Brownsville’s public market and town hall went up as the city got its start in 1850. Butchers and other vendors moved in a year later. The city’s central square would go through various rebuilds. It would survive hurricanes as well as other calamities through the ages with a city that grew up around it. The last half of the 20th century saw what came to be known as Market Square…
Joe Bowling grew up a Midwest kid listening to his heroes. It was the voices of legendary baseball broadcasters Jack Buck and Harry Carey that carried into Bowling’s home in southeast Missouri. He was a baseball-crazed kid following his beloved St. Louis Cardinals. “It got into my blood,” Bowling said of his love for sports and broadcasting. Those influences play out today as Bowling calls Rio Grande Valley sporting events…
It’s mid afternoon at Pieology in Edinburg. The lunch rush has thinned out, yet the build-your-own pizza restaurant is still busy with mostly Millennial-aged customers. Come back the next day in the noon hour. It will likely be employees from the nearby hospital and medical offices on Trenton Road who are enjoying their break and lunch at Pieology. In the evening hours, families with young children often push the tables…
The 2020 U.S. Census will go out to a nation that’s more technologically wired than ever. Census Bureau officials expect the nation’s official population count to be the first of its kind. A solid majority of respondents will do so online. “The fact we’ve moved beyond paper only makes us more relevant to the American people,” said Timothy Olson, the associate director of field operations for the U.S. Census Bureau. …
Black Friday was coming and Shannon Farrell knew what it would be like on the day after Thanksgiving. “They won’t let their employees leave,” Farrell said of store managers at the Rio Grande Valley Premium Outlets in Mercedes. “The stores will be full, the workers will be busy, and we’ll be there to feed them.” Shannon’s Sweets is itself located at the outlets and has become a go-to place for…
He was at the time a 20-something Brownsville lawyer seeking to become Cameron County’s district attorney. A turn of events in the fall of 1988, including the sudden death of the county judge, propelled Tony Garza into a different direction. Garza would shift over to running for county judge as a Republican. He appeared to be a longshot in a Democratic-leaning region. What appeared to be improbable then became a…
The initial vision of the McAllen Holiday Parade sounded rather modest to McAllen Mayor Jim Darling. Growing up in Rochester, NY, Darling dreamed of going to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. He never made it to the big parade in New York City, saying his parents couldn’t afford to make the trip. The City of McAllen decided six years ago that it would launch a Christmas parade. The mayor then…
The Valley Baptist Health System and its landmark hospital in Harlingen have long been synonymous with Cameron County. Its reach was extended in the county to Brownsville last decade with the purchase of an existing hospital. The health system is now making a huge strategic move. In Jan. 2020, it will open a micro-hospital in Weslaco. Valley Baptist executives say is a first move to further expand its footprint in…
The negotiations that led to the creation of a single Rio Grande Valley metropolitan planning organization meant more than being a positive sign of regional goodwill. It also spurred the Texas Department of Transportation to announce it would spend $1.1 billion over the next decade. The money is solely for highway and mobility projects in the Valley. The state agency believed the merger of three Valley MPOs into a single…
The first Magic Valley Electric Cooperative utility pole went up in 1937. It was on Mile 9 West in Weslaco. The cooperative was in business and would establish seven principles that would guide it. The seventh principle is one that is at the heart of what Magic Valley has done for more than 80 years. It’s “Concern For Community,” as the value states. This is a value that still lives…