Gold Paving

Laredo shows its street smarts

"As I walked out in the streets of La redo," goes the old cowboy lament. Residents of the Texas town (pop. 91,449) are now asking, "What streets?" Thanks to former officials who "mishandled" city funds, an astonishing 2,720 of Laredo's 5,400-odd blocks need paving at a cost of some $10,000 each. Another 2,000 blocks require resurfacing at $2,600 apiece. With little money available for such work, Mayor Aldo Tatangelo and City Councilman Felipe Sanchez decided to put the streets on the block.

Major thoroughfares are not for sale, but Laredo is crosshatched with little-used road ways that end in creeks or ditches. Abutting businesses get first crack at the roads, which can be converted to other uses. The Missouri Pacific Railroad is interested in buying twelve streets on the west side for parking lots.

Estimated price: $400,000. Larry Plotkin, owner of a lumberyard, has handed over $32,000 for a street he plans to use as a parking lot. Mayor Tatangelo, up for reelection, is ecstatic: "Anything that's good gets you votes, and this idea is definitely good." Even the city engineers are happy. The street maps, they say, needed updating anyway. sb

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