The border fence as an issue will require asking some questions so as to determine what its final fate will be in the short or long term future. These are questions to establish a baseline understanding of how the citizenry feels about any change in the future regarding the border fence. The following are just a few of the questions that could be asked.
What does the city want in place of a border fence?
The border fence primarily exists as a physical separation of two cities that prevents illegal migration. So what could replace it?
What do the citizens want in place of a border fence?
The border fence primarily exists
To prevent illegal immigration.
To secure the border from terrorist entering into the USA.
What vision is there for a 21 century border between the USA and Mexico in an urban environment? Over 25 years to 75 years?
Do the same and no change - border fence?
Something different like some kind of development that creates the same kind of security?
Some change, something in between development and a border fence?
The questions are fundamental in understanding the change that the urban border cities will have to choose in the near and far future. Unique to their environment is the fact that they are among the few cities in the USA that face such a problem as securing the border.
Yet, no one single theme could change a city as much as the issue of the border and border fence. Rising to the challenge of making the city define the borderland instead of the borderland defining the city could not be any greater single challenge waiting for the person willing to see its obvious and vastly untapped potential.
If you simply look at a map and see that within 1 mile from either side of the border lays many of the most important public and private institution along the border both for either their civic development or job creation.
It should be an important story to follow as to why both cities did not grow in a way that made them more intertwined at the border line. Why did the border become a separation of two cities instead of the major artery of two cities?
Was it politics at the national level or local level?
Was it simply disinterest from both cities?
Was it poor planning or un-tuned civic leadership?
Or was it simply just a vision never seen?
If there is an alternative, what steps are needed for this process to begin? Can there be a unifying vision to tie in its transformation, development and re-development of this area, and its required structural political and economic change to sustain and expand its impact on the city.
But it should not be enough to just have another alternative, there has to be another alternative that can redefine the city, its image, and the way its citizens live which can be done in a market driven economy and through new development or re-development. It is also a change that creates wealth, provides both typical, high skilled, and professional jobs.
How can changing the borderland redefine a border city? How much easier can it be to change and image whereby a borderland of a city is known as a place where people are around the borderline to do something illegal? Simply deciding on both sides of the border that the borderland is going to do something more positive for the border cities than it has before is a good start. Decide what that positive impact this future choice should accomplish.
How can the city change its image? If citizens living in the interior of either country were given as a prize a flight to the border so they can spend a day on the borderline, a new reality TV show could be built around the thousands of incredulous looks you would get from these people. They would believe this was joke, that they were being cheated, and being made to look like a fool all at the same time. Therefore, both cities should try to envision what a borderland would look like in the scale of some of the most impressive cities around the world where open spaces, unique landscaping, and magnificent infrastructure architecture are concerned? Start there and not somewhere less than that. Think big as to where these cities on the border should be in 100 years.
How can a change bring typical, skilled and professional jobs? The city will grow outward and that is where the new jobs, real estate, and opportunities will be. It will be a mistake to not look at the borderland region in both countries and begin to re-configure the land to create new development or re-development that will bring new service jobs.
Not redefining the borderland and the border fence as a minor issue of a much greater major development effort will further:
Increase the decaying trend of the inner city that lies along the border.
Increase the opportunities away from the border.
Increase or maintain the current poverty levels along the border.
Increase sprawl with ongoing limited water resources.
Increase greater reliance for vehicular transportation for all economic groups.
Maintain the image as a “border city”.
What is needed is an alternative for the borderland than what currently exists now that will provide real security, opportunity, be market driven, and help change the course of the city in a way that will positively impact it for generations to come.
When the border fence was put up as prescribed by ours nation’s capital, did they intend that the border fence was part of a 100 year plan of border fencing? Such are the question to ask as other alternatives are sought for the long term future of the urban border cities.
El Paseo Internacional del Norte, is a vision of what a border can look like in the future and an explanation of how this alternative creates economic opportunity.
What is included is a strategy to use commercial development to resolve illegal crossing, use redevelopment to reconfigure the borderland area, create jobs, re-development to renew a portion of the city, and occupy the borderland like it has never been done before.
It has a macro goal of creating:
An environment that is conducive to higher levels of civic
pride and civic engagement.
Increase leisure space and activity
Increase walking or bicycling as a mode of transportation,
and
Creates the kind of real estate development:
That brings some higher population density to the border.
Creates mix used development that encourages pedestrian traffic over vehicular.
Brings in a base economy to the borderland (within 1000 feet from the borderline) consisting of typical services, restaurants, retail, and multi-tenant residential living.
Attract the kinds of entrepreneurs that want to use the area as a base for their small growing company because of the attractive life style that would be created along and nearby El Paseo Internacional del Norte.
Most importantly, this is a change that will occur on either side of the border.
This is a vision where we can show that the border can self sustain itself for the purpose of border security which is supported by a new and growing tax base, commercial interest with dual self interest in protecting the border as well as protecting their economic sustainability, and eventually the elimination of the border fence that is replaced by a much more commercial and civic friendly border.
The vision uses the River Uplift as a guide to construct the framework of this physical and intellectual impedance to illegal cross-border people and cargo trafficking movements along the urban border.
Any comprehensive vision requires a legal framework and code allowed activities on both sides of the border which is required by treaty and/or commission from both the USA and Mexico governments. The International Border and Security Infrastructure Code Book attempts to start this conversation and the Border Security and Commerce Commission would be an example of the legal framework from which this code book would receive its mandate.
El Paseo Internacional del Norte would become a major infrastructure platform upon which to build from. Although the infrastructure may appear massive and therefore expensive, and possibly unachievable, the contrary is already true.
What already exist is a massive infrastructure in the flood control levee and the two border highways on either side of the river in El Paso and Cd. Juarez.
El Paseo Internacional del Norte adds new components that have possibly already been discussed in the region in the past:
Expand the levee height if necessary while providing a usable hardtop platform at the top of the levee structure for city use- The Deck.
Beyond the levee is land that can be used in which in most cases, there would be no structural improvements but only create some usable flat surfaces – Economic Extensions.
In certain areas, this new flat area will be connected to the other side of the highway to attach to new or existing Economic Hubs which generally can mean anything like a park to an office tower complex- Spans connect to Economic Hubs.
The entire system will use 5 dimensional management:
The physical impedance of
Width,
Length,
Height,
the intellectual impedance in Intelligence,
and finally Time.
El Paseo Internacional del Norte can become the rebirth of an entire region because it demands that both sides of the border be given the same economic opportunities and similar land uses across from each other. Recognizes the current strengths the region has in its people, climate, regional physical assets of its mountains and river, its universities, and addresses a fundamental need to absorb back its river for both economic use and civic enjoyment.
What it is not is an expansion of the maquiladora program or NAFTA. This is a good thing and that is because there exist on the border an un-tapped potential in the current land use of both cities that does not completely take advantage of their physical closeness to each other.
What currently does not exist is the ability for a person to be within 15 minutes walk of either side of the urban border anywhere along more than 15 miles of shared borders between Cd Juarez and El Paso. What exist now are three choke points instead.
What El Paseo Internacional del Norte also attempts to do is bring civic pride, economic opportunities, and a real connection between two cities that has never been seen before. There will be the opportunities to both cross into each country and immediately enjoy services and other commercial needs. Along the entire Paseo, people from each country will be visible to the other side. This will create an opportunity to see and hear an event from both sides of the border not currently possible now. Such experiences will give common experiences to both sides and provide equal access to art, science, entertainment and many other social forces that can define the region and not just either city.
El Paseo Internacional del Norte or just the Paseo will be introduced in layers as described by the Uplift guide. The layers provide a means of describing major sections of the entire Paseo as it is a platform of many sections. Eventually, it is the many stakeholders at each layer that will really define these layers.
The layers over time will always be open to being re-defined as future generations choose to do so. Using layers also helps focus energy of these stakeholders as it relates to what is most important to them singularly and in the context of its relationship with other key layers and all layers in general.
A simple example would be the following.
An Arts layer and their stakeholders would be interested in promoting the local spectrum of art interest regionally. Regionally may mean different physical areas to each layer such only along both sides of El Paseo, between both cities, between the counties of all three states in the region, or even the economic influence of the area that extends into Southern New Mexico, West Texas, and Northern Chihuahua.
The layer which would also be a computer model of its components, would contain information about its events, its people, it locations, it goals, and any other information relevant to them as a working group.
The computer model simply assist in keeping track of important information, allows information to be published so that it is view by others on the internet, and helps artist promote themselves in one large visible location.
This layer may be interested in the commercial layer as they may have mutual interests that are self-serving. The commercial layer may have entities that need inputs like art to generate public traffic that helps creates sales of their products and merchandise or other entities that closely associate themselves with art as a cutting edge trendy location.
Yet all layers will be assessed in their public offerings where privacy is not infringed by the security layer that is placed along El Paseo if the event is physically close enough to the border to get the attention of the security layer. The interest in the security layer is to make sure that the event(s) are not contrary to the controls needed along the border while at the same time accessing the required man power needed to help keep the event peaceful and lawful.
Another layer, which the Arts layer may not even know that it is being followed closely also is a layer of governmental services or commercial services that would be interested in the details of the event so that cleaning services are maintained and governmental entities monitor events for violations of ordinances.
The layers can be complex and the interdependencies within them can be very fluid, complex, and ever changing. Another way to look at this is that many layers do not act along and interact with other layers. Some layers lead the system like the commercial layer while other layers like security and governmental layers assist, monitor, and record information about all layers.
Ultimately, it will be the combination of all layers that provide the jobs, security, opportunities, services, government participation, private participation and general public that creates the one goal of providing security along both side of the border. Only in that way will it allow a new kind of development along the border which more or less guarantees this security first while also allowing extreme doses of commercial activity right along the borderland that is currently completely void of this commercial activity outside of the immediate proximity of the downtown El Paso / Cd. Juarez port of entry.
With the genesis of El Paseo Internacional del Norte, the beginning strands of security through real estate development will be realized. Security through occupation is that occupation by all entities, layers, private and public interaction which creates that population traffic that both sustains security and the economic base that perpetuates security.
This is the essence of real security defined along the USA and Mexico border.