(Ed.'s Note: Schools out in one of the downtown barrios and mom and dad go pick up their daughter. They ride the bus. There are no benches to sit on. There is no shade to protect them from the blazing summer sun. This is a scene that is repeated hundreds of times throughout the city. Yet, the city commission is pacified when the management team at BUS come before them and promise them that there are shelters going up as they speak, only to find out that bus shelters are the last priority for that bunch.
The priorities of the city are also under question. Will they continue to swallow the pipe dream that we are going to be the center of so-called "active" tourists who - according to commissioner Rose Gowen - were going to spend millions to ride the bike trails she has directed public money to attract? And every time it rains we get flooding at well-known places throughout the city.
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But, hey, providing good drainage is not as sexy as putting on a Spandex bike outfit and jumping atop a $500 bicycle for a couple of hours through a shuttered downtown where business owners must grit their teeth and lose business when city workers and police on overtime barricade the downtown streets so cyclists can pedal around for a few hours and take selfies.