City officials to meet with residents of Union Plaza neighborhood

Several groups are trying preserve the cultural history of a neighborhood after the city announced last month an arena would be built in the Union Plaza District.

On Monday, city officials will have a meeting with residents to discuss what’s next for those who will be displaced.

Residents in the Union Plaza neighborhood already started getting their letters of condemnation this week.

Those opposed to the arena will be making their voices heard at the meeting and are trying to garner support from the public.

“What we’re trying to do is impress upon the public, as well as the elected officials, that perhaps there’s a better common sense location for the arena,” said Bernie Sargent, chairman of the El Paso County Historic Commission.

The commission, along with the Paso Del Sur group, which successfully led the opposition to the city when a large area of Segundo Barrio was threatened with demolition, will join forces with residents in opposition to the arena on Monday.

“We are just committed to try to share with them that the public is not interested in that location,” Sargent said.

Sargent tells ABC-7 the area and the people have historic importance to the city.

“More and more El Pasoans are beginning to understand that new isn’t always better and when we got some fabulous buildings downtown, we’ve got some great history within that community around the Union Plaza with folks that have lived there three and four generations and to create turmoil in that neighborhood we’d like the people to understand what that means to these people,” Sargent said.

The approved site is a two-block area just south of the convention center.

The $180 million arena approved by voters in the 2012 bonds is expected to hold 12,700 seats.

Sargent says it would not only affect the residence being displaced but people living in the vicinity as well.

“Don’t disrupt the fabric of generations of living in that neighborhood for the sake of an arena,” Sargent told ABC-7.

The groups will gather at the city’s planned meeting at the historic Trost Fire Station on Santa Fe Street and Paisano Drive Monday at 6 p.m.