E. FRONTON RESIDENTS THROW GAUNTLET AT MCNAIRS, CITY

(Ed.'s Note: Today, at the City of Brownsville Commission meeting at city hall, the commissioners will vote to rename the McNair family Drive back to its original – and historical – East Fronton Street based on a petition signed by at least 75 percent of the residents there. Here's their justification for asking the city commissioners for their vote to keep the historical name.)

We, the property owners of E Fronton St., do hereby request your vote in favor of our petition to rename our street to its historical original name, E. Fronton St.

We have followed the COB’s guidelines for renaming city streets.
We fulfilled the requirements for the street renaming guidelines which are:

1.) Not less than 75 percent of all owners abutting the subject city street. “Owners” shall be determined from the current city real property ad valorem tax roll; or

2.) a duly authorized officer or attorney representing a governmental subdivision, agency or department.

According to the information and property listing (CAD Roll Call) provided by the Cameron County appraisal district thru a property search “Public Request”, the total number of properties affected by the change are 89. 

Mr. Eduardo Santillan, of the City of Brownsville Engineering Department, who was given the task to verify and validate the information provided in the petition, also agrees to the number.

There are 80 property owners or votes on E Fronton. The total amount of property owners and signatures collected supporting the renaming of the street to E Fronton St. are 63. There are seven absentees or people that did not reply to either of the three mailings.

The city owns property on E Fronton. The city said that it could not vote because of conflict of interest, but the property did count in the threshold. If not, the percentage of approval would have been higher. The ten remaining signatures (votes) are known or assumed to be in favor of MacNair. (63+7+10) = 80.

The facts and evidence show that the property owners and residents of E Fronton St. were always against the name change to McNair Family Dr. In an attempt to discredit the petition for renaming the street to E Fronton St., a pseudo list of signatures was presented by Harry McNair. 

The city of Brownsville claimed that property owners had signed both petitions. This raised controversy on six signatures and the item was tabled because, according to the commission, they wanted to get it right.

One signature was not relevant because the signor was not a property owner, but a resident and he never signed the E. Fronton St. petition, nor was he included. The other five were validated by the City of Brownsville in favor of E Fronton St., via notarized statement. 

The question remains: Where did that list come from and who signed for the property owners?

The delay was actually in favor of E Fronton St. because, during this time, one property owner sent in his petition via email in favor of E. Fronton St. To the city’s surprise, the property owner’s signatures was also on the McNair list.

The city reached out to the property owner, who stated and informed the city that he had never signed the McNair list. This is clear evidence that the parties involved manipulated the information from the beginning and the change of the street from its original name was done through political trickery.

The petitioners wonder what would have been the outcome and/or what recourse the city would have taken if the petitioners were the ones that had been caught submitting false information!

All of the signatures obtained by E Fronton St. were in accordance to due process. No one was coerced to sign. All signatures and information collected are legitimate and were not altered or manipulated.

The property owners of E Fronton St. petitioning to rename the street to its original historical name, agree and understand that the previous commissioners court allowed the name changed and that the current commission inherited this problem.

The current commission asked the petitioners to submit to the newly established guidelines for renaming street in order to confirm the will and voice of the property owners and confirm their claim against the change to the current name.

The property owners of E Fronton St. have complied with the city commission's request and have fulfilled all requirements. We strongly believe that it is the city commission's turn to reciprocally act and vote in favor of the petition and request to rename our street back to its original historical name E Fronton St.

In addition, we, the residents, business and/or property owners of E Fronton St., due request the reinstatement of our beloved street to E Fronton St. for the following reasons:

1. Preservation of the legacy and history of the city of Brownsville.

2. The preservation of the legacy and history of E Fronton St.

3. The preservation of the legacy and history of the role and contribution of the Afro-American community to the city of Brownsville.

4. The will, voice and desire of the residents, business and property owners to preserve the name of their historic street.

5. The will and desire of the residents, business and property owners to preserve the name of the street because of the administrative, economic, logistic and hardship that they have endure because of the change to McNair.

6. The McNair Family was not the only family or business that contributed to the warehouse area.

7. The decision to change the name of E Fronton Street is a disservice to families and businesses that also have contributed to the warehouse area.

8. St. Charles Park was renamed to Harry E. McNair Park in 2006 on E. St. Charles St. just two short blocks away. This designation in itself has already honored the McNair Family.

9. A precedent is in order and will be in place for other historical neighborhoods to also start renaming historical streets if the renaming is not reversed.

10. The 1890 Map of “THE TWIN CITIES OF THE BORDER” shows E. Fronton St.

11. The Brownsville City Directory of 1913-1914 pages 258-259 shows Fronton St. and no mention of McNair.

12. The National Register of Historic Places nomination of the Brownsville Freight Depot and Warehouse District in 2017 mentions the vast importance of E Fronton St. throughout the nomination.

Respectfully,
All property owners of E Fronton St. who signed this petition to rename it back to its historical original name.