Corpusfishing.com

[The Trash Heap]

Still bent on leading the City Council to yet another figurative black eye over a second beach closure ordinance, one can see where the "fun" version below sprang from. The LTTE writer neglects to mention that not only is the price for parking on the beach doubled, but the Council also keeps trying to give those few who buy parking stickers less beach to park on. The LTTE's last line is right on the money, though.

Would have included the map and instructions for spring breakers that appears on page 3B of the paper edition, but I couldn't find it on the C-T website. What I wanted to point out is that the breakers are being directed to concentrate their recreations on the piping plover's critical habitat between the Mustang Island State Park and Packery Channel in such numbers that one-way traffic limits will be enforced on the beach there. That's bad enough for the species during a couple of weeks each year, but the proposed beach closures south of the Packery Channel would make that sort of concentration of people and vehicles permanent. Neither the beach closures nor this associated level of increase in cumulative impact to the threatened species and its critical habitat are mentioned in the Packery Channel EIS and in the Endangered Species Act consultations that preceded construction of the channel project. The spring breakers should have been directed to the new parking lot behind the seawall and to the beaches to the south, instead. Guess the breakers, like rednecks, aren't welcome within sight of the condos and hotel, though.

However, I was able to find this link on the website: http://www.caller2.com/visitors/beaches.html. Notice that it touts the J.P. Luby Surf Park, long since displaced by the dredging and the construction of the jetties at Packery Channel. With every access to where the park used to be currently closed, encouraging the breakers to go there is a poor reflection on the newspaper.
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Caller.com

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Political Pulse: 03.12.06
March 12, 2006

Garrett's black eye has two stories behind it

Mayor Henry Garrett has been sporting a black eye for the past week. Ask him how he acquired the shiner and he'll ask you whether you want the "fun" version or the real version.

The "fun" version: While taking a leisurely stroll on the beach, he is approached by a man who asks him if he is the guy trying to take cars off the beach. When the mayor says yes, the man winds up and punches his lights out.

The true version: While Garrett pulled his Harley-Davidson motorcycle out of his driveway for a Sunday afternoon ride, the bike's motor guard snagged on a trailer hitch, stopping the bike but not Garrett, who bonked his sunglasses-covered eye on the Hog's windshield. "It was a real slow-motion thing," Garrett said. "My doctor said I'd have a black eye for about a week."

Caller.com

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Letters to the Editor: 03.12.06

March 11, 2006

Missing beach tags

As I stated in a letter to the editor, which you kindly published last year, I have walked our beaches daily for five years and have sampled parked vehicles for beach stickers. Only 15 percent have beach stickers. Why won't the responsible city department acknowledge lack of enforcement as the problem?

If enforced, only 30 percent participation would double sticker revenues, while 45 percent would triple revenues. The additional revenues could provide funds for enforcement. Enforcement personnel could be on a part-time basis during the summer months.

Our all-knowing City Council has seen fit to double the beach sticker price from $6 to $12 for 2006. Do they think that the 85 percent of the people who didn't buy them at $6 are going to run out now and buy them for $12?

All this doubling of price has done is to penalize the 15 percent of us who purchase beach stickers, while the freeloaders get away free. Is this fair? C'mon, City Council, get to the beach and see for yourselves.

If you give the beach away, it won't matter anyway.

Ken Langer
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The Trash Heap Has Spoken!
NNYYAAAHH!!!

[Bourbonater]

Nice.
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You can get much farther with a kind word and a gun than you can with a kind word alone.
Al Capone