To the Chamber of Commerce:
I read that you are forming focus groups to develop a new identity to sell El Paso. Well, I will offer you the following suggestions FREE OF CHARGE!!!
El Paso's unique feature - Gene Roddenberry was born here.
He is the creator of Star Trek which has been called a "wagon train to the stars". This would tie in to the Old West image (Mission Trail, John Wesley Hardin and the others buried in Concordia Cemetery).
The stars would tie in with White Sands, Alamogordo/NASA Space Museum as well as the McDonald Observatory and the asteroid craters in the Odessa/Midland area. The EPISD Planetarium was recently named after Gene. This was one of the few cities where the original NASA shuttle "Enterprise" landed (albeit on the back of a 747)
He saw the future as a blending of cultures. Here in El Paso we have a blending of Native American, Mexican and other European cultures due in large part to the military as well as proximity to the border.
Speaking of the military: Gene was a decorated military veteran (WWII) as well as a decorated civilian pilot (El Paso International Airport tie in).
El Paso is the gateway to three states and two countries - a virtual "Riza" (the vacation planet from “The Next Generation” series) of cities - so much so close to entertain everyone - mountains, skiing, hiking, camping, I-MAX theater, Juarez and points beyond
The proximity of Roswell. Do I have to spell this out?
Not just tourism but also education. El Paso could become a science and technology mecca.
This could spread to the businesses of the city - high tech toys - look at all the things we use today that Gene put in his star ship - the communicator (look at Dennis Franz' Nextel commercial), the floppy disk (and they were even in colors back then), the touch screen (they touched things to make things happen - now look at cashiers), the hand pads they used instead of pen and paper (think PDA), the medical bed (think MRI)- we could tie this in with the medical school/teaching hospital, speaking to a computer (language recognition software).
Trolleys - San Francisco - home of Starfleet. OK, this is starting to stretch the point a bit.
There is so much already here and within a day trip’s distance that could tie in with the “Birth place of Gene Roddenberry – creator of “Star Trek”.
Roxanne Varela
El Paso TX