A former mayor of the City of Brownsville would often say that if a dog peed on Boca Chica Boulevard, Four Corners would flood five minutes after.
He wasn't that far off, if you think about it. This morning's downpour brought home the fact to city residents that despite the pretentious efforts by some city officials to pretend we live in a modern, urbanized gentrified city, we still lack one of the basic foundations of a modern city: a credible and effective drainage system.
It's a recurring event. We spend millions patching and paving streets and then a downpour comes along and the lack of an effective drainage system sends all those millions literally down the drain.
The city has tried numerous Band-Aid approaches to the problem. They have required retaining ponds for large commercial and residential projects such as Wal-Marts and apartment complexes. They have tried to clean the silted over and trash-throttled resacas, all to no avail. Maybe they should try to prevent dogs from peeing on the streets.
All this – plus a number of other social, infrastructural and economic factors have led to the characterization of Brownsville as the poorest community in the United States.
It doesn't matter how much you spend to buy your way into being named an All-American City. An All-American City doesn't flood when we get a half-hour downpour. It doesn't have people living under trees and under overpasses while ti spends millions in the vain hope that people with expensive bicycles will pedal through multi-million dollar trials surrounded by squalor.
And despite what the Sunshine Boys and Gals over at the Chamber of Commerce and the GBIC and BCIC tell you, we have skewered our priorities to a degree that we actually believe that not getting a plastic grocery bag, picking up cigarette butts and chewing gum and closing downtown streets one Sunday a month will miraculously trim the grease from our hips and prevent the clogging of the arteries of the population.
Recently we were sent a comprehensive ranking of our fair city performed by an outfit called the WalletHub where all cities in the United States were compared through an exhaustive comparison of measures including, the social, economic, infrastructural and other parameters. Guess, what Brownsville – as did Mcallen – were rated as two of the least American cities in the country.
Before you go to the link of this organization, look at how other cities rated. The top list are the "Most" American cities. They are:
01. Nashville, Tennessee
02. Cincinnati, Ohio
03. Indianapolis, Indiana
04. Charleston, South Carolina
05. Jacksonville, Florida
06. Greenville, South Carolina
07. Oklahoma, Oklahoma
08. Phoenix, Arizona
09. Albuquerque, New Mexico
10. Winston, North Carolina
The bottom list is of the "Least" American cities. They are:
01. McAllen, Texas 02. Boulder, Colorado
03. Altoona, Pennsylvania
04. Brownsville, Texas
05. Yuma, Arizona
06. Ames, Iowa
07. Johnstown, Pennsylvania
08. Laredo, Texas
09. Barnstable, Massachusetts
10. El Centro, California
To look at the methodology and areas of comparison, click on to: http://wallethub.com/edu/metro-areas-that-most-and-least-resemble-the-us/6
7 comments:
Great post. The city has done a very poor job of improving the city. They've spent so much trying to promote tourism that they've forgotten to maintain many roads. I was in Brownsville last weekend and witnessed first hand the flooding. I also saw many of the streets downtown were in terrible shape.
Is the Canine's name Pub?
Brownsville IS more Mexico than U.S. Accept it and embrace it. Write this Blog in Spanish, buey!!!!
Si sabes tu historia mi estimado buey, desde la Florida Hasta la California fue / era parte del emperio Español; pasa después a territorio Mexicano. Asi es por tres siglos la colonization y exploration de estas Tierra's fueron muy hispanizadas llevando la cultura y el idioma español por todo el sud-oeste . Por ello mi querido BUEY se sigue parlando la language Cervantina.
Mexico may ass, Brownsville is down there with the Nicas and Hondurans.
The city is reflective of its citizens. When it rains it floods the streets....for a few hours. Then the problem goes away. Just like citizens who live in low lying areas are periodically flooded....it goes away and then there is no incentive to plan for the next rain....so no money is spent to correct the flood prone areas. Like home owners, like city government. Too busy trying to figure out what to do with Tony Martinez's real estate purchases and how to bike in the city; than to repair know infrastructure problems. By the time the streets dry, its no longer an immediate problem........until the next time.
Da Mayor's enchanted dream is to covert this esteemed city into Venice with its romantic Gondolas. He was disguised as a Gondolero in the Resaca de la Palma. He was practicing his latest rowing technique . Aunt J was at his side advising him where to buy the next piece of real state.
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