Contempo Magazine Blog

Four words that tie today by a single smile are service, reform, prosperity and peace. I had the opportunity to witness service to my community in McAllen, Texas on Tuesday as people came together to care–for everyone.

Some fared better than others in the aftermath of Hurricane Dolly. I witnessed firsthand how much work is put into preparing for a full scale emergency preparedness operation, but even the best preparations can’t stop Mother Nature from doing as she pleases and disrupting an otherwise lazy summer season.

Homes and businesses were destroyed, power was lost, trees were uprooted and hope could easily seem lost for those families who struggle to make ends meet as it is.

Emergency operations forces struggled to reform these badly harmed areas but the aftermath still hurts, especially with schools getting ready to kick off a new year.

Thousands lined up outside the McAllen Police Department on Tuesday, after the familiar rains had poured the day before. Many of us feared the rain would pour on into the next day, but rain or shine, volunteers planned to line up school supplies and get the line going for children to prepare for a prosperous new school year.

“Smiles are free today,” I overheard the Chief tell the kids as they scurried up with sparkling smiles to grab a McAllen Police Department Sticker.

It’s expected that well over a thousand kids received back to school kits that Tuesday afternoon. Their new pencils, safety scissors, notebooks, rulers, school boxes, colored pencils–and smiles–assured the community that no matter what curveball Mother Nature throws us, a community can come together and help one another in hopes for a peaceful end to what was a painful natural disaster.

Congratulations, Rio Grande Valley, in a world where debate can easily divide us, your community came together for something beautiful.

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I was 15 years old in 1971 when my father took me “Downtown” in McAllen to the Man’s Shop to get my first suit. Although McAllen’s downtown shopping district was mostly dependent upon the Mexican shopper’s there was also the feeling that it was the local elite shopping place as well. We walked in the store and were immediately greeted by the salesman. This same salesman knew exactly what all his customers liked and was an expert in fitting and style. He picked out several suits and patiently had me try several of them until we decided which one was best suited. Then out came the friendly tailor who carefully pinned or marked the suit in consultation with the salesman. All the while there would be ongoing friendly chatting about family not between customer and employees but among fellow members of the same community. My father used to point out to me that even in New York City you would never get as good a service as you would in downtown McAllen. When I was a graduate student in Boston we would walk along Newberry Street where he would point out that it was not as good as McAllen.

Today there is much controversy and finger pointing about what is right and what is wrong with downtown McAllen. The Jewish pioneers and others who helped shape McAllen into a great shopping center after World War II have mostly passed on. The local downtown economy is rightfully adherent to pleasing the shopping wants of our Mexican neighbors but that sense of exclusiveness has not remained.

The City of McAllen has done a great job in creating an infrastructure in downtown McAllen. The parking garage, open spaces, and walkways they have built are key ingredients in the foundation for success. Those who criticize the building of the parking garage are short sighted and wrong. It alone will not change the downtown but without it there is no future. The highly respected Pew Partnership for Civic Change lists seven strategies for revitalizing sustainable urban centers: aim for a multifunctional downtown, develop a broad strategy for revitalization, create partnerships, pay particular attention to attracting commercial business, focus on developing the unique qualities of downtowns, maintain and develop quality public spaces, make strategies locally based and flexible, secure multiple sources of funding, and get local governments involved in several areas.

In most of the strategies I would give McAllen an honors grade. There are two areas of concern where the grade would be in doubt. The recent concentration of bars and nightclubs is troubling. Experiences in other cities, most notably West Palm Beach’s Clematis District, has shown that too many of these establishments can have a negative effect. The other area of concern is that there is really no housing in downtown McAllen per se. Given the current trends to smaller families, the attraction of winter visitors to the area, and the rising costs of energy I cannot see how multilevel condiminums or apartments in downtown could go wrong. The housing should be of mixed income. If only “affordable” housing is placed it will doom any prospect for growth.

Finally, McAllen’s downtown should try to bring back it’s reputation as the “Rodeo Drive” of the Valley. This would help attract more shopper’s from Mexico and the United States. By Rodeo Drive I do not mean just offering expensive items but more importantly customer service. Imagine a street filled with vendors and services who can only be there because they have great customer service. Imagine walking on Newberry Street in Boston and wishing you were on Main Street in McAllen.
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More and more problems are coming to the surface about the proposed nationalization of the E-Verify employment program. Lou Dobbs just recently stated that the proposed program to mandate that employers submit employee information to the Federal Government to compare with Social Security databases would “take only seconds’ and was “99.5%” accurate. During a recent TV segment he featured the state of Arizona as a prime example of how beneficial the program would be. Let’s examine Mr. Dobbs claims.

The testimony of Richard E. Warsinskey, President, National Council of Social Security Management Associations to the United States Senate Committee on Finance in May of 2007 estimated that there was at least an error rate of 4.1 % in the Social Security databases which would result in discrepancies which could block citizens or lawful residents from working. This error rate would be the maximum best possible. Clerical errors and misreads of forms submitted to the government would only increase this error rate so it is impossible for the system to be 99.5% accurate.

The U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services has had continuing problems with “mismatches” for foreign born naturalized American citizens. Error rates of 10% in this population have been reported. Delays in time of arrival data and other information was labeling American citizens as illegals or even as criminally posing as American citizens. The National Immigration Law Center said that if the program was fully implemented in Arizona over 27,000 naturalized citizens could be refused work.

Another group that is facing significant problems are married or divorced women. The system requires that women who change their name as a result of divorce or marriage report it to the Social Security administration. They may need to produce old documents such as old social security cards, marriage licenses, divorce papers which can understandably get displaced after a long marriage. The CATO Institute estimates that it would take over 40 billion dollars to create a data system that would adequately try to address these and other errors.

Although Mr. Dobbs reported that Arizona was a success for the E-Verify systems others do not agree. The Immigration Policy Center reports that the system does not respond well to addressing error. Many Arizona employees are losing jobs because the system is slow to fix errors in the database if it ever does. Many employers regret having entered the program.

Finally, the E-Verify system does not take “seconds”. The employers must have the employees fill out initial paperwork only after they have hired them. The paperwork is sent by the employer to the government and a response is obtained. If there is a mismatch it is the employer’s responsibility to present it to the employee and then the employee must by phone call contact the government. The employee can be terminated if no resolution is reached within a few days.

If it takes years for people who the Social Security Administration has declared dead to prove they are alive what chance does a Spanish speaking Hispanic citizen have sitting in a government office trying to convince them he is not an illegal alien after he has been fired from his job?


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