HACKED BY CYBER-ATTACK - ALPERENBTN

[Johnny French]

Have been struggling not to lose focus on the beach closure issue, as invited to do so on the Lago show yesterday, by responding to the seemingly unrelated issue of the redevelopment of Corpus Christi's shoreline downtown. As the first LTTE shows, however, there are a lot of similarities besides being near the water, and in each case the community is being divided over whether to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. My advice is to remember that the value of any asset, and especially one held in common, is not always measured in dollars.
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Caller.com

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URL: http://www.caller.com/ccct/letters_to_the_editor/article/0,1641,CCCT_841_4447330,00.html
Letters to the Editor: 02.07.06
February 7, 2006

Save Coliseum

Just because you have money doesn't mean you are always right. I think if the Alamo had been in Corpus Christi, it would not be standing today. The money people would have won out.

Everyone admires what San Antonio has done. Is it because in their quest for progress, they have not forgotten the past? Is it because they have found uses for their old building stock, like the quarry, now a popular shopping center, or the brewery, now an art museum, or the armory, now a corporate headquarters?

One very close relative told me recently: "Unbelievably, Corpus Christi is in worse shape than when I moved here 25 years ago." I believe we are losing ground so consistently now that many people have given up. Others are just plain scared to say what they think. Many times in this city people have told me they cannot get involved because they fear for their livelihood.

So I say: Change this losing game. Do the right thing. Save the Coliseum. But above all, build back the community trust and develop an environment that welcomes and encourages dissenting opinions. (Wise and secure leaders know it is often the false opinion that is most valuable. It illuminates the truth, and it usually contains some unexpected nugget of truth.) Winners aren't scared to face the opposition.

Janet F. Rice

Resort's pluses

Paul Schexnailder recently presented an overview of the proposed resort on North Padre Island with visuals to a packed crowd at the Barrios Association. Supporting the mission of the Barrios Association, resident homeowner and business owner on North Padre Island, I was in attendance. Mr. Schexnailder did a great job and answered many concerns that the attendees posed.

I had concern about the actual benefits to residents like myself who would have more traffic and probably yet higher taxes with the increased costs for ultimate needed improvements in various areas to accommodate the resort. Yet the reality is that there is a price for any progress.

The Caller-Times' excellent four-part report brought about yet more in-depth information for consideration. Considering that Mr. Schexnailder and his company, Gulf Shores Joint Venture, own property that can either be turned into the proposed resort for visitors and the community to enjoy or divided into tracts of land to be sold off for residential development, my choice would be the resort.

I have confidence that the General Land Office together with the developers, city and county leaders will work out the best possible solution for all.

I have waited to give my humble opinion, as I think it important to listen to your neighbors, leaders, proponents and opponents of major issues before making a decision. We need to work together for the betterment of our community.

Evy Coppola

Beach a winner

My husband and I moved here from Chicago nine years ago. Until his death in 2002 we watched as the city leadership changed from day-to-day survival to planning for the future. Today, we enjoy a baseball stadium, arena, improved convention center, causeway and soon Packery Channel. We deserve to be an "All America City."

Sometimes we have to deal with controversy. We have to face the emotions and deal with the reality. It is emotional to face "restricted" beaches, but reality to deal with beach improvements. Beaches will not be closed. Amenities will be added to offer improved experiences, such as clean restrooms, shade structures and boardwalk. On balance a true value.

On a stand-alone basis, pedestrian beaches should be offered. Adding a resort destination is icing on the cake. Additional sales taxes, hotel-motel taxes and real estate taxes from this development make us all winners. It is time to face reality and more on creating the pedestrian beach.

Sandy Billish

[mastergunner]

The last two letters make me want to throw up. I don't understand why a "certian" part of our society just don't get it. I guess if ONEperson wants the beaches closed the other millions of Texans have to give up their right to have them open. I am getting tired of losing my rights because of someone else, example, if you or your child don't want to recite the pledge of alliegance then tell them to sit in their desk and keep their little mouth closed, don't take away the right of the other 10 million students in America who want to say it. So I guess a handful of people in Corpus are going to take the right of millions of Americans to drive on our beaches. It wouldn't surprise me the city starts using iminant domain as a strong arm tatic.
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Hardheads should be the state fish of Texas

[rabbit]

I have confidence that the General Land Office together with the developers, city and county leaders will work out the best possible solution for all.

Evy Coppola just who do you consider all?

On a stand-alone basis, pedestrian beaches should be offered. Adding a resort destination is icing on the cake. Additional sales taxes, hotel-motel taxes and real estate taxes from this development make us all winners. It is time to face reality and more on creating the pedestrian beach.

sandy we already have about 5 or 6 pedestrian only beaches in corpus and 2 or more on mustang Island and 2 on padre island and as for taxes you wont even get a smell of them. Now what cloud is your reality in?
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Fishing and Kayaking its a rough life but somebody has to do it.

[guest]

I am in full support of future development of the island. I look forward to some "new" places and activities for me and the kids to go. Progress is inevitable and as a resident of the island I am all for it.

Since this is a public forum I hope the administrators choose to allow my opinions to stay

[rabbit]

Development is fine beaches closed to vehicular traffic isnt.
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Fishing and Kayaking its a rough life but somebody has to do it.

[RWHAG78]

The "guest" above that is a resident looking for new places for his kids to go will probably have to rent a condo if he wants to take his grandkids to the beach.[/quote]
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Robert Hoffmann

[Johnny French]

Guest, Tyler's posting policy is expressed elsewhere on this site, so I won't go into it. If you have been following my almost daily entries to the board on this subject, you will have seen that I post both the pros and the cons from the C-T, just as was done at the beginning of this thread. You have as much right as I do to take one of those positions or propose a new one. However, we are plagued by trolls on this board occasionally, so please show us the courtesy of signing in so we can respond to your opinions and not those of someone posing as you.

[Aggie]

Sorry for not signing in....I have been a resident for 4 years in Corpus Christi and have been disapointed at the lack of progress towards cleaning up the city and the beaches in the past several years. It seems that in the past 2 to 3 years there has been a new thought process from much of the officials in the city and it is refreshing to me.

I have been to most of the "pedestrian" beaches in the Country and some of the beaches you can drive on. I love PINS and am in full support of always keeping it accesable to vehicles. I am also in support of BIG corporate development on our sand. NOT ON PINS! Turtles will shut PINS down in the future not development.

I am tired of seeing trash on the beach every morning around a still smoldering hole in the ground. It is dangerous and much of it will go away with the closure of the beaches on the N. End of Padre island to vehicular traffic. I have some very fond memories of walking out of a condo across a board walk and enjoying a beach in my youth. In the future my children will enjoy that right here on Padre Island...They will also learn how to read the beach and tides of PINS...The best of both worlds. I want my right to drive on PINS. That is where I see ALL the folks from this and other local boards fishing, and that is the stretch of beach I will stand up and fight for. I like many others in this community and state would welcome "big" money development in the community, they will surely maintain the area arounfd theier resorts better than the city of CC has in the past

[Johnny French]

Aggie, I know how you feel about wanting to preserve a youthful memory and pass it along. Those of us fighting to to keep the beaches open to cars feel the same way. Coming from a lower middle-class family myself, when we were kids we couldn't afford a beachfront condo, but drove to the same spot north of Bob Hall Pier where the seawall is today. There was trash there even then; I carry a scar from a piece of glass I dug up making sand castles.

Today I still live in the same house far from the water, but I can afford a small 4WD to get to beaches out of reach of many. The problem I and many others see with closing additional beaches is that it is a slippery slope waiting to undermine even the vehicular access at PINS. Whether the beaches are closed in the name of safety, aesthetics, turtles, or economics, there is no binding legal mechanism in place to guarantee the closures won't expand until there are no longer any places where lower-income families can afford to picnic at the beach. It's the legacy of being able to continue to cheaply visit and even camp on the beach that I find most worth leaving the coming generations. Tell me how we can convince politicians that birthright isn't for sale.

Johnny French, TAMU Class of '71

[Big John]

First, let me remind you that 80% plus of the trash on our beaches comes from the current. It drifts in from oil wells, ships, other countries and states and lands on our shores. Study after study has proven this.

Second, nothing in these proposed ordinances prevents a bunch of teens from hauling in firewood and beer to dig a big pit in the pedestrian only areas and doing the same thing.

Third, its easier to take trash back with you if your car is right there next to you. Face it, people are lazy. How many times have you seen tash laying less than 6 feet from a trash can in a park or on a sidewalk? Or empty fastffood containers scattered around picnic tables when a trash can is right there! If people have to carry all their gear down to the beach, when it comes time to haul everything back, that trash is getting left behind more often.

Johhny's on the right path here. You see, if we let one developer close off beach, then another will expect the same, then another then another. When they finally reach the point where PINS is all that is left, there will be so much precedent for closure that it may not be possible to stop them.

Another major problem is imminent domain. You have a city on the land side of the laguna suing through imminent domain to gain access to the island for a ferry dock and facilities at the Mansfiled Jettiues. If that is successful, the north end of S. Padre Island will fall under development from both sides, the city and this new area of development.

Once they have an imminent domain precedent against a nature preserve, what will stop them from doing the same on the South end of N. Padre, and suing PINS to condem a few acres on the other side of the channel?

See the problem is you cannot have it both ways. So we have to put a foot down now and say they can develop, but they cannot have our beaches to do it, or we will end up like so much of the rest of the nation, where you must be able to afford to rent a condo, be able to hike it from a distant parking lot, or drive for miles and miles to access a small little beach at absorbadent cost in order to drive on the beach.

You can still rent a condo, and walk through the dunes on a boardwalk to the beach. You will just have to be good parent and teach your kids to look both ways before running out where everyone drives, just like the road in front of your house, or watch them if they are too young to understand. If you are not watching your kids good enough to keep them from running into traffic, your are not watching them good enough to make sure they do not get kidnapped either. If they do not understand not to run in front of moving vehicles, then they should not be allowed to play in the front yard, ride bikes in the street or on the sidewalk, or walk down to the neighborhood park.
_________________
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

[tyler]

I can understand Aggie's argument and wish there were some way you could accommodate that one area of it were just that one area around the seawall I could live with it even the 7000 foot so long as you could have vehicle access via St Bartholomew to a parking area at the South Jetty as was promised.
The problem is once the brick is pulled out of the wall the whole dam will come down.
The gentleman that runs the Mustang Stable Riding operation has 50 acres of beach front just south of Bob Hall Pier he wanted to use as stables but the city has that zoned for high rise condos. Any guess what will happen when the condos are built? WE WANT "PEDESTRIAN FRIENDLY" beaches too or we will sue since you let Intrawest have them. The same thing will if not is already happening with the Sandpiper, Sea Gull and Port Royal condos.
Then we will just have PINS and already there are plenty who would like to see no driving on it either.
They could celebrate this with their "Texas it's whole other country" with something like "North Padre and Mustang Islands with miles and miles of of family friendly beaches"

To those that say people haul butt in these areas. The more I think about it I think I have seen one or two doing donuts at the sticks, every other place from Mustang to the sticks I don't recall any speeding. Naked people yes. I know that seems odd as I see most of the speeders at the Seashore and usually it is in sparsely occupied areas. Usually on a busy weekend there are so many south of Bob Hall Pier one would be nuts to try to speed. Your experiences and mileage may vary.

[paulj4400]

I must agree with Tyler. If you close the beach for one you cannot refuse the next. Its called DISCRIMMINATION.

[Johnny French]

Absorbadent: What you do with your wallet every April 15 to pay for a public project a developer can monopolize.

Discrimination: What a minority sues the government for when its officials conduct business as usual.

DISCRIMINATION (All caps.): What a millionaire sues the government for when it doesn't conduct business as usual because you won't absorbadent.

[mastergunner]

When a city iminent domains a wildlife reserve that city has gone to far. So we should close our beaches because a condo owner wants his kids to walk out into the sand. You, as a child, walked out into that sand many times I am sure, you probably turned out ok. As an educator I grow tired of bending over backwards for the poor children. People wonder why they have no responsibility, because as a society we take it away from them. Instead of teaching them to watch for cars, the responsible thing to do, we take the cars out of the picture, no responsibility. Instead of their work being due the next day or it is a zero we give them to the end of the six weeks to make it up and then we drop the lowesr grades, do grade curves and all that other crap because your child will not learn. Chances are your kids will grow up and leave this nasty, low wage paying town just as many are doing now. Remember not to long ago the big study about why so many graduates were leaving Corpus after school??? Who wants to work for less than $7.00 an hour????
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Hardheads should be the state fish of Texas

[Big John]

Another issue is that even if public access is retained, the private landowners will use means bordering on illegal if not illegal to restrict access on their own.

Here's a blurb about Hawaii:
http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2004/Aug/29/ln/ln45alee.html

"PRIVATE ROAD
NO THOROUGHFARE
TRESPASSERS KEEP OUT

Mind you, the signs do not say "no parking." They say "keep out."

Who would feel comfortable walking past that sign to get to the beach? Would you take your keiki by the hand and say, "Ignore the sign, sweetheart, let's go?"

Multimillion-dollar homes line Portlock Beach. Along Portlock Road, there are 18 access ways to the beach — lanes that run between those beautiful homes. The ownership of each lane is divided among the homeowners along the lane.

Seven years ago, one property owner famously put up a locked gate in the access way next to his home. This sparked a series of altercations, including an attempt by the city to condemn the lane and an incident in which a former city councilman showed up with a locksmith, TV cameras and a couple of choice words for the homeowner (who has since moved). "

And in New Jerysey:

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/04/nyregion/04beach.html?ex=1246680000&en=d15df3efdf0de4f9&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland

DIAMOND BEACH, N.J. - Before losing a two-year court fight in May, a private beach club on the Atlantic Ocean here wanted to charge $15,000 for a lifetime membership or $700 for eight badges to get on the beach this summer. But a three-judge appeals court threw out those fees, ruling that exclusive oceanfront clubs with high rates violated New Jersey's public trust doctrine.

Its creates a domino effect, like in Galveston:

http://www.pierandsurf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=864
Over the past 20 years, Galveston has
restricted 17 of the 20 miles of beachfront on the West end of Galveston
Island to vehicular traffic. There are several miles along the 17 miles from
the Seawall to the Rusty Hook at San Luis Pass where we have not been given
equal or better access. Now, the City of Galveston wants to close the last
3.2 miles of beachfront to vehicular traffic at San Luis Pass. San Luis Pass
is one of the most prolific beachfront fishing areas along the Texas Gulf
Coast. Fishermen have enjoyed access to this beachfront for generations.
Now, our access is about to be dictated by future development.



We only have one chance to stop this from happening, and it is right now![/b]
_________________
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