Food truck park growing clientele in Downtown El Paso but still facing challenges

EL PASO — Until recently, Lydia Palacios could not remember the last time she had been downtown. A lifelong El Paso resident, Palacios said downtown was more a childhood memory than a current event. “My father would take us on the bus downtown and take us to Kress to eat lunch,” said Palacios referring to S.H. Kress & Co., the five-and-dime with a lunch counter on the northwest corner of North Oregon Street and Mills Avenue. On her way to a doctor’s appointment on a recent Monday in June, Palacios said she and her husband, Sergio, were doing something they had not done in many years – lunching together downtown. The two sat at an umbrella-covered table waiting for the fish tacos they had ordered from The Reef Mobile Kitchen, a food truck on Mills Street that serves seafood Mexican fare.

Joyce Wilson (Kristopher Rivera/Borderzine.com)

Joyce Wilson assesses her hopes and challenges as El Paso’s first city manager

Editor’s note: This is another in a series of profiles of women of influence in El Paso. EL PASO – Joyce Wilson, El Paso’s city manager, gets up in the early hours of the morning to exercise, a calm start to most of her days before the city begins to stir. As she works out, she thinks of her daughter who is married and has blessed her with three grandchildren.  The two older ones want to visit this summer. Behind those tranquil thoughts, another scenario of tasks waiting on her desk is on her mind – the public transit system improvements, the storm water utility projects, and an historic downtown waiting for renovation. And she may be thinking of the winding road that brought her to the border city as El Paso’s first city manager in 2004.