By Juan Montoya
So much for the "no road" on the West Rail abandoned Union Pacific Railroad right-of-way that boosted the candidacies of City of Brownsville Mayor Tony Martinez and commissioner Rose Gowen.
At tonight's meeting, a unanimous City of Brownsville Commission voted to approve Resolution Number 2017-046 that tacitly accepts that "the design for the corridor may have a segment with a road but will also have a robust and rich hike and bike trail or greenbelt so that transportation and enjoyment of the corridor will be welcoming and safe for travelers in cars, on foot, as well as on bicycle in keeping with best practices and standards of modern urban design."
This may come as a surprise to those die-hard no-road advocates of the West Rail Corridor who have been adamant about not having a road built on the abandoned railroad right-of-way. They have held rallies, circulated petition they say contain 1,000s of signatures, and attended town-hall meetings where their champions such as Martinez and Gowen have vowed never to have a road built there.
The Union-Pacific trains stopped running the West Rail Corridor in August 2015, due to the railways being moved north. Relocation of the rails left a nine-mile, 100-foot-wide vacant path. The unoccupied path spans from the B&M International Bridge to Olmito. The no-road advocates have let it be known far and wide that the city should utilize this space by providing them with a car-free, walking and biking path.
But the vote tonight may nullify all that and bring them down to a compromise where the idea of a road is no longer the only option and their champions will not kowtow to the "my way or the highway" mentality. The resolution binds the county and city to share in the funding for an environmental study before any decision on the specifics of the road-bike-and-hike-trail is made and who will pay for it.
The resolution reads: "Whereas Brownsville and Cameron County have previously worked on relocating the west rail together in the past, and...
Whereas the City and the County are pledging to work together as equal partners to conduct an environmental study of the corridor in a timely fashion.
Whereas following the environmental study the City and County also seek to work together to design a plan for the corridor that has a healthy consideration of land use needs as well as public desire/ input.
Whereas the parties are in agreement that the design for the corridor may have a segment with a road but will also have a robust and rich hike and bike trail or greenbelt so that transportation and enjoyment of the corridor will be welcoming and safe for travelers in cars, on foot, as well as on bicycle in keeping with best practices and standards of modern urban design.
It is therefore resolved as follows: Brownsville hereby expresses its support for Cities of Brownsville and Cameron County working together as co‐ sponsors of the environmental study of the West Rail Corridor."
An identical item appears on the agenda of the Cameron County Commissioners Court this Thursday. When he was running for office, Count Judge Treviño pledged to fight the construction of a road and slammed former PCt. 4 commissioner Dan Sanchez for his reported opposition to a trail. That pledge was credited with Treviño getting the vote of the no-road coalition.
6 comments:
Oliveira is next on chopping block. Just too much information like Sossi. Too much negative stuff that is true
This is a false headline. If I understand the vote was 7/0. This means not Tony martinez but the entire city commmission voted for the road.
Give it a rest , Bobby! Second sentence clearly states it was a unanimous vote. Headline is correct in pointing out Martinez going back on his word. Chill out, no need to be so confrontational .
Da Blimp comes out! His Blog is dead, so he comes out.
We need more traffic relief on the south/southwest side of the expressway.
Tony Martinez is just another Snowflake who is too weak to stick to any one position. Time for the folks of this community to realize that Tony Martinez is weak, has no leadership ability and will go with the flow...the flow of his friends.
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