Pictures from Downtown Brownsville, Monday, March 21, 2016

The old Wells-Fargo Bank property, purchased by Cameron County for the same price that Tony Martinez paid for Casa del Nylon.  Juan Montoya suggested that Tony was "pissed" the county beat him to the punch on the building.  A friend joked:  "Can you imagine if Tony had purchased the building?  Homeless  people would be living at every entrance, not to mention the six story fire staircase and the old bank drive-throughs."

By the way, in my picture-taking walk downtown Monday, I ran into the homeless man I interviewed several years ago, who's been living at the entrance of La Casa del Nylon since the city purchased it in 2012.  He didn't want any more publicity, mentioning also that since our last conversation, both his wife and his dog had passed.

Last year Historic Preservation Officer Peter Goodman told me an investor was interested in El Jardin Hotel.  Last week, BEDC Director Jason Hilts was observed showing someone the building. As today's picture shows, it would be quite a restoration.

Just after taking this picture, I ran into Leo Lopez and Trey Garza collecting signatures for Leo's write-in campaign for Cameron Country Tax Assessor.  Both laughingly denied being part of the investment team to buy the old hotel.

You can barely see the electrical box on the left side of the Sportsman Club, just behind the power pole.  The man approaching the box today looked more like a homeless person than an electrical technician.  He opened the box, pulled out a pint of liquor, took a swig and placed the bottle back into the electrical box.  As they say:  "Necessity is the mother of invention."