38 THE COASTAL BEND MAGAZINE • Fall 2018 TheCoastalBend.com Times change. The last and biggest blow to golf in the U.S. took the form of an 8-iron smashed through the window of Tiger Wood’s Escalade by his wife Elin in 2010. It was the last year Pharaoh Valley Country Club was open, and nearly a thousand golf courses have closed throughout the U.S. in the years since. No one on either side of the Barisi Village fight has argued that a continually decaying former golf course is good for property value, that is, if you care about the value of your property going up and not down. It was once a token of success to own a home on the Pharaoh Valley golf course. However, for the past eight years it has meant fighting off well-fed feral hogs, 3 a.m. dashes to the flood light switch upon hearing bands of teenage graffiti warriors shuffling through the high grass behind your home, swamp-like condi- tions in times of heavy rain, three serious wildfires that came within yards of homes in the dry season, and of course hustling your Pug-huahua into the house out of fear that the large raptor hovering above will try to swoop in and snatch him out of your backyard—a ma- jor concern since the 14th fairway became fertile hunt- ing grounds for wild birds of prey. While those who (still) oppose Barisi Village complain that they expect a golf course to be operating behind their homes (per the 1971 deed restrictions), it begs the question as to whether they instead expect to be living the life of Mar- lin Perkins, with all the adventure that comes in the Wild Kingdom. Officially, 83% of homeowners adjacent to the golf course voted in favor of Barisi Village. Rejecting a legal act of democracy, attorneys Gay Gilson and Frank Scanio III, have supported two lawsuits, both dismissed, along with a propaganda and disinforma- tion campaign against fellow homeowners who have favored the project, the owner of the golf course and the prospective buyer. The first lawsuit, filed in federal court, was dismissed last winter. The second suit, filed in state district court, was dismissed in the spring and is now under appeal. Well known in Corpus Christi, Scanio does not ac- tually live in Pharaoh Valley—he lives in a half-million- dollar home off Ocean Dr.—but he officially represent- ed his mother (now deceased), who owned a $400,000 home in the neighborhood, plus two homes on Ocean Dr. valued at almost $2 million combined. Unlike the vast majority of his late mother’s neigh- bors, Mr. Scanio’s life is in no way affected by the value of property in Pharaoh Valley. He is uncommon in that way. Considering that the late Mrs. Scanio’s properties on Ocean Dr. were five-times the value of her home in the neighborhood, it is reasonable to assume that property value was of no consequence to her either. But what about Gay Gilson? Ms. Gilson’s first interaction with Barisi Village was her attendance at a Rock Creek (townhomes) homeowners’ meeting for a first presentation of the proposal by real estate agent, Marilyn Jordan. Before anyone knew she was an attorney, Gilson’s only ques- The grand town square at AdriaticaVillage in McKinney,Texas, near Dallas.The design of BarisiVillage in Corpus Christi is inspired by the classic architecture of Portofino, Italy. An ultra-modern, high-end environment created in the classic style of a CroatianVillage, home to cafes, restaurants, shops medical services, single- and multi-family homes.