b'Coastal Bend CommunityTHE GRAND PLAN TO FIX NORTH BEACH.FINALLYO nce the center of waterfront recreationinvestment assigned to downtown by the City, leaving in the Coastal Bend, North Beach was, forthe beach a long-lost non-priority that is consigned to more than 40 years, in a state of decline.host the Coastal Bends two oversized attractions, and That was until the early 1990s when thenothing else.Texas State Aquarium opened, followedA year and half ago, the Corpus Christi City Coun-by the U.S.S. Lexington Museum on thecil voted to form the North Beach Infrastructure Task Bay, which together attract over a half million visi- Force, assigned to come up with a plan to fix the prob-tors per year to North Beach. More than 25 years later,lems that have impaired improvement to the area for however, only a handful of new businesses have sprungdecades.Thetaskforcewasoriginallyformedwith up, and the peninsula remains mostly blighted, hostingfour members: District 2 City Councilman Everett Roy, only a few thousand overnight visitors each year in oneNueces County District 1 Commissioner and former city full-service hotel and a few motels. councilwoman Carolyn Vaughn, Dallas-based develop-In the years since the two major visitor attractionser Jeff Blackard, and Assistant City Manager Mark Van were established on North Beach, the area has revertedVleck, representing City staff. After a dispute with his back to step-child status for the City of Corpus Christi,co-members, Van Vleck [see Drowned in Incompetence, and its biggest problem, vulnerability to flooding, hasSpring 2019] was forced off the task force and not re-never been addressed. Anything from a moderate rainplaced, leaving City staff unrepresented.shower to a full moon can make the streets on NorthThe task force took a year to study every engineer-Beach impassable with flood waters, and the threat ofing and business aspect of North Beach and in April a disastrous storm surge from a tropical storm or hur- revealed its master plan to not only fix the flooding ricane has made the development of new hotels, attrac- problems on the peninsula, but also to create a resi-tions or public spaces too risky. Just as significant todential and commercial entertainment zone that could the continued decay of North Beach is the attention andbecome one of the top destinations on the Texas coast.Clockwise from Top/LeftNorth Beach in its 1930s heyday complete with a giant roller coaster; World War II era depicted in the 1981 film Raggedy Man; North Beach on a postcard in the 1930s; U.S.S. Lexington, retired aircraft carrier, moved to the beach in 1992, and; the Texas State Aquarium, which opened its doors on July 6, 1990.52 THE COASTAL BEND MAGAZINEFall 2019 TheCoastalBend.com'