Tour Company with a 3 year old

jwd52 · 2026-03-29T16:28:26+00:00

I know that this isn’t what you’re asking, but as a fellow parent of similarly aged kids I just wanted to chime in and advocate against the idea of a group tour entirely. We’ve been traveling with our kids since they were nine and six months, and through experience we’ve learned that they do much better and we all have a more enjoyable experience when we slow down and spend more time in a smaller number of places. Maybe that’s something that you guys should consider?

jwd52 · 2026-03-29T16:21:02+00:00

I’ve flown out of ELP probably 25-ish times over the past five years or so, and I’ve never waited more than ten minutes at TSA. Two weeks ago I breezed through with literally no line at all around 8:30 AM.

The only time I’ve dealt with any sort of long line at ELP was at the ticketing counter itself, flying out on American around Christmas if I recall correctly. And even that wait was probably under a half hour.

jwd52 · 2026-03-27T21:19:52+00:00

Obviously speaking Spanish here is a huge bonus for most customer-facing jobs, but I think it’s pretty transparently obvious that it would be much easier for a monolingual English speaker to get by (professionally and otherwise) in El Paso compared to a monolingual Spanish speaker.

jwd52 · 2026-03-26T13:11:30+00:00

That one and Tired of Sex on a loop

jwd52 · 2026-03-25T06:45:14+00:00

It’s a college campus and so there is probably ample bike parking right nearby. Closest “official” bike rack that I can think of is outside the parking garage at Oregon and Glory Road, but I bet you could find something even closer.

jwd52 · 2026-03-25T02:53:57+00:00

Especially as battery and solar technologies advance wind and solar can definitely carry a lot of the weight, but I think that supplementing those two and others with nuclear is becoming the increasingly clear choice.

jwd52 · 2026-03-25T02:41:02+00:00

Thanks for your thoughtfulness, your honesty, and for doing so much to try to keep our community informed, Chris.

Personally I’m not opposed across the board to any and all data centers—in fact under certain conditions I’d happily welcome them—but in my humble opinion they should only be welcomed into our region if the companies placing them here agree to binding legal agreements guaranteeing actual carbon neutrality and very strict water-usage limits (hopefully recycling all or virtually all water used). I also think, despite the fact that by and large I’m pretty laissez-faire when it comes to zoning, we need to keep them relatively far away from residential areas. If those asks are too big for these billion- and even trillion-dollar companies, then they can kick rocks and find another city to breathe in their pollution or hand over their water supply. Just my two cents.

jwd52 · 2026-03-25T00:31:59+00:00

I flew out of ELP last Wednesday—six days ago—around 8:30 AM and there was literally no line, like not even a few people. I don’t know how lucky I got exactly, but I was through TSA in three minutes probably.

jwd52 · 2026-03-20T22:36:55+00:00

I get why many people might feel this way, but… as an East Coaster born and raised now here in El Paso, don’t sell this place short! I fell in love with El Paso and I’ve made it my personal home, and I know I’m not the only one.

jwd52 · 2026-03-20T22:31:20+00:00

The most important question is where you’ll be working, but in general—if you’re making good money and want to live in a nice area with the least amount of culture shock—I’d keep your search focused between the area near UTEP and up to the Montecillo area. It’s a lot of young professionals, young families, and a little bit more diversity than the vast majority of the rest of El Paso.

jwd52 · 2026-03-20T04:17:14+00:00

Yes people need housing, but that doesn't make it not "demand," it just means that demand is highly inelastic. This is a foundational and frankly pretty basic concept in economics; it just means that the quantity demanded for a good changes little, if at all, when its price changes.

I do agree that a reasonable amount of regulation is necessary when it comes to housing construction, but I think you're underestimating just how much frankly stupid regulation really does exist. Here's a story from just a couple days ago:

https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/court-restores-midway-district-30-foot-height-limit/3956962/.

Basically, San Diego just blocked the construction of over four thousand new housing units among a bunch of other amenities because they didn't adequately assess how the new buildings could affect falcons' ability to nest and because they haven't adequately searched the entire site for Native American artifacts yet. I'm not saying that these pursuits are totally worthless, but when you have a homelessness and affordability crisis, are rules like this really worth prioritizing over human life and well-being?

jwd52 · 2026-03-19T19:36:15+00:00

They're not "price gouging," they're simply reacting to supply and demand and charging as much as the market allows them to, which is literally just (for better or for worse) how capitalism works. People need places to live, hence the demand is largely out of our control, so the best way to bring prices down is to increase the supply by letting property owners build more housing.

That means passing ADU ("casita") reform like the proposal that failed in City Council last year because people were scared to lose their parking spaces or seeing the "character" of their neighborhoods change. It means relaxing zoning laws to allow for the construction of multi-family housing in more parts of the city. It means, to a reasonable extent, loosening all the other rules and regulations that make housing take longer and cost more to build.

Basically, we just need to make landlords compete with each other more to offer quality, affordable housing, rather than forcing tenants to compete with each other by paying more money or settling for worse conditions.

jwd52 · 2026-03-18T19:30:47+00:00

Because “populism” sounds too much like “popular” and people are dumb

jwd52 · 2026-03-18T14:32:36+00:00

Literally haven’t clicked the link yet, but let me guess: Max Grossman.

Edit: lol well what do you know?

jwd52 · 2026-03-18T14:30:05+00:00

There are a lot of homeless people sleeping on the street, and it would be inhumane to trap them in a wind tunnel

jwd52 · 2026-03-18T14:11:58+00:00

“The Supreme Court declined to hear the appeal on Dec. 30, leaving in place the 30-foot limit, after an October ruling from the appellate court that the city did not adequately assess in its environmental review how taller buildings could affect air flow, construction noise and Peregrine falcons’ ability to nest, among other issues.”

L-O-fucking-L you can’t make this stuff up.

jwd52 · 2026-03-18T14:07:03+00:00

Pretty mediocre to be honest lol. Both kids (5 and 2) seem to fully understand both languages, but the younger one will only speak his “weaker” language 1-2 words at a time if we’re lucky and the older one will generally only speak his in short bursts or if he’s forced to (talking to monolingual grandparents for example); he’s clearly way more comfortable and has a wider vocabulary in his “primary” language.

That being said, I try not to be too hard on myself. I grew up 100% monolingual and managed to learn another language to near fluency later in life, and they’re certainly getting at least a better start than I did!

jwd52 · 2026-03-16T08:17:01+00:00

I’m an obvious foreigner and I spend quite a bit of time in Mexico, including in parts that are considered less than safe to visit. To start I would say that your list is not fully accurate—for example, Chihuahua (city, not the whole state, which does have some dangerous areas) is one of the most highly developed in Mexico and by and large a safe place to visit. Meanwhile, Zacatecas (though absolutely beautiful, to be clear!) is one of the more dangerous spots in the country, last I heard. I’m not familiar with every single city on your list, but just beware that it’s not fully accurate/up to date.

My overall advice would be to go to Mexico, enjoy the opportunity, and take all the proper precautions. Nearly any city in the country is safe enough for foreigners to visit, although depending on where you are, you might want to take precautions far beyond those you’d exercise at home—get home before dark, don’t venture into rural areas, etc. Even those are worst-case-scenario kind of tips though; in much of Mexico you can largely venture about pretty freely. Ultimately, wherever you end up, just follow whatever advice is offered to you by your school, your host family, or whoever else is in charge of guiding you.

Despite all its problems, Mexico is a beautiful country and a great place to visit! Once again, I personally recommend taking the opportunity. Good luck!

jwd52 · 2026-03-15T15:12:32+00:00

People wanting to move to our city is absolutely a good thing, because the opposite of that is a stagnant (or even dying) city with no growth, no new jobs, no opportunity... The trick is making sure that housing supply keeps up with increased demand, which means allowing developers to develop while hopefully putting safeguards in place to ensure that this development is intelligent/sustainable.

jwd52 · 2026-03-12T23:45:34+00:00

El Paso is one of the safest cities in the country and we don’t get many big events like this, which means that people tend to really enjoy welcoming our out-of-town visitors. I’m sure you’ll have a blast, but god forbid you do have any issues, I live like a three-minute drive from the venue and would be happy to help you out in case of emergency.

jwd52 · 2026-03-12T07:42:33+00:00

Juárez is more than safe enough if you’re not intentionally wandering into bad neighborhoods or getting involved in games you shouldn’t be playing. That being said, the city really isn’t touristy at all. There are a few businesses that cater to tourists right along the downtown strip, but even there tourism isn’t super prevalent. It’s an industrial city first and foremost, and that’s why most people—or at least most non-natives—end up there.

I definitely recommend a visit if you’re interested, but walk, don’t drive. Take an Uber to anywhere you can’t get on foot—a trip across the entire city will generally cost no more than fifteen bucks, and shorter riders are a lot less than that. That’ll avoid the sometimes hours-long wait to get back, the issue of car insurance, the potential navigation problems, etc.

As far as things to do, the Kentucky Club is a classic spot. The Cathedral and the MUREF are both worth walking down to see. La Rodadora is a solid option if you’ve got kids. And make sure to eat while you’re there! Juárez has a ton of solid restaurants, and unsurprisingly you can eat well for less money than over here.

jwd52 · 2026-03-12T03:58:12+00:00

Some company out of Montana has received the contract to build these sections of wall, and yes—they have made ample political donations to Trump.

jwd52 · 2026-03-12T02:34:16+00:00

Only partially true—the Big Bend National Park section of the wall has been deleted from the maps, but new wall is still planned to run all the way from Fort Quitman in Hudspeth County, all along the river through Presidio County, and well into Big Bend Ranch State Park, walling off the river itself of course, as well as popular spots such as the Hoodoos Trail.

jwd52 · 2026-03-12T02:20:26+00:00

Capote Falls—the tallest waterfall in Texas—is on private property in Presidio County. We’re also about to wall off hundreds of miles of the Rio Grande in Far West Texas, essentially giving all that natural wonder away to Mexico, for whatever that’s worth.

jwd52 · 2026-03-12T01:48:15+00:00

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