"Brownsville Bike Initiative" to be Unveiled at City Commission Workshop March 4 at 5:05 PM

NOTICE OF A PUBLIC MEETING OF THE
CITY COMMISSION OF THE CITY OF BROWNSVILLE
Pursuant to Chapter 551, Title 5 of the Texas Government Code, the Texas Open Meetings Act,
notice is hereby given that the City Commission of the City of Brownsville, Texas, in accordance
with Article V, Section 12, of the Charter of said City, will convene a Workshop, an Executive
Session and a Regular Meeting, on Tuesday, March 04, 2014, at 5:05 P.M., 5:45 P.M., and at
6:00 P.M. in the Commission Chambers, on the Second Floor of the Brownsville City Hall – Old
Federal Building, located at 1001 East Elizabeth Street, Brownsville, Cameron County, Texas,
78520.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
WORKSHOP: 5:05 P.M.
a) Workshop regarding the preparation of the City’s Capital Improvement Plan (CIP). (Pete
Gonzalez – Deputy City Manager – 20 mins.)

b) Presentation regarding the Bike Brownsville Initiative. (Ramiro Gonzalez – Planning – 10 
mins.) 

c) Presentation by Cargo USA Logistics. (Commissioners R. Longoria, Jr./J. Villarreal – 10
mins.)
* *

Several things could be at work here.  As we reported, the City of Brownsville did receive a $786,000 grant to connect the Battlefield Hike & Bike Trail with Fort Brown, although the grant application greatly exaggerated the actual ridership on the trail as "averaging 1,000 daily riders."

Downtown property owners were concerned about a rumor that parking spaces would be removed on one side of Adams Street downtown for the bike trail connection, although de facto City Planner Ramiro Gonzalez said:  "That's not happening."

Despite Ramiro's reassurances, the charts on the original grant application shows Adams Street to clearly be part of the original plan.  Here is an excerpt from a 2/4/14 Mean Mister Brownsville article:  

"Now, it's entirely possibly that, after some downtown owners expressed concern about parking meters being removed for a bike trail through downtown, that City Planning is looking at alternate routes, but the diagram to the left submitted in the grant application CLEARLY shows the trail going through Adams Street as downtown property owners feared.


Actually, it's worse than they feared as Adams is closed to one lane for auto and truck traffic, but still is just one-way as a bicycle lane. In the city's proposed plan, Jefferson Street is also used as a bike lane, eliminating twice as many parking meters as feared.

City Planning, as they would say in Arkansas, is talking out of both sides of their collective mouth. On one hand, they say

City Planner Ramiro Gonzalez

downtown Brownsville has a parking congestion problem that can be solved by tripling parking meter rates, then add to the problem by proposing to eliminate meters on two downtown streets, Adams and Jefferson, for a bike trail.

Of course, now Planner Ramiro Gonzalez says 'That's not happening.' We will see."

Another possible aspect of the so-called "Brownsville Bike Initiative" may be the promotion of the city as a mecca for bicycle tourism. Here is part of our report on the 2/12/14 BCIC board meeting:

"Yet another image of Brownsville greets visitors as they disembark at the Harlingen Airport. Walking through the terminal, Southwest Airlines' passengers are greeted by two postcards or billboards, rented annually by the BCIC for $7,000 to advertise Brownsville. One billboard advertises the city's new medical academy or high school, while the other proclaims Brownsville, "The Bicycling Capital of the Rio Grande Valley."

BCIC Board Chairman Rose Gowen commented during the

meeting on the worthy demographics of "cycling tourists," stating that somewhere she had read that they had "an average yearly income of $190,000, no, $200,000 and averaged an advanced degree educationally, possibly a masters." So, hot damn! Hopefully, these "cycling tourists" coming into the valley at HRL from Seattle, Chicago or New York, thought to have a their high end bicycles put into baggage so they can take advantage of Brownsville's hike & bike trails and bike lanes."

Please stay tuned!