Do Not Allow the City to Distort the Purpose of the Town Hall Meeting About Lincoln Park

City of Brownsville Public
Relations Officer

October 30 at 6:00 PM the City of Brownsville will sponsor a Town Hall Meeting at the Tony Gonzalez Park gymnasium.  

The Brownsville Herald, earlier this month, gave this synopsis of Public Relations Officer Patty Gonzalez' characterization of the purpose of the meeting:  "Brownsville spokeswoman Patty Gonzales is presenting the hearing as an opportunity for residents to be involved in the creation of the new park, which she noted could even warrant a name change if citizens voiced their displeasure at the dedication of a third Lincoln Park."

Wrong Patty!  Legally, the meeting HAS to be about WHETHER OR NOT to transfer Lincoln Park to the ultra-rich UT system. It is totally arrogant and presumptuous to ASSUME there will even be a need for a third Lincoln Park before the legally-mandated hearing to CONSIDER what the citizens and users of Lincoln Park prefer to do.  

Commissioner Rick Longoria,
Totally Played by Tony Martinez
on Proposed Lincoln Park Giveaway

The one who should have been out front on this issue, District 1 Commissioner Rick Longoria, has been totally played by Mayor Tony Martinez.  First, Martinez blew smoke up Rick's ass by telling him the new park would be named the Ricardo Longoria, Jr. Park.

When locals began referring to the proposed location for the new park next to a sewage treatment plant as the "Shit Property," "Turd Park" and the "Hold Your Nose Sports Complex," Commissioner Rick said he'd been assured by a P.U.B. official that they had chemicals that could neutralize the putrid smell of the sewage plant.  Well, damn Rick!  If there are chemicals that could deodorize the sewage plant, why aren't they being used now so Southmost residents, your constituents, don't have to smell that shit?

The University of Texas risks extreme national embarrassment if the park property transfer goes through, especially when the national media picks up the story of how the big, bad, ultra-rich university system just had to have the property occupied by an irreplaceable park in the poorest region of the poorest city in the United States, a city with an overwhelming Hispanic population.  It will also be publicized that UT has no current need for this property, may never have such, as the eastern satellite of UT-RGV appears likely to have a smaller student body than the old UT Brownsville.

Juliet Garcia

A persistent, ugly rumor is that Lincoln Park will be bulldozed, destroyed to make way for the new University of Texas Institute of the Americas to be headed by former UTB President Juliet Garcia.

Meanwhile, members of Valley Interfaith, a community group, are said to be knocking on doors in Southmost, attempting to garner support for preserving Lincoln Park at its current location.  1,200 signatures will be needed to make that a ballot item.