b'E d i t o rattractions in the country, but we cant figure out what to do with the most beautiful Bayfront on the Texas Gulf Coast. Still true, kinda. The more accurate statement is that nothing big gets done unless some set of elected officials and governmental managers personally benefit in the processthey and their supporters. Need evidence?The Corpus Christi Independent School District has spent more than half-a-bil-lion dollars over the last decade building new schools. These are some of the most impressive public campuses in the state, probably the countrybeauti-fully designed with the finest construction and the most modern and impres-sive high tech. To cast eyes on these marvelous facilities like the $130 million new Carroll High School, or the $90 million Veterans Memorial, or the amazing new elementary and middle schools, together costing hundreds of millions of dollars, would inspire one to praise a community so dedicated to their chil-dren and our collective future. Then, however, you find out that while Corpus Christis city population grows at about one percent per year, CCISDs student population has declined by almost ten percent over the past six yearsalong with state school ratings and test scores, although they did seem to rebound a bit over the past school year. Then when you learn that all those new school campuses have two distinc-tions in commonthe same architect and the same construction company, and that a former CCISD elected trustee copped a felony plea deal with the Feds last year, following simultaneous FBI raids in 2020 on his house and said construction companys officeyou get the sense that all this big school con-struction is meant to benefit the adults, and not the kids.You need only take a crawl down Waldron Road and through the campuses of the Flour Bluff Independent School District to see the opposite effect in action. The facilities are quite crummy, to tell the truth. The elementary school hasAbove: Images of Waterside Market in Norfolk, Virginia, which integrates a working marina with restau-been there since, at least, the 1960s; the Junior High (middle school) and Pri- rants, retail, and hotelsideal for North Beach. Below: Long Beach, California, recreational waterfront mary campuses were built in the early 1980s, and the high school was expand- with the Queen Mary hotel in background. Just across is the Port of Long Beach, just like in Corpus Christi.ed about 30 years ago, which was really just an add-on to a 1950s building. This year, FBISD finally passed bond measures to expand and improve facilities, including to the 1940s-era football stadium.Yet, despite lacking the staggering levels of investment enjoyed at CCISD, it has grown from a 4A district to a 5A Division 1 in recent decades, and has always and continues to perform academically at the top of all large districts in Texas. Perhaps its because Flour Bluff encompasses the Naval Air Station, where the kids of those on active duty attend, that student discipline is paramount to the educational philosophy practiced there. We rarely, if ever, hear about gunplay or violence among kids in the Bluff, and we certainly have never heard about district officials being raided by the FBI, or teachers arrested for indecency with their students or hosting keggers for students. That BS just isnt accepted out there, and to be fair, nor is it accepted at many of the outlining school districts that also outperform CCISD. To be clear, its not a race or poverty issue, either. In the Bluff, 60% are minority students, and 48% are economically disadvantaged.I desperately wish that we as a city were at a realistic point of exploring all the wonderful, waterfront development options for the land left by the old bridge, but were not. It sounds great, which is perhaps why the Mayor said it once and then, as usual, we never heard about it againbut she made a few people smile on the day she said it, and isnt that all that really matters?Until we have leadership who take their own words seriouslyMy word is my bond kind of thingand until the public gains confidence that words will equal action and theyre not being fed whatever makes people feel warm on the way out the doorCorpus Christis hope for real progress will result in disappoint-ment after disappointment, i.e. that to which we have all become accustomed.20THECOASTALBENDMAGAZINE TheCoastalBend.com'