NOVEL IDEA! WHY NOT CHANGE SUNSET DR. TO MCNAIR FAMILY

By Juan Montoya

Someone  has come u with a novel idea.

Why not rename Sunset Drive - the street where the original McNairs patricians lived and listed on the It is listed by the Texas Historical Commission and on the National Register of Historical Places - to McNair family Drive and leave E. Fronton alone?

Theoretically, it would be more appropriate to change the name Sunset there since there is noting historical about the name, except that sunsets have existed since the beginning of time that the planet has revolved around the sun.

All former city commissioner - and Brownsville Historical Association board member - Harry McNair has to do is the very thing that the folks over at E. Fronton is doing: convince 75 percent of the residents there that they sign a petition and present it to the city commission that they will go along with the name change.

But wait. Sunset, we have a problem.
Will Harry and wife Reba (nee Cardenas) McNair be able to convince 75 percent of their neighbors to change the name to his family's?

Let's see. Right off the bat, some of the neighbors' of the McNair house built in 1937 with a taxable value of $350,000 might say that there are other houses on the block with a claim to historical fame comparable if not older and with longer cultural ties to the city.

That would be Leonel and Elia Lopez-Cornejo whose Ramon Hinojosa house dates back to 1950 and whose ancestors go back farther in the region than McNair's do.  Talk about newbies.

The value of the Hinojosa house is pegged at $447,151. Besides being the only properties listed on the THC atlas on Sunset Drive, both share a 100 percent historical tax exemption from the City of Brownsville and pay no city property taxes.

It might not be a good idea to get involved in a match with Lopez, who is also a district judge and a scrapper in her own right. We'd put $5 on Elia.

Down the street, District 37 State Rep. Alex Dominguez also has a home which might be of comparable age, although he has not listed in on the THC and pays has to tax exemption fro city taxes. Several other important families live on Sunset Drive and would probably not take kindly to having their street named changed.

McNair found out that although he is said to own 34 lots on E. Fronton, his efforts to enshrine his family's name is not shared by at least 75 percent of the residents of that historical street.

At the last city commission meeting the anti-McNair (pro-E. Fronton) group almost got the name changed back from McNair Family Drive to Fronton only to have the item tabled because seven signatures appeared on both petitions. Once the city legal and planning staff straighten out that issue, the majority of the city commissioners indicated that they would support the residents' wishes to change it back to Fronton.

At Texas Southmost College, Harry's mother-in-law Rose Mary Cardenas got a building named after her; the Mary Rose Cardenas North and South Halls. That came during the time that Dr. Julieta Garcia was the UTB-TSC president. There was nothing anyone could do even though TSC policy specifically prohibited the naming of buildings after living individuals and states that they can be considered only after three years of their death.

After the dissolution of the UTB-TSC "partnership" the policy was set back in place.

But the new TSC board and administration decided not to revisit the naming of the building for Cardenas.

Once the city commissioners get the lowdown on the seven duplicate signatures, son-in-law McNair might not be so lucky.