AFTER YEARS OF WAITING FOR THE CITY TO INSTALL BUS SHELTERS, A COMPASSIONATE SOUL ASSISTS BUS RIDERS

(Ed.'s Note: It has taken the city bureaucracy and BUS-Metro a full two years to start installing simple bus shelters which they say could be installed by the end of the summer. But that's what they said two years ago, so we wouldn't hold out breath.

Instead, local riders have come up with alternative – and creative – ways to sit while waiting for the bus to arrive. Some consisted of cinder blocks with a board thrown across them. Others just a simple dairy plastic cube, and others an overturned 10-gallon paint plastic container.

But we've got to hand it to the property owner who lives across Old Port Isabel Road from Walmart, where shoppers take the downtown bus with their purchases. Since the bus riders – mostly elderly Hispanics – already seek relief from the heat under the shade of his citrus trees, he probably figured, why not provide them with a comfortable place to seat while they await their ride.

He even threw a few throw cushions for their comfort and mowed the grass around the sofa. It could be worse. It could be just like it was before he made his improvements with bus riders seeking shade squatting under the nearest tree. The photo below is a scene of the bus stop before the benevolent Samaritan assisted his fellow Brownsville residents.

It's interesting to see that the city's construction schedule of the 30 bus shelters they promised in 2022 does not include this popular stop, even though it's always full of bus riders who completed their shopping and are headed to their various destinations in the city with purchases in hand. Until then, the bus riders have their kind neighbor to thank who placed a sofa inside his property line so they could rest their bones and have a little shade. Will an embarrassed BUS-Metro or the city administration go into his private property and remove the sofa out of spite?) 

GROUP 1

SHOULD BE COMPLETED BY NOW(?)

Alton Gloor Blvd. (Outside Wal-Mart)

Alton Gloor Blvd. & Morrison

Frontage Rd. (at SAM's Club)

Ruben M. Torres (at Spanish Meadows)

McAllen Rd. & Haney Bee Ln.

McAllen Road & Heart Institute

Military HWY. & Calle Pluton

US 77 Frontage & North of Lorenaly

Old Military Hwy. & Ruben M. Torres

Morrison Rd. (at La Tiendas Plaza)

GROUP 2

SHOULD BE COMPLETED LATE APRIL/EARLY MAY

Ruben M. Torres & Old PI Rd.

Alton Gloor & Stagecoach

Paredes Line Rd. & Rancho Viejo Blvd.

Paredes Line Rd. (at HEB Plus)

Old PI & Coveway St.

Paredes Line Rd. & Lake Shore Dr.

Alton Gloor & Paredes Line Rd.

Ruben M. Torres & Grande Blvd.

Ruben M. Torres & Castellano Circle

Ruben M Torres & Trail Head Ct.

Paredes Line Rd. & Heritage Trail

FM 802 (at Valley Resaca Palms Apts.)

GROUP 3

SHOULD BE COMPLETED MAY/OR BY FIRST WEEK OF JUNE

4200 Boca Chica Blvd.

Austin Rd. & Iowa Ave.

4524 Boca Chica Blvd.

1304 Central Blvd.

1101 Central Blvd.

McDavitt Blvd. & Roosevelt St.

275 Kings Hwy.

Boca Chica Blvd. and Cowan Terrace

W. Elizabeth St. & Browne St.

Central Blvd. & Pecan St.