Pride’s not a bad thing

One of the essential rules for good journalistic writing is for the writer to keep himself out of the story. A news story should remain free of bias, an editorial and an opinion should never contain "I". Today, this writer is breaking the rules. Today, there won't be a sports story or an editorial without bias. Today, I'm giving you MY opinion and I'm using I!

I have always considered myself a person that sees the glass as half full. I've given people the benefit of the doubt, I've trusted and accepted people at their word. I am a big proponent of the " screw me once, shame on you, screw me twice shame on you" philosophy.

Lately however, I find myself speaking with a cynical tongue: about life and about society in general. I don't know if it's because I'm getting older and my patience is growing thinner or if I am becoming a product of my environment.

I moved to Corpus Christi about a decade ago. I moved from St. Petersburg, Florida. For those of you that don't know the area, it's home to some of the most beautiful and developed beaches in the world. It's home to the NHL 2004 Stanley Cup Champions, Tampa Bay Lightning, the MLB division champions, Tampa Bay Rays, the NFL, 2003 Superbowl Champions, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the AFL champions, Tampa Bay Storm.

I grew up where the community welcomed new businesses. Politicians and businessmen worked together for the advancement of a thriving tourism industry.

The great outdoors was celebrated and very much a part of family life, regardless of race, or financial standing. Parks and walking/running trails were kept in pristine conditions: both by those that used them (very rarely did people litter) and the parks department of each city.

My neighbors cared about what their yards looked like, even in the lower income areas of town people cared. There wasn't and still isn't a problem with public buildings getting tagged by ill guided youth. Customer service was top priority. We depended on tourism dollars to sustain our beautiful cities, so we acted like we cared about you and your problems.

For the most part, our police departments and Highway Patrol were respected. Drivers moved out of the way for emergency vehicles. Pedestrians had the right of way. Bicyclists were respected. Driver's understood road signs and drove with that understanding.

Where am I going with this you ask? Here is your answer, for a decade I've watched as the Corpus Christi city council has shunned businesses that want to come into Corpus and provide real jobs (not minimum wage retail jobs), create a real tourism industry and in general enhance the feabal existence of this "sparkling city by the sea".

For a decade I have watched this city turn into a proverbial dumping ground. Everywhere I look a building has been tagged and we glorify it by doing a five- minute feature on the six o'clock news.

I've driven by neighborhoods where the grass is two feet high and filled with make shift shrines to the Virgin Mary, garden gnomes, rubber tires, broken appliances, torn couches and bags of trash.

In my first few weeks of driving out here, I was almost hit three different times in two days by drivers that didn't understand simple road signs.

I think you are beginning to see my frustration. Why is this city and it's resident's so accepting of mediocrity? Why is there not a desire to make it better?

I am resolute to accepting that Corpus is a succubus of emotions. That despite the few people that want to make a difference, the politicians and businessmen that have fat wallets because of their monopolistic hold on what happens in this city will never allow Corpus Christi to "GROW".

I maintain that there is a negative persona attached to a large percentage of the population here and it keeps those that refuse to accept that there is a world outside of Corpus Christi locked in blinders.

I want to see my world as half full again, not half empty with the green sludge of the Corpus Christi gulf.