Autobiography - The Galindo Group

Ram Galindo THE MAKING OF AN AMERICAN Page 121
remunerated position, and continued his voluntary support of my activities by accepting
the job. Under his leadership the MUD began to crank up and gave me an irreplaceable
tool to achieve my objectives. By this time our bank also decided to stick with us after all
and provided the funds we needed to cover our share of the underground utilities, build
streets and other improvements not touched by the MUD, and for other administration
expenses.
Funding of the underground infrastructure was not the only difficulty we confronted.
Although our property was adjacent to TAMU’s property, it was landlocked. The existing
access was a horse carriage trail along the A&M border, totally inadequate for a
housing subdivision. About that time, I was fortunate that my county precinct
commissioner, under whose jurisdiction our future road fell, changed. The newly elected
commissioner was Randy Sims, a forward-looking former A&M football star who was
beginning his political career. He was able to persuade the chairman of the board of the
university’s regents that cooperating with me would also be good for TAMU. Through
this effort, we gained sufficient right-of-way to build an adequate entrance.
The Braver Corp. was finally ready. We began by developing our original 76 acres
under the name of Westwood Estates. To the disbelief of many listeners of my remarks
on inauguration day, March 30, 1976, I predicted that in a span of ten years the
population around the BCMUD1 nucleus would surpass that of Navasota, a neighboring
town of about 8,000 people. My prediction was slightly conservative, for demographic
estimates attributed this number of residents to my general area by 1984. The manmade
boundary of my developments with the older parts of the city was then, and
continues to be today, the railroad track serving Bryan-College Station. Without a grade
separation and with more than 24 trains a day running on it, it becomes a clear and
living barrier to the continued development of my side of town.
Yet, as I write this book, the area is still growing despite its continued treatment by the
city’s elite as the literal “wrong side of the tracks”. In a citywide referendum in 1984, the
voters overwhelmingly approved a bond issue to build a through-traffic railroad crossing,
but successive city administrations proved their bias by ignoring this mandate. Recent
internecine fights among the interested power groups currently active in the city
continue to reflect the skewed view of progress held by significant parts of Bryan’s
leadership. A 1999 effort of the city government to finally help growth in my area stalled
in 2001. The ’99 council decided to facilitate the construction of a championship golf
course and conference center but the initiative drew opposition from powerful interests
not used to seeing any tax money reinvested in areas other than theirs. They also saw
this effort as conflicting with competing initiatives launched across town. In the hotly
contested city council election of 2001, a new mayor and some councilmen gained
office. With their presence, the interests of the competing developments across town
easily prevailed. Under their instructions, construction on the golf course and
conference center in my side of town ground to a stop. Very recently the golf course
construction was re-activated and promises to be one of the best such facilities around.
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