b'EditorThe Coastal Bends Puzzle of ProgressL ifeintheCoastalBendhasneveris Corpus Christi. Is it too much to state unequivocallyits greatest period of expansion thanksFall 2019Our final missing pieceis the most visible and important piece.to its voters beensotolerable.Whatasnobbythat our little slice of paradise is really the best, large- finally breaking down and passing major bond mea-statement, I will admit, but an hon- scale investment opportunity in the world? Eh, maybe. sures in recent years. Veterans Memorial High School estassessmentforanyofuswhoWe wont believe it til we see it. But these days will accommodate at least another decade of growth have lived in more developed, moreyeahwe are kind of seeing it. Piece by piece, thison the far south side, and the new Carroll High School sophisticated cities at various timesplace is finally getting it together, and the points ofis planned on Saratoga Blvd. near Weber.in our lives. Our home on the coast- light are significant. Have you seen the new ChristusWith all of this good newswhich some might al edge of Texas is really one of the(no, we are not using all-caps because that is your logoclassify as catching upone might assume that the mostnaturallybeautifulplacesintreatment) Spohn Hospital Shoreline? It is amazing.City of Corpus Christi is on autopilot. A bastion of good the country. While our island beaches are not as won- The E.R. is state-of-the-art; the new entrance on Eliz- management, a sober steward of taxpayer funds, an derful as those in Florida, for example, they are a hellabeth St. is large, beautiful and quite magnificentitinstitution populated by dedicated civil servants who of a lot better than Galvestons, or anywhere in Louisi- really looks like a hospital in a big cityand thats thefeel appreciated by both their superiors and the citi-ana, or just about at any spot on the Gulf Coast northpoint. Corpus Christi is a legit, big city now. zenry, an organization led by those whose only goals of here. They tend to get cleaner and prettier as youLa Palmera Mall is as nice as any tier-two mall inare the good of the community and keeping the public go south, but you need a 4x4 to enjoy the Padre IslandSan Antonio or Austin, and you can find most of thetrust. I apologize if you just ate lunch.National Seashore, and South Padre Island offers pe- big stores there. Frost Bank just opened a monumentalThe vast majority of rank-and-file City employees destrian beaches only. Here, we get to enjoy dozens ofnew, local headquarters on North Shorelineits theand managers are, in fact, great professionals who re-miles of easily accessible, public island beaches thatnew, blue glass structure. The Texas State Aquariumally care about their community. The time bombs tend you can drive on. Its awesome. opened its new wing in 2017, making it one of theto be a diminishing cabal of hand-picked, hand-placed, Beaches and good fishing alone, however, havetop public aquariums in the country, and a $25 mil- upper level managers, who ran rough shod in an envi-never been enough to stimulate and maintain the kindlion science facility is in the works next door. Theronment of chaos that came with the merry-go-round of economic development that helps our communitynew $1 billion Harbor Bridge, six stories taller and aof city managers that lasted from Ron Olson, through keep its most talented young people, or to attract newthousand feet longer than the current bridge, will bethe last acting seat warmer who, thankfully, didnt get ones. A few exceptions exist in the fishing and boatingdone in three years or soabout the same time as athe job. The meter of millions in losses to City coffers industries, but the Coastal Bend has suffered from net,grand canal and island system will be completed on aover this era of darkness is still running, but the hir-yearly brain-drain, that seems to be finally in a state oftransformed North Beach [see The Grand Plan to Fixing of former San Antonio assistant city manager Peter reversal. Three decades of patience, and a new gildedNorth Beach, page 50]. These developments, fueled byZanoni should stop most of the major bleeding.age may at last be settling upon us. a continually strong energy industry, will attract moreResearching,conductingeighthoursofinter-The mostly failed solutions that our communityinvestments like those we have been waiting on for de- views,andwritingourdefinitivepieceonNueces leaders pursued over those 30 years or so led us downcadescruise ships, waterfront hotels and a bayfrontCountyJudgeBarbaraCanales[TheMayorofthe paths to stagnation and cynicism, and not to the kindrich with entertainment zones and activities on theCoastal Bend, page 32] provided an eye-opening edu-of growth of opportunity that built San Antonio andwaterlike it used to be, 100 years ago. cation on governmental management that reinforced Austin into the international powerhouses they areThe Coastal Bends educational infrastructure isthe lessons we learned publishing our story about the today. In the 1980s, as President Reagan set uponan area of great progress over the past decade. OurCityswaterdepartment[seeDrownedinIncompe-defeating the Soviet Union by outspending them onold CCSU is now the thriving Texas A&M Universitytence, Spring 2019]competence should not be parti-the military, the answer was HomePort (rememberCorpus Christi that is soon to hit 15,000 students andsan. And incompetence should not be acceptable, as that?)Naval Station Ingleside, which was first prom- has sparked the development of Ennis Joslin Rd. andit has been by Corpus Christi voters, our elected of-ised as homeport to an aircraft carrier battle group.Alameda south of Airline, with much more to come. Ifficials, and our incurious local news media. For the That was downgraded to a destroyer fleet, then to ayou havent seen the new facilities at Del Mar CollegeA-Students we are, at last, electing and hiring here, mine warfare group, then to a closed naval base. East and West campuses, you would be impressed. Onethe first tasks at hand have been cleaning up gross in-The old Naval Station Ingleside, a modern, heavyof the best community colleges in the state is churningcompetencies that resulted in costly problems left by docking facility, was given back to the Port of Corpusout nursing students headed for their next educationaltheir predecessorsand the lists are not short for the Christi, and today is the site of a major crude oil ex- step, or into a career at a healthcare facility; truck- new county judge or the new city manager.port facility. Thanks to the best decade in the historying school and police academy graduates, aircraft andThe City of Corpus Christi is organized into a of the Texas oil and gas industry, the economic futuretruck mechanics, welders and electricians, are gettingsystem known as a Council Manager Government, of the Coastal Bend looks more secure than it has evertheir start at Del Mar, and heading into a strong, lo- in which a city council and mayor are elected by the been [see The New Texas Oil Boom, Spring 2019]. Ascal job market. Del Mar is about to build a magnifi- people, who in turn appoint the City Manager, the CEO we head into the third decade of the 21st Century, thecent south side campus in Corpus Christi, where newof the City who runs the show and reports to the coun-best place in the world to invest is the United States,subdivisions and apartment complexes are filling at acil.Themayorpresidesovercouncilmeetings,but and the best place in the U.S. to invest is Texasandvery steady pace. has only one vote like his fellow members. The city the biggest, most wide-open investment opportunityNewschoolfacilitieshaveopenedthroughoutmanager is the most vital position in the organization, in Texas is the Coastal Bend, the centerpiece of whichthe Coastal Bend districts, but CCISD is experiencingleadingCitystaff,settingmanagerialpolicies,and 18 THE COASTAL BEND MAGAZINEFall 2019 TheCoastalBend.com'