Call for action after McAllen entertainment district's latest black eye - Monitor
“You’ve got areas like these in many other cities across the U. S. which is important for small business, but they go through transitions,” said McAllen Chamber of Commerce President Steve Ahlenius. In 2009, the city of McAllen started a preservation project for its downtown but it fell through three years later after the collapse of the Heart of the City Improvement Corp. From 2004 to 2011, the city pumped $957,000 into Heart of the City, according to its annual budgets. But when the project failed in 2012, many business owners in the district were left wondering what the money was spent on. Commissioner John Ingram, who represents the city’s urban core, said at the time that permanent improvements including... Monica Alvarez, owner of the Avenue 1704 bar near the corner of Dallas Avenue and 17th Street, said her main issue is that police presence is concentrated in the first two blocks of South 17th Street, leaving her business and others in the dark. Security footage obtained by The Monitor shows the three suspects punching and kicking a 49-year-old man and his 24-year-old son outside for over a minute and then slamming both men against parked cars and into a parking meter. The 24-year-old man, who asked not to be identified, said it was the first time his father accompanied him downtown. Source: www.themonitor.com
