ARE HOTEL INTERESTS KEEPING BEACHES OPEN AT SPI?

Special to El Rrun-Rrun

Even after Cameron County Judge closed all county beaches and parks in a hold-your-finger-on-the-dike attempt to stem the flow of COVID-19 contagion during the July 4 holiday, the commercial interest, hoteliers, and tourist-aimed business here have ignored the threat.

Cameron and Hidalgo counties are in the cauldron of a COVID-19 hot spot shared with the resident of northern Tamaulipas across the Rio Grande. The continued commercial and pedestrian traffic between the border cities just about assures local residents that the virus will be around in some form for a long time to come.

As the numbers peak, hospital systems across South Texas have been overwhelmed as has the availability of testing for the virus. Emergency vehicles and medical personnel have been sent here from Austin to handle the overflow. Today, Hidalgo County reported that 15 more people have died from COVID-19 and Brownsville reported another 2.

But still, people wonder how it is that South Padre Island remains wide open throughout all this time back to when the first cases appeared there back in March. County Judge Eddie Treviño pretty much threw up his hands on how to handle the rouge economic element at SPI and left them – and its visitors from the valley – to their own devices.

On June 25, about 10 days before the Fourth, Mayor Patrick McNulty admitted as much.

He said: "It is unfortunate that South Padre Island is starting to see COVID-19 cases on the Island. We all knew that SPI was not invincible to this virus and we are seeing these cases starting to pop up due to possibly forgetting the importance of the Open Texas Guidelines and following the proper procedures. Social distancing and wearing face coverings, when social distancing is not possible, is a must if we want to keep the Island open for business."

Still, the danger of spreading the COVID-19 by large Independence Day crowds was of little consequence to McNulty and the business community.

Treviño, of course, needs the financial support from the island's movers and shakers to campaign for office, and that gives him a blind spot in enforcing his will upon the merchants there. 

Add the fact that the hotel owners – some of East Indian descent who now wield a heavy political influence there and across the county – see closing the beaches as a threat to their commercial interests. Several have been elected officials representing the interests of the hotels and other tourist-oriented commerce there. Many of the hotels are reporting that they are booked solid through August, a not inconsiderable motive to keep the beaches and businesses open

We have come, unfortunately, to a point where the purely economic interest have taken precedence over the public's health and welfare. It's lost upon them that any infection caught there will be transmitted across the Rio Grande Valley and into the homes of susceptible people who may not have even left their homes to protect themselves from the virus raging outside their door.

The map above shows that Cameron County's authority only over beach access is limited to the extreme south of the island (Isla Blanca) and at the north end of the SPI city limits across the highway from the SPI Visitors and Convention Bureau where Padre Boulevard turns into State Park Rd. 100. And that is only on the Gulf side, not the Laguna.

The county rangers can only stop the entry of visitors through the access gates, but once they are on the beach inside the city limits, it seems extremely difficult to really close the beach given the Texas Open Beach Act.

But if the Fourth of July response by these SPI leaders is any indication of their social responsibility, it is that they feel none.