GENTRIFICATION OF DOWNTOWN RUNS INTO A HUMAN ISSUE

By Juan Montoya

For the past few years the City of Brownsville, the University of Texas System, private investors and other public entities (CDBG, BCIC, GBIC) have been spending millions to revitalize downtown Brownsville. 

They have plowed millions into the Market Square area, made numerous questionable purchases from property owners - many of them well-known real-estate speculators - and paid $100,000 to consultants who advised the city planners and commissioners.

They have been partly successful, running off small businesses like hairstylists and the handful of the small cantinas which used to cater to low-income, blue-collar workers who used to come in, drink $1.50 beer, and play norteno music in loud jukeboxes.

And what has been the result? The property owners have grown rich off  public funds. Elected officials have ingratiated themselves with land speculators, and the campaign contributions to keep them in office have flowed.

But what no one has addressed the obvious. Aside from the segunda clothing shops, the dollar stores, and the low price-tag businesses remain alongside the empty sores with burglar bars. About the only new developments around are the plasma donor firms which dot the prime corners of the downtown real estate.

The obvious effort under the two-term Tony Martinez administration to gentrify the  city's downtown area has resulted in small businesses who do not cater to young professionals and customers with expendable income to depart the area. In the eyes of the planners of this administration (Ramiro Gonzalez comes to mind), this will be the new Austin Sixth Street one day.

In their minds' eyes, they see an entertainment district crawling with young people spending their bucks on swanky clubs and bistros and specialty eateries every weekend. But they don't say what happens here during the rest of the week. They don;t see the burglar bars, the empty buildings, the shabby appearance of the inner core. 

And the homeless sleeping in doorways.

These are the same people that the customers to the new upscale bars and clubs that are starting to sprout among the squalor and misery step over when they visit the inner city. They are dirty, smell bad, and have nowhere to go but to seek cardboard boxes and sleep in alleys.

There has been little or no response -compassionate or otherwise - to this glaring social problem.

The question has gone beyond the human and social issue that it is. It has now become an economic development issue that might derail the millions of investments by the city and investors if not addressed, and addressed soon. Will it be addressed or will they choose to cut their losses?

These, after all, are human beings in need of help. How we respond to it will be a measure of our conscience. Will it be one of cold law enforcement or a humane response with security and social components that will eradicate the 

Rewind to 1890. 

That year, Jacob Riis wrote his seminal work of photojournalism that set in motion major legislative reforms addressing the squalid living conditions prevalent in late nineteenth century New York City tenements, 

The name of that work - How The Other Half Lives - was an attempt to bring much-needed attention to the otherwise neglected population of immigrants living in close quarters on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. The title of the work was taken from François Rabelais’s famous quotation: “One half of the world does not know how the other half lives.”

Look at How The Other Half Lives in downtown Brownsville.

Martinez and his cohorts on the city commission like Rose Gowen have shown no reluctance to spend public funds on restoring old buildings and investing the public's money on amenities like hike-and-bike trails to improve the "quality of live" for  the well-to-do.

So far - in almost a decade of holding the public trust and power - they have not shown any Christian inclination to invest in this human capital.

Will the city step up to the plate and address this glaring social issue and protect their investment? Or will the movers and shakers continue to ignore it and allow the sore to fester?