‘Rocket Man’ wants to incorporate

With approximately 3,000 people already reportedly working at Elon Musk’s Starbase space community near the old Boca Chica beach, the rocket man’s move here has not only proven a boon to Cameron County but the entire RGV.

For example, if you’re a welder, you’ll most likely never again have to leave the Valley to look for work in the oil fields.

Engineers, computer scientists, pick a field, SpaceX will have jobs to offer unless the U.S. space program dries up completely, which is indeed a stretch, considering how many tax dollars have already been pumped into the space program, dating back to JFK’s promise to send a man to the moon.

Now, the space program, led by Musk, is more ambitious, which he first voiced in 2007: Let’s not only send a human to Mars but colonize the planet in the process.

So that if earth ever collapses under the weight of mankind’s stupidity, humanity will have another planet to ruin.

Actually, what Elon Musk actually said went like this — SpaceX has stated its goal is to colonize Mars to ensure the long-term survival of the human species by becoming multiplanetary.

Ambitious, sure, but ambition is what led to Elon Musk’s current rank as the wealthiest human on the planet.

Starbase, by the way, is the primary location for SpaceX, where it builds and launches its Starship rocket system, which includes a testing site for its Starship moon and Mars rocket. (Source: Bloomberg.)

Move to Incorporate

Last Thursday, SpaceX sent a letter to Cameron County Judge Eddie Treviño, Jr., attached to a petition, requesting an election to determine whether Starbase, Texas, should be incorporated as its own city.

The letter held nothing back when it came to the future of SpaceX:

“We are investing billions in infrastructure and generating hundreds of millions in income and taxes for local businesses and government, all with the goal of making South Texas the Gateway to Mars.”

The reason why the company wants to incorporate the space community is also laid out in last week’s letter sent to the county judge by Musk’s Starbase GM Kathryn Lueders: “To continue growing the workforce necessary to rapidly develop and manufacture Starship, we need the ability to grow Starbase as a community. That is why we are requesting that Cameron County call an election to enable the corporation of Starbase as the newest city in the (RGV).”

A large part of the request has to do with the funding and administration of public essentials, according to the SpaceX letter:

“Incorporating Star Base will streamline the process required to build the amenities necessary to make the area a world class place to live -- for the hundreds already calling it home, as well as for prospective workers eager to help build humanity’s future in space.”

Infrastructure is a big issue, according to the letter:

“As you know, through agreements with the county, SpaceX currently performs several civil functions around Starbase due to its remote location, including management of the roads, utilities, and the provision of schooling and medical care for the residents. Incorporation would move the management of some of these functions to a more appropriate public body.”

Ten Years Ago

Hard to believe, but it’s already been 10 years, 2014, since Musk first rolled into Boca Chica, which at the time was nothing more than a very quiet place to fish and buy a cheap home.

At the time, it looked like what South Padre looked like in the 1950s, based on old photos, only smaller, with fewer people, buildings.

Boca Chica, translated literally as “small mouth” in English; known colloquially as “small mouth of the river” because it’s where the Rio Grande flows into the gulf, but the flow is modest (small), and sometimes, during severe droughts, the river stops flowing before it ever makes it to the Gulf of Mexico.

So where is the water going to come from to continue the expansion of Starbase? Given the fact that river reservoirs are currently near record lows with no relief in sight?

Not sure. Apparently, a desalination plant was in the original Starbase plans but had to be scrapped to streamline the federal bureaucratic red tape known as the “permitting requirement.”

That needs to be fact-checked, but if true, it goes a long way toward explaining why the federal bureaucracy is so often a day late and a dollar short, not to mention, the lack of common sense.

In an area desperately in need of a “desal” plant, why gum up the process?

Boca Chica is steeped in history, dating back to the days of the Civil War. In fact, the last battle of that bloody conflict took place along the Rio Grande near Boca Chica in mid-May 1865. The Confederates won that battle but had lost the war more than a month earlier when Robert E. Lee surrendered to the Union Army at Appomattox.

Unfortunately for the dead at the Boca fight, word was late in coming.

In the 1920s, a luxury resort, the Del Mar, was built near Boca Chica and was a rousing success until a hurricane brought it crashing down in the summer of 1933.

Really, a small peninsula that runs north and south along the gulf, Boca Chica is bordered on the north by the Brownsville Ship Channel and to the south by the Rio Grande.

In the old days, it was a relatively poor man’s lot, and then Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, came to town, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Move to Incorporate

Moving forward, the Cameron County Judge, Eddie Treviño, Jr., said the county will review SpaceX’s petition to incorporate. If it’s in compliance, then a special election will be called. According to the county judge:

Trevino replied to last week’s letter from SpaceX:

“On Thursday, December 12, 2024, Cameron County received a petition from SpaceX requesting an election to incorporate Starbase as a Type-C Municipality. The County will review the petition for completeness and compliance with the statutory requirements for incorporation. Once the review has been completed for compliance with the statutory requirements, Texas law requires the call for an election for incorporation of Starbase.”

Then the voters will decide how to proceed, according to Treviño: “The registered voters in the proposed Starbase area will have an opportunity to vote on whether to incorporate as Starbase, Texas. Once an election is concluded and the canvassing confirmed, the Cameron County Commissioners Court will confirm and ratify the elections.”

Meanwhile, in the New Jersey area, there is talk of UFOs, a possible government coverup, and continued talk of possible space aliens.

Yes, indeed, we live in interesting times.