By Juan Montoya
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Ever listen in on some of our city and county commission meetings where some elected local official will complain about drivers using the bike lane as a right turn lane making it dangerous for bike riders and runners?
If it was a City of Brownsville Commission meeting, it is most probable that the complainer was commissioner Rose Gowen Zavaletta (with two TTs),a proponent of allocating millions from the budget of the country's poorest community to ensnare the city with a system of connected bike trials.
Proponents of this plan – which they see as the first step toward a healthy community – eventually want to extend the bike trails to the Hidalgo County-Cameron County border and eastward over the Queen Isabella Causeway to South Padre Island.
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Toward that end they have talked the city administration and their fellow commissioners to go along with designating certain roads to be considered bike-friendly and implementing bike lanes that actually reduce the amount of macadam cars can use.
It doesn't matter – as Brownsville's resident gadfly Robert Uresti said recently – that we already have so many bike lanes that aren't used the majority of the time and that on some "you don't even see a dog walking on them."
thought you might find this entertaining.
Well, a funny thing happened on the way to a half marathon yesterday, on Sunday the 23rd, to be exact.
As we know, Gowen's zeal for the bike lanes led the city to pump tax dollars to put in a hike/bike lane on her street (the corner of Calle Anacua and Calle Retama) which the majority of neighborhoods in the city don't have access to so that walkers and bikers can exercise safely in exclusive Rio Viejo.
And guess what happened during the Historic Brownsville Half Marathon with hundreds of people attending? What does our bike- and pedestrian-friendly commissioner do?
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She (drum roll, please) blocks the sidewalk and the bike lane with her car when there is plenty of parking in front of her house.
Various neighbors in the Rio Viejo area lined the roads and cheered on the runners.
And not one other car blocked the safety lane. This is even after the course planners listed the map online AND put out safety cones for the runners.
What message does this send to not just the citizens of Brownsville, but to visitors to our fair city? Was it an honest oversight or a "don't run in my backyard statement?"
Ever listen in on some of our city and county commission meetings where some elected local official will complain about drivers using the bike lane as a right turn lane making it dangerous for bike riders and runners?If it was a City of Brownsville Commission meeting, it is most probable that the complainer was commissioner Rose Gowen Zavaletta (with two TTs),a proponent of allocating millions from the budget of the country's poorest community to ensnare the city with a system of connected bike trials.
Proponents of this plan – which they see as the first step toward a healthy community – eventually want to extend the bike trails to the Hidalgo County-Cameron County border and eastward over the Queen Isabella Causeway to South Padre Island.
Toward that end they have talked the city administration and their fellow commissioners to go along with designating certain roads to be considered bike-friendly and implementing bike lanes that actually reduce the amount of macadam cars can use.It doesn't matter – as Brownsville's resident gadfly Robert Uresti said recently – that we already have so many bike lanes that aren't used the majority of the time and that on some "you don't even see a dog walking on them."
thought you might find this entertaining.
Well, a funny thing happened on the way to a half marathon yesterday, on Sunday the 23rd, to be exact.
As we know, Gowen's zeal for the bike lanes led the city to pump tax dollars to put in a hike/bike lane on her street (the corner of Calle Anacua and Calle Retama) which the majority of neighborhoods in the city don't have access to so that walkers and bikers can exercise safely in exclusive Rio Viejo.
And guess what happened during the Historic Brownsville Half Marathon with hundreds of people attending? What does our bike- and pedestrian-friendly commissioner do?
She (drum roll, please) blocks the sidewalk and the bike lane with her car when there is plenty of parking in front of her house.
Various neighbors in the Rio Viejo area lined the roads and cheered on the runners.
And not one other car blocked the safety lane. This is even after the course planners listed the map online AND put out safety cones for the runners.
What message does this send to not just the citizens of Brownsville, but to visitors to our fair city? Was it an honest oversight or a "don't run in my backyard statement?"