Following days of preparations by city staff and paid consultants, city officials are trying to put a nice face on an event that drew scarce crowds, the usual suspects, and probably cost the city more than the attendance to the two-day event justified.
Prior to the events, scores of PUB and Public Work employees swarmed around the square draping thousands of Christmas lights on the trees and utility poles in the square.
Not even a full minute commercial featuring Commissioner Estela Chavez-Vasquez strolling through the square while badly mangling the Spanish language aired on local television helped to attract visitors to the two-day event. The commissioner fell victim to the locally-held assumption by pochos of Brownsville that they actually do know how to speak the language of the folks across the river. Her performance was proof positive that we do not and city officials and events planners should cease and desist from exposing the linguistic shortcomings of our elected officials and city administrators. Please.
The Xmas festivities featuring the choirs and dance groups of local schools, a dwindling number of craft vendors and a tamales stand, bike lanes for kids, folk singers, toy giveaways and a cameo by a bilingual Santo Clos spread over Friday (6 to 9 p.m.) and Saturday (10 a.m. to 5 p.m.).
At any one time, the usual Market Square denizens and outside visitors scarcely topped 50 people. Still, officials present like Commissioner John Villarreal, Heritage officers Peter Goodman and the retiring George Gavito (at the end of January), Comprehensive Planning Manager Ramiro Gonzalez and City Manager Charlie Cabler, mixed with the few visitors and parents and put their best face on the event.
On Saturday, Brownsville Visitors and Convention Bureau and unofficial City Master of Ceremonies Mariano (Bean) Ayala made also made an appearance flanked by a couple of medieval buddies to lend some local color to the affair.A local blogger published this shot of the foursome.
"We want to thank all of you for attending this event," Villarreal told the crowd before Guadalupe Catholic School choir launched into some of the traditional Xmas favorites Friday evening.
On Saturday, the attendance swelled to perhaps 75 people at any one time during the day, but particularly when the various schools had parents waiting for their kids to perform.
The event had a goodly number of sponsors, mostly local organizations called into duty by the city that included the City of Brownsville, the Brownsville Community Incentive Corporation (BCIC), the Brownsville Public Utility Board, the Brownsville Visitors and Convention Bureau, the Brownsville Housing Authority, UT Health, Brownsville Museum of Fine Art, AC-I Services (?), UTB-TSC, building community Workshop, and, of course United Brownsville.
While the small node of visitors congregated around the performing school choirs and dance groups, restaurant workers and the employees of the few remaining establishments left operating in the square bemoaned the fact that the removal of the bus terminal from Market Sqaure had effectively stopped customers riding the buses from patronizing their business.
"Once the buses were removed to the new terminal, the restaurants have been going down because they have no customers," said a downtown business owner. "And when the city bought the San Fernando building and shut down the three cantinas, the place is quiet as a graveyard. No one is coming here anymore."
The strategy, apparently, is to lure upscale tenants to Market Square and provide an attraction to well-heeled pedestrian traffic, said the businessman. But he said the proposition seems dicey.
"What could the city possibly offer people with money to spend on entertainment by staging these kinds of events?," he asked. "Anything that they could offer people can get on the north part of town without having to cope with traffic and restrictive parking space. They better think this think through well because what they have done up to now is actually discouraging traffic during the week to attract a smattering of visitors for a few hours over the weekend. Where is the plan? This couldn't possibly be all there is."
5 comments:
Again, the city leaders have proven to be out of touch with the general public and again have failed to attract people downtown. There is nothing down there to warrant a trip and take a chance that your car may be stolen. This is a self-inflicted wound by city leaders...they remain out of touch. Downtown Brownsville doesn't offer anything for the general public and the new bus station and system downtown does not serve the general public. Tony Martinez has been taken in by Carlos Marin and Juliet Garcia...and doesn't have any ideas of his own...just a puppet. He doesn't ask the public and probably wouldn't listen to the public anyway.
And how much did this extravaganza cost the city???? Everyone was busy with Christmas shopping and there's none of that to be done downtown. Planners our not in touch with the city. Why wasn't that planned in conjuction with the Christmas parade???
Puro transvestites de la Jefferson. Surprised they came out during the daytime.
Hahaha puros transvestites de la Jefferson.... I love that!
Rose Gowen just wants to act like she cares about Brownsville when she damn well doesn't. These stupid BBB don't do anything because it A) doesn't attract people who can and would be willing to invest in downtown, and B) doesn't provide enough for people to actually come this way. Investment HAS to start with the absentee landlords of these buildings who let them fall to ruin or only let in ropa usadas. They (the city and these half assed business owners) need to ask people what kind of downtown they'd like to visit rather than continue to assume that they'll always get foot traffic from across the river.
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