Del Mar Hills : does anyone call it that anymore?

El/La _______ Con Safos

Like the old man in the SNL skit used to say "In my day". Well, I do have a recollection of "Del Mar" being referred to as Del Mar Hills and not being a part of Laredo. I also remember hearing of the Del Mar Water Conservation District....hmmm or did I imagine it? Regardless, this is an example of how the names of places and areas of Laredo (and vicinity) keep evolving. I think it was in the 1970's that Del Mar was finally annexed by the City of Laredo, not that Del Mar wanted any part of it. Calton Gardens was another area that gradually has become known as just another part of Laredo.

Given the above examples, it is even more remarkable that many of the city's oldest barrios have retained their names after so many years. At one time, especially when most of Laredo's youth still got around on foot, there was a pretty intense territorial aspect that went along with the different barrio names. The lines of demarcation were very well known to the younger generation. With the passage of time and increased mobility, the territoriality conflicts have lessened but the names of Laredo's oldest barrios still are going strong.

CC Caller columnist calls out locals to go out and support their bands



Me? I started at the pubs around Straussburg


CORPUS CHRISTI — BY Joe Hilliard of the Caller Times
Who is your favorite band? Now hold that thought.
How vital is music? It’s one of the first human interactions we have as children when someone who loves us sings us to sleep. It cuts through the nonsense of a first date: what kind of music do you like? When we’re alone in the shower, we belt out the hits. We enjoy it communally in the car and with thousands of strangers at a concert.
So when I ask who your favorite band is, you have an answer.
Consider this, though: your favorite musical act started performing in or near their hometown.
The Beatles were a group of teenagers playing around Liverpool, England.
R.E.M. garnered an initial following playing the Athens, Ga., club scene.
George Strait’s upstart band was devoted to central and southeast Texas back in the late 70s.
The early successes of these acts, or any other I might have listed, came from playing small shows to a willing audience waiting to discover and support them.

So answer this: Who is your favorite LOCAL band?
We are a city full of people who love music (remember question #1?) while local and regional bands play gigs all over town. For whatever reason, though, these two natural halves are not finding one another. Let me rephrase: we don’t go out to hear live, local music. Yes, we pack into American Bank Center when a big household name comes to town, but we’re not interested in local, future superstars.

Between our iPods and the iTunes store, Pandora.com and Sirius satellite radio, it is almost too easy to find new signed music, but these technologies do nothing for our local music scene — a scene ripe to blow up if people would get out there and discover it. And we need it to blow up for reasons too numerous to list here.
Here is an earnest challenge for you: find your favorite local band. I’ll even let you cheat and call The Corpus Christi Symphony or the Veterans Band of Corpus Christi your favorite band if it means you’ll physically leave your home and go listen to them live.

From rock to country, hip hop, classical, metal, reggae, Tejano and covers of your favorites from years past, all of your favorite music is out there, locally. Go find your favorite.

Laredotejas editor's note:  Except for the name and a few other changes..... Laredo's story is the same one.

Harlingen rated most affordable US city to live in

Yep, that looks downright........affordable allright

According to the Council for Community and Economic Research, Harlingen, Texas was ranked as the most affordable city to live in in the whole United States. Surprisingly, two more Valley cities are ranked right behind Harlingen. McAllen is rated as the 2nd most affordable and Brownsville as the 3rd most affordable towns in the US to live in. This comparative rankings shows how Harlingen, Mcallen and Brownsville fared:

among 314 participating urban centers across the nation, based on the organization’s third quarter 2010 Cost of Living Index. The article continues;
Mayor Chris Boswell said the ranking confirms Harlingen’s status as a consistently affordable place to live.

Being curious as to where Laredo would fall on this affordability index, I did some checking around on the Council's website and found out that.........Laredo is NOT on the index at all. How do we compare apples to oranges then?

Do good causes and Politics mix?

I promise a chicken in every pot!

Tonight, Pro8 news had a piece on a Local women's group giving away bags full of everything needed for a good Thanksgiving dinner. This is obviously a generous show of consideration for their fellow human beings. There was, however, a little bit of twist when it came to determing just what families would get these foods. Apparently, the city council members were asked whom they waned the bags donated to. Thus, lists were provided and the bags of groceries were distributed.

At the risk of being too cynical during this holiday season, what are the chances that some council persons may not choose those that are truly the most needy to receive these donations? Would there be any attempt to repay people who helped in their campaign? I sincerely hope that those most in need get the help. Whatever the case, the particular women's group deserves all the praise in the world. Unfortunately, I didn't get the group's name-oops.

Just a question: Who goes to the bucks games?

I don't have a survey at hand that tells me what Laredoans support and attend the Laredo Bucks' games. I have to admit that I've wonderd about that question before. I don't know if I'm playing into stereotypes but I tend to think that it's mostly people who live in North Laredo and who have relatively good incomes. I might be wrong. The reason that I ask this is that I wonder who the main target group is going to be for the new baseball team.

With the Laredo Broncos, you could see that those in attendance were from a cross-section of Laredo. There were people who simply walked to the games from their homes in West Laredo. Others, no doubt, drove from farther away. I have a feeling that the new park is just going to mean more things for North Laredo to do and not necessarily for all Laredoans. Am I wrong?  Any comments would be appreciated. It's not a survey but it'd interesting to hear what others think.

Incidentally, I don't agree with whoever thought that promoting the Bucks with the "big friggin weekend" was a good idea. We all know the actual wording that is implied and they shouldn't be promoting that kind of language. It's sorta like when Burger King had that brilliant idea of putting a sign that read "We've got your whopper right here". I mean come on, do we really need to add to the idea of being an illiterate city?

What's going on with the Plaza Theater, besides nothing?

One of the things that is so bad about Laredo, is the failure to stay with an idea, project, or proposal. As I asked last week, what happened to the plastic bag ban? Well, for that matter, what's happend with the Plaza Theater. Year after year, it sits at the heart of downtown and continues to get 100 per cent ignored. Once in a great while, someone will mention it briefly. Yet, other things that have come along much much later have received more attention. For example, the Arts & Entertainment ordinance, Laredo Main Street, The Farmer's market, The Pony League ( I was like what is the Pony League?), the LEA, the $18 million dollar baseball park and so on.

It appears that the city council can really spend the taxpayer's money when it makes up its mind, so why not spend some on the historic Plaza theater?  I don't get it. A lot less worthwhile projects have gotten the ok with very little hesitation. Remember the trolley folley? I think that cost the city at least a million dollars. So, I don't see why no one on the council gets behind the Plaza in a very real sense. Maybe they havn't figured out how to justify spending much more money on it than makes sense. Usually, our council jumps at projects that are put before them, especially when they are very very expensive, or when they really don't benefit Laredo.

The rich get richer: San Antonio lands Petco distribution center,400 jobs

Upon listening to a San Antonio radio station, KTSA, I learned that Petco is bringing an eventual 400 jobs to the Alamo City. The first thing I thought was: Why not Laredo?  Then I sort of answered my own question. I'm guessing that the fact that San Antonio is more centrally located has a lot to do with it. However, if that was the only criteria, then it would've actually made more sense to have selected Austin. Well anyway, it appears that a $3.1 million dollar investment in Petco, from the states Texas Enterprise Fund, is what cinched the deal. This fund was started in 2003, reportedly at the request of Rick Perry, to offer incentives to businesses considering bringing jobs to Texas.

All of that is fine but I have to wonder if Perry is ever going to take the initiative and inject some of the fund's money in companies that would bring jobs to any of the border towns?  Let's hope that Richard Raymond and Senator Zaffirini continue to keep an eye out for the best interest of Laredo and South Texas. It'd be nice to read about some company planning to bring 100 or 200 jobs to Laredo. Ok, why not 400?

See the flow chart above. It looks like somebody has figured out why Rick Perry is so involved with the entire Texas Enterprise Fund project. It's like they say: "Follow the money".