The happy tourists above impacted the economy of Fort Worth, Texas this past month by their attendance at a bike & trails seminar. Who wouldn't smile while enjoying the plush accommodations of Sheraton Fort Worth Hotel & Spa while enjoying $56 per diem eats? Six received travel money in advance from the City of Brownsville with travel requests ranging from $966 to $1,439, while four others were sponsored with 4B tax dollars through the Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation.
We don't know who paid for Assistant City Manager Jeff Johnston or Tourism Guru "Bean" Ayala, but it would shock if they paid their own way for yet more bicycle training. Is their any reasonable explanation as to why the "poorest city in the United States" has to foot the bill for this large a delegation to learn about bikes and bike trails? Can you justify this Rose? What do you have to say Bean? Are hard earned Brownsville tax dollars and assets being protected Jeff? You just don't understand, do you Ramiro?
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Our city boards and officials have gone bike crazy, are bike obsessed and in some sort of irrational, bicycle loony land. The BCIC spent $7,000 of tax dollars for the postcard ad above to hang in the Harlingen airport terminal for one year, announcing Brownsville as "The Bicycling Capital of the Rio Grande Valley." Board Chairman Rose Gowen hailed the ad, declaring bicycle tourists as affluent with "annual salaries of $190,000, no $200,000 per year, with education averaging two advanced degrees."
I doubt if a single one of the "bicycle tourists" has traveled to Brownsville to ride our two bike trails or to get killed pedaling in our bike lanes. The only real "bicycle tourism" generated so far is our city administrators, commissioners and board members traveling to Colombia, Galveston, Fort Worth and who knows where else to get bike-educated with taxpayer money.
Brownsville's Big Bike Illusion has even extended to submitting obviously false grant applications. An application sent by the city for a Traffic enhancement grant of $786,000 to extend the Battlefield Hike & Bike Trail through downtown, connecting it to Fort Brown claimed that the "Battlefield Hike & Bike Trail" currently has "1,000 riders daily," obviously a lie.
It's actually a matter of priorities. At Tuesdays BCIC meeting the board chose to fund several bicycle events, committed $18,000 for landscape managment of the Belden Bike Trail, $4,500 for a "Resaca-Kite Flying Regatta, but a request of $4,500 for bus stop "seats and signs" was denied.
Oh, the pic at the top also reflects celebration of Rose Gowen's award as "Trail Boss," doubtless because she rounded up such a large contingent to the seminar at taxpayer expense. Actually, those who misuse, waste, squander taxpayer dollars as we've documented, disrespecting the hard workers in this "poorest city," should simply hit the trail.
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They are ridiculous only no one is laughing.
ReplyDeleteTHEY LOOK LIKE THEY JUST FINISHED A HUGE FREE MEAL PAID BY TAX PAYERS AGAIN.
DeleteSome happy people. Their smiles come from the benefits of sucking on the public tit. No doubt we needed so many for such an important issue in our time of need. So far there are surely not statistics that indicate the expenditure for bike trails will benefit tourism or fight obesity......only Rose Gowen's statement that 1,000 people use the bike trails daily...a laughable number.
ReplyDeleteIf we should have a conference on recycling (not bicycling) or saving energy......would anyone in Brownsville attend??????????????
ReplyDeleteLa pedorra Rose Gowen, La muerta de hambre, Estela Chavez Vasca, digo Vasquez. Pura gente chafas, ratas de dos patas y bien coludas las desgraciadas. Ha mira ahi tambien esta el lambe huevos de Jeff Johnston, chinguen a toda su madre ojete, atentamente El Pueblo.
ReplyDeleteLMAO LMAO LE QUEDA MEJOR ROSA LA PANSONA COCONUT GOWEN LMAO LMAO!!!!!!!!!
DeleteMuch ado about nothing. Cities approve such seminars all the time. If Brownsville is looking into biking, well, it then makes sense. What price Paradise, Jim?
ReplyDeleteI guess it's ok if the dumbocRATS goal is to make brownsville a THIRD WORLD CITY which were almost there.
DeleteJim, we had to send that many people and it is justified like this: It took that many people to try and have the equivalent of one brain at the seminar. Now looking at those who attended, it appears we still fell short of the equivalent of one brain! But hey, I love Rose's glow in the dark shoes, professionalism at it's best, LOL! Oh, and did anybody else notice how HEFTY and PLUMP most of these Brownsville bicyclist guru's happen to be? They are obviously not hitting the bikes themselves. Brownsville receives the only two awards doled out and we were represented by mostly FAT people, how embarrassing!
ReplyDeleteLMAO LMAO JUST HILARIOUS!!!!!!!!!!!
DeleteIt wasn't too long ago they announced the installation of some high tech material to mark the bike lanes citywide. Seems like we are all getting the shaft with their bullshit!
ReplyDeleteGod! I hate these lying, worthless cretins. ( I also hate the lazy asses that don't ever vote.)
ReplyDeleteA Mercedes man remains jailed following his arrest for allegedly breaking into a house on Frances Street -- and taking a seat next to a woman who lives there while she slept. Frances Street and the area around the City Cemetery has experienced a spike in burglaries since late last year, particularly in occupied houses. The woman in Friday's break-in recognized Alfredo Mireles, 36, as a "vagrant" she had previously seen in the neighborhood, according to a police report. Mireles, whom jail records say is a cook, is charged with felony burglary of an occupied dwelling and felony grand theft for allegedly stealing a Samsung cell phone while inside the house. His bond is $30,000, but there's also a hold on him from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The police report from Officer Frank Mancha says that when the woman woke up just before 7 a.m. and saw Mireles, she grabbed a handheld vacuum cleaner and beat him with it. "She was sleeping in her bedroom with her 6-year-old son," Mancha wrote. "She was unsure why she woke up, but when she did, she noticed a man seated in the chair next to her bed. She was in fear for her life and grabbed the first thing she could find in order to defend herself." Mireles ran out of the house when confronted, according to Mancha's report, and was spotted near the Valero gas station at Truman Avenue and White Street about two blocks away. The woman told police she had left both her front and back doors open for the breeze, according to reports.
ReplyDeleteWHAT THE FUCK? WHO GIVES A SHIT WHAT HAPPENS IN "MERCEDES"? BROWNSVILLE IS IN THE SEWER, WE'RE THE ARM PIT OF THE UNITED STATES THE POOREST AND OBVIOUSLY THE DUMBEST AND YOU IDIOT IS COMMENTING ABOUT MERCEDES??????????????
DeleteHey, I like reading these stories. Mercedes is not in Bosnia, it's right here in the valley. If you don't like it and want bullshit go to Boobie's blog. Only an idiot posts in all caps, btw.
Deleteno mames Mercedes i'm with you who gives a rat's ass ,mercedes!
DeleteNo bicycle props? What were they thinking?
ReplyDeleteLooks like a picture for the new game of "Pin the Tail on the Buffalo Butt". Winner gets a bike! Kind of hard to lose at this game, LMAO!
ReplyDeleteWhat is this ludicrous preoccupation with bicycling? We have so many other things in Brownsville that need our concern ..... and dollars; but no - money is squandered on useless, harebrained ideas like this. Bicycling, indeed!!! What utter rubbish.
ReplyDeleteThe biggest waste of taxpayer dollars is the salary to Bean Ayala. The guy is worthless and goes from taxpaying job to taxpaying job with dismal results everywhere he goes. He is a professional clown, he acts like a fool trying to make people laugh for his employment. They are laughing at you Bean.
ReplyDeleteBean considers himself the face of browntown. If it was not for the zoo, there would be no need for a tourist to visit Brownsville. Instead of one good museum we have 3 or 4 crappy ones. The museum of south Texas in edinburg is really amazing for such a small city. You should check it out.
ReplyDeleteTHERE'S A GREAT JOKE SOMEWHERE ,THE FACE OF BROWNTOWN AND THE WORD ZOO HAHA
DeleteWell of course Bean considers himself the face of browntown, isn't he a "Beaner" lol lol lol.
DeleteAnyone who knows Bean knows he is a legend in his own mind! He thinks shouting and screaming is the way to make his point. Poor Bean.
ReplyDeleteI remember Mr . Ayala always helping the children of Brownsville . I would run into him at the boys and girls club and he would always talk to troubled kids and spend time teaching them basketball ,table tennis , and just about every game or sport at the B&G club
ReplyDeleteWhat a most difficult job Mr.Bean has in promoting such a shit hole like browntown. He is a nice guy, just wants to constantly be the center of attention. I just do not like his chuco, texmex public speaking.
ReplyDelete