On April 21, the State of the City meeting in Brownsville discussed the city crossroads, providing a networking platform to introduce citizens to the visionary and other important factors that will impact the community.
The meeting starts with the President and CEO of the Chamber of Commerce, Esmeralda Villarreal, opening the meeting by welcoming everyone and introducing Mayor Trey Mendez.
Mendez talked about projects that will change Brownsville’s trajectory, on the economic side; the city has attracted severely new businesses such as a Tesla and delivery service, the Human Bean, and Black Bear Diner.
City commissioner at large and Chairman of GBIC John Cowen talks about increasing the sales tax in our city.
“City’s efforts to increase economic development is to build on our tax base, and increase the sales tax in our city so we can provide better services and more services to the residents ”
These are some of the “Innovations” coming to Brownsville:
-In the past month, the city commission approved the rezoning of properties on Boca Chica street for a 24-acre development called habitat zero. The Austin Astreia development will house 125 energy-efficient homes with solar panels, Tesla wall chargers, and 30 EVE Chargers for the community.
“The development, which is known as habitat zero, will be the first of its kind, in our community but also in the United States ”
The BCIC (Brownsville Community Improvement Corp.), in order to feed their entrepreneurial spirit, will bring several organizations together. EBridge is a facility that will help young entrepreneurs start a new business.
The city commission has approved the replacement of the current downtown parking meters to be replaced with new and upgraded ones that will fulfill the 21st century needs. These machines will replace the 300 single space parking meters.
“These new meters will allow for the use of credit cards, coins and other smart payments.”
According to the mayor, what will become of “El Jardin Hotel” has been a question thrown around quite often. The Brownsville housing authority has acquired the property and received 10 million dollars from TDHCA (Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs) in Tax Credits and will move forward in bringing mixed-use housing to downtown Brownsville.
This fiscal year contains the largest allocation toward capital improvement projects in the city’s history, which means more money for infrastructure, streets, and drainage.
A project that will happen in the future will be adding a third major hospital in Brownsville. This hospital will be adding 300 new job opportunities and over 40 million dollars to our community.
“With Valley Baptist and Valley Regional already well established, the addition of another hospital will give us one of the premiere health systems in South Texas”
In the port of Brownsville, an announcement was made for 68 million dollars in federal funds to deepen the Brownsville ship channel, allowing larger vessels and increased cargo movements.
Mayor Mendez says
“We were also named one of the top 20 safest cities in the country this year”
For more information, you can watch the recorded video at State of the City Brownsville Texas.
This Silvana Villarrel with Vaquero Radio.
