CITY'S DOWNTOWN MULTI-DOMAL IMAGE UNDERGOES FACELIFT

(Ed.s Note: One of our seven readers took these photographs of two domed landmarks of downtown Brownsville and pointedly said that the city's two signature domed efforts appeared to have gone limp. The photo on the left is the Market Square dome that is undergoing shoring up as part of a renovation of the central area.Built in 1850,

Market Square opened as an open air market in 1852. It was  damaged by a hurricane in 1867 and operated as a market on the first floor and city offices on the second. By the 1940s, the stalls had been closed in, turning Market Square into an enclosed building. The tower and dome replacement started in November and its expected completion date is in May.

The La Plaza Multi-Modal terminal (actually, bicycles, taxis, and buses and pedestrians using Las Doch) opened in April 2012 after the bus terminal was moved from Market Square to the block between E. Adams and E. Jefferson streets facing International Blvd. The terminal was open on April 2012. Electrical problems, a metal breaker box placed outside the dome, corroded and caused a short circuit on November 2016.

It is unknown when the dome will be repaired and for now appropriately blue tarpaulins are covering the charred outline of the dome. The readers who sent us this photos siad that it appeared that the appearance of the downed domes made it appear that the effort to make the city's downtown look Spanish-Mediterranean was, well, domed. "It looks like Brownsville is suffering from ED (erectile dyusfuction)," he quipped. Even the color of the domes (blue) suggests the need for the little blue pill.")