By Juan Montoya
We have not made it a secret that we have echoed the sentiments of downtown merchants who fret over the closing of streets and lost commerce because customers cant get to their businesses downtown.
Whether it's dollar stores, segundas, nightclubs and bars, etc., the shutting off of access to the heart of downtown by the city to stage so-called Cyclobias and give local gentrified cyclists a chance to pedal around in circles is costing them business and money.
How would they feel if they knew that over the last five years, $543,898.70 of their tax dollars have been spent to put on these senseless extravaganzas championed by City of Brownsville Commissioner Rose Gowen and supported by the rest of the city commission? (Click on graphic to enlarge.)
If you notice, $316,981.05 is recorded as total expenses and there is deficiency of $228,917.65 that had to be made up from somewhere, the general fund, perhaps?
Gowen is running for re-election this year as is John Villarreal, the other incumbent. Deborah Portillo, seeing the writing on the wall, opted not to run for re-election and also quit as chair of United Brownsville, another unabashed city budget blood sucker.
We've often wondered what it cost to have city laborers and Brownsville Police Dept. officers en masse on overtime overseeing these events.
Well, now we know.
Over the past five years, the public has paid police and city workers $122,824 alone in overtime to provide labor and security to these events. And after an hour or two of cycling around the empty (but guarded) streets and sporting their high-end cycling apparel, they leave. The city, in its dire condition, remains the same, if not worse for the lost commerce that downtown businesses endured.
And guess who foots the bill? Rose and John and their nattily dressed friends? No, You and me.
This city is lacking in the basic infrastructure such as drainage to prevent the chronic flooding that occurs every time we have a sudden downpour, sidewalks for pedestrians, bus shelters for the poor who have to endure the hot sun and inclement weather to ride the limping mass transit system called Metro, and do something about the city that has the appearance of a weedy junkyard. The city can barely keep the grass cut on its right-of-ways, but still has the bucks to stage these feigned quality-of-life charades.
Truman said that the buck stops here. That also applies to local government. While Da Mayor aTony Martinez is not running for reelection this year, Gowen and Villarreal are. They are the darlings of the bike-and-hike crowd who delight in telling the resident sof the poorest community in the United States that they must continue enduring the meager urban amenities the city provides them, and continue funding their pet projects such as these so-called cyclobias.
The bike advocates have given Villarreal and Gowen their quid pro quo. They have organized and paid for a mass mailing endorsing them against their opponents Ben Neece and Erasmos Castro. Neither Neece or Castro have spoken out against cycling. So why are the bikers against them? Could they be supporting Gowen and Villarreal because they are in debt to them for allowing this obscene waste of the public dollar?
They should have learned a lesson from their political support for Eddie Treviño as Cameron County Judge. He found out that he could not deliver the commissioners court to "adopt" the so-called Lower Rio Grande Valley Active Transportation and Tourism Plan. Cooler heads precvaield and saw through the smoke and mirrors of the Gowen-Villareal "vision."
Enough is enough. We have to put stop to this hemorrhaging of the people's money wasted so that Gowen can receive the accolades of the New York and Austin bike advocates and Villarreal can continue rubber stamping these initiatives. It's been five years of this huge waste of the community resources and where are the millions that were supposed to have been spent by the tourism seeking "active" destinations such as we label Brownsville.
We have to start somewhere and we have to do it now. Voting out Gowen and Villarreal in this election would be a good place to start.
We have not made it a secret that we have echoed the sentiments of downtown merchants who fret over the closing of streets and lost commerce because customers cant get to their businesses downtown.

How would they feel if they knew that over the last five years, $543,898.70 of their tax dollars have been spent to put on these senseless extravaganzas championed by City of Brownsville Commissioner Rose Gowen and supported by the rest of the city commission? (Click on graphic to enlarge.)
If you notice, $316,981.05 is recorded as total expenses and there is deficiency of $228,917.65 that had to be made up from somewhere, the general fund, perhaps?
Gowen is running for re-election this year as is John Villarreal, the other incumbent. Deborah Portillo, seeing the writing on the wall, opted not to run for re-election and also quit as chair of United Brownsville, another unabashed city budget blood sucker.

Well, now we know.
Over the past five years, the public has paid police and city workers $122,824 alone in overtime to provide labor and security to these events. And after an hour or two of cycling around the empty (but guarded) streets and sporting their high-end cycling apparel, they leave. The city, in its dire condition, remains the same, if not worse for the lost commerce that downtown businesses endured.
And guess who foots the bill? Rose and John and their nattily dressed friends? No, You and me.

Truman said that the buck stops here. That also applies to local government. While Da Mayor aTony Martinez is not running for reelection this year, Gowen and Villarreal are. They are the darlings of the bike-and-hike crowd who delight in telling the resident sof the poorest community in the United States that they must continue enduring the meager urban amenities the city provides them, and continue funding their pet projects such as these so-called cyclobias.
The bike advocates have given Villarreal and Gowen their quid pro quo. They have organized and paid for a mass mailing endorsing them against their opponents Ben Neece and Erasmos Castro. Neither Neece or Castro have spoken out against cycling. So why are the bikers against them? Could they be supporting Gowen and Villarreal because they are in debt to them for allowing this obscene waste of the public dollar?
They should have learned a lesson from their political support for Eddie Treviño as Cameron County Judge. He found out that he could not deliver the commissioners court to "adopt" the so-called Lower Rio Grande Valley Active Transportation and Tourism Plan. Cooler heads precvaield and saw through the smoke and mirrors of the Gowen-Villareal "vision."
Enough is enough. We have to put stop to this hemorrhaging of the people's money wasted so that Gowen can receive the accolades of the New York and Austin bike advocates and Villarreal can continue rubber stamping these initiatives. It's been five years of this huge waste of the community resources and where are the millions that were supposed to have been spent by the tourism seeking "active" destinations such as we label Brownsville.
We have to start somewhere and we have to do it now. Voting out Gowen and Villarreal in this election would be a good place to start.
