ARLINGTON, Texas – City of Brownsville Mayor John Cowen, Jr., recently appeared as a panelist at a YTexas summit.
Also on the panel was City of Edinburg Mayor Ramiro Garza.
Here are the remarks Mayor Cowen made.
Introducing himself, Cowen said:
“Thank you, Ed. Again, my name is John Cowan. I’m the recently elected mayor for the city of Brownsville. I was elected in May, and what makes Brownsville special is, as you know, we are a border city. We are close to South Padre Island and we have four international bridges. And we are right next to a deepwater port that is probably the biggest economic driver in our region. There’s just so many multibillion dollar projects happening there that are transforming Brownsville. That is really the future along with what’s happening with SpaceX with their launch facility at Starbase. They have 2,000 employees. It really provides that innovation driver for our region, as well. So just the opportunities for our local talent to come home and have careers and really decrease the brain drain that our region has traditionally had. I think that the future is so bright for our region.”
On the question of collaborating with key stakeholders, Cowen said:
“That’s a great question and recently, the City of Brownsville along with economic development arm, GBIC, hosted a career fair that advertised over 3,000 jobs. So we’re helping bridge the gap between employers that are looking for labor, that are looking for skilled people, with the people in our region that that are searching for jobs. So, we’re constantly trying to bridge that gap and making sure that we have apprenticeship programs that are getting our young kids from our ISDs interested in the careers that are available, so that they know that they can they can build successful careers in our region. So I think it’s just being able to collaborate making sure those lines of communications are always open with all our stakeholders. I think that’s that’s our that’s our challenge as leaders.
“I have quarterly meetings with our superintendent, with our port director with our UTRGV president. So I think it’s just making sure that everyone’s on the same page with regards to our pain points, and collaborating making sure that we’re we have a path forward and how to solve these problems.”
The panel moderator said Brownsville is an amazing place. Cowen responded:
“I agree. We are the second most historic city in the state of Texas behind San Antonio in terms of historic buildings. It’s a rebirth downtown and there’s a lot of great things happening. But also we’re really focused on increasing and diversifying our tax base. We’re mostly a residential community in order to really pay for our services we need to be have more commercial industrial investment and so we’re really focused on that. So I am currently the chairman of the our EDC, the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation and we are developing a 700 acre industrial park on the north side of town to take advantage of all the opportunities going on at the port and with SpaceX. So SpaceX had a supplier conference with 75 companies that supply them. I think we’ll be able to attract a lot of that base and also all with everything that’s going with nearshoring, I think being on the border is a great opportunity to attract a lot of those companies as well. So it’s our job as the city to plan for that growth. And using those funds wisely to to really maximize our opportunity.”
Asked what his key tasks are, Cowen said:
“That’s a great question. I think we wear a ton of a ton of hats as mayor right? We are firefighters, we are policemen. We’re mediators. But at the end of the day we are in charge of customer service to our community, right? We’re making sure we’re getting the job done as a city. And but you know, in setting that vision, it’s our job. We’re the biggest cheerleader for our city. We’re making sure we’re marketing our city appropriately. But I think you know, for me, it’s it’s about creating a better place for future generations and having that vision, setting the city on the right path. And I think that’s the challenge, getting all our stakeholders in line. Because, you know, we’re used to operating in silos at times, and it’s breaking down those barriers and I think… using our leadership to do that, I think that’s that’s my biggest role.”
Asked for some closing remarks, Cowen said:
“I think to reiterate (what) Mayor Ross (said), talking about how this the state is continuing to take local control away from cities, making our job harder. I think that’s, to me a real threat to how cities can take control of their own destiny, right? And so putting restraints on us will continue to make our state less competitive and that’s I think that’s the real challenge for us to make sure our state reps, our state senators know how we feel as a city in the cities are what make up Texas, right? I mean, we’re the ones getting the job done. So I think that’s I think we need to continue to have this conversation and unite and have our voice heard.”
