HACKED BY CYBER-ATTACK - ALPERENBTN

[Johnny French]

"What's in a name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet."

Feel a LTTE coming on.

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Is Redneck Riviera the image we're after?
December 18, 2005



Google the word "redneck" on the Internet and you'll come up with more than 15.5 million hits. Most of the ones I saw were negative.

Certainly, whether they are negative depends on your perspective. I just see little positive about the images associated with our beaches if we celebrate the label "Redneck Riviera," as proposed by a local group opposed to creating a tiny sliver of pedestrian-only beach.

The debate centers on whether to establish a pedestrian beach on the 7,400-foot stretch of land between Packery Channel and Padre Balli Park to accommodate a high-end resort community. That would leave 71,600 feet of beach within city limits and another 477,000-plus feet of beach where Texans could still drive their trucks.

But a group that seems intent on discouraging major economic development said last week that the "Redneck Riviera" ought to be preserved. Apparently the members of this group believe it's their God-given right to drive up and down the entire stretch of the beach, while no one else has the right to enjoy a small stretch of sand without dodging cars.

Opponents are trying to paint it as a working-class man vs. tourist issue as if attracting thousands of visitors with money to burn is something to avoid at all costs.

"Working families who come to the beach and spend their hard-earned dollars with local small businesses will be displaced by wealthy tourists who will go directly to the resort from the airport, spend all of their money there and then leave town," said John Kelley, spokesman for the Beach Access Coalition.

I'm curious how many working families actually spend their hard-earned dollars on that 7,400-foot stretch of beach. Heaven forbid we create a place for wealthy tourists to fork over a buck.

Kelley went on to say: "We've been the Redneck Riviera for a long time, and there's nothing wrong with that."

I guess there's nothing wrong with that if we want to be thought of as drunk, stupid and prejudiced. Redneck humor has been popularized lately by comedians such as Jeff Foxworthy. But there's little funny about the connotations the word brings.

Of those 15.5 million Internet hits on "redneck," one is this definition: "A white person regarded as having a provincial, conservative, often bigoted attitude." Wikipedia, the Internet encyclopedia site, compares "redneck" to pejorative words used to describe blacks.

Scores of Web sites offer more insight into what makes a redneck, with many of the sites attributing the phrases to Foxworthy and users adding a few of their own.

You're apparently a redneck if - you think there's nothing wrong with incest as long as you keep it in the family. The FBI surrounded your trailer park twice so far this year. You drive across town to see a car wreck. You have a Rebel flag in your front yard. The KKK kicked you out for being a bigot.

Maybe I'm just idealistic, but that's not how I want our community to be known. I'm in favor of a $500 million resort that will attract out-of-town tourists with money spilling out of their pockets. I'm in favor of the 1,500 jobs that developer Paul Schexnailder says the construction's first phase will bring to town, not to mention the additional jobs that will follow.

And I'm stunned by the business community's reluctance to embrace this opportunity. Last week, the Corpus Christi Chamber of Commerce, Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Convention & Visitors Bureau and Regional Economic Development Corporation considered a resolution encouraging the city to establish a pedestrian-only beach between Packery Channel and the north end of the seawall. Yet so far, those entities that profess to want to increase economic development have publicly supported the plan.

Terry Carter, chamber president and CEO, said he expects the board will approve the resolution Monday. Leaders in some of the other organizations have not been as clear; they need to make their support known. Some have declined to sign the document, saying they needed more information.

Schexnailder has said that if the pedestrian-only beach is denied and the resort proposal falls through, the next option would be to sell the land in parcels. I guess we could all park our double-wides on those bits and pieces of land and toss our beer cans in the dunes.

Surely, Corpus Christi is better than that.

Libby Averyt is vice president and editor of the Caller-Times. Phone: 886-3681; e-mail: averytl@ caller.com.

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Letters to the Editor: 12.18.05

December 18, 2005

Keep beach access


I would like to know where the $500 million resort is that Mr. Schexnailder was going to build on the island just west of the seawall if we built Packery Channel and ran off Landry's.

Now he wants us to close the beach to traffic so he can build a $1.5 billion resort. I think he has turned into a promoter, not a developer.

The main point is that we want to drive on our beaches. We were also told that only the section of beach that would be closed by this City Council was in front of the seawall.

As a community we should expect companies to invest money without strings being attached.

Keith Hoelscher

Threat to beaches

The proposal by City Council member Mark Scott to change the adopted city ordinance closing beach traffic in front of the seawall to include the area desired for development by Paul Shexnailder is unacceptable.

Furthermore, it proves what I and others have been saying all along about this beach issue: You give in to one commercial development and others will want theirs.

I have never believed this issue was about "beach safety." It is about whether public beaches will be handed over to developers for their own use.

Have we learned nothing from Katrina and Rita? What does the term "barrier island" mean?

Further development of this type will help increase beach erosion and dune destruction. Add global warming and rising sea levels and the preservation of our barrier islands is more important than ever.

This proposal is about going back on your word. Everybody I contacted prior to the passage of the beach-traffic closure ordinance told me, "We will only close this section of the beach. We have no plans to close off other parts of the beach."

Now this comes along. Where will you stand now?

I think preserving our unique beaches for all to come and enjoy is a bigger draw for visitors than would be the building of some fancy high-dollar resort catering only to the rich.

Are we going to make our beaches a playground for the "rich and famous" only?

Dicky Neely

[Johnny French]

Libby Averyt's Viewpoints Page article in the December 18, 2005 Corpus Christi Caller-Times once again exhibits the true colors of its editorial board. Rather than accept the everyman, blue-collar connotation appropriate to the context in which Beach Action Coalition spokesman John Kelley used the expression redneck, or even the self-deprecating humor associated with the term, as in the example she herself gives using Jeff Foxworthy, she chose only the most negative meanings to put words in Kelley's mouth.

Averyt says she picked out of 15.5 million Internet hits these connotations for redneck: "A white person regarded as having a provincial, conservative, often bigoted attitude," and "pejorative words used to describe blacks." It appears the first quotation applies better to a newspaper editor who thinks the state beaches should belong only to local developers, approves of the misuse of big money and political power to make that happen, and denigrates the First Amendment right to petition against such things.

[Mike S]

Dang, Libby Averyt's BLONDE MOMENT really hurt my feelings. Heck, I'm no redneck because I support open beaches.
Well better go, Walker Texas Ranger is coming on and I need to adjust
the rabbit ears on my TV.

Mike S

[funmeters]

Desperate talk by desperate prople. Grab at anything when you have no credible arguement. Just ask all those families lined up on the beach as far as the eye can see on a nice summer day if they are the redneck trash the city elete claim them to be.

[Bluffer]

Im %90 Redneck!!!
_________________
Fish hard, fish the Bluff. Surrounded by water!
-A quaint little drinking village with a fishing problem-

[Big John]

yep, i am 83% redneck according to the test!
_________________
Give a man a fish, feed him for a day.

Teach a man to fish, he'll be broke and hungry the rest of his life!

John Sullivan
Native Corpus Christian
Currently Displaced in San Antonio

[LFAMOSO]

LIKE THE SONG SAYS " REDNECKS WHITE SOXS AND BLUE RIBBON BEER"
JM
_________________
GONE FISHIN OR HUNTING . BUT NEVER WORK

[Dexter]

Great come back Johnny. Thanks for staying on top of all of this.

[SurfRanger95]

YOU HAVE GOT TO BE FREAKING KIDDING ME!!!

HELL MOST OF MY GOOD BUDS ARE RED NECKS AND I AM DAMN PROUD TO BE FRIENDS WITH EM. GOOD, HONEST FOLKS EVERY ONE OF THEM

PERSONALLY, I LIKE THE IDEA OF A REDNECK RIVIERA -- THINK WE NEED A SIGN DOWN THERE TO SHOW IT OFF.
_________________
"I don't wanna live on that kind of island, no I don't wanna swim in a roped off sea. It's too much for me, too much for me; I gotta be where the wind and the water are free." -- Jimmy Buffet

"GUINESS IS GOOD FOR YOU!"

[galvbay]

I'll toss this out there to let you Good Peopleknow what you are fighting for. Here is a map of the beach access points we have at Galveston. galvbay
http://www.cityofgalveston.org/pdf/Map5.pdf

[FlakMan]

As an Petroleum Engineer, a National Merit Scholar and a 30 year oil and gas industry professional, I find from Ms Averyt that I am now also a Redneck. By her definitions, anyone who believes that barrier islands are best left alone is a Redneck. Anyone that understands that beach front development is doomed for destruction is a Redneck. I guess the total destruction of the Mississippi resorts (behind the undeveloped barrier islands) by Katrina is only a lesson learned to Rednecks and not the folks that run our newspapers and city government. Google the word "barrier island" - Ms Averyt, I did and got 8,340,000 hits and did not find a one that recommended development. Google my name and see if it looks like I am a redneck.

Larry H. Flak PE
34-ft AMSL - Portland, Texas
_________________
Ahh sand between my toes!

[galvbay]

What's the bio of Ms Averyt? Is she a long time local??

[tyler]

[Guest]

I have known "Councilman" Mark Scott for over 30 years, going 'way back to his humble beginnings as a kid living on the West side of Kingsville in the 1970s.

He has clearly forgotten the roots of his neighbors, and continues to embrace the "yuppie wannabe" livestyle that he has been pursuing since his days at Texas A&I, and the snobbish drunken parties that he led as a Sigma Chi frat boy.

Mark has tried to be a social climber for years (beginning with his "I can't believe Carol Alexander is going out with that guy" reputation over 2 decades ago), and I could not believe it when he got elected to the city council. What an elitist.

This referendum needs to get shut down now, and house needs to be cleaned out at the next election.

[snagged]

Anyway, what you need to do is become overwhelming nuisances. Hound the city council with mail. Submit so many letters to the editors that they can't ignore them. Start calling out people by name who do not agree with providing the public equal access as the tourists are to get under the new plan.

Really push the ADA issue.

And, include a copy to Carrie.Hall@nooa.gov of every single email you send regarding beach access. Make sure you mention that providing preferential treatment to developers is inconsistent with the coastal management program. NOAA runs that program for the Department of Interior and Carrie Hall is the person who coordinates things with Texas. This is the most effective tool you will have as the land office has to answer to consistency reviews periodically. The feds usually only receive input from special interest groups and political action committees. They LOVE to get input from citizens and give citizens' input more weight than that of the special interest groups and PACs.
_________________
Jerry

Prepare the child for the path, not the path for the child.