The numbers just came in and... Thanksgiving Week 2025 was the busiest we have ever recorded. More than 200,000 out of market visitors came into our community over the holiday week, generating approximately 577,000 non-resident visits across local businesses, venues, and points of interest.
Those visit counts are rising faster than the number of visitors, which means people are finding more reasons to stay longer, visit more places, and spend more of their time in Brownsville.
Even with tens of thousands of residents out of town, we still attracted enough visitors to operate at roughly twice our resident population. Across the week, that works out to about four visitors for every resident who left.
For years, Brownsville was too often described as too small, too remote or too easy to overlook. The numbers we are seeing now tell a very different story. Longstanding narratives about our limitations simply do not hold up when you look at what is happening here in Brownsville.
Those numbers matter, but the real story is who made them possible. This month, I want to say thank you to the people behind a wonderful November.
One of those stories reaches back more than a decade. The community garden at the end of the Belden Trail is now known as Ruth & Gene’s Community Garden, in honor of Ruth and Gene Novgrosky, who spent years tending the space and welcoming neighbors into it. The garden sits on a small triangular lot our Board purchased behind Skinner Elementary School after helping convert the former Samuel Belden spur rail line into the Belden Trail. Ruth & Gene’s Community Garden now provides fresh fruits and vegetables to roughly fifteen households and offers a quiet place for health, conversation, and connection built out of their care.
On November 6, planners, business owners, and residents joined us for the Design Charrette for the City of Brownsville’s Downtown Renaissance Master Plan. The session invited people to react to early concepts, mark up maps, and talk frankly with us about how downtown should look and feel in the coming years. The feedback from that day will guide how visitors and residents experience our streets, storefronts, and public spaces. Thank you to everyone who spent part of their day helping shape that work.
During Global Entrepreneurship Week, Nov. 17 through 21, eBridge hosted an Insights Unplugged session focused on founders in beauty, skincare, and nails. Panelists included Sheyla Saldaña of MŪSE Haus of Beauty and serial entrepreneur Jennifer Madai Lopez. They talked through how beauty creators build brands and grow audiences, with a focus on turning loyal followers into customers, choosing sales channels, using content and community effectively, protecting margins and managing the basics of small team operations.
A special One Million Cups conversation during GEW brought Mayor John Cowen Jr. of Brownsville and Mayor Norma Sepulveda of Harlingen to the same stage at eBridge. Both mayors shared their own professional paths, reflected on key decisions in their careers, and took direct questions from founders and community members. It was a touching discussion about perseverance, leadership, risk and what it will take to grow our regional business base.
Cori Peña
Editor's Note: The above guest column was provided by Cori Peña, president & CEO of Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation. The column first appeared in the December edition of BCIC's electronic newsletter. The column appears in the Rio Grande Guardian with the permission of the author.
