Wednesday, August 27, 2025

DOWNTOWN BUSINESS OWNERS: AFTER A YEAR OF CLOSED STREETS AND DETOURS, A DIM LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL

PUTTING THE FINISING TOUCHES ON 1OTH STREET TUESDAY, AUGUST 26

JUNE 10, 2025

OCTOBER 9, 2024

Special to El Rrun-Rrun 

Downtown merchants have borne the cost of the city's infrastructure and historical restoration projects for more than a year now. And the end cannot come soon enough, they say.

Major redevelopment projects such as the El Jardin Hotel and the Samano Building and the street improvements have taken a toll on small businesses and all but closed access to their stores, bars and restaurants.

Several infrastructure projects are currently underway as part of a major effort to modernize water and wastewater systems in the city’s downtown core. Crews are working to replace outdated utility lines located in alleyways behind businesses and residential buildings.

“They are doing upgrades. These are old, outdated lines that don’t have enough capacity, so we are improving that,” said Carlos Lastra, deputy director and city engineer with the City of Brownsville’s Engineering and Public Works Department. “In the end, it will help improve water flow, water service, and sanitary sewer service throughout downtown.”

The timing of the improvements is crucial, as many historic properties in the district are being restored and brought back into commercial use.

"It's taking a long time and the crews have dug up and torn up the streets several times," said a restaurant owner in the area. "Our customers have had to park several block away when they could have gone to dine elsewhere. We thank them for their loyalty. Otherwise, we'd have to shut down and lay off workers."

But they have a while to wait yet. The complete infrastructure reconstruction and historical restoration of the old buildings is scheduled for completion sometime in mid-2026.

During construction, crews found the old layer of wooden creosote bricks used to pave the streets in 1912, and further down, the wooden ties and iron spikes from an old trolley line that used to run in 1905.

12 comments:

Diego lee rot said...

I walk
these lonely streets

So
You
don't have to.

Anonymous said...

It takes MEXICANS much longer to complete jobs than White people because they are so fucking LAZY...

Anonymous said...

Keep the old downtown alive. Many towns and cities will block traffic access
in certain areas for pedestrian use. Maintain the area clean and well-lit at
night. I grew up in Browntown and have a soft spot for the place.

Anonymous said...

Deep.

Eldelasprietas said...

Wherever the White man has gone, he has brought hate and jealousy.
Fact.

Anonymous said...

Jealous of these workers: tall, dark and handsome plus muscles and graduated from the school of hard knocks. Pura raza fina, envidioso.

Diego lee rot said...

Yeah, your chubby
culo.

Soft, for sure.
Like mi vieja's
Nalgas.

Wild Arky Boy said...

Man, one time, because I’m from Arkansas, and in Arkansas when something’s nice, we say it’s real nice. So I go over to England, visiting some friends, and they’re showing me everything. Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, the Tower of London, Abbey Road, the River Thames, even Stonehenge. They made me cups of tea, took me on the double-decker bus, showed me every sight you can think of. And every single time I just kept saying, oh man, that’s real nice, real nice.

Finally this English fella gets all red in the face and says in his way, “For heaven’s sake, will you kindly stop saying everything is real nice?”

But that’s just how we talk back home. So what they’ve done downtown, after all that digging and detours, I gotta say it again. That’s real nice.

Anonymous said...

I’m a Mexican and it is true that it takes a bunch of Mexicans to do the job of one white guy. Why? Mexicans the night before had too much cerveza, coca, and mota! Jajajajaja

KaKa in the Alley said...

“Órale, ese callejón quedó bien liso. Perfecto pa’ que yo me aviente con mi tabla.”

Anonymous said...

Wooh! El Sportman Bar tiene calle nueva. Aver si paso por una darling ahi.

Anonymous said...

Such a beautiful historical city. More businesses need to be established there. We have too many bars and restaurants. As a kid i walked the whole downtown window shopping or buying nice things. Let's get it back to how it used to be.

rita