Judge Cascos Uncomfortable with Brownsville's "Poorest City in America" Designation

Cameron County Judge Carlos Cascos

Appearing at what was represented as a "lunch among close friends," I appeared without my half-priced Dillard's sport coat, pretend reporter's notepad or Mean Mister Brownsville persona.  Rosie Sheldon-Sotelo handing out campaign materials brought me into the reality that this was a more serious event than advertised.  I didn't immediately notice County Judge Carlos Cascos, seated behind me, but, making eye contact, we have-assedly shook hands with neither of us getting up.

After Judge Carlos Cascos, who initially declined to offer "remarks," decided to offer a few, I passed when the host asked if I had any questions for the judge.  "Well, no," I thought to myself.  "Cascos expressed my exact sentiments on the wonderful asado de puerco."

Predictably, as we hinted, the articulate judge couldn't totally resist addressing a captive audience, prefacing his "State of the County" remarks with a restating of two original sound bites he noticed other public servants had borrowed:  "The taxpayers are not our personal ATM machine" and "There's no one more courageous than an anonymous blog commenter."(We'll save his observations on blogs, bloggers and blogging for a followup article.)

The primary theme for the judge's extemporaneous commentary, though, concerned a recent designation of Brownsville as the "poorest city in America."  The judge, himself a numbers man as a CPA in the private sector and fiscal conservative in the public, said the numbers for the study were "skewed," citing, first of all, that Brownsville's population was represented inaccurately as 400,000, which he said would include "the entire county."  Cascos said he knew what an impoverished area looks like "with unpaved streets and a hospital "fifty miles away."  "Brownsville and Cameron County have the infrastructure we need for basic services and to get from place to place, even with the occasional pot hole."

Brownsville Residents Lining
Up to Sell Plasma

Likely prompting the judge's ire was a Steve Clark article in the Brownsville Herald, published November 7, 2013 about Brownsville being the poorest city in the U.S.  Clark's source was the 24/7 Wall St. website(http://247wallst.com/special-report/2013/10/24/americas-the-richest-and-poorest-cities/) report of October 28, 2013.  Here are some excerpt from the actual report:

" According to the Census Bureau, Brownsville, Texas replaced McAllen, Texas, as the country's poorest metro area."

"While income levels and poverty rates are not identical measures, low income and high poverty tend to go hand in hand. All 10 of the poorest metropolitan areas have higher percentages of residents living below the poverty rate, compared to the national figure of 15.9%. In Brownsville, the poverty rate is more than 36%, the highest in the nation."

1. Brownsville-Harlingen, Texas

> Median household income: $30,953
> Population: 415,557 (125th highest)
> Unemployment rate: 10.5% (37th highest)
> Poverty rate: 36.10% (the highest)

Nearly two out of five Brownsville-Harlingen residents were living in poverty as of 2012, the highest rate of the 366 metropolitan areas reviewed. According to PewResearch, Brownsville had one of the largest Hispanic populations in 2012, and the highest rate of poverty among Hispanics in large metropolitan areas, at 40%. Additionally, more than one in three people were living without health insurance that year, the second highest rate in the U.S.. Home values were also low in 2012. Over 26% of homes were worth less than $50,000, about three times more than the median for the U.S., and one of the highest percentages of low-valued homes out of all metropolitan areas."

Ok. first of all, I've noticed that the Census Bureau and other entities do use the so-called Brownsville-Harlingen metro area for statistical comparisons, not that Brownsville residents or Harlingen residents have ever considered themselves in a statistical tandem or any other combo with the other. Sticking to the precise incorporated area of a city would hamstring the study. 

I don't agree that the numbers are "skewed."  The numbers are what they are.  I DO agree that the numbers don't tell the whole story. Of course, Cascos was speaking from his heart when he observed that the "homeless" in Brownsville, Cameron County were from "out of town," that hispanics "take pride in home ownership," even if modest. The homeless in many areas are from somewhere else, drifters, vagabonds, ne'er-do-wells, but once here, they're ours.  I'm pretty certain New York City's aggregation of homeless are largely not natives to that city.  

What the perusal of raw numbers never accurately measure are the so-called quality of life elements.  Don't feel sorry, for example, for an American retiree living in Chiang Mai, Thailand on his $1,200 Social Security check.  He's likely living like a king.  Much of what we enjoy in Brownsville living can't be measured in dollars and cents.  If the closeness of hispanic families, for example, allows for two or three generations to live under one roof, so be it.  

Actually, the limited cash flow necessitates a local resourcefulness likely unmatched in the rest of the United States.  In other words, scrapping is not simply an occupation at the Port of Brownsville.  Here's an excerpt from a much earlier MMB article: 

"We live in a town where politicians have routinely flushed millions down their favorite rat holes while a subculture doesn't throw away a damn thing!  Each day in Brownsville trash cans are gently overturned with the contents carefully separated into plastics, aluminum or the accidentally discarded coin.   Unpadlocked dumpsters beckon the divers who differentiate between Chinese and U.S. cardboard, thrill at the sight of the broken shopping cart or misplaced plastic milk crate.  None of this is even remotely connected with a commissioner's or mayor's green initiative, but all of it is survival based.
     Not long ago, I watched a man and woman pushing a worn shopping cart along 14th street.  Another shopping cart was turned upside down on top of the cart being pushed.  Other discarded metal pieces filled the basket of the cart.  All of this was headed to the scrap yard to be sold for a tiny fraction of H.E.B's replacement cost for one cart.   The scrap yards do ask questions, but only the legally required ones.  They have the incentive of buying cheap and selling higher so their survival is in play here too.  Shopping carts, manhole covers, air conditioning copper are the lifeblood of a system that starts near a trash can or dumpster and likely ends in a manufacturing country like China."

Here's another viewpoint as to what has traditionally and currently propped up the Brownsville economy made by one of those infamous anonymous commenters the judge singled out with disdain:

AnonymousNovember 13, 2013 at 6:45 AM

"The answer to the banking question is the same as the one to the duty free bonanza, smuggling and money laundering. Brownsville's entire history has been tied to illegal activities as the primary source of its economic life blood. Start with the arbitrary border of the post Mexican War through the Civil War cotton runners, to Mexican Revolution gun runners, to prohibition/whorehouses extravaganza, to WWll rationing, to electro domestics in the 50s, 60s, undocumented workers, to todays biggest of them all, drugs. Brownsville is not a city, it is a smuggling post at the end of highway 77. If it were not for the beneficial winds of border bamboozles, Brownsville would be the size of Hebbronville. Local "business men", especially bankers, put on a good old chamber of commerce face but underneath the make-up the clown is nothing but a clever coyote."

Even if this commenter exaggerates, the influx of laundered drug money into the city of Brownsville has to be factored in.  Two of our local banks can be linked to parent companies receiving reprimand and/or sanctions associated with these activities.  There is no way to measure accurately how many local business enterprises are simply fronts for money laundering.  How would Brownsville look if all of that sort of illicit revenue evaporated?  Probably, not like Hebbronville, but probably not like today's Brownsville either.  

Let's examine other infusions of cash into the local economy not connected to actual productivity. Turnback funds from the State of Texas swell the BISD budget to well over $500,000,000 annually, allowing BISD to be one of the area's largest employers.  Reports of the University of Texas at Brownsville having one of the highest tuitions in the state only underscores the fact that many, many local students pay that tuition with federal grants, another huge local subsidy.  

Think of the federal dollars associated with adult day care, childcare, home health care, WIC, food stamps, Medicaid, unemployment compensation and other similar programs.  Brownsville is not the only city, by any means, utilizing these programs, but there's no denying that the instant shutoff of these funds would have a dramatic, instant impact on this region.

These words are not aimed at Judge Cascos or others working hard to improve things, but just an honest attempt to view our city realistically.  Yes, we are collectively poor, but resourceful, hopeful, hard-working and optimistic.