DOWNTOWN MERCHANTS CRINGE AT THE WORD CYCLOBIA

By Juan Montoya

The barkeep at a downtown bar in downtown Brownsville kept looking anxiously out the door.

He walked to the door and opened it and looked both ways. The barricades were on Adams and his bar was on 10th between Adams and Madison. There was no way any cars - and customers - could get to his joint. This was on Saturday,

He was boxed in and would remain that way until the joy riders on bikes were off the streets hours from now.

Earlier, the tow trucks had gone down the street removing  cars which had not minded the tow away warnings. Some of the people had come into his bar asking where they cars had been taken and how they could get them back.

"Cuanto costara?," one asked him.

"Esta caro," he had answered. "Mas de $100."


Then he realized the man didn't know English and had been unable to read the sings warning his car would be towed away after 5 p.m. before the 6:30 p.m. start of Cyclobia.

This weekend's Cyclobia was not as well attended as others, but the streets remained closed off nonetheless. There were city workers wearing yellow safety vests at every intersection joined by police officers in their cars.

 A few of the bicycle riders stopped at the central fire station t see Fire Chief Jarrett V. Sheldon show off some of his toys like the new Rangers that will allow fire fighters to go off road to fight grass fires. Two new Rangers cruised up and down Adams as the cyclists looked.

Another nifty toy that wowed the cyclists was the camera-equipped drone that hovered over the station and up and down the street as the safety guys and the cops looked on.

"I wonder why they didn't use that when the houses caught on fire two blocks away on Monroe," mused a bystander.

 On 10th Street, a motorist who lived in the middle of the block drove past the bar and found himself barricaded on both sides.  The bartender told he he would have to back up on the one-way street and use the alley to go to 11th Street and then onto 12th, 13th, or 14th where the barricades were not placed.

He backed up and then maneuvered his car and finally was able to turn into the
alley and away from the blocked streets.

Meanwhile, the bartender had a problem. The conjunto band could not get near the place and they needed to set up before the dancers started arriving, the men  decked out in cowboy hats and the women in their high heels.

"I told them to come through the alleys and avoid the streets all the way from Eighth or Ninth Street by Washington Park," he said. "They got a big truck but I think they can make it through the alley."
The same story was repeated many times across the downtown area.

Businesses that count on the evening crowd - like the restaurant next to the bar at the corner of Adams and 10th - saw their profits wither away in the 100-plus degree heat and the streets empty except for a few cyclists and scores of city personnel standing around on the corners.

As them if they want to do this more often.