RIO VIEJO'S NEW COMMANDMENT: HATE THY NEIGHBOR

By Juan Montoya
Among the items that will be contained in the city's $13.056 million Certificates of Obligation is included one to pitch in $600,000 as a local share to build a Texas Safe Shelter at the Sports park or other city location.
That seems a bit curious since there are another $3 million included in the CO issuance toward the local share of constructing a Texas Safe Shelter at the Main Library.
Why two, you might ask? Well, with Brownsville and South Texas being a prime target for hurricanes and other natural calamities, it stands to reason that the city should provide for safe shelters for local residents who don't trust their humble abodes to withstand hurricane-force winds or prolonged frigid weather.

Other fiscally conservative voices might say that local institutions such as churches sand charities could well provide the poor with these necessities instead of local governments and taxpayers.
Well, a funny thing happened on the way to the altar.
It seems that the Baptist Church at 1600 Boca Chica Boulevard near the once-exclusive Ceniso and Calle Jacaranda neighborhoods had planned – at no cost to the city – to set up such a Texas Safe Shelter on their property. When the residents of the once-silk-stocking neighborhoods got wind of the project, they let well-meaning folks at the church and city officials that they wanted no part of it.
"This was a shelter that was going to be used for a day or maybe two at a time by people who needed to take shelter from a hurricane or some other disaster, and the people in the neighborhood didn't want them there," said a city official. "Now, instead of having the church bear the costs as they had wanted to on their own, the city has to pay for it. It's hard to understand."
Old-time Brownsville residents remember when the gates at the corner of Ringgold and Roosevelt across on Palm Boulevard across the street from Sharp Elementary used to be shut at dusk to prevent the rabble from intruding into the inner sanctum of the fine folks living on the residences from Ringgold to Boca Chica on Palm. If you look closely, the bases of the stone pillars that anchored the gates are still there.
Now, if you look closely into the souls of the people that didn't allow the Baptist brethren to provide shelter to their less fortunate brothers, those gates appear to be just as deeply rooted as well.