b'In the decade before the Great Hurricane of 1919, and even for decades after the rebuild began, North Beach was the authentic, seaside village of the Great American South that had something for everyone. Hotels and cafes, a boardwalk, amusement parks, a pleasure pier, baseball stadium, a church encampment and auditorium, even a ship permanently docked as a ballroom dance venue, and of course, the Corpus Christi Country Club and golf course, were all located on North Beach. The oddly-curved route of the 1959 Harbor Bridge, however, wiped out over 20 blocks of the bayfront village, and the rest of the area descended into blight. In the early 1990s, openings of the Aquarium and Lex were promised to return North Beach to its bygone era of glory, but it never happened.The new Harbor Bridge, now under construction though behind schedule, will be over 1,000 feet longer and six stories taller than the current bridge, and those 20+ blocks will be returned to North Beach, as well as over 50 acres on the downtown side of the bridge. While the eventual opening of the new bridge and the demolition of the old one will open-up over 150 acres of nothingthat could remain nothing (or worse)the potential for North Beach to transform into an oa-sis of happiness, water recreation, and family fun, is not an unproven conceptit was proven over a century ago.After months of research and planning in 2016, Blackards initial plan for North Beach, which included concepts with and without a central canal, and that did not yet address breakwater islands, was submitted to Mayor Martinez and the City Council. Our notorious Water Department issues, however, were front and center, along with a general election, and the North Beach proposal was shelved and not mentioned again for almost two years. Martinez was defeated in Novem-ber 2016 by political novelty Dan McQueen, who resigned via Facebook after 37 days in office over the same water issues on which he defeated her, and Joe Mc-Comb won the special election for Mayor in spring 2017.THERE WILL BE A BRIDGEWith the new Harbor Bridge becoming a visible reality, the conversation about North Beach was resurrected in early 2018, and City Councilpersons Debbie Lind-sey-Opel and Lucy Rubio invited Jeff Blackard to be part of a task force, on be-half of the City, for addressing traffic, elevation and drainage problems on North Beachissues vital to any potential for real improvement on the peninsula. In April 2018, the City Council voted 6-2 in favor of forming the volunteer North Beach Infrastructure Redevelopment Task Force, the two votes against it coming from Mayor Joe McComb and At-Large Councilperson Paulette Guajardo.Mayor McCombs subsequent comments and actions, including repeatedly at-tempting, and possibly succeeding, in disbanding the North Beach Task Forcenot to mention his personal animus toward Jeff Blackardclearly convey where he stands on improving North Beach. He is against it. He has been against it from the start. He wants Jeff Blackard nowhere near the project or the city, and he will use every ounce of his influence within City staff to kill it from the insidedespite voting for it twice.Jeff Blackards luxury residential developments in Galveston and Frisco, TexasPaulette Guajardo, so it seems, is quite another matter. We will openly admit that we were wrong on her position regarding the improvement of North Beach,meeting would have been within weeks of the vote for the Task Force, so Guajardos an assumption that came with her vote against forming the Task Force. We asked herargument that it should have been delayed a short period so that District Ones coun-if she stood by her vote. cilperson could record his vote, is certainly reasonableand considering her subse-Yes, I stand by my vote, and this is the only reason, said Councilperson Guajar- quent comments and votes on North Beach, there is no evidence that she is part of do, My colleague Everett Roy had not been seated [on City Council], and I believedMayor McCombs effort to kill the project.that the vote should have been delayed, because the representative from that districtWith Blackard taking the lead role in developing a concept for North Beach, should have had a vote. the Task Force was chaired by Commissioner Vaughn, and Assistant City Manager In fact, District One, which includes North Beach along with the northern capMark Van Vleck was appointed to represent City staffpresumably to assist the Task of the city that extends inland and includes Annaville, Tuloso-Midway and Calallen,Force in accomplishing its goals as assigned by City Council. We all remember the was left without direct representation on City Council for months, following Carolyn Vaughns departure to take a seat on the Nueces County Commissioners Court. Thenow-departed Van Vleck as the leader of a tragically comical saga of disasters at the City held an application process, rather than a special election, to replace Vaughn,Water Department, but his reliable incompetence was not the tool from his bag of and the Council chose banker Everett Roy to take the position. His first Counciltricks that he used in his effort to sabotage the North Beach Task Force.TheCoastalBend.com THE COASTAL BEND MAGAZINEQ2.2020 45'