In Tired Harlingen, Decaying Front Doors Tell The Story Of A Falling Downtown...

By ELIOT ELCOMEDOR
Special to The Tribune

HARLINGEN, Texas - It has become fashionable to say that the beaten-down doorway is the Official Symbol of Harlingen, a place now offering itself as the Poster City for abandoned and decaying buildings, places where once the populace played at progress and commerce.

Not these days.

A drive along the downtown streets here is a drive into a literal ghost town, and the man people are blaming is Mayor Chris Boswell. It is Boswell, they say, who wants things as they are - falling or in the process of falling. Not that Downtown Harlingen is a lost cause. It retains the only downtown plaza to be found in the three largest cities in the Rio Grande Valley, one that comes with a new playground for kids. It is empty on a Friday night, as are the streets and the cafes and the bars.

What is happening to Harlingen?

Some here blame a small group of self-serving residents they call the Old Guard, people said to be interested in helping only their own and in fighting suggestions that Harlingen dream of becoming something better.

There are six customers at the Rest Area Lounge at the corner of E. and Harrison streets. A similar amount is found at the nearby Club 5.0. Leandro's Lounge has its bright neon light on the window, but there are three cars in the parking spaces out front. Nothing is moving. It is the begining of the noisy weekend in McAllen and Brownsville, time for partying, for shaking leg on the dance floor, for making a move, for lifting a six-pack of beer one at a time, for getting loud. Here, the end of the universe has come to town.

In a symphony of catcalls, Mayor Boswell has heard the song everyone here wants to sing. "Boswell," they roar. "...do something!"

A visionary could easily see that some of the falling buildings Harlingen counts in its downtown sector possibly could be turned into burgeoning businesses. There is Old Style architecture and construction from an era when buildings stood the test of time. Yet, orphaned, they have been allowed to die an unsightly death. It is as quiet as a cemetery as we move along Harrrison and Tyler Streets. Not even the cops can be seen. They are over on busy 77 Sunshine Strip, where restaurants like El Rancho do gangbusters business. The Hop Shop, a no-nonsense, economic rock joint on Commerce Street not far from the lonely offices of The Valley Morning Star, readies for a night of noise. Perhaps the patrons will arrive. That is the eternal hope.

At City Hall, the buzz centers on Mayor Boswell's recalcitrance, on his lack of desire to bend, on his wish for a Return to Yesteryear. His job is becoming tougher by the day, however. At present, following the most recent elections, he is outgunned by his fellow commissioners who have begun to vote in bloc - to go against everything the mayor pushes. These are not good times for Boswell. This week, he endured meetings that saw him humbled by the opposition. Gone for the last three meetings was his sole ally, Commissioner Kori Marra, said to be out-of-town on business.

Out-of-town on business.

That has a certain awful ring to it. What many residents here would rather hear is that Ms. Marra is out-of-town drumming up business for Harlingen. The scuttlebutt is that Commissioner Marra was doing business for her sole benefit while in Austin.

At the Rest Area Lounge, where patrons can see framed photos of Freddy Fender and Marilyn Monroe, bartender Margarita serves another beer as the clack-clacking sound of pooltable balls bouncing off each other yields the night's only noise.

Outside, the moon rises - cold & mineral...

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