McAllen Monitor
Our communities throughout the Rio Grande Valley have recently been energized with remarkable economic growth — hundreds of new jobs, large population growth, new construction projects, prosperous economic development corporations, national rankings of our cities being some of the best places to live, and record numbers of students enrolled in our higher education programs.
This growth is no coincidence.
The economic development and progress that surrounds us is very visible and it is attributable to a new university, a first-class medical school slated to open in three months, the STARGATE project, aerospace industry investments and SpaceX. And while this great progress is exciting, it is just the beginning of the Valley’s potential.
The Valley is transforming into a beacon of education, research and technology. And we need this same transformation in transportation and infrastructure to complement the rest of our region’s economic boom.
We cannot continue to be three small Metropolitan Planning Organizations that are fighting for transportation dollars, which are merely the leftovers of the state’s big MPOs.
An incredible opportunity exists with the potential merger of the three MPOs in the Rio Grande Valley — Brownsville, Harlingen-San Benito, and Hidalgo County.
We need a funding solution to provide the transportation infrastructure our region needs and our families deserve. Our population is greatly increasing and our infrastructure must be able to support this growth. Revenue is desperately needed to repair roads, provide congestion relief, maintain our highway system and fund border trade projects. A lack of investment funding could halt our local economies.
A merger of the three MPOs would provide that much-needed solution by creating one large, single MPO that would put us on par with the Big 4 MPOs — Austin, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Houston and San Antonio. A single MPO in the Valley would provide a mechanism to give us the ability to plan our infrastructure on a large market.
This is critical because we must address large and complex regional infrastructure issues and we must do so from a broad, region-minded perspective versus a narrow, city-minded perspective. With such significant growth in our region, how else would we be able to keep up?
And the head of the Texas Transportation Commission, which oversees statewide activities of the Texas Department of Transportation, agrees.
"Addressing transportation needs of a dynamic region requires a great deal of coordinated planning,” said Tryon Lewis, Texas Transportation Commission chairman. “Four of the five most populous regions of Texas are in multi-county metropolitan planning organizations, and with the region considering coming together as one, the Lower Rio Grande Valley could be among them. We look forward to working with the leadership in the area to build a unified voice for transportation.”
Historically the Rio Grande Valley has not had a seat at the table, whether we are talking about education, healthcare, or transportation.
We have fought for statewide dollars that are often the leftovers from the large metropolitan cities. However, we learned something three years ago — something significant and critical to the future of our families in the Valley.
By successfully creating the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and the first medical school in South Texas, we learned the power and strength of unity. We discovered that we can achieve tremendous successes for all of our individual cities and communities by working together and preserving the mentality that the Rio Grande Valley is one “region.”
(To read entire commnetary, click on link below.
http://m.themonitor.com/opinion/commentary-valley-mpo-merger-needed-to-tap-austin-funds/article_5ab050b0-00f7-11e6-b49b-0fa659d5f206.html?mode=jqm
6 comments:
UTRGV should really be called UTUP (University of Texas Upper Valley) because we in the lower valley area are getting SQUAT out of the NEW university system. Tell me how many jobs will be created in Cameron County as a result of the new Medical school being built between Eninburg and McAllen, how many jobs will be created in Cameron Copunty With the construction of thea new UT cammpus facilities in Edinburg. Sure they willl boast about new jobs in the Brownsville area when they break ground for a new building in Brownsville, but those new jobs will fall short of the jobs we have already lost with all the terminations that have taken place in the last 3 years. WE got SCREWED again!
Guy in the hat: Face of a culo.
As for Brownsville...a key sentence of this article is "The economic development and progress that surrounds us.....", because it seems that good things always "SURROUND" Brownsville, but never get here. While Hinojosa speaks about progress that comes from working together, the city officials here in Brownsville seem focused just on "downtown" and haven't really generated any real community cooperation here. So, we continue to swirl down the toilet while the upper valley moves forward.
the problem is that our elected leaders are not smart enough, savvy enough, or maybe they get paid off some how by rolling over when it comes to battling the upper valley and Laredo for resources when it comes to joint projects. As a previous commenter pointed out, UTRGV seems to be a great example. We lost our athletics. Sure, they were NAIA, but they were winning programs. We lost the heads in beds when teams and their fans came to compete here in Brownsville. Nobody said a word. They could have at least thrown us a bone and given us the summer outdoor sports. Shit, it's like 110 degrees every summer evening in Edinburg. We at least have a sea breeze down here on this side of the valley. We lost our administrative positions who lived here, owned homes, and spent their big bucks locally. Those positions are all in Hidalgo County now!
Sure the merger brought bigger and better things to the whole valley, but until our leaders learn to fight for us, we will continue to suffer from these types of arrangements. That is why the people are so skeptical of another merger.
Shut up Mexicans. UTRGV would be a two-year community college anywhere else in the state. UTRGV wishes it was a university. The state gave UT status to the community colleges in the valley to shut-up the whining Mexicans once and for all.
Thank you Juliet Garcia for gutting TSC and overseeing a UTB with dismal graduation rates, raised tuition higher than the Texas tuition average and for building buildings instead of hiring more teachers to increase education resources and help bring students out of remedial classes all while saddling them with financial aid debt for years to come. Maybe Hillary Clinton will call you to be her Education advisor when she is elected Prez.
The coordinating board should consider reimbursing former UTB students for part of their UTB tuition under Juliet Garcia due to deceptive marketing.
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