RGV Life

I've spoken to people who have lived in New York City. I've asked about their experience visiting some of the landmarks like the Statue of Liberty, museums, going up the tall buildings like the Empire State Building, and before they were destroyed, the twin towers. I've also seen this mentioned in movies, television, and print. People who live there don't visit these places. It's an "I'll get around to it, eventually" attitude. I don't know how many others do this, but I have the same attitude towards crossing the border. I don't remember the last time I went to Reynosa. It's been over a year, maybe two. It's not a bad place. I lived there a couple summers as a kid. The border is right there. It's pretty cheap to cross over and come back. I would save money by shopping for some stuff over there. The problem is that it's just so inconvenient to go. It's not on the way anywhere; I'd have to go there to get there. I have no...

According to Arturo Duran of the IBWC , flooding could be a problem if a hurricane were to directly hit us in the Rio Grande Valley. Just a reminder to residents and for anybody looking into moving to the RGV, we live in a valley. Our region is flood prone. We do have levees and drainage canals in place to reduce flooding. Apparently our current system is due for upgrades, which according the the article, can be done incrementally. So, with a little work by the IBWC, the feds, local counties, and municipalities, we can reduce the threat of severe flooding over time. Hidalgo recently realized that their levees have been neglected and have asked to have some work done. The reason that we can take our time on these projects is that once you have a drainage canal dug, you don't have to redig it. You simply need to dredge it once in a while to clear out mud and vegetation. Here is an example of our government looking out for us.

Mercedes, Texas will be the next place to have an outlet mall. They will be the only city in the Rio Grande Valley to boast such an addition. This will be great for shoppers who would otherwise travel to San Marcos to shop. Now, we will only have to travel to Mercedes for great products at even better prices. Mercedes attempts in the past have fallen through, but have now got a firm commitment. No doubt that this is a great coup by Mercedes in capturing the Mexican tourist dollars. The company that will develop the outlet mall owns another outlet mall in Mexico City. Therefore, the Mexican market is already familiar with their premier stores and would already know what to expect. Prior to this, the biggest news was the merger of Foley's into Macy's . That's got to have some attraction for high ticket shoppers. To recap, this deal would keep our dollars in the RGV and would also capture tourist dollars that would have wound up in San Marcos. Great job, Mercedes!

Here is some more good news about the economic growth in the Rio Grande Valley . I've even met a guy who read job growth reports and came to the RGV because we have had strong job growth and economic expansion. Some of the growth in the McAllen area is attributed to an expansion of the retail and medical base. From an economic perspective, retail expansion is only temporary. In a bad economy, retail shrinks. The medical base, on the other hand, has better staying power. People get sick in any economy and those who can afford health insurance will have it in good or bad times. It's been my theory that the Regional Academic Health Center would contribute to economic growth for the RGV. By attracting and retaining high-income talent to the area, we need more support personnel like nurses, medical billers, medical labs, home health care, and so much more. None of these are low wage jobs. This in turn, helps sustain things like recreation and shopping. Prior to the RAHC, the best i...

missiontx , originally uploaded by shainelee . I recently set up MissionTexas.net as a way of combatting bogus websites and one site that provides information on 1 single issue regarding Mission, Tx. In less than 1 week I was able to get hate mail. I agree with helping the people who are suffering the effects of chemical contamination. I just don't think it should be a political cause, using these people as pawns to push an environmental movement. When you get groups such as La Raza Unida, and United Farm Workers involved in things like this, their self glorification drowns out the help they may be giving. The picture shown here has three links to LRU, UFW, and CHEJ. You also see the start of an ad to the Dos Centavos blog. There is also a plug for the Mission-Texas blog, which does NOT allow any comments from visitors. Can't stand dissent. Here is the latest mail I got: I linked your site from our blog. Below is what it says. --ADELITA I heard about another Miss...

In an effort to fight the use of city names to provide useless information, I have bought and set up MissionTexas.net . The site will contain useful information about and from Mission, Texas. Please visit the site to find out more.

I added some RGV links to the blog. I tried to find useful links. Some use the RGV name in vain and only put up affiliate links to websites OUTSIDE of the RGV. How useless is that?