La Plaza Multimodal Bus Terminal, Brownsville's $31,000,000 Public Bathroom

A visitor to Downtown Brownsville, whether a Mexican National just crossing the border or a Winter Texan strolling through the city's 19th century architecture, will quickly notice a decidedly inhospitable "No Baño" policy at almost every downtown business.  Surely, there is not another city of 200,000 in the United States who sends this message to downtown shoppers.  

While locals likely take this happenstance in stride, knowing that

City Plaza has spacious, clean restrooms or that, in a pinch they can dart into the less than sanitary restroom at Church's Chicken on 13th Street.(My personal experience at Church's involves the sight of a leaking urinal closed off with a tightly wrapped transparent plastic bag that had subsequently filled with water.)  The old Palm Lounge, now under renovation, until recently featured an open latrine behind a fabric draw back curtain. 

Many of the signs, posted on shop and restaurant glassed entry doors, simply say "No Baño," while 
others give the city's visitors an option of paying a $2.00 fee to use the restroom.  This predominant downtown restroom policy has 
made the $31,000,000 La Plaza Multimodal Bus Terminal with its 45,000 square feet of not only visitor reception and passenger waiting areas, intercity bus counters, administrative spaces, a package express area, but also three spacious restrooms(male, female and family),THE downtown restroom.

In addition to normal restroom use, there is that weary, dusty traveler, either coming to the city by bus or walking from Matamoros, who enters the facility with a dufflebag containing a change of clothing and toiletries and gives himself a sort of sponge bath.  This is not a criminal act, but simply a skill set of the working poor. 

High restroom use was one point of discussion at this past Wednesday's meeting of the Brownsville 

Metro Transit Advisory Committee with one board member suggesting the terminal impose a ten cent use fee to cover the high cost of trash disposal and sanitary paper.  Andrew Munoz, Brownsville Metro VP, stated that the facility was filling 100 55
gallon trash bags per day with currently 4 dumpster pickups scheduled weekly and purchasing, on average, 40 jumbo boxes of commercial toilet tissue.  High maintenance costs also include replacing motion sensor faucets at $1,500 per unit with two currently being inoperative.  The board discussed covering up the currently visible electronics for these units to deter vandalism. 

Visiting with Mr. Munoz after the board meeting,  I mentioned that, as a teenager, I criss-crossed the country on buses, saw many bus station restrooms in major cities that charged a dime for using their generally filthy facilities.  Sometimes, charitable customers would jam a piece of paper, letting the next user go for free.  I did not tell Munoz what I still remember scawled on a bus station bathroom wall a half century ago:  "Here I sit brokenhearted, paid a nickel, only farted."

Brownsville taxpayers and visitors may soon have yet another downtown restroom option.  A new office has recently been renovated at 1101 "A" E. Washington St.  It is the new office of Mayor Tony Martinez.  We've submitted an Open Records request to the City of Brownsville to determine if the new office is being leased or has been renovated with taxpayer funds.  If so, a unisex bathroom located at the office's northwest corner may soon be available downtown.