(Ed.'s Note: If a picture is worth 1,000 words, this picture speaks volumes about the priorities of the City of Brownsville toward its citizens. If ever a project qualifies as one to improve the quality-of-life, bus shelters and a place for weary workers to sit waiting for the bus would be it.
Yet, the money continues flowing elsewhere and every time Bus-Metro is questioned about the shelters, they promise that they're coming...sometime.
The Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation is funded by a one-quarter cent of sales taxes, yielding about $5 million for investment in quality-of-life projects.
The BCIC took a hard hit from the Brownsville Sports Park which has been unable to generate the funds necessary for its maintenance and upkeep. As a result, the city has had to step in and shell out funds for its continued operations.
On the city commission side, every time that there is an issue of Certificates of Obligation that includes transportation projects like street improvements, an amount equal to 10 percent of that has to go to hike-and-bike trials championed by commissioner Rose Gowen.
To date, millions have been funneled to those pet projects while working ladies like the woman in the picture - who make up the majority of city sales tax payers and a majority of those chipping in for the BCIC's annual $5 million - have to use the ground to rest their weary bodies to wait for the BUS.
But look at the projects that get funded by BCIC. You have the Beerfest, the Gringo de Mayo, Una Noche en Garibaldi, all these simple drunken bacchanals and entertainment for the city's self-described elites.
Those, we're afraid, comprise their funding priorities, not the needs of the average working person like the woman above.