It used to be that when you drove downtown, no matter where you found parking, some car washer would approach you and ask if you wanted your car washed while you did your business.
Their prices were reasonable, ranging from $5 for a regular-sized car to as much as $8 yo $10 for a King Ranch truck.
For the most part they were young guys, some of them obviously from Matamoros, but most of them local men who washed cars in the hot sun while you did your shopping or were imbibing brews at local watering holes.
Some were pushy, as competing sales people usually are. And others were outright thieves. On rare occasions gullible motorists turned over their car keys to them so they could do detail work inside the cars. Invariably, someone would go check on their car and discovered that the washer had absconded with his vehicle across the bridge.
"Some of them were getting out of hand," said a former car washer who sat at the Sportsman Lounge recently. "They would steal stuff from the cars if they were left open. Those who gave the washers their keys should have known better."
Word of the depredations of some washers finally got to the ears of the city administration and the hammer came down. And it came down hard. From now on, a washer who is caught plying his trade in downtown streets or public parking lots faces a $250 fine. They may be asked for a permit to do business in the city. And they may even be asked for their state comptroller permits that show they pay taxes.
This applies to car washers doing business where the city has jurisdiction. Whether it will bother those who occasionally was cars at the county courthouse parking lots is up in the air. The county – while not giving them the green light – has turned a benign eye to them so far.
So what will these cadre of car washers, now deprived of their meager livelihood, do to earn a dollar?
"They're probably try some other way to earn money," said the washer sipping on his $1 mug beer. "Some of them will probably end up stealing, what else are they going to do?"
9 comments:
This is bullshit! We have a law against pandering at intersections which isn't enforced. Too many laws aren't enforced and so we add another that take time from the ability of the police to do "real" police work. We allow illegals to come to this country and then we defend their right to break the law. Here we seek to take away a livelihood to someone who actually works. This bullshit sounds like the work of a city commissioner who owns a car wash. Tony Martinez, again, exercises NO leadership.
The city is trying to clean up downtown's image . People who visit downtown don't want to be bothered by the dirty carwashers .
Good idea.
However, car washers aren't all mooches.
A few are providing a service like the old shoe shine boys.
But it's a start.
Happy the City is taking the initiative to start cleaning up the riff raff who just hang round all day.
Maybe git them to sweep up around bus stops etc.
And fine motorist who encourage panhandling with their generous style of doling out cash to encourage panhandling.
Because some panhandlers convert cash to drugs we are supporting drug dealing crime.
Get nice apartments for them to sleep the drugs rather than them sleeping on park benches and bus stops.
Get the ones who use drugs help from TROPICAL Texas Behavioral Health.
If the City can allocate funds for everything else why not these poor souls.
Sorry to read about how the city got rid of the car washers in downtown Brownsville. Most of the car washers were poor kids trying to make a living by providing excellent services to paying customers. Their services were excellent for the price of washing a car. They were courteous and respectful toward their paying customers and to those who they offered their services. If a customer's car was stolen or items were missing from his car fue por ser pendejo si le dieron las llaves a un desconocido.
As per the panhandlers seen on the frontage road by the Expressway, those individual are endangering their lives and causing a major tragedy for those that may be involve in such accident. Day after day, panhandlers are seen walking/running between cars without disregard of being hit by a an approaching vehicle. The same panhandlers are seen in the frontage road everyday, stepping in front of cars and forcing vehicle to suddenly brake in order to avoid hitting them. The city of Brownville should enforce their ordinance in order to avoid a fatal tragedy. The city should also provide guidance to these individuals who are panhandling as to where they could obtain assistance for their needs. The city has local/state agencies and nonprofit organization that could be of help to this individuals. It is a sad situation for this individual but it could be worse if there is a fatal accident.
Well panhandlers don't take business away from a certain comissioner's husband's car wash.
Look at the city inspectors that harass the shops at the 77 flea market and duck their responsibility of doing the same to the Linear Park flea market shops.
When is this selective discrimination on applying the law equally to everybody going to STOP???
I heard that the motorcycle gang was heading downtown with they tommy guns they want a piece of the action.
Looks like everything points to punishing the poor in this town, instead of turning their tax dollars into projects that will help them. Like bike trails (sic), forget about the infrastructure, forget about enticing major companies (clean environmental friendly companies).
Fine the 77 flea market sellers, fine the street car washers, increase traffic fines, increase PUB rates, more and more and more.
"WHEN IS THIS GOING TO STOP".
Juan,
Why don't you do an article on the panhandlers in our community. Such individual are indeed in need of help but at the same time endangering their lives in doing so. Is it going to take a car running over a panhandler for the City of Brownville to help these individual? Let's prevent a major fatal tragedy from happening in our community.
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