DOW JONES HITS ALL-TIME HIGH: COMMISSIONER JESSICA KALIFA-TETREAU TAKES CREDIT

By Juan Montoya
Just as former Vice-President Al Gore claimed credit for inventing the Internet, one of our precocious city commissioners has taken time from her chronic bouting matches to take credit for the development – not only of Strawberry Village – but for economic development all over Browntown.
Yes, we speak of City Commissioner Jessica Kalifa-Tetreau, already on the hustings from the get-go to get reelected in two years as representative of District 2.
In a posting with her huckster web site Cheezmeh, the feisty commissioner thanked all the "entrepreneurs, business owner, investors, developers, the real estate community, and most importantly, local customers for working together with me to revive District 2."
Now, we don't know if construction on 10,000 square feet of the property adjacent to a Walmart and KFC franchise is a chancy business (not!), but it's hard to see how this qualifies as a revival since down the road on either side stand the empty hulks of 100,000s of square feet of what used to be a Target store, Burlington Coat Factory, Office Depot, Wendy's and other so-called anchor franchises.
In fact, what has proliferated along Boca Chica lately has been a handful of thrift stores who carry on a brisk business selling locals the hand-me-down clothing of their brethren up nawth. Granted, the quality is a step up from the Jim Johnson outlets downtown, but not by much. Since these thrift stores are along Boca Chica, the marketing strategist were probably targeting the mobile poor.
Local sunshine boy developer Horacio Gallegos, the broker with Retail Solutions working on the new retail development, "Strawberry Village," told the Brownsville Herald that an average of 70,000 cars per day traverse the Four Corners area and  that the same can be said of the intersection of Boca Chica and Old Port/Isabel McDavitt where he is putting put up the new "village."
The developer, Gallegos told the local daily, is from San Antonio.
Ms. Tetreau cites the Herald article as proof that everyone is pitching in and helping her revive District 2.
Now, we looked high and low in the article for proof that it was Jess who did the heavy lifting to entice the San Antonio folks to choose District 2 and for the life of us, we can neither find her name nor even a mention of the political subdivision she represents (District 2).
However, we are willing to give her the benefit of the doubt. If Jess says she – along with the rest of the little people – are working together to revive her district, maybe she is. Perhaps unbeknownst to us her connections on Wall Street helped to lure the Fortune 500 companies that will anchor the new development to District 2. Who knows? District 2 could be Wall Street's best kept secret.
Remember – and I'm dating myself here – the scene in "The Graduate" when the older successful Mr. McGuire buttonholed Ben and gave him some advice?
Mr. McGuire: I want to say one word to you. Just one word.
Benjamin: Yes, sir.
Mr. McGuire: Are you listening?
Benjamin: Yes, I am.
Mr. McGuire: Plastics
Well, nowadays, our District 2 commissioner wants us to believe that they re buttonholing young hotshot stockbrokers and – instead of "Plastics" – they are whispering "District 2" in their ears during their cocktail parties.
What we did find was a mention of the local business that Jessica has been associated with and which she claimed to own during her campaign in her effort to paint herself as a successful businesswoman and a one-gal economic dynamo.
That's right. It's the story of how the South Texas Civil Rights Project was suing four businesses – along with one of hers – for paying their workers slave wages. Kelsey Snapp, attorney for Texas Legal Aid, represents four former employees at Car Wash Plus located on Paredes Road.
“The workers were working 9 to 10-hour days but they were only getting paid when they were actually cleaning cars,” Snapp said. “However, they were required to be there the entire day."

The complaints were filed by the workers before the Texas Workforce Commission and perhaps the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division. One of the workers said that the wages he earned averaged to just over $1.50 per hour and included going to do work at the home of the city commissioner and her husband.
It's no wonder that the commissioner spoke of "reviving" District 2. Hell, paying starving wages like this it's a wonder the poor people make enough to eat, much less spend their considerable expendable income at the new high-end developments the commissioner is bringing to revive the economy of District 2.
You go, girl!