WAS BROWNSVILLE OVERSOLD AS THE "BIKE CAPITAL OF THE RGV"?

 

City Commissioner Rose Gowen

Almost no one in the city of Brownsville is anti-bicycle and, actually, only a few have ever actually opposed the construction of hike and bike trails.  

Even the implementation of a hike and bike trail master plan is not a bad idea.

Some day soon, Commissioner Rose Gowen will look back on the series of connecting hike and bike trails in the city of Brownsville as her legacy.  

It would not surprise us if her name eventually graces the master plan or a specific trail within the plan.

She's worked hard, within the City Commission, and as onetime chairman of the Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation, to push cycling, bike trails and CycloBia. 

What offended many Brownsville taxpayers, a few blog readers and an even smaller number of actual voters, is that the hike and bike trail concept, the faux city holiday of CycloBia, portions of roadway white-striped off as bike lanes in high traffic areas, that whole program was crammed down our collective throats, obviously an elitist ego trip, not an actual city priority.  

Commissioner Rose Gowen, slipping into the role as chairman of the BCIC, the vehicle for dispersing 4B "quality of life" taxpayer monies, steered hundreds of thousands of dollars into hike and bike trails, advertising Brownsville as a "bike capital," that would become the recipient of "bicycle tourism," and and the city has subsidized the CycloBia cycling event several times in Brownsville since 2013.

The BCIC even spent $7,000 in Brownsville tax dollars to hang a sign at Harlingen's Valley International Airport declaring Brownsville the "Bicycling Capital of the the Rio Grande Valley".

What purpose did that serve?

Was the intention that "tourists" not forget their bicycles on their next trip to the RGV and also remember to go to Brownsville to ride them and subsequently swell Brownsville's collection of sales tax dollars?

My point is that much of this cycling promotion was not done honestly.  

Lies were told misrepresenting the state of cycling in Brownsville, our city's actual use of hike and bike trails and the predicted onset of tourist dollars from visiting cyclists.  

For example, in an application for a traffic enhancement grant worth $786,000, the City of Brownsville claimed that over 1,000 cyclers used the Battlefield Hike & Bike Trail daily.  

That statement was untrue then and it's still untrue.  Yes, a few ride that one trail, but not "1,000 per day."

Sometimes, it's seemed that Brownsville had a bike cult of glassy-eyed folk, who could "see" the 1,000 daily riders on a single trail or that Brownsville was our region's "bike capital," while the "unbelievers" simply lacked faith in the bike god.

Gowen also gushed at BCIC meetings about Brownsville being the recipient of actual tourist dollars as a result of "bicycle tourism," stating at one such meeting that these mysterious bicycle tourists "have an annual income of $190,000, no $200,000, and, on average, at least two advanced degrees."

Wonderful!

We look forward to someday meeting these accomplished visitors with so much money to spend in our city!

The "unfortunate truth" is that after all of this money has been spent promoting cycling, constructing hike and bike trails, advertising bike events and our city's phony status as a "bike capital," many other, much more critical needs have not been addressed.  

Southmost still doesn't have a full complement of sidewalks and "Four Corners" floods after every substantial rain.

It's not a matter of being anti-bike, just a matter of handling our city's priorities first and practicing honest government.