Bill Rovira

McALLEN, Aug. 20 - Following McAllen Mayor Richard Cortez's town hall meeting on Tuesday evening I drove across the street from the McAllen Convention Center to an active Westside Park engaged in the normal agenda of any summer night at the park.

Couples from nearby neighborhoods sat on the tailgates of their pick-ups, senior citizens on their lawn chairs, families of three generations--kids, parents and grandparents in the bleachers behind the backstops of the baseball diamonds--all came to the park that night as on any other baseball night for a common purpose--to watch a softball game at Westside Park.

Some of those present had a dog in the fight--a family member or loved one involved in the great American pursuit of baseball. Some just showed up for the entertainment and the atmosphere, to cook out in the park, to grill carne azada on a portable pit brought from home or to eat nachos, drink a soda and just hang out in a wholesome family environment at one of McAllen's greatest assets and oldest parks.

I talked to many of these people at the Park on Tuesday night, sort of conducting my own town hall, soliciting their feelings, thoughts and opinions about the mayor and city commission's plan to sell their park and move the baseball facilities elsewhere, as well as to build tennis courts in the Nature Center behind the park.

I did not get any responses that were in favor of closing the park, turning it into a retail outlet or making the proposed changes in the Botanical Gardens. To my amazement I did not find a single person there that night with any awareness at all of any of these issues. Most seemed incredulous, didn't seem to believe me. I am glad they turned out to be right.

I voted for Mayor Richard Cortez because I perceived a benevolent, mature, visionary and compassionate leader with the long-term interests of McAllen in his heart and soul.

With Thursday’s announcement from the mayor of dropping the Westside Park sale and working for the development and reopening of the Botanical Gardens, I feel like I just awoke from a bad dream and that Richard Cortez really is and always was the great and benevolent leader that I thought he was.

This is the statement Cortez put out late Thursday:

"I wish to thank all our citizens and other interested individuals who attended and participated in the session I presented this Tuesday at the McAllen Convention Center. There, I discussed our City's present financial position and strategies to improve our revenues and expand our sports athletic facilities.

In our next City Commission meeting on Monday, August 23, 2010, at 4:00 p.m., there will be an agenda item to discuss whether we wish to call a Special Election for November 2, 2010 regarding a proposed Sports Athletic Facilities and Tennis Center and authorizing the sale of Westside Park.

After reviewing the results of our survey, I will recommend to the City Commission that we only consider an election authorizing the sale of General Obligation bonds for the purpose of acquiring land and building sports athletic facilities.

I will recommend that we not place the sale of Westside Park on the Special Election and will further recommend that we partner with Valley Land Fund to assist us with the development of a plan to improve McAllen Botanical Gardens."

Ecological treasures like the Nature Center must be preserved and protected. They must be the legacy of leaders like Richard Cortez.

Neighborhood assets such as Westside Park must be maintained and improved upon. The pamphlet from the McAllen Nature Center group said it all: "McAllen you're breaking our heart."

I am so glad the bad dream is over. We can have it all--our heart and soul and our state of the art athletic facilities--soccer, tennis, softball. We have the land. We have the vision. We have the love. Everyone's a winner.

Bill Rovira is a reporter, writer and commentator on border life who lives in McAllen, Texas. His Roving Rovira columns appear exclusively in the Guardian.

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