PHOTO COURTESY CITY OF BROWNSVILLE
From illegal dumping to tire disposal, these are some of the issues reported to the City of Brownsville which helped with the creation of the B.R.I.G.H.T. project.
The B.R.I.G.H.T. initiative, which stands for Brownsville Residents Improving Grounds, Homes and Tomorrow, was officially launched on Aug. 5.
The initiative consists of three phases from September 2025 to December 2026 that aims to engage the community and improve quality of life in the city by neighborhood beautification.
With phase one dates coming up, the project will kick off with clean up events in the District 1 area on Sept. 19 and District 4 on Nov. 21, according to Gerardo Villarreal, assistant director of Organizational Development and Human Resources.
Karla Hernandez/THE RIDER
Villarreal said the planning of this project consists of all the assistant directors in the City of Brownsville and his department is in charge of the recruitment of “manpower” for this project.
He said, with this project, they want the community to take more pride in being a Brownsville resident.
Villarreal said the health departments handle community cleanups, but it is only limited to 20 people and, with this project, it would allow the involvement of residents to help cover more area.
The first neighborhood cleanup event will take place Sept. 19 in the District 1 area, which covers the University and International Boulevards area.
“This is gonna consist of neighborhood beautification, bus stop painting … [and] graffiti abatement,” Villarreal said.
He said they will also do street striping and increased signage to let people know what amenities are in the City of Brownsville, looking to strengthen partnerships with community, schools, business and local organizations.
Roberto Garcia, assistant director of Health, Wellness and Animal Services, said the Health department has done neighborhood cleanups for the past two decades.
Garcia said once every three months his department makes an assessment to determine which neighborhoods have a high volume of illegal dumping, tires, junk and debris, a “big headache” in the city.
He said Brownsville is “very lucky and fortunate” to have a landfill, and people do not take advantage of it to discard their trash properly.
According to Garcia, since the project launched, people have reached out to participate, showing community interest and willingness.
“We all live in the same city, we’re all residents of Brownsville, let’s make it look nicer,” he said.
For more information, visit brownsvilletx.gov.
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