Special to The Tribune
HARLINGEN, Texas - The other day the city commissioner Robert Leftwich cut through a generous plate of fajita nachos at a popular eatery here. It was a night when the Harlingen City Commission met to hash-out the coming year's budget, and he was out early, early enough anyway to drop-in on friends at El Rancho on electric 77Sunshine Strip.
"Things go fast when Kori's not there," Leftwich was saying, referring to colleague Kori Marra. She'd missed her third consecutive commission meeting and some in town were jumping on the idea of getting her removed for unexplained absenteeism. Said to be the emerging leader of the commission's new winning vote-bloc, Leftwich wasn't interested in damning Ms. Marra, a second-year elected official whose tenure so far can properly be described as jagged service, in line with anyone's idea of failure. But to the extent that he recognizes she is on the outs in the commission's present form, Leftwich would only smile a knowing smile. He seems to know his growing power, one that goes head-on against the supposed leadership of Mayor Chris Boswell.
It is the story of the coming week. Will Commissioner Marra survive the controversy, only her latest and coming on the heels of her perceived clash with local veterans. If politics can ever be measured as are measured stocks on Wall Street, Ms. Marra's stock is said to be dropping at an alarming rate. That she refuses to answer her growing critics has not helped. Only a surprise visit to Harlingen by NBA superstar LeBron James will take the media spotlight off Commissioner Marra. That's not about to happen.
Leftwich is coy about assuming the city's leadership role, a move that would essentially further isolate headstrong Mayor Boswell. Still, there are those who say Boswell already has been emasculated politically; that is, that any notion he entertains of leading the city simply is laughable. His efforts to hog-tie the commission are well-known. His way of nudging other commmissioners to vote his way is seen at every meeting. His allegiance to the past could fill a whole chapter in any down-and-out London novel by Charles Dickens. Boswell sees his city sinking in rolling pity, under the weight of abandoned, decaying buildings, under the sad portrait of a desolate downtown, under the knowledge that many in town suffer unemployment, under the cloud that offers no promises...and still he ignores it all.
The week that dawns next will not be kind to Mayor Boswell and his sole ally, Commissioner Marra. The entire community is telling those two that Harlingen is danged tired of being Mayberry, RFD...
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2 comments:
Mr. Editor, how about "No Where Man," for Chris Boswell, because thats what he is at the Commission Meetings.
Our real problem in the entire U.S.A., and specially here in the Rancho Grande Valley is that due to the close proximity to Northern Mexico. We all had been
" Brainwashed " by the tv news and the press media, with all the negative events that goes around in the Northern Mexican Border. Mexico has so much too offer ; 6.000 years of History , true culture, nice beaches, colonial cities and towns.
Most people that came to settle here in the U.S.A. are out of a desperate necesity, most are low - social status, with little or not eduacation at all, low - paying laborers, farm workers. The second and third generation . American born Mexican - Americans, Chicanos, once assimilated, They realized the big mistake their fathers / granparents did by coming to live here in the U.S.: They own nothing, are outcasts, are not even considered
" Americans " by White Anglo - Saxons Caucasians and feel that They are a Bunch of " Nobodies". Unfortunally and sadly by both civilized societies.
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