Newly Upgraded Portway Acres Park Dedicated After Facelift

Upgrading Portway Acres Park on Austin Road has been on the mind of District 2 Commissioner Jessica Tetreau-Kalifa since block-walking the area in 2011, seeing kids making a game of kicking garbage in the park. The commissioner, working with the Parks Department, City Manager Charlie Cabler and Planning Director Ramiro Gonzalez has orchestrated a dramatic facelift for the playground. An electronically controlled water geyser creates a cooling off area for those hot summer days, while the eastern end of the park has a gated dog run, larger than those in some New York City parks.

The elliptical soft surface track is perfect for walkers, joggers or bike riders. A posted wooden map shows the projected bike trails eventually connecting the park to schools, other parks and even downtown.  Polished concrete picnic tables, decorative concrete trash receptacles and solar lighting throughout are first time amenities to a Brownsville park.

A solid, unpainted heavy iron sign, looking like a Henry Moore Sculpture, with the name "Portway Acres Park" cut out using a high pressure water saw, identifies the park.  The cut out metal letters were not wasted but set into a concrete pathway at the entrance.  

Park Director Chris Patterson and Planning Director Ramiro Gonzalez expect the facelift of historic Washington Park downtown to be completed before Charro Days.  

Brownsville's park system is perhaps one of the few things state-of-the-art in the city.  Oliveira Park with its accomodations to special needs children is like no other in the state.