BROWNSVILLE CITY COMMISSION: DOES BEN NEECE ACTUALLY HAVE A PLAN FOR DOWNTOWN?

City Commissioner Ben Neece
by Diego Lee Rot

It was Brownsville Observer music writer, Diego Lee Rot, who asked the question:  

"Do you think Ben Neece really has a plan to revive downtown?"

Diego sort of yawned as I went into my "hit the ground running" theory.

"Yes, I know. . . . Eddie Sutton," Diego murmured.

I'd personally witnessed Sutton take a very mediocre Arkansas basketball program to SWC championships, final four appearances, etc.  

Eddie Sutton, University of Arkansas
Basketball Coach, 1974

Having been around good programs, he knew exactly, from Day 1 in 1974 what needed to be done; a new arena, keeping the state's top talent in state, a paramount emphasis on defense, etc.  He made few missteps, seemingly programmed.

A similar drive and skill set was expected of Ben Neece when he ran for City Commissioner, District 4, including downtown, yes, that he would "hit the ground running," so to speak.  Why else would he even run for such an office without a god damn plan?  Instead, shortly after winning office, he took a vacation.

Yet Ben, trying to make the Crescent Moon Saloon viable and, along with George Ramirez, the Half Moon profitable, knew the challenges; getting Permit Director Evaristo Gamez, Jr. off his greedy ass by scaring him shitless, providing some kind of real incentive for downtown property owners to restore, remodel and resuscitate their buildings, thinking outside the box to promote historical tourism as cities in the Southeast U.S. are noted for doing.

Tad Hasse by Nena

Ben, even had a secret weapon, his close friend and Brownsville's resident nerd, Tad Hasse, who years ago had come up with 10 and 20 year plans to allow downtown property owners to make building improvements in lieu of property taxes, betting on the owners so increasing the value of their properties that the city would actually recover those lost revenues in time while also increasing the overall tax base.

Currently, with dwindling sales and subsequently rents, low occupancy rates, downtown owners have ZERO incentive to restore their buildings.

Their role model is Abraham Galonsky, who sold his decaying building for triple its value to the City of Brownsville in a sale orchestrated and likely profited by Mayor Tony Martinez.  

La Casa del Nylon

Shortly after the sale in 2012, I chatted with an owner whose building sits cattycorner from Galonsky's La Casa del Nylon.  When I expressed shock that her neighbor's building had sold for $2.3 million, she disagreed.

"That was about right," she stated.  

"I think mine will bring at least a million."

So, Galonsky getting such an overpay for his building from the city actually undermined downtown revitalization.  Owners simply have been waiting for their payday, while their buildings continue to decline, decay.

For the uninformed, it's Brownsville's historicity that separates it from soulless McAllen and its cookie cutter sister cities; Harlingen, Edinburg, Weslaco, Donna and other dusty, personality-less municipalities in the delta of Rio Bravo.

Why did Ben even run?

Prior to his filling out the paperwork to run for the city commission, we heard that Ben was having "power breakfasts" with Abraham Galonsky.  Were Ben and Abraham discussing what it would take to revitalize downtown Brownsville or salivating about sharing the profits from sales of Galonsky's several downtown buildings and land tracts in the city?