Yesterday I emailed Councilman Carlos Cisneros with a reiteration of concerns about the streets in Brownsville — the paving done last year before the election that neglected one of the neediest streets in the the neighborhood and the apparent lack of scheduled street maintenance — and a new concern about drainage and maintenance to the drainage system. Here is the exchange.

Hello Mr. Raines,

I will be going by to check Pasedero Drive myself this evening.  Also I will be
looking into your other concerns.  Although, since you are asking you need to be
aware that I am constantly checking  and improving drainage within all of my
district, as well as walking the streets and talking with residents to see where
I can find areas to improve.  I do not do this for politics but simply because I
was elected to do this on behalf of our people.  I want to thank you for
bringing these issues to my attention.  I will also forward this information to
our city manager, Mr. Cabler and to our city engineer, Mr. Lastra.

Once again, Thank you!
Carlos
________________________________

From: Stan Raines [mailto:sraines902@aol.com]
Sent: Tue 4/1/2008 4:10 PM
To: Carlos Cisneros
Subject: Pasedero Drive

Mr. Cisneros:

Before last year's election, paving crews arrived and re-paved my street, La
Entrada, and several others in the neighborhood. The head of public works came
by, I believe his name was Snow, and I asked him why Pasedero Drive wasn't being
included in the current work, as it is in much worse condition than the streets
being tended to. He said it would be gotten to when the current new paving had
stabilized and heavy equipment on it would not harm it. He has since passed on
to greater challenges and Pasadero is still in need of serious attention.

So my first question is, do you have any idea when Pasadero will be reworked?

A second, related question is about street maintenance. Does the city have a
scheduled program of street maintenance? If not, why not?

A mildly related question has to do with walking to the mailbox this morning. I
noticed that the drainage drain closest to the mailboxes, next to a rather
unkempt vacant lot, was nearly full of trash and washed-down grass clippings. So
on the walk back, I surveyed the other drains along La Entrada and saw that,
while they were not as nearly filled as the first one I'd noticed, all had a
noticeable accumulation of rubbish of an indeterminable depth, unless I wanted
to lift some very heavy manhole covers, of course.

As we have had a series of floods in the neighborhood over the last several
years, it occurred to me that all this material in the drainage system could be
a contributing factor. So my last question is this: does the city have a
scheduled program to clean drainage? And if there is none, why isn't there?

I should tell you that I publish a web log (www.nunnayerbizness.com) and I do
publish conversations and correspondence with public officials over public
business. My intention in doing so is to help advance the public conversation on
public matters, not to play "gotcha" or to embarrass anyone.  I think my
previous correspondence on costs associated with maintaining Pablo Kasel Blvd.
were taken in that light. I apologize for not being more up front with what I
was doing at that time. 

Interestingly, I still don't have complete information about that situation.
Mr.Torres, the new director of Public Works, did send an estimate of costs of
repairs since October of 2006 in the amount of $79,790 but he claims that the
largest patch included in the period was eight by thirty feet. Yet anyone who
drives it can see the repair along the westernmost lane that runs from the
drainage ditch to Morrison Road and is right at a half mile long and a two-lane
patch of more than a quarter a mile that runs from in front of Best Buy to the
connection on the freeway frontage road.

Thank you for your patience and help thus far.

Sincerely,
Stan Raines

It’s interesting that Mr. Cisneros denies that he checks streets and drainage “for politics.” Politics could easily be positive or at least neutral in meaning. A quick check at dictionary.com says, among other things, it is the “art and science of governing.” From that one ought to say that it is a positive. But then there are also entries for “playing politics” where it’s meaning becomes “to engage in political intrigue” and “to deal with people in an opportunistic, manipulative, or devious way” both of which, I’m afraid, is the meaning most often used in Brownsville.

I don’t want Mr. Cisneros to take this personally. My comment is about the whole political culture and community which often writes off all criticism, fair or foul, as “just politics.”

We’ll be looking forward to further information about streets and drainage. That, after all, meaning the smooth and efficient operation of the city and the protection of its citizen’s lives and assets, ought to be the focus of the aforementioned politics.