𝗖𝗔𝗡𝗗𝗜𝗗𝗔𝗧𝗘 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗖𝗜𝗧𝗬 𝗖𝗢𝗠𝗠𝗜𝗦𝗦𝗜𝗢𝗡𝗘𝗥 𝗔𝗧 𝗟𝗔𝗥𝗚𝗘 𝗕, 𝗡𝗨𝗥𝗜𝗧𝗛 𝗚𝗔𝗟𝗢𝗡𝗦𝗞𝗬, 𝗔𝗦𝗞𝗦 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗜𝗡𝗣𝗨𝗧 𝗢𝗡 𝗜𝗠𝗣𝗥𝗢𝗩𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗦𝗧𝗥𝗘𝗘𝗧𝗦 𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗧𝗥𝗔𝗙𝗙𝗜𝗖~𝗪𝗘 𝗔𝗡𝗔𝗟𝗜𝗭𝗘 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗜𝗠𝗣𝗔𝗖𝗧 𝗢𝗙 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗠𝗣𝗢'𝗦 𝗠𝗘𝗗𝗜𝗔𝗡 𝗗𝗜𝗩𝗜𝗗𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗕𝗢𝗖𝗔 𝗖𝗛𝗜𝗖𝗔 𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗟𝗘𝗩𝗔𝗥𝗗

                                               

Nurith Galonsky

On January 22, I received the text:  "This is Nurith Galonsky for the City Commissioner at Large "B" Campaign.  Brownsville is our home, and we want to fix its problems.  Perhaps you want to help us improve our city.  Let us know your most pressing issues."

Then, this past Friday, March 28, I received another text:  "I'm Nurith Galonsky for City Commissioner.  If you are concerned about streets and traffic, can I send you some information on how we can fix them?"

Since this was a more specific request, I responded immediately: "Of course."  

Ms Galonsky responded yesterday:  "Thank you so much.  Here is a link to my video in which I explain the issue and how I think we can solve it.  Let me know what you think!"  https://.www.nurithgalonsky.-com/about/.

In the short 3 or 4 minute clip above, Galonsky states the obvious:  We need money, better planning and all the necessary city road projects can't be done simultaneously.  She suggests better coordination with elected state officials, securing TXDOT loans.  Then, appealing to citizens, she says that we may have a better concept of a road or highway's deficiencies than could be obtained from an expensive study.

First of all, the roads are much improved since my first stint in Brownsville, 1966-70.  Most of the side roads were clay back then, impassable when it rained. Some of the more heavily trafficked side roads got a layer of caliche over the clay dirt, improving somewhat.  My late father-in-law, Manuel Perez, living on Cental Avenue when it was simply clay, would leave his car on FM 802 and drive a Honda 3-wheeler from his house to FM 802 on rainy days.  Years ago, some of us used seashells mounded up near the railroad tracks in West Brownsville to cover the clay.  A few pickup truck loads could make a clay road passable, and, over time, the shells were crushed into a good driving surface.

Some of the main arteries, like Old Port Isabel Road, were narrow, two laned roads made in concrete sections. (If you weren't careful, you could drive off the side into clay.)

Before I-69 split the city in two, streets like Los Ebanos, where the U.S. Post Office is located, were main arteries.  At one time Los Ebanos Boulevard ran from many blocks west of Central Boulevard all the way to Boca Chica Boulevard in one fell swoop.  

As someone who used to regularly attend meetings of the local Metropolitian Planning Organization before it morphed into a regional one, even seeing the plan for a median-separated Boca Chica Boulevard before that shitty plan came to fruition. 

Anyway, since Nurith asked, here's a few of my observations about the changes made by the MPO and TXDOT to Boca Chica Blvd. a few years ago:

The shit show that is Boca Chica Boulevard is a living testament to millions of taxpayer dollars wasted by Brownsville's incompetent Metropolitan Planning Organization before it was eaten by the bigger fish, the Rio Grande Valley MPO.

The old Triple A farm team MPO was always dominated by the informative, but condescending Mark Lund, who presided over MPO meetings like a strict schoolmarm hovering over wayward students, asking and answering his own rhetorical questions, entertaining himself with  witticisms and asides only he found humorous.

Several years ago, I attended the MPO meetings discussing the proposed changes to Boca Chica Boulevard presided over by Mark Lund.  

An artist's rendering of the "new" median-divided Boca Chica Boulevard was propped up on a tripod.

Of course, it wasn't until traffic flow began to be hampered by traffic cones and the construction of the concrete barrier that Brownsville taxpayers began to complain.

An aspect of road construction not widely known is that the planning agency feels compelled to utilize their entire annual budget on projects, lest that budget be reduced the following year.  That thinking did play a part in the Boca Chica project.

Let's examine some of the problems created by the medianing of Boca Chica Boulevard.

Whether or not Boca Chica's traffic lights are synchronized is not the issue, it's the difficulty accessing a business you want to patronize on the opposite side of Boca Chica. 

The largest retailer in that stretch of Boca Chica, the H.E.B. Supermarket, can no longer be accessed with a direct left turn, but drivers from the east are given two awkward, unwieldy options:

1.  Make a U-turn at the U-Haul Trailer facility, then navigate the many speed bumps across the parking lot and a concrete barrier in front of U-Haul to find a narrow lane behind Chase Bank leading to the H.E.B. parking lot.

2.  Pass H.E.B. going west and turn left at the traffic light at Paredes Line Road.  Proceed approximately two blocks to access H.E.B. from the west side of the parking lot.

Going east, the revamped Boca Chica Boulevard forces drivers wanting to access the strip mall containing D.D.'s Discounts, etc. to pass the area, then u-turn back to it.  

Vehicles traveling east on Boca Chica, attempting to enter the Walmart parking, face the option of sitting through four red lights to turn left on Old Port Isabel Road or execute a U-turn much further east.

Dozens of cars at a time are exiting or entering the narrow opening of a tiny strip mall turning it into a heavily-trafficked side road. 

Boca Chica Boulevard has needlessly become a congested little mess, victimized by poor design, more than actual traffic.

Piss poor "planning" MPO!

                                        

Mark Lund

This new dangerously congested stretch of what is actually Texas Highway 4 needs to be renamed "Mark Lund Boulevard," to recognize its primary bureaucratic creator. 

Others running for City Commissioner At Large B, besides Nurith Galonsky, include Roy De Los Santos, Alejandro Garcia and Jason Moody.