WITH AN OLD BUILDING ACROSS 7TH ST., NO PARKING AT ZOO

(Ed.'s Note: It was bumper-to-bumper parking again at the Gladys Porter Zoo and the cars spilled over into neighboring streets as the visitors to the zoo looked for a place which would be closest to the entrance where they didn't have to walk too far. This scene repeats itself constantly there.

Meanwhile, the Quonset building across 7th Street lies empty. The old building – which served as an old cannery and warehouse – is now city property and the Brownsville Wellness Coalition wanted the Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation to provide them with $364,000 in seed money to turn it into a kind of bohemian hangout for artsy types and farmers' market storage space.

The BCIC agreed to give the healthy-eating group $80,000, but cooler heads prevailed on the city commission and the item was tabled. The BWC had claimed the project was a "collaborative" effort between it, the Brownsville Fine Arts Museum and the City of Brownsville. But the city administration said that they had not been consulted on the project before it was brought before the commission. The $364,000 the BWC wanted was just the first installment toward them acquiring the total $1.4 million they would eventually get from other "contributors and donors."

Doesn't it just make more sense to tear down the dilapidated corrugated sheet metal warehouse and provide more parking space for the zoo since is the biggest tourist draw in the city instead of providing a hangout for elitists artsy types?)