Brownsville's Downtown Dies A Second Death As The Decades Roll By

"The dream is over
What can I say?
The dream is over
Yesterday"

John Lennon, "God"

Yes, Brownsville had a heyday.  It was not in the 1860's when Stillman, King and Kleberg were ripping, roaring, stealing and contrabanding.  It was in the 1950's. 60's when Jimmy Pace, Glen Herman, Union Carbide, cotton, citrus and the drunken shrimpers carved out profits from hard work and an enormous differential in the peso-dollar exchange rate.

After that, the 19th century buildings in downtown were propped up temporarily to sell the huge quantities of discarded clothing in the United States shipped in by boxcar load or trucked in, tied by steel wire into 100 lb pacas to be shipped worldwide.  Of course, the 80 year old man wearing a "New Kids on the Block" cap on a street corner in Mexico City or the man in Bolivia operating a jackhammer while wearing a Southlake Girls Volleyball t-shirt were totally unaware their garments came through Brownsville.  

Mothers and grandmothers in Brownsville learned in the 60's to sift through mountains of clothing sold at ten cents per piece to dress their families.  The skill was sizing by the eye, wardrobing children, nephews, nieces, aunts, uncles.  Rich people up north, Goodwill and Salvation Army with more donations than they could put on the shelves and returns, no-sales and defects became the world's clothing suppliers and Brownsville was the hub.  

FedMart on Central Blvd. was the premium Brownsville retailer/grocer in 1966.  There was an H.E.B. on Boca Chica and one downtown, plus a King Mart, El Centro, Minimax, Jimmy Pace, Glen Herman Supermarket and dozens of neighborhood groceries where you could sneak out of the heat for a ten cent soda.

The concept of revitalizing, restoring, re-energizing downtown floated through the 70's, 80's, 90's much like the warnings about tobacco, lard, unprotected sex and pyramid schemes.  Near the turn of this past century a scam named United Brownsville  used downtown revitalization as its poster child while milking Brownsville taxpayers out of $900,000 for a pretend study.  With the enticement of a so-called entertainment district and a promised parking garage to provide safe parking for the customers of the downtown clubs, a dozen or so downtown venues were remodeled in readiness of the resuscitation of zona central.  

Mayor Tony Martinez, elected on the bubble of downtown promise, eschewed the revamping of the city's historical district to pursue personal profit and cronyism with inside real estate deals, a possible ambassadorship, sucking up to anyone outside the city's orbit with money or political favors, flying out of the city at every opportunity, frequently at taxpayer expense.   

And now, the end is near 
And so I face the final curtain 
My friend, I'll say it clear 
I'll state my case, of which I'm certain

Paul Anka, "My Way"

With no help from the self-occupied Martinez, longstanding hindrances like Evaristo Gamez in Permits and Peter Goodman at Historical, the near-perfect Hollywood casting of a do-nothing, overweight bureaucrat in Downtown Revitalization guru, Planning Director Ramiro Gonzalez,

Bora Bora Night Club

downtown Brownsville faced the dreaded biblical Second Death. The Bora Bora, the Puro, the Kwai, the Deja Vu and half a dozen other downtown nightclubs started and failed in the last year without so much as an extended hand from the city. "You live. You die. We ignore."

Which brings us to Wednesday's meeting of the Brownsville Metro Transit Advisory Committee. Daniel Lenz, Board Chairman, greets me at the door. "If you'd like to comment, we have available this Public Comment form. Just sign in and you will be allowed to speak. Otherwise, you may not comment." Likely Lenz was responding to a board member who had objected to my questions about Metro Connect and observation about the student-day funding of BISD At the time Lenz had said: "We're more laid back than other boards."

The first item on the agenda likely referred to me: "To discuss board procedures." Chairman Lenz simply said: "That's been handled. Let's move on."

Next was a charity, "Communities in Schools," asking for free transport of students designated as "homeless" to the school of their choice. Thirty minutes had been devoted to this at last month's meeting with much of the time devoted to the group's self-praise for encouraging students with no permanent address to stay in school. This time around, Chairman Lenz recommended the $9:00 discounted rate for 20 bus fares, stating that BISD might want to subsidize those fares, especially with $135,000 student day funding in the balance.

Norma Zamora, Brownsville Metro Director, gave a limited update on Metro Connect: 85 per day are taking advantage of the free Blue Line ride to South Padre Island. She did not have details for the Red and Green Line ridership.

Alex Lorio passed out a printout about Brownsville Metro Passenger Appreciation Day scheduled for December 7, 2013. He hoped that day would not "live in infamy," a reference to Pearl Harbor Day, December 7, 1941. The downtown terminal will offer free hot dogs and popcorn from 2:00 till 6:00 PM that day.

Andrew Munoz promised me a copy of the Major Breakdown Report distributed to everyone in attendance but us.