HACKED BY CYBER-ATTACK - ALPERENBTN

[Johnny French]

Way to go, Tyler and the FlakMan! "Man proposes; God disposes." And since Shex felt he was shafted once before regarding the competition from the bayfront development, maybe it's payback time. Personally, I wouldn't go so far as to support any plan that eliminated either the Coliseum or beach driving, but would prefer to see developments that play to those assets, rather than destroy them. Re the south side of the Packery Channel, I thought that's what was promised in the island development plan, the Corps' EIS and the TIF background materials. Re the Coliseum, I thought moving a Cabelas, a boat sales business, and several more such venues into the memorial, along with a pedestrian-friendly jetty to protect McGee Beach from erosion, were right in concert with the bayfront's sense of place and would draw just as many people to the area as a Ferris wheel w/o blocking the current view. Opposing bad developments while supporting good ones is what we elected our representatives to do. Sudden silence will be taken as a sign of support even for folly, even after months of noisy opposition, so we just have to keep them telling them which is which, though it take an endless stream of LTTEs and petitions to make our true desires sink into some skulls.
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Letters to the Editor: 02.27.06
February 27, 2006

Constant threat

"City has a long history of folly" should have been the title of Murphy Givens' column ["City has a long history of opposing progress," Jan. 28].

I was hoping Mr. Givens, who writes so beautifully about this area's colorful history, would have taken the tack that building on a barrier island is folly rather than jumping on the bandwagon with the Caller-Times' full court press to close beach access to vehicles.

How many of Mr. Givens' historical accounts of hotels, resorts, boardwalks, and amusement parks ended with these words - "destroyed by the hurricane of 1916," "destroyed by the hurricane of 1919," and "destroyed by the hurricane of 1933?"

Think about it. For the most part he's writing about the effects the hurricanes had on the town of Corpus Christi, which gains a good deal of protection from Mustang and Padre Islands. Imagine the destruction that would have happened on the islands themselves had they been developed to the same degree.

Even if our city fathers continue pandering to developers and giving away access to area beaches, one day Murphy Givens' successor will be writing about these grand developments "destroyed by the hurricane of 20 - ." Then we will once again be able to park our "ox-carts" anywhere we want on that beautiful stretch of open beach.

Tyler Thorsen

Focus on beach

Ref: "Don't let naysayers sabotage the city's enormous potential," Jim Barnette, Viewpoints, Feb. 20.

Naysayers like me are against only one thing: "beach access rights removal" and unreasonable development on our barrier islands.

I am for the TRT development plans within the master Bayfront Plan for our bayfront.

I would also like to see a reasonable plan to finally deal with the old courthouse eyesore and empty downtown properties.

Downtown Corpus Christi needs a dollars injection, not our beaches. Downtown business owners should be very scared of any beach development plan and join us "naysayers" in our anti-beach development position.

Larry H. Flak, P.E.

(Portland)

[FlakMan]

IMO it's as much an eye sore as the old court house. Tear both down and build something sustainable and good for downtown businesses and tourists.

Yes a Cabelas in memorial Sadium seems OK but parking issues and day time focus shopping would doom other businesses.
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Ahh sand between my toes!

[Johnny French]

FlakMan, Rex Kinnison saw my email on this topic and asked me to call him this morning. Like I told him, I don't want to be spread too thin chasing the bayfront development issue with the same intensity as the beach closures. However, my generation has parents who served in WWII, likely had their graduation ceremonies in the Coliseum if they grew up here as I did, and have therefore a particular reverence for it. We tend to be offended by TRT's insinuation that it can donate money for a new memorial and the old one can then be written off with our memories. We old timers do not share the recent attitude that any thing in existence which doesn't earn top dollar, much less its keep, has to be replaced, even when that thing is a public resource like a park, a memorial, or a beach. We also as an age group vote more frequently than any other.

The noncommercial public amenities like parks, courthouses and memorials are supposed to be maintained by the local governments the way a landlord cares for a rented apartment. If a landlord intentionally neglects that apartment's maintenance to the point it becomes an eyesore so he can drive out the tenants, tear down the building, and sell it to someone else who'll pay more, the tenants can sue. In this case, if enough people get tired of the way City Council members maintain the citizen's resources, they can recall and replace them with someone showing more respect and responsibility for those resources. I don't know if that's likely to happen over the Memorial Coliseum, but it sure could regarding the beach closures, and, if certain council members have been giving the voters more than one reason to boot them out, so much the better.

[INSIDER]

How about using the Coliseum for a South Texas Coastal Museum (i.e., fishing, sailing, kite boarding, windsurfing, babe bikini (ooops, where's my mind... just had to get some humour in), kayaking, shrimping? (LOL)... get skate park in there too.

The cost of maintaining that building.... has anyone seriously studied that. Supposedly, according to the City gov. figures... what... some where about $400,000 - $500,000 per year or something like that. Don't quote me on that figure. Of course any numbers from the City gov. should be examined!!! Question Skip Noe's (City Mgr.) and his staff's numbers. Who can YOU trust? Skip? LOL.

[Bluffer]

Quit reading Murphy Givens colums along time ago. But that doesnt surprise me one bit.
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Fish hard, fish the Bluff. Surrounded by water!
-A quaint little drinking village with a fishing problem-