Take a look at the picture above. Shelby Park in Eagle Pass Texas is, or at least used to be a lovely spot in a town of 28,000 people. A town most outside the state had never heard of until Gov. Abbot made it ground zero in his “Out DeSantis Out Trumping Trump” crusade. Abbot sees “illegals” everywhere, even in his dreams. He chose to make his big stand at Shelby Park, militarizing the hell out of the place. Packing it with National Guard troops, ringing it with razor wire and even shipping containers. Pleas from the Mayor and even orders from SCOTUS be damned. That park is HIS as far as he’s concerned. The problem is that it’s not and never has been the bigly major crossing point he’s claimed. It does however host lots of events including an annual music festival that brings in lots of visitors and revenue. This year it was set for a gigantic one. Now, thanks to Abbot Shelby Park and the town of Eagle Pass isn’t brimming with tourists, but with troops. And costing Eagle Pass a fortune in lost revenue.
This mess, this failed opportunity is detailed in this article by Alternent. This time last year the tourism and marketing Director for Eagle Pass was telling the Rotary Club and other groups this weekend would be part of a three day event that would temporarily swell the ranks to as many as a hundred thousand people. Music festivals, including in Shelby Park are one thing, but this year was going to be special hence all the planning for “57 South Music Festival.” It was all set to run three nights, and would feature 17 bands on two separate stages. Hotels were going to be full and at way higher than premium rates. AirBnb bookings would generate individual financial windfalls. Merchants and local vendors started investing in a massive increase in activity and sales.
What made this all so special? So Lucrative? Guess where the solar eclipse will cross the Texas/Mexico border? That’s right. Towns and cities across the country have been planning for masses of eclipse tourism and Eagle Pass was in a perfect spot to host a huge event in what used to be a large and lovely park. It would be a HUGE financial boost for the town and the region. Do you think for one second Gov. Abbot cared about THAT? Not only no but Hell NO. What’s major money to some small town in his huge state, a once in a lifetime chance for individuals and small businesses to reap a big financial payday when their are “MAGA Credibility Bucks” HE can collect? Abbot deliberately chose to give the town and area a big “double bird.” He might as well have come right out and said: Go screw yourselves. I want to get/be right with Trump and if it costs YOU I don’t care.
Abbot has in fact cost the town. Millions. Yes, an alternate location was found a twenty minute drive from Eagle Pass but ticket prices plummeted, and so did the cost of hotel and room bookings. Instead of fifty or as many as a hundred thousand people pouring in it looks like getting mere thousands will be all. Bands that were ready to play realized some time back this was likely to flop and started pulling out. The whole thing has as the tile of the linked article indicates turned into a major flop. And the millions the town of Eagle pass, the county and local businesses invested in what would have been (as I’ve noted) a once in a lifetime event and opportunity might as well have been flushed down Trump’s fake gold toilet. Trump in case you’re wondering got in on the action to give Abbot an “attaboy” for what he’s done.
The intimidation of the combination of all those troops, the razor wire and publicity led to a mid March meeting where the town govt. said to scale back expectations of 100k visitors to only 50k which is proving wildly over-optimistic. However what happened right away is that as I’ve said prices dropped. It’s turned into a disaster:
Garcia-Grewell, the Eagle Pass resident, recalled to the Beast that she was told the city spent roughly $3.5 million on the festival, yet sold only 2,500 tickets. She further elaborated that the city would have had to sell tickets at $1,400 apiece just to break even when accounting for the total cost.
The 57 South Music Festival kicked off Friday afternoon, though crowds were sparse. Local music producer Tony Rodriguez said that he counted just 30 people at 4 PM local time, and only 150 people by 6 o’clock.
“The worst flop ever,” he said.
I don’t know about you, but if I were Colin Allred I’d make it a point to visit both Eagle Park the the alternate spot where the flopped festival is doing it’s best to be a music festival. Abbot, with the backing of Trump, MAGA and of course Ted Cruz have hit the citizens of that town and country where it really hurts. In the wallet. While there he can shoot down Abbot’s claims of taking over Shelby Park is responsible for the drop in crossings in the general area. The fact is that interdictions in Mexico itself are responsible for most of the drop off.
However, the literal bottom line is that Abbot cost folks an awful lot of money. The town govt. doesn’t dare speak out against Abbot for screwing them. He can and would make life a whole lot worse for them than it currently is. It will be up to Democrats to help. As it always is. By the end of this month (especially with April 15, “tax day” coming up) it will really sink in to residents just how much they’ve lost thanks to Abbot. It might not seem like that many votes are at stake but people there have friends and relatives in other places. And people in other communities all along that very long border will, if a big deal gets made about what Abbot’s done to Eagle Pass realize he can and would do the same to them if he felt like it.
Even a few thousand votes in enough places can add up quickly.
Con, white, xtian hatred trumps everything–even business revenues. This is something that should be spot-lighted in a very big way. These fools so hate “the other” and particularly the “brown other” that they’ll let nothing get in their way up to and including business. Why in the hell progressives are shouting this from the rooftops I’ll never know. Get the businesses in Eagle Pass front and center talking about what abbot and his racist/moronic ideas did to what would normally be a real money maker festival. There was a time when republican meant business. It ain’t that now. This country will become a third-world nation if the xtian taliban gets their shit hooks into the governing of it.