You're invited to a Windshield Tour of Brownwood Texas
Here's the challenge. Spend several hours in the comfort of your own home visiting
After completing your "windshield tour" ask yourself if what was advertised is what you found when you toured Brownwood for yourself. Below you'll find two recent letters to the editor from The Brownwood Bulletin. Feel free to offer your comments and observations by sending them to steve_squared@verizon.net
P.S. _ Before you leave Brownwood, you might want to stop in to Brownwood City Hall to request being inducted into the Brownwood Mafia. I hear and read where the City of Brownwood is facing difficult, or soft, money issues, so they may exchange a Mafia Certificiate for a hefty donation if asked ? Worth a try !
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Make Brownwood look, as well as feel, like home
To the editor:
I wish to urge the Brownwood Bulletin to take a stand in supporting the creation of a landscape ordinance for the city of Brownwood.
I was born and raised here in Brownwood. I graduated from Brownwood High in ’72 and from Howard Payne University in ’76. After traveling around the U.S. and Europe for two years I found myself in Thousand Oaks, Calif., where I lived for 28 years. I recently returned to live here in Brownwood.
An overwhelming difference between the two cities is the attitude toward appearance. When asked to describe Thousand Oaks I immediately respond, “It’s like living in a park.” For example, the local Home Depot has 20 King Palms lining the entrance to their property. Separating the parking lanes are medians planted with smaller palms and flowering bushes. Each convenience store is landscaped with grass, trees and flowering bushes. Many even have water fountains and/or sculptural works of art. The building housing the Thousand Oaks Star, the local paper, has a lush lawn with fountains at the entrance.
When asked to describe Brownwood, my past response has been, “Black asphalt as far as you can see.” From the Heartland Mall to Commerce Square, what you see is parking lots.
At major intersections such as Austin Avenue and Coggin, you see the immense empty lots of the old JRB and Brookshire’s markets.
I was pleased to notice on my return this past August that there have been attempts made to beautify downtown Brownwood. I applaud those beginning attempts and urge the City Council as representatives of the residents of Brownwood to move forward in adopting a landscape ordinance. Brownwood’s current motto is “Feels like home…” How do you want your home to look? Well-landscaped and green, even park-like, or asphalt as far as your eye can see?
David Dillard
Brownwood
source: source: http://www.brownwoodbulletin.com/articles/2007/01/31/op_ed/letters%20to%20the%20editor/letter01.txt
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Tuesday February 6, 2007
Op Ed: Letters To The Editor
Turn beautification focus to neighborhoods
To the editor:
To the city of Brownwood: I was born and raised in Brownwood, Texas. I am a proud graduate of Brownwood High School and am privileged to have been a part of the Gordon Wood era of Texas high school football! I moved away from Brownwood in 1982. I do still have family there and visit approximately five to six times per year. For the past few years it has been nice to see the city do something to beautify the areas in town that those people traveling through will see. The downtown area now looks inviting with the new intersections and lighting. There are new businesses cropping up and new economic opportunities available.
Even so, there is still much work to be done in areas not quite as visible. The city needs to turn its attention to the heart of Brownwood — the neighborhoods. This is where potential residents look. This is where their children are raised. If I were looking to move back to Brownwood, I would visit the neighborhoods and see how well the city takes care of its own. I would look at things such as street maintenance, code enforcements, safety, etc. It shouldn’t matter whether it is the old part of town or the new part of town. This is the heart and soul of Brownwood, Texas! This is where the people who pay their hard earned tax dollars live! These are the people who support the town! These are your friends, relatives, colleagues, neighbors, and constituents. They deserve the same privileges as those just passing through. The city of Brownwood has done a disservice to these folks. The city council and city government has done a disservice to these folks!
In the 25 years that I have lived away from Brownwood, I have watched the city let the residential streets deteriorate at a shameful rate. It is a disgrace, not only to the city, but also for those hardworking taxpayers of the city to see where their tax dollars have not been spent! Don’t just take my word for it. Go to some of the older sections of town. Check out the streets and see for yourself. Travel down 16th, 17th, 18th, or 19th streets, between Coggin Avenue and the Brady highway. Or, drive up and down Avenues B, C, D and E. You had better drive slow or your car will be out of alignment. What little maintenance the city has done is worse than no maintenance at all. These streets have been “patched to death.” At what cost?
At some point in time, it has got to be more cost effective to repair these streets the correct way than to keep putting patch upon patch upon patch. At the price that asphalt and other road materials are, this is nothing but a flagrant abuse of tax dollars! Not to mention the man hours involved! And don't even get me started on the junk cars, trash around residences and in vacant lots. It looks like the city landfill has moved into town!
I used to be proud to be from Brownwood, Texas, but now it is becoming an embarrassment. Can Brownwood not take care of its own residential neighborhoods? Maybe the city should hire an outside maintenance company to tend to what they are unwilling to do. Would you want to live on the corner of 17th and Avenue D? Or maybe you would move your mother into one of the trailers around 17th Street and Coggin. Why don't you drive your new Mercedes or Cadillac down 17th Street between Avenue E and the highway?
Please, give pride back to the neighborhoods. Fix the streets, enforce the codes. If you want to bring in new economic development, you need to start at home. That is the heart and soul of the town — the neighborhoods.
An embarrassed former resident,
JK Anglin
Temple
source: source: http://www.brownwoodbulletin.com/articles/2007/02/06/op_ed/letters%20to%20the%20editor/letter01.txt
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