Ok. We admit it.
Once in while, when boredom sets in and we get tired of the 24-hour news recycle on the Alt-Left and Alt-Right news channels, we surf to the city public cable channel for a tedious change of pace.
On one of those monotonous spaces we happened to come upon a segment featuring local bicycle paladin – and gynecologist and city commissioner – la chisquida Rose Gowen.
Gowen, who has managed to hijack millions in grant and city funds for her pet hike-and-bike trails, the 7th and Park Cafe of her cronies, and other accouterments of the Brownsville gentry, was on the screen gushing over the new signage placed on the potholed city roads.
This time, the new sings weren't just bike signs, no. They were called "sharrows," a kind of clever play on "share" and "arrow," to denote that motorists should share the road (without a bike lane) with their chisquidao brethren. As Gowen explained it, the signage will make drivers aware that there may be bike riders around, that they exercise due diligence and not run them over, and that they remain vigilant to avoid striking them.
One of our friends suggested that the signs looked like police drawings of a homicide scene where someone had been killed. You know, the outline of the guy lying prone where he fell.
Still another one said it reminded him of "Coming to America," when Eddie Murphy (Prince Akeem) is renting an apartment in the ghetto and the landlord is showing him a run down tenement where the silhouettes of a man and a seeing-eye dog (and a cane) are still painted on the floor.
Well, the new "sharrows" led us to think how many local city leaders – like Gowen and her ilk – seem to think that appearances mean more than tangible things.
Here we are in Brownsville, without debate one of the most impoverished cities on the U.S.-Mexico border lacking the basic necessities of an urban center such as sidewalks, bus shelters, an adequate drainage system, a second-rate airport, a dismal mass transit service, or a city government without an administration that can adequately run it, and we settle for signs.
Despite all those shortcomings, we can spend thousands to send a city delegation on a junket to Colorado to go buy an "All American City" designation that allows us to post signs all over to let people know that we are a great city, if in name only.
And harking back to the days of former Congressman Solomon Ortiz, we have been unveiling and putting up signs notifying people that they are on Interstate Highway 69-E, when in reality it is just U.S. 77-83 with new interstate highway signs. The highway is the same. It's just the signs that are new.
We have signs of just about everything and have spent thousands – if not millions – to "rebrand" ourselves to fit our new fantasy that we are making progress.
For example, the bakery owned by Da Mayor Tony Martinez is not your average South Texas panaderia. It's a "bistro."
What will the signs of the future be, painted drainage grates so we can imagine the city doesn't flood after a moderate rainstorm? Or maybe bringing back the "Ignite" Texas logo for which we paid $100,000s that was supposed to mean that Brownsville is "poised" to launch its future to infinity and beyond subsidizing billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX?
A sign! A sign! We need a sign!
14 comments:
A sign with Rene Oliveira"s ugly face so to warn women he is in the general area so they can stay away and not get trapped by his rhetorick and soft voice only to be doomed
It took a couple of weeks driving the Brownsville streets and know I feel like I understand that COB motorists are supposed to "SHARE THE ROAD" equally with
the unprotected bike riders. Will this include reckless drivers, minors, elderly bikers ? What occurs at sundown when the visibility is dark ? Does this ordinance cover daylight and night hours ? Will foreigners be educated on this new requirement (Mexico drivers, etc.).
Were the residents of Brownsville part of this new ordinance ?
How often will the SIGNS be repainted for visibility ? Is there funds in the budget ? More federal grants ?
The COB commission needs to find a better solution.
Downtown they should put signs that say "don't feed the prostitutes" and in the alleys "watch for crackheads". Near the courthouse there should be signs with arrows "bribes and pay offs this way" on the Rio Grande signs could be signs warning boaters "slow down illegal alien crossing"
Oh yeah and on 14th St. Sign " Friday and Saturday watch for Drunkzz"
When I was growing up....not in Brownsville....I was taught that bikes should conform to the rules of the road. Obviously, that is not taught in Brownsville. Here, apparently automobile drivers must give way to bikes and bikes give way to no one. I understand the need for highway safety, but the rules here are unclear and I can only assume that bikes have the "right of way" always and automobiles must yield?????? Never been to a place like this before!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Also many signs everywhere that say BEWARE CORRUPTION. and more signs in certain areas that say. ASS KISSING. And some more that say Bloggers Control
Eliz. will have the last laugh, Juan Montoya.
How ironically that they are preaching bicycle safety when the bike lines on 7th were placed on the wrong side of the road. Bike lines need to be on the right hand line not left, the traffic director was on the moon on this one.
They should have used the paint to redo the center strips especially at the corner of Security and International where cars turn into each other cause no one knows where one lane ends and the other starts. The white lines are so dingy that that are not visible at night. Oh, why did they remove the speed bump at Bernard by Stell. It is a school zone and speed needs to be controlled but I guess since the Sanchez-Vela clan live in the area, they don't like the looks. I have yet to see the crew painting the school crosswalks and classes start soon. I guess they plan to send only one guy to each site instead of sending 7 with one doing the work and the others on their cell phones supervising. Only in Brownsville!
But I of course love these little bike pictures on the roads too
It's written chisquiada and chisquiados
Dont forget about a sign warning of HERPES
I don't understand how we are supposed to share the road in a city that is growing in population. Our streets did not get wider, but have become more dangerous for motorists and people that like to go bike riding. I don't understand the people that run this city. They don't seem to want to better Brownsville. I have to travel on a weekly basis up and down the valley, and I now do my grocery shopping outside Brownsville, since is the only city in the valley that has a ban on plastic bags. I also spend my money at the stores in Mcallen because I got tired of walking with clothes without a bag.
It is so comforting to shop in all the areas McAllen has to offer for it's people especially since it is so clean and even smells nice. I have yet to ever smell anything in McAllen that smells like the Corner of Boca Chica and International or East Ave. The air smells cleaner even in Harlingen and Los Fresnos! What is wrong with our elected officials who prioritize the needs of the city and determines the length of time it takes to address an issue.
But no one is to blame but the citizens who do not vote - who are really not citizens afterall- and continue to allow this to happen in the largest city of RGV -oh, but we are an All-American City! All-American de que? Pestilencia? Pulgas y Piojos?
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