b'Corpus Christi and Its Enduring Potential for Greatness Tourism and the Coastal Bends natural assets. Transportation assets should better The population of the state of Texas has grown by 170% since 1970, then 11.2 million,pull from the I-35 San Antonio/Austin corridor. Expand ocean science research and and 30.3 million in 2022. McAllen has grown by 281% over the same period, Austintry to attract a medical branch, probably from A&M. The Corpus Christi area enjoys by 264%, and San Antonio by 125%. Corpus Christis growth has been 54% over thosebi-partisan representation in the state legislature, said Cisneros.52 years, making it one of the slowest-growing urban populations in Texas, at a rateVolumes have been published, including by this editor, on how big opportunities have far less than 1/3 of the rest of the state. Why? been squandered by leaders and powerbrokers in Corpus Christialmost exclusively Out of town visitors who arrive here for the first time see what us locals no longerresulting from self-dealing and poor management. There is nothing else wrong with even recognizethe least-developed waterfront property of any urban region in thethis place, and our lackluster growth is the result of a lack of honest, forward-thinking United States. On the Corpus Christi Bayfront, Ocean Drive south of Ayers Streetleadership, and nothing else. If one trustworthy and respected citizen stepped for-thrives as the jewel of the Texas coastline, adorned with luxury homes and beautifulward to lead Corpus Christians in the way Henry Cisneros did in San Antoniothat waterfront parks. Shoreline Boulevard, however, which extends north of Ocean all theis, by first and foremost holding City managers and staff accountable to the taxpay-way to the ship channel, and actually continuing across to North Beach, is a painfulers who pay them, the key management strategyand then, by building consensus story of missed potential and little growth. around projects that build on the citys existing assets and its most pressing needs. Its a simple-sounding formula that has remained an enigma to the Sparkling City by the Multi-acre parcels of waterfront land set empty and barren, and several others functionSea for a century, since the post-mayoral days of Roy Miller.as parking lots. While millions in public investment in Waters Edge Park, Bayfront ParkIn many ways, the big opportunities in Corpus Christi today are far more obvious and the newly-restored Watergardens have created lovely public settings, nary a dimethan those that were capitalized upon in San Antonio in the 1980s, when the strategy of significant private investment has followed. Downtown Corpus Christi features awas to build on what was already there. Their core advanced industry was medical grand total of three full-service hotels, that is, those with a restaurant and room service,and biomedical research. Ours are energy and advanced manufacturing, to the tune plus one on North Beach. The very attractive and busy, new Residence Inn hotel andof $70 billion in investments over the last 10 years. Mayor Cisneros and his economic the new Frost Bank building are the only significant, private investments on Shorelinedevelopment team called on biotech and pharmaceutical companies across the coun-since One Shoreline Plaza was completed in 1986the largest Bayfront structures builttry in the successful effort to attract some of them to San Antonio.over those decades are the federal courthouse and the American Bank Center Arena. In recent months, two of the worlds richest men, Bill Gates and Elon Musk, have trav-Ive always loved Corpus Christi. When I was mayor and exhausted at the end of aeled to the Coastal Bend to advance high-tech industrial investmentsMusk for the typical week, we would pack up the kids and head down to Corpus Christi., Henrygroundbreaking of Teslas lithium refinery in Robstown, and Gates to tour a carbon Cisneros remembered. We loved to eat at Ship Ahoy, right there overlooking the bay. capture project on the King Ranch and to visit the Infinium e-fuels facility located on Corpus Christi has four or five jewels that can be converted into a sustainable eco- Corpus Christis refinery row, in which he is an investor. The billionaire industrialists nomic foundation, he said. The Portthe demand for energy is only going to grow.are coming to us on their own, but are we going to them to sell Corpus Christi?48THE COASTAL BEND MAGAZINE TheCoastalBend.com'