Two Sides of the Same Story?


By Diego Garcia III ★ Editor of The Brownsville Beacon

I am not a fan of Elon Musk, SpaceX, or any of his exploding trashcans, flying grain silos, or any of the shenanigans he has going on out at Boca Chica Beach (I refuse to call the beach or the area he's trying to colonize after his Spacely Sprockets' name).

I hope I'm 100% wrong. I hope he delivers everything he has promised to Brownsville, Cameron County, the rest of the Rio Grande Valley, and South Texas. I hope he brings Brownsville all the economic development and tourist dollars he promised. 

So far, he has failed to deliver on all his lofty promises — except for one brief moment when Musk and SpaceX helped the local restaurateurs stay afloat during the pandemic.

In an article written by Steve Clark and published in The Brownsville Herald, SpaceX supported local restaurants like Maiz, Mr. Taco, Main Street Deli, New York Deli, and Whataburger. The owner of Maiz stated the orders started out at 100 plates and ended up at 800 plates per order. 

I planned on writing an article praising the powers-that-be at SpaceX for supporting local business. However, reading the entire article shows SpaceX is no longer placing large orders from local restaurants. According to a report published on Juan Montoya's El Rrun Rrun, SpaceX has since hired its own chefs and cafeteria workers to feed their employees.

The article published in El Rrun Rrun reveals a much sinister plot.

The article talks about an elaborate pay-for-play scheme involving local politicians, business owners, and a local purchasing director for hospitality. The article states when SpaceX first began its operations out at Boca Chica Beach, a fleet of food trucks went out to the site to offer employees something to eat during their lunch hour. Musk then ordered the trucks out of the area and had two trucks towed out onto State Highway 48 when they ignored his instruction. Then, the story continues, musk leaned on city leaders to suggest local eateries to order from. The city leaders suggested food from 1848 and Lola's Bistro (owned by former mayor Tony Martinez), Dodici (owned by current mayor Trey Mendez), and 7th and Park.

Eventually, the out-of-state hospitality director was replaced with a local hire who promised to save SpaceX money by hiring restaurants who could come in at under 10 dollars a plate rather than the 20 dollars per plate they were originally paying. However, the cost of doing business came at a price for the restaurants wanting to do business with SpaceX.

According to the article published in El Rrun Rrun, the author (the author is unidentified — it is a Special to El Rrun Rrun byline) writes, "There was, of course, a catch to this great opportunity. Interviews with some vendors revealed that those chosen had to pay a 10-12 percent 'recommendation gratuity' of the price."

If this claim is true, Musk's hospitality director is being accused of taking bribes from local restaurant owners in order to do business with SpaceX. 

It seems as if SpaceX administrators are more than happy to cut small business owner's profits, considering competing restaurants had to slash their prices to stay competitive, keeping in mind they still had to factor in vehicle maintenance and fuel costs involved with transporting and delivering the food 25 miles out to Boca Chica.

It seems as if the world's second richest man has no problems with the local tradition of mordida economics and politics.

Although The Herald tried putting a positive spin on SpaceX supporting local businesses, it appears the article published on El Rrun Rrun shows there's more to the story under the surface. If the bribery angle is true, talk about one step forward and three steps back.

So much for ticking something off in the SpaceX "plus column."

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Starcks, The Rabbs, and a Plantation House

Image
By Diego Garcia III | Editor of The Brownsville Beacon If Brownsville were split into boroughs like New York City, Southmost would definitely be one of them. Southmost is one of the oldest parts of Brownsville, and has recently gained notoriety for having some of Brownsville's best authentic home-style Mexican restaurants. Vera's Backyard Bar-B Que was recently featured on The Texas Bucket List. Brownsville residents regularly make their way to taquerias and eateries on Southmost.  When I was an elementary school student, I was bused to Morningside Elementary for school. Our school bus always drove down Southmost, and I clearly remember passing by a drive-in theater on the way to school. Eventually, the drive-in would be torn down and an H-E-B would eventually be built around the area where the drive-in was. If you continue driving down Southmost past Morningside Road, Southmost begins twisting, turning, and curving. Eventually, you'll reach Sabal Palm Grove Road. Whe...
Read more

Forces Beginning to Align Against LNG Projects at the Port: Clupper, Port Isabel, Et al.

By Diego Garcia III | Editor of The Brownsville Beacon The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission handed down their decision late last year — the three companies wanting to construct liquefied natural gas pipelines and terminals at the Port of Brownsville had the green light to continue with the process to begin constructing their infrastructure. The next step is for the companies to make their final investment decision (FID) in regards to physically beginning to build the plants and pipelines. Industry experts believed the project could have gotten off the ground as early as the first quarter of this year. The port is a huge moneymaker for the city and the state, as a whole. Statistics show the Port of Brownsville as the second ranked port for the value of exports and has been ranked third of almost 300 foreign trade zones in the United States. Studies also show over 50,000 jobs are either directly or indirectly supported by the port. The LNG plants were a big feather in the cap of the ...
Read more

Thoughts on Erasmo Castro and his Upcoming Candidacy for State Representative

By Diego Garcia III | Editor of The Brownsville Beacon The Erasmo Castro saga continues to hurl out of control. Like an obsolete, failing satellite falling out of orbit and plummeting back to earth, Castro announced his resignation from the Brownsville Independent School District board of trustees.  Castro's castle walls were constantly bombarded by his critics, by parents and citizens of Brownsville, and by other board members. Eventually, all the cannonades were able to break through the walls and Castro hoisted the white flag of surrender.  Social media, the Brownsville Blogosphere, and other online outlets, exploded a few hours ago as news of Castro's resignation hit the internet. The Brownsville Herald and KVEO posted articles saying Castro submitted his resignation letter this morning. According to his social media posts, Castro stated he would be resigning to take care of his "alleged Class B Misdemeanor Charge." His resignation letter reads: Dea...
Read more