Letter To The Mayor

The following is a letter I sent to Corpus Christi Mayor, Henry Garett. This letter was sent in response to remarks he made on a local TV news program concerning the defeat of the attempted beach taking he and most of the city council supported. He said the community needed to go forward with developoment on our local beaches and didn't feel the elction results were a referendum on development.


Mayor Garrett,
I hope you are well and enjoying the weather. Now the election is over and the people have voted on the beach issue I have a couple of thoughts I would like to share. Development in general and especially on Padre Island is not automatically a good thing. Too many times I have heard calls for development from elected officials and politicians with little thought given to the kind of development and regulations concerning development. Development on the island should not be unchecked and willy-nilly. The environment has to be considered, density and building height and size requirements should be part of the planning. Considerations for public use need to be paramount, not secondary and the desire and needs of the public should take precedence over developers, especially foreign and out of town developers!
I was once a reporter for Marie Speers' papers and the islands were part of my beat. I recall talking to residents of the Pioneer RV park, which recently disappeared, swallowed up by a mega-development in Port Aransas, and many people there told me they liked to come here and winter because it wasn't like South Padre island or Miami Beach. They liked the wide open beaches where they could go where they wanted and the relatively un-spoiled coastal environment was a big draw for them.
Wonder where they are now their RV park is gone? Some of them, and they were from all across the country, had been coming here for years.
My point is, the more un-developed we can keep our beaches the more marketable they will be in the future. People don't come here because they want to stay in a particular hotel or resort, they come here because we still have some relatively pristine beaches, easily accessible. Such places have nearly disappeared, making ours all the more valuable. Eco-tourism is becoming a major aspect of traveler's destinations and has kept afloat the economies in some of the most impoverished countries in Africa and other third world countries. Future development needs to do a better job than what we have seen so far locally.
And does anyone remember a little thing called hurricanes? We have been extraordinarily lucky in recent years but sooner or later that will change and we will get hit. I know you recall Celia, so do I. There wasn't much on Padre Island then but remember what happened to Port Aransas, Aransas Pass and here. What would Padre Island look like if we get hit by another Celia, which was, I believe, a category 3 storm.
I am not arguing against development because the genie is out of the bottle. I am arguing for responsible development taking more into consideration than the enrichment of a few title companies, developers and realtors. Padre Island is our goose that laid the golden egg. We need to take special care not to let it become a rotten egg!
Sincerely,
Dicky Neely

I received a response from the Mayor, very promptly I would say! I got this in email at around 12:30 pm. 11-10-06. By the way, I found out I was wrong about the Pioneer RV Park. It is still there! I just missed it the other day when I drove by. I called them today to check and they said that they may be taken over in the new development but for now they are still here.

Mr. Neely:
First of all thank you for your email. My position on development is that we need planned and continuous development. I believe the voters have spoken loud and clear about the vehicular traffic on the beach.
I do agree with you about the hurricanes. I have a lot of concern about hurricanes myself because I was in Corpus Christi during hurricanes Celia and Allen and definitely realize the damage one can do.
I intend to work with the the council and citizens to make certain that whatever we do on the beach we do it with the intent of having a quality, safe, and clean beach.
Once again thank you for expressing your concerns. If you have any other questions, please do not hesitate to contact me at 826-3100.
Henry Garrett,
Mayor