Brownsville Observer blog
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The city commissioner foursome voting to retain the bootlicking "McNair Family Drive" designation for what has been known since 1850 as "East Fronton Street" faced a moral dilemma last Tuesday night and were found deficient.
Theirs was a moral, political and democratic failure.
All four, Commissioners Rose Gowen, Jessica Tetreau, Joel Munguia and john Cowen, tried feebly to rationalize their obvious failure to recognize the will of the people by pretending to have issues with the wording of the new city policy on changing street names, a policy they were comfortable enough to vote for just weeks before.
Yes, they were under pressure, pressure exerted from two distinct sides: the owner/residents of East Fronton Street and the McNair family, who own three warehouse buildings with East Fronton addresses.
Commissioner Gowen admitted to such pressure when she stated, "I will never consider the renaming of a street again."
Had the majority really ruled, had democracy really worked in this case, the voices of the vast majority of East Fronton residents would have been heard, but instead, four commissioners chose to listen to the voice of one rich, influential family seeking to aggrandize their family name.
It was a simple, clear-cut case of pandering to the so-called rich and famous, ignoring the principle of self-determination and failing to reward citizens who did exactly as they were told by the same city commissioners.
And don't let the last minute semantics used by the foursome to justify their vote against the people fool you. That was insincerity at its worst. The simple fact is that they did not want to alienate a powerful, influential family in the city, residents of East Fronton Street bedamned!
If you vote in Brownsville city elections, you've now been given clear, unmistakable proof that these four do not represent the ordinary citizens, but instead, the rich, powerful and influential.
All four, Commissioners Rose Gowen, Jessica Tetreau, Joel Munguia and john Cowen, tried feebly to rationalize their obvious failure to recognize the will of the people by pretending to have issues with the wording of the new city policy on changing street names, a policy they were comfortable enough to vote for just weeks before.
Yes, they were under pressure, pressure exerted from two distinct sides: the owner/residents of East Fronton Street and the McNair family, who own three warehouse buildings with East Fronton addresses.
Commissioner Gowen admitted to such pressure when she stated, "I will never consider the renaming of a street again."
Had the majority really ruled, had democracy really worked in this case, the voices of the vast majority of East Fronton residents would have been heard, but instead, four commissioners chose to listen to the voice of one rich, influential family seeking to aggrandize their family name.
It was a simple, clear-cut case of pandering to the so-called rich and famous, ignoring the principle of self-determination and failing to reward citizens who did exactly as they were told by the same city commissioners.
And don't let the last minute semantics used by the foursome to justify their vote against the people fool you. That was insincerity at its worst. The simple fact is that they did not want to alienate a powerful, influential family in the city, residents of East Fronton Street bedamned!
If you vote in Brownsville city elections, you've now been given clear, unmistakable proof that these four do not represent the ordinary citizens, but instead, the rich, powerful and influential.