El Paso, TX

El Paso is a city at the western edge of Texas, along the Rio Grande and adjacent to the border of Texas, New Mexico, and the Mexican state of Chihuahua. The city borders Fort Bliss, a major military installation that stretches far northward into the White Sands Missile Range.

El Paso is the 6th-largest city in Texas and among the 25 largest U.S. cities, as well as one of the 10 fastest-growing cities. The Census Bureau estimates the population of El Paso at nearly 607,000; its metropolitan area, which covers the entirety of El Paso County, is home to more than 736,000. These figures do not include the metropolis of Ciudad Juárez, located immediately across the border from El Paso; factoring in Juárez, there are over two million people in the El Paso area.

NEIGHBORHOODS AND DISTRICTS

From its downtown center along the Rio Grande, the city began to spread to the northwest and northeast, along both sides of the Franklin Mountains, as its economy expanded during the Cold War period. The city's sprawl has continued to advance in recent years, while the older neighborhoods in the city center lose population.

Despite a thinning of the population and deterioration of some of its older houses, Central El Paso remains a vibrant location with such important neighborhoods as:

• The Downtown district, where City Hall and many museums and attractions share a compact area around Civic Center Plaza.
• Kern Place, one of the city's earliest suburban developments, near the University of Texas at El Paso. The neighborhood has older residences with charm and character, and the university sustains nightlife and entertainment on commercial streets such as Cincinnati Street.
• Sunset Heights, a historic, hilly, attractive, and more expensive residential neighborhood.
• West El Paso(or Northwest El Paso) is a section of town that has grown tremendously in the past ten years, following the conventional suburban model of strip malls and subdivisions. Some of the developments are upper-middle-class, with distinctive homes set into the mountainside. The west side has convenient access to Interstate 10, the city's major traffic artery. The Sunland Park Mall is the area's commercial center.
• East El Paso: This former desert strip east of the city center is now the most populous section of town, and it continues to grow rapidly, with many new neighborhoods. The east side is convenient to downtown as well as to the Mexican border, and the airport is nearby, which can cause traffic congestion.
• Northeast El Paso: An attractive, ethnically diverse area between Fort Bliss and the Franklin Mountains, the northeast contains neighborhoods with mountain views and trail access. The area contains some poorer neighborhoods such as Angel's Triangle and more well-off districts such as North Hills. Many military families live in the northeast.
• Lower Valley (or Mission Valley): Stretching to the east along the riverfront, the Lower Valley's main thoroughfare, Alameda Avenue, travels from the urban core beyond the city limits into rural territory. The Mission Trail, dating from the earliest days of Spanish presence in the region, is in this area, as is the Ysleta Pueblo, home of the Tigua Indians and their Speaking Rock Casino.

ECONOMY AND INDUSTRIES

El Paso was until recently a center of heavy industry such as copper smelting and oil refining, but the smelter has closed and industry has gradually declined. Of the many companies that formerly manufactured blue jeans in El Paso, only Wrangler remains. The city's proximity to the border means a steady supply of immigrant labor, but more low-wage work is done on the Mexican side. Major employers include:

• El Paso, Ysleta, and Socorro Independent School Districts
• Fort Bliss (civilian employees)
• City and county governments
• University of Texas at El Paso and El Paso Community College
• Telemarketing call centers: Echostar, MCI/GC Services, and West Telemarketing
• Wal-Mart

BEST BETS

Here are some of the standout attractions in downtown El Paso:

• El Paso Museum of Art, at Arts Festival Plaza
• El Paso Museum of History, a couple of blocks away from the art museum
• Insights El Paso Science Museum
• Judson F. Williams Convention Center
• Railroad and Transportation Museum of El Paso
• Plaza Hotel, an Art Deco skyscraper

Elsewhere in the city:

• Centennial Museum and Chihuahuan Desert Gardens at the University of Texas at El Paso
• Franklin Mountains State Park, reputed to be the largest urban park in the United States
• El Paso Museum of Archaeology at Franklin Mountains State Park
• Chamizal National Memorial, site of a free concert series on summer evenings
• Gene Roddenberry Planetarium, honoring the creator of Star Trek, who was born in El Paso

EDUCATION

• University of Texas at El Paso
• Texas Tech has several schools in the city, including the School of Architecture and a Health Sciences Center
• El Paso Community College
• Dona Ana Branch Community College (part of the New Mexico State University)
• Western Technical College

LOCAL MEDIA

• El Paso has one major English-language daily newspaper, El Paso Times (daily circulation of 73,000).
• El Diario de Juá;rez, across the border, has started a Spanish daily to compete with the El Paso Times, called El Diario de El Paso (daily circulation of 20,000).
• El Paso Inc. is a paid-circulation weekly targeted toward the upscale demographic.