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| Battlefield Hike & Bike Trail at Linear Park |
Nothing illustrates the divide between the "eye test" and what City of Brownsville officials portray as reality than an obvious lie on the application for a grant to connect the Battlefield Hike & Bike Trail with Fort Brown by running a bike trail through downtown Brownsville. The application for federal money stated that "1,000 riders, on average, use the Battlefield Hike & Bike Trail daily."
City officials lied because they wanted the grant. The lie was rewarded with a $786,000 federal grant to extend the bike trail through town. Ordinary citizens, who look left and right before crossing the bike trail, seldom see cyclists. It's not that a protected bike trail isn't a good idea. But, its use and need has been oversold at the very least.
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| Billboard hanging at Harlingen Airport terminal on $7,000 annual contract |
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| BCIC Chair Gowen |
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| Cycling Tourists |
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| Real World Brownville Cyclist/Recycler |
But, let's be honest. No cycling tourists have placed their high-end bicycles into baggage on a Southwest Airlines flight with the intention of riding Brownsville hard during their vacation. Even Cyclopedia is a trumped up city event, funded by BCIC, not something generated by local, popular demand. It's an orchestrated photo-op for the city's agenda. Again, fantasy and reality in play.
Anyway, here are recent comments to this blog about the state of Brownsville cycling:
Comment #1: The whole BCIC organization is a big joke and should be audited. Spending thousands for billboards with fictitious wannabe city adopted titles is clueless. This group thrives on milking the government for freebie "quality of life" projects that people refuse to participate in. I pass by the Beldon Bike Trail at least twice a day through St Charles Street by John Villareals Tortilleria "La Milpa" and have never seen anyone ride a bike there since it opened. What a joke!!!
Comment #2: The whole BCIC organization is a big joke and should be audited. Spending thousands for billboards with fictitious wannabe city adopted titles is clueless. This group thrives on milking the government for freebie "quality of life" projects that people refuse to participate in. I pass by the Beldon Bike Trail at least twice a day through St Charles Street by John Villareals Tortilleria "La Milpa" and have never seen anyone ride a bike there since it opened. What a joke!!!
Comment #3: The city and especially Commissioner Rose Gowen have given this title to themselves. I drive the streets around the city daily and I can clearly see that the bike lanes are used mostly as turn lanes or for parking. Go to Alton Gloor any afternoon when Burns School (or Paredes Line at Vela School) and see that the bike lanes are parking lanes for parents picking up their children. Very seldom do I ever see a bike in those lanes. Perhaps on the weekend one or two bikes might be seen further outside the city. This advertisement of a "bike city" is laughable and is truly a vision of some who never drive around the city. City offiicials seem to have the cart before the horse....unrealistic and untrue.
Comment #4: You notice that these PR mavens modestly limit Brownsville to the bicycling capital of the Rio Grande Valley. That is like saying Miami is the snow mobile capital of Florida. And, what in the hell is with the mountain ridge in the background? Or, is that an overpass with trees growing out of it?
Comment #5: AS they say in Mexico "Pueblo Bicicletero" meaning the village is so small that the only way of transportation needed is a bicycle!!
Comment #6: As long as you are willing to take your life in your hands! The bike lanes here have become "turning lanes or parking lanes" for the public. The city doesn't enforce any type of protection for bikers. This community is a plague for bikers as long as the bike lanes are allowed to be used for parking and passing.
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Pinche PUEBLO BICICLETERO LO QUE PASA ES QUE EL MAYOR Y GOWEN SE ACUERDAN CUANDO SUS PAPAS REPARTIAN EL PAN EN MEXICO POR ESO POR ESO LE PONEN MAS ATENCION A ESO QUE A TRAER INDUSTRIAS Y TARBAJO A LA CIUDAD INUTILES TOOOS
ReplyDeleteHaven't seen a bicycle all day today. But I have seen lots of parking in the bike lanes in front of Burns, Vela schools and along Paredes Line at the tire shops. Also, haven't seen a single BPD vehicle today. Perhaps all the BPD folks are having coffee and doughnuts due to the cool weather. Me thinketh that Rose Zavaletta Gowen has probably witnessed none of this from her "chambers" and probably doesn't care. This community deserves public officials who are "out and about" in the community and understand the "real" public issues.....and it ain't a bike trail. We are one of the poorest cities in the nation and we are spending tax dollars to attract a very small group of people who earn $190,000 or more a year and ride bicycles that cost more than most cars in this city. What a load of crap. Rose ministers to the poor, but she surely doesn't understand the poor and issues important to the poor. She is a "Zavaletta/Zavaleta" and we know they are smarter and brighter than all of us.
ReplyDeleteWe're officially a THIRD WORLD CITY.
ReplyDeleteThe 1,000 bikers a day is just another lie we tell to defend against the reality that we are like a Third World nation or region. As long as the majority of our citizens are on welfare or poor, we will not likely have clean streets, or have a populace with an incentive to work. As long as we have a city commission determined to not face the reality of this poor city, to continue to spend money on developing downtown over developing jobs for the city.....we will continue to be a delusional third world city.
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