South Padre Island is seeing rapid growth in its vacation rental industry and enjoys high average occupancy rates as compared to its Texas Gulf Coast competitors. It was a strength highlighted at a recent conference hosted by the Vacation Rental Managers Association of South Padre Island. There was also a list of challenges and areas of improvement cited at the mid-February meeting at the South Padre Island Convention Center. The…
Walk into The Roast House in downtown Brownsville and the first impression is how much space it occupies. The formerly cozy coffee shop on Alton Gloor Road in north Brownsville has grown dramatically since its move to downtown in the latter half of 2022. There’s 5,700 square feet of space put to use for community events, group meetings and of course, great coffee. The Roast House is a “full-blown coffee…
Christina Vasquez in her 15-plus years of being a school counselor believed in getting out of the office. “Be visible, be out there,” Vasquez said, recalling how she greeted students in school hallways. “I always felt that it was important to be out there and to have that visibility with the kids.” Vasquez was initially a teacher before settling into working as a counselor for students at every grade level…
South Padre Island with its soothing feel and leisurely coastal vibe is as good a place as any to start over again. It has been that and more for two massage therapists who came to the Island years ago after divorces required them to start anew. Pippa Brooks tells of coming to South Padre in 2008 with nothing. Fellow therapist Mina Amesquita recalls getting to SPI “with $60 in my…
Kimberly Avila had a college degree in hand, a bachelors in cognitive psychology, and worked in law offices and as a car sales manager among a variety of jobs tried. Nothing in those employment fields, or others she could think of, felt or sounded fulfilling. Avila then decided to go way outside of her comfort zone and venture into something her parents warned had little chance of being successful. Avila…
The Los Fresnos Volunteer Fire Department is celebrating its 75th anniversary of serving southern Cameron County and one constant has defined it through the years. The department is manned by volunteer firefighters. It is, in fact, an all-volunteer force, the only one of its kind in the Rio Grande Valley. The department is unique in another way as well in that it is not part of a city government. The…
The Brownsville of the post-World War II era was pushing west on its main street – Elizabeth Street – in branching out from its downtown core to develop new retailing and business offices. The Rio Grande Valley Gas Company Building was part of that movement. The 21,000-square-foot building, two stories high, got its start in 1947. Additional phases of the building would come in the late 1950s and mid-1960s. The…
The Lighthouse Boutique Hotel is “coastal but subtle.” It’s a description of the Port Isabel hotel as given by one of its owners, Ana Martha Diaz. The two-story, 8,000-square-foot building sits across the street from an 1850s-era lighthouse, providing a name and sense of place for the specialty hotel. It stands on the land that was the site of a military depot built during the U.S.-Mexican War of the mid-19th…
Angela Menchaca was a busy physician assistant, rotating among cardiac clinics in Edinburg when she felt the pull to be closer to her Weslaco home with a young daughter to raise. Her best option was one she knew well. Her husband, Michael, is a family nurse practitioner who has opened a direct primary care clinic in Harlingen. It’s not a clinic like many others with long patient waits. There are…
A letter from a former president said it all in expressing appreciation for a job well done. “Nancy and I know how much work goes into the preparation of such wonderful meals, and we greatly appreciate all you did,” wrote Ronald Reagan in an August 1992 letter to Arnie Creinin. “Thanks to you and your staff, our stay was delightful!” It wasn’t the first time Creinin had cooked for President…