By JOE BOCANEGRA
Special to the NEWS
Joe Bocanegra
In any city, change is everywhere. Empty lots mysteriously grow up into flourishing businesses, then back to empty lots. Houses, new and sparkling, grow into disrepair. In most cases, a walker can see any of this up close and personal.
If one were to walk down the downtown district, he or she will see a line of empty buildings, yes, but those buildings were flourishing once. And usually, they are built upon by other businesses that use those same areas in new places and in new ideas. Well, mostly new ideas. I mean, how many Zumba places can this city actually have?
Still, it is rather sad when a place you walk past (or in many cases, into) disappear into obscurity. Sometimes they move into better places, either because of financial reasons or the business grew too big for the original to hold. For instance, there was a tea shop that I have visited for years; they moved to another, bigger place a block away a year or so back. Another example was a gym that was very popular in the downtown area during the early ’00s; they also grew too big and moved into a place over on Sunshine Strip, then that place grew too small, so they went into Harlingen.
To witness a place that you see with regularity turn into an empty building is quite sad. Was it either a lack of business or something else that happened?
Sometimes, something in a state of disrepair can be turned into a place to stay.
For example, I remember one house about a block away from where I live. It was, for years, terribly decrepit: broken windows, overgrown yards, lots of garbage and decay on the house. Since my usual walking path was along the street it was located, I kept on going past this eyesore. Then, earlier this year, there was a cleaning crew on the place, which was soon replaced with a group of construction workers, who remodeled the place – replacing windows and refinishing the outside, adding new rooms, even covering the yard with sod. About two months later, a family of three was already moving in, and they are still there. I do not know if they knew of its previous incarnation or not; however, I don’t think they care.
Another remodeling happened under my radar, sort of speaking. There was a glass shop downtown that closed down last year, and the property was onward to becoming another empty lot. However, when I walked past it last month, the property was splitting into two separate lots, each one quite modern. I would say they’re currently on the waiting list for property, I do not know.
Sometimes, though, you have those businesses that have been there for so long in one place that you might think they could stay there forever. A fantastic example of this would be the Stars drive-in. I have been around for about 30 years, and this place has been there in that spot for all that time. I have asked my parents a few times during my untactful youth if they were ever going to close, to which they would only get a ding on the ear.
So, I ask you, fellow walkers, to take a moment or two to look around during your travels, notice the empty business lots that we have, and wonder to yourself just what happened to these places, how we can fix this and more importantly what we can do to have less of them.
Hopefully, we can try to have more places to walk through and into.
Read this story in the Oct. 17 edition of the San Benito News, or subscribe to our E-Edition by clicking here.
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