Brownsville Panel with Trey Mendez and Ron Garza: Civic Engagement and Economic Development

Introduction

Brownsville, like San Antonio, is a quiet, historic, and majority Latino city with a “small town feel.” However, San Antonio is about eight times larger, with numerous colleges, hospitals, interstates, sprawling suburbs, and a robust tourism scene. San Antonio faces challenges like infrastructure issues, rapid growth, and homelessness, while Brownsville, with new developments like the eBridge hub for startups and SpaceX Starbase jobs, hasn't yet experienced these problems as intensely.

As Civic Tech Scholars at the Better Futures Institute, we had the chance to speak with former Brownsville Mayor Trey Mendez and UTRGV’s Ron Garza about urban development in smaller border cities. We explored their stories, passions, and concerns, gaining insights into their vision for Brownsville’s future and its impact on South Texas. This post reflects on our visit to Brownsville, sharing key findings and their significance, and outlining the next steps in our relationship with and understanding of the city.

Background on the Experts

Trey Mendez graduated from UT Austin and then went on to Harvard Kennedy School before returning to Brownsville with his own law firm. He ran for mayor and decided to go back to practicing law after one term. During his term, he emphasized small businesses, internal diplomacy, education, and public safety. He successfully tripled Brownsville’s economic development.

Ron Garza left the Valley after high school to work all over Texas, including for COSA. He eventually returned to Brownsville and worked at UT Rio Grande Valley. He is the Senior Associate Vice President of Workforce & Economic Development, meaning he is intensely involved in overseeing the development of Brownsville and understanding a city’s process in handling rapid growth.

Key Insights and Takeaways

From the discussion, we have organized our thoughts into several different categories to provide an understanding of the bigger picture and next steps.

1. Key Themes & Opportunities for Further Exploration

Here are the key themes taken from the discussion:

• Regional Collaboration: The Valley and Brownsville face challenges in regional collaboration due to the rural nature of the area, the lack of centralized communities, and diverse perspectives. Balancing the creation of smaller “micro districts” with population density for infrastructure and quality of life without a forceful and intentional culture of regional collaboration is difficult. There is an opportunity to learn from San Antonio's experiences to collaborate with different regions, create dense micro districts to prevent urban sprawl, and make communities more cohesive.
• New Development vs. Re-Development: To create population density and prevent urban sprawl, redevelopment of abandoned and empty areas for new purposes is essential. There is an opportunity to demonstrate to expanding cities that they can prevent urban sprawl by implementing lessons learned from San Antonio.

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2. Promising Practices

From our conversation, we were able to draw out several promising practices already in place in Brownsville:

• Broadband Initiative: Trey Mendez's 2019 project brought fiber internet to RGV, crucial during COVID-19.
• SpaceX Investment: SpaceX’s $20 million investment in local STEM education benefits the community.
• Data-Driven Policy: Ron Garza emphasized using data to inform public policy.
• Economic Development Funding: Brownsville’s budget tripled in recent years, boosting development.
• Increased Connectivity: More direct flights from the local airport integrate Brownsville with the rest of the country.

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3. Critical Challenges

Despite the passion and ideas, as well as well-implemented plans and development, there are obstacles to tackle. Hearing firsthand about the issues, we were able to pinpoint several conflicts to overcome:

• Retention of Young People and Talent: Talent produced by smaller cities is often lost to big cities like New York and Los Angeles. Finding ways to show young people that they can fulfill their hopes and dreams without leaving their hometown, and making the city appealing to young adults, is key to retaining talent.
• Leadership: There is an issue with not having a unifying voice to make significant progress. People are concerned with issues relevant to their unique personal stories, creating a community engagement challenge.
• Collaboration: Brownsville is unique in that it is not a large centralized city but focuses on limiting urban sprawl and collaborating with other cities. Effective leaders who intend on collaborating with other city leaders, organizations, etc., are necessary. The geographical isolation of Brownsville makes regional collaboration hard, and the differences between a huge city like San Antonio and Brownsville add to the challenge.
• Location: The location causes challenges such as limited direct flights to/from Brownsville and other major cities, making the region less attractive. Environmental concerns with the intense heat and the proximity to SpaceX also present issues.

Conclusion

Seeing a smaller city than San Antonio in the early stages of developing an amazing startup scene is inspiring because we have the opportunity to collaborate in South Texas. However, there are some things that we in San Antonio do not experience to the same extent. For example, the proximity to the border and more rural environment in the outskirts of Brownsville changes the scene there. We need to remember to keep Brownsville in mind, and collaborate with them, creating a powerful and united voice in South Texas. With our expanding knowledge of urban development, the critical challenges seem like exciting obstacles to overcome.

For further exploration, we plan on finding case studies for the critical challenges by seeing how other cities, locally, nationally, and globally tackled these same issues. We also plan on analyzing the differences between North and South Texas, as well as how the rural landscape and proximity to Mexico make it a unique area.

If you are interested in collaborating or participating in further developing this research with us, sign up below to learn more about how you can contribute and benefit from this ongoing research.

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