"If any would not work, neither should he eat..." - Thessalonians, III, 10
By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ
The Paz Files
McALLEN, Texas - These are the toughest of times for anyone looking for work, especially here, where the unemployed like to hang out in the billiard halls, bars and streetcorners, waiting for rain, for anything that's free.
Welcome to Hard Times.
According to those who keep track of such things, this city and its neighbor to the north, Edinburg, rank 4th in the Top 10 list of American city's where the unemployed have little or no shot at finding a job, decent or otherwise, largely because of a lack of transportation. The data is striking, not because McAllen has never had its share of do-nothings and deadbeats, but because it claims to be the most progressive community in the Rio Grande Valley. Among the telling measuring sticks:
* Public transportation coverage: 63.5 percent (13th lowest) - this means that most of the city cannot be accessed without a personal vehicle. For them, it's thumbing a ride or bothering a neighbor for a needed lift.
* Zero-vehicle households: 8.0 percent - this means that many people do not own vehicles, of any kind.
* Zero-vehicle households with low-income: 67 percent - this means that two-thirds of its poor people do not own a vehicle, an astonishing amount.
In town, there are those who like to think that all is cool and moving forward, but the McAllen metropolitan area is extremely poor. According to the influential Brookings Institution, the city has the lowest median household income in the country - $34,984. This makes the area's low rate of job access a troubling part of the problem. Getting to jobs in the surrounding smaller towns, like Mission and Pharr, San Juan, Alamo is bad, although ridership for McAllen's public bus system is at all time highs, according to The McAllen Monitor. Those buses, however, move only along the busiest streets and not into and out of the poor sections of town.
And no one disputes the fact that all of America's towns are struggling, some hurting more than others. Jobs are scarce and many, many Americans have simply given up the hunt. At last check, the nation had an estimated 18 million unemployed Americans.
Here, up and down the Rio Grande Valley, it is a daily battle for most residents who rise to make the give-it-a-shot effort, but are then swatted down like flies by employers who take job applications and then tell prospective employees to sit by the phone and wait for the call. It rarely comes.
In a land known for the ol' hurry-up-and-wait because tomorrow's a better day, Valley residents usually tend to quit the job hunt and instead make for the unemployment office, where they will sit alongside hundreds of others in the same boat, ready and willing to fill out paperwork that will get them a government check. The frustration appears to have them in mental rags, brains beaten down to the point that clear-thinking is impossible. Nothing is worse, they say boldly, then waking up to another day of hitting the bricks in search of a job that's not there.
Feeling like a loser comes too-easily, but there it is.
Dressed-up McAllen endures. Edinburg is faring worse, but, there, the drag-faced unemployed find shelter from criticism that they simply do not want to work by fading into the city's graying, aging architecture...
- 30 -
[Editor's Note: The number 1 American city listed in this survey was the Palm Bay/Melbourne region of Florida...)
11 comments:
I was in Brownsville the last time they had downtown expose. Plenty of vendors, lot's of good food, mariachis and the whole works. Plenty of things to buy, they even had vendor's from Mexico.
Don't know too much about McAllen Tx.
I know Harlingen has Market days once a month in downtown, vendor's galore, all kind's of goodies.
Can you believe that imbecile dwarf t/c, is calling himself good looking, viejo stupido, perrro rabioso, eres un imbecil, viejo mamon, tu y el pansa de sapo, cara de ciruelo, Juan jose.
Mr. Editor: Rick Perry looks like Kadahfi. I wonder if they are related.
Or is that Juan Ortega, el viejo cara de sapo, cuerpo de tamal chueco.
Editor's note: Yes I remember those days, I still like the Cowboys. But nos as much as during the Roger Staubuck days.
The cowpokes were so mechanical, but they just won games, over and over.
Now, I don't know, Jerry Jones, needs to let the coach, coach the games. Jerry Jones should stay away from the team when they are playing and practicing. He reminds of a use car saleman.
A lot of valley guys don't want to work. Article is correct. they sit around and do dope and then wait on a check. they're going nowhere.
very good article. we don't get this from jerry deal or that other clown Chapa. thank you, mr. editor
Hell, the SSI is going broke, so many people asking for disability. The whole damn valley is mentally disabled.
OOpps got a little carried away, but is true.
that Tony Romo better get on the stick. He looks lousy as hell, River's which is nothing to talk about played better than Romo.
Employment is not big in the valley. People scratch out a living and some do make good money. but most are poor people.
People don't want to work they want the unemployment check, hell, don't give them a damn thing, and they will clean tables at Las Casuelas.
Food stamps, medicaid, the wic card, free doctoring, people with kids who have special needs get a check for $509.00 a month. Some crazy sicko had 4, do the math and all were special ed.
Lazy, damn lazy, pinche Valle no vale mas que pura Ma$%^e.
Alcatraz, you are being to easy on the Valley Population, Harlingen is the arm pit of CAmeron county, brownsville is the other side arm. People don't believe me, but the Valley as a whole is worthless, damn rancho grande.
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