SIGN OF THE TIMES: ELECTIONS MUST BE NEAR

By Juan Montoya

Five years ago, at the turn of the year on December 1, 2006, commissioner Ricardo Longoria made a motion the Tony Gonzalez Park share the name with Lucino Rosenbaum, the patriarch of the politically powerful business clan.

The move was seen as an offering of the olive branch by Longoria toward the Rosenbaums after his split with Lucino Jr., when Longoria came out in support of Sofia Benavides for Cameron County commissioner for Precinct 1.

Longoria is being challenged for the District 1 position on the city commission by Roman Perez, whose signs proliferate all over the barrio.

Lucino Sr. died two years later, in Dec. 25, 2008.

At the time that the city commission named the rear half of the park after Rosenbaum, they also named a park after former Mayor Harry E. Gene McNair Sr.

McNair, who passed away in 1995, was also a commissioner and longtime owner of McNair Clothing Manufacturing Co.

The portion of the Tony Gonzalez Park, consisting of an open space area past the swimming pool and next to picnic tables adjacent to Rosenbaum family property, was to be known as Lucino Rosenbaum Sr. Park.

Known as El Guero, Rosenbaum Sr. was the sole-caretaker of Gonzalez Park in the course of his roughly 20 years of service to the city.

His daughter Yolanda Rosenbaum told the paper then that she still remembered father coming home with his boots after a day of work at the park.

"His heart was there in that park," Rosenbaum said. "We feel honored," she said.

They Rossenabums were migrant workers and also established a restaurant in the 1970s that later housed Rosenbaum Flowers. As the caretaker of the park while serving with the city, Rosenbaum Sr. spent a lot of times with the kids there. He would give them advice.

At the time, there was talk of placing a sign with Lucino Sr. name, and now, on the eve of the next round of city elections, lo and behold, there's the sign indicating to the visitor that the park is named after Lucino Sr.

However, there are a few glitches.

The sing was placed at the rear of the park, not anywhere near the entrance, said Lucino Jr. The gates at the rear of the park are for a trsuck entrance, and no park facilities are anywhere near there. In fact, when the workers put up the sign, they inadvertently placed it on the Rosenbaum property instead of on the public land.

And if visitors to the park are able to look over the political signs at the corner of the Rosenbaum property, they might be able to see the green and white sign indicating that the park (or that section, anyway) is named after Rosenbaum.

After inquiries were made to City manager Charlie Cabler, family members were told that the city staff had not been responsible for the erection of the sign, but rather, that the initiative for the placement near the election cycle came from Longoria.

"I guess it's election time and he wants to placate the family," said a Southmost neighbor. "The park people said that Longoria had been the one who had told them to put the sign up, that it hadn't come from the top."

Curiously, Longoria has also purchased a commercial company billboard directly in the corner of the property facing 30th Street across from Cromack Elementary, the main voting precinct in the area.

If you look closely over the top of the other signs, you might just be able to read the word "Lucino" over the political signs there.

"Talk about political," said the Rosenbaum neighbor. "This might just backfire on Ricky. It's so obvious what he's trying to do."