Wearing a virtual reality headset, Brownsville Mayor Norma Ryan returned to the Union Station of her youth several years ago. "Oh, my goodness. Oh my gosh. That's gorgeous. That's exactly how it looked!" said Ryan, who died in April. Today, the former train station, with its peeling paint and boarded-up windows, is another artifact of blight in the Rust Belt town trying to redevelop while remembering its history.