City department brings new programs
Mariajose Garza/THE RIDER
Brownsville Parks and Recreation department provides an update about upcoming programs and events it will have for the spring and speaks about projects looking forward.
Sean De Palma, director of Parks and Recreation for the City of Brownsville, said the department added new programs to the parks for the new year.
“We’ve added [programs] to the Senior Center, to the Downtown [Recreation] Center, Gonzalez Park Community Center and Oliveira Park Community Center, which are Pilates, Zumba [and] boot camp,” De Palma said.
He added the department kept a lot of other programming, such as the after-school programs, senior programs and other arts and crafts programs.
“We’ve also added a gardening with birdie program recently at the Gonzalez Park garden area, which is very popular,” the director said. “And that program is about gardening and learning how to really become productive as a gardener in your own realm.”
De Palma said the department is “excited” for all the programs added, with a total of 100 activities going throughout the year, increasing special events by 30% from 2025.
As previously published on The Rider Sept. 29, the Brownsville Parks and Recreation department launched a public free Wi-Fi initiative at Southern Pacific Linear and Dean Porter parks for the use of city residents.
De Palma said, this year, more parks will become online with public free Wi-Fi as his department is working on the next phase of that project, along the city’s Information Technology department.
The updates are part of the Parks, Health and Recreation Master Plan. After a review, the final draft will be presented to the City Commission for a vote next month, according to the director.
“Then, once we have that, we can publish it digitally,” he said. “People can go and read through it and highlight things.”
De Palma mentioned the creation of the Parks and Recreation guide, which captures the different programs Brownsville has to offer. It is updated every four months.
“Like on [Saturday], we have Black History Month; on March 21, we have Lunada at Linear Park,” he said. “… So in the park guide, it will have that. They will have, you know, different special events and activities that are going on for the first four months of the year.”
Alfredo Garza, a Brownsville resident and mathematics sophomore at UTRGV, said he visits a city park at least once a month with family and sometimes with friends. Garza said his experience has been “pretty good.”
Daniel Reyna, an exercise science freshman, said he frequents parks three times a week to play basketball or run. Reyna added some improvement he would like to see would be on trash dumping problems and recycling.
