented during the special meeting that people in other parts of the country often ask him what the city has to offer. He responds that he finds little to recommend to visitors. "There is nothing here."
Most Segundo Barrio residents do not have any burning reason to move and many have differing opinions about redevelopment. One resident commented: "If we could get rid of the gangs, the place would be great." As it is, the Segundo is a neighborhood that is convenient to transportation and commerce, and comfortable. The resident welcomed a redevelopment that would provide improved housing and more commercial retail choices. Another resident, however, commented that she had roots in the neighborhood and an emotional connection that she was unwilling to sever. She loved her neighborhood that way it was, warts and all. Still other residents commented they lived there because they could not afford to move anywhere else. Said Chuy Martinez, "I work labor and I can't save enough money to move and without a car, it is very difficult to get around town."
And then the rains came. They wreaked havoc in many areas and Segundo Barrio experienced its share of knee-deep water in some streets and leaks in their roofs. This surprising and extraordinary event was being taken in stride and with resilience until the City decided to evacuate the Segundo Barrio.
There is a common adage, "En el mundo de los ciegos, el tuerto es Rey (In the world of the blind, the one-eyed man is King."
Segundo Barrio residents were startled and dismayed with the evacuation. None had considered that on top of the recognized problems in the community, they now had to accept that the entire community was vulnerable to the Juarez Dam De La Colonia Fronteriza Baja; a Dam they knew nothing about.
The siren sounded the alarm of "millions" of cubic feet of water tearing down and rendering Segundo Barrio a wasteland of destroyed homes and dreams. One print publication described it as a "wall of water" crashing down on their homes.
The City commanded an evacuation because it had seen first hand the problems at the Presa Frontera Baja and had the professional opinion of the Army Corps of Engineers. According to the Corps, the collapse of the dam was imminent. Segundo Barrio residents trusted the City and engineers that they were in grave danger.
In a decision that was not thought through, however, the Border Patrol was sent into the overwhelmingly Mexican neighborhood to participate in the evacuation intimidating some.
The voices delivering the evacuation message included: Mayor John Cook, City Manager Joyce Wilson, El Paso Streets Director Daryl Cole, Deputy City Manager in charge of Quality of Life Services Deborah Hamlyn, Emergency Management Coordinator Chief Don Berger.
Yet, at the same time, there were other voices offering another point of view. Those voices included: City Rep. Jose Lozano, Rep. Melina Castro, Juarez Regidor Fermin Ramirez, Rep. Eddie Holguin, County Commissioner Miguel Teran, and Jesus "Chuy" Reyes of the Water Improvement District #1.
In some quarters of the city there is strong discomfort when anyone talks about ethnicity and its relationship to policy, nonetheless in this occasion the difference of opinion expressed itself in this manner.
Juarez officials including the engineers that monitor the Dam De La Colonia Fronteriza Baja denied that the rupture of the dam was imminent and further asserted that the dam presented little threat to Segundo Barrio even if it did collapse. In El Paso, Rep. Jose Alexandro Lozano affirmed the "volume of water from the Dam De La Colonia Froneriza Baja would not reach Segundo Barrio at all."
The volume of water held at the Presa is equivalent to one and one-half Cielo Vista Water Tanks. The total volume capacity according to Juarez officials is 250 to 300 mm cubic meters or six to six and one-half mm gallons. The Cielo Vista tank holds two mm gallons. In addition, the water would have had to travel over a course of 2.7 miles according to the City Streets Director. The dispersal and angular discharge makes the claim of a "wall of water" crashing onto the Segundo Barrio homes seem exaggerated.
If that were not enough, Mexican officials assured the City the Dam De La Colonia Fronteriza Baja would be drained by next morning. Rep. Jose Alexandro Lozano felt the city manager and the Mayor were withholding information from the people of Segundo Barrio and scaring them unnecessarily.
The morning after, the dam had been drained using 12-inch hoses with a simple suction method (in a manner of straws) and Juarez crews went about and to the business of repairing the damaged retention pond.
Meanwhile, the City released the Segundo Barrio residents to their homes proclaiming all to be safe and the incident made national news.
The picture of the Dam De La Colonia Fronteriza Baja presented in this edition shows the location of the dam and the distance the water would have had to travel to impact the Segundo Barrio.
Was the Segundo Barrio evacuation warranted?
It is hard to say. The fact is the voices that counseled calm in the eye of the storm and claimed the danger was overstated were proven correct.
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This perspective first appeared in Border Observer, Jaime O. Perez, Editor