STREET PEOPLE AND BAG LADIES ENDORSE GOWEN!

By Juan Montoya
As the end of the first week of early voting approaches, the street people, vagrants, panhandlers and bag ladies of downtown Brownsville have endorsed At-Large-B incumbent Rose Gowen over challenger Robert Uresti for city commissioner.
The ragtag bunch has been waging an advocacy campaign below the radar underneath the sharp-eyed scrutiny of the U.S. Border Patrol. They say their choice was made after days of deliberations as they pushed their HEB-pilfered shopping carts through downtown alleys and took breaks in the shade under the expressway overpasses.
"It was Gowen hands drown with this crowd," said their leader, a grizzled shopping cart pusher who would not divulge his name fearing repercussions from city health inspectors who suspect him of tapping into downtown restaurant grease traps for the precious liquid which he sells on the sly to recyclers.
"Some people spend their days going through dumpsters looking for aluminum pop cans, but I shun that practice for health reasons," he said. "Besides, the workers at the aluminum recyclers always shave a few pennies off the world-market price to buy themselves a Natural Light at noon to drink with their lunch. I hope no one breaks into my racquet because of what I'm telling you.
"I've seen Mayor Martinez campaigning down here and he makes a persuasive argument. Once he gets done working a corner, not even a stray dog can glean a morsel from it. He convinced us on Rose."
Was it Gowen's support of the Framers Market, her healthy choices platform or her familial ties to the city (Zavaletta) that tipped the scale in her favor?, the street people rep was asked.
"Actually, it was the plastic bag ban," replied the Market Square denizen puffing on a cigarette butt he had picked up near the entrance of Peter Goodman's City Heritage office in Market Square.
"He smokes my brand."
According to the street guy, Gowen's stand on the plastic bag ban helped his group immensely because it provided them with sturdy recyclable bags instead of depending on the flimsy plastic grocery bags that stores  gave away in the past. When people throw away the recyclable bags, it provided his group with strong bags in which to carry aluminum, their clothes, scrap metal and edibles they picked up in dumpsters.
"I carry a bunch on my cart," he said pointing to his trusty four-wheel steel mule parked next to the door of a a local restaurant (El Jefe). "In one I keep what stray aluminum cans I find, in another my clean clothes, in the other my laundry, and in a double bag, the grease-trap collection. You can't even tell. Those are good bags."
He told the interviewer that even though he is attempting to give up smoking, he has qualms about the campaign to stop people from tossing cigarette butts.
"I might draw the line there if Rose gets too excited about that one," he discoursed stretching his legs out from the bench at the fountain park. "The smoking ban in bars destroyed my will to stop smoking. The butts are everywhere now. For that alone she's got my vote. Now, if only I had registered."