Thursday, December 29, 2005

Big Yellow Taxi

That’s right, why not pave over then entire beach like a parking lot and put up a boardwalk like Atlantic City and get rid of all those pesky dunes. Apparently, that’s what the Town of South Padre thinks, even though it professes to want a “continuous dune line” so as to help reduce impacts from giant Gulf waves that periodically batter our coast - and we haven't even had a true hurricane here yet.

Perhaps the powers that be are so timid around the developers and builders because they pump so much money into the economy and hire so many Mexican illegals, which is considered good on both points. [Note to self – we need a huge immigration wall there somewhere too, but not blocking our view or hurting our business.]

I’ll grant you that the Texas Dune Protection Act was written so poorly as to have absolutely no meaning, but the intent was to help protect the natural barrier in between us and the sea. That doesn’t mean the Town has to do the same oblivious thing – although it certainly seems to be that way. Let ‘er rip, Mr. Developer. Ka-ching!

But what the hay! Knock down all the dunes and put in a flimsy boardwalk and stuff in all the new condos and richy-rich-boy houses you can. All those nice structures will make nice storm stoppers for us mid-Island folks. I can’t wait until we have some of the richy-boys sitting out in the Gulf at high tide like Surfside, Texas. That’ll make dog walking so much more amusing.

That’s right, knock down all the dunes, keep raking the beach at least once or twice a day, and every two years pump a whole bunch of shit bottoms from the Brazos Channel to spew on the beach. Sounds like being a perfectly fine environmental steward to me in this political climate.

Yeah right.

4 comments:

Sam said...

I think I was being sarcastic, ex-Manissean, since there ain't no boardwalk in South Padre (except a little down by the County Park). You ought to come on down and refresh those ole memories!

Some of the seawalls, maybe 4-5 feet high, did their job but these waves from Katrina and Rita over-topped them, leading most of us locals with the obvious conclusion that where there were good dunes, the water didn't end up in in the street or in somebody's house.

Worse yet, many condos, beach acesses, and hotels had cleared areas of dunes and they actually funnelled the water right on in. But I'm preaching to the choir because most of us are into building dunes - it is just that some particular developers keep wanting to rip them down, and they get all the votes they need EVERY STINKING TIME.
/Sam

Everett said...

Here on BI, sometime in the next five or six years we are going to have to do something about the beach directly across from the Beachead Rest. The water on a good high tide is right up to the edge of the road and across it on a good hard 'nothesta'. It will probably have to be something on the order of what is just past the Spring House. NOW would be a good time to start getting the ducks lined up, but so far, ziltch! Nobody cares till there is a good breach there going over into Harbor Pond!

Anonymous said...

Hey Sammy Wammy, what's up? Is the town meeting resistance to the 1/14 dune building exercise?

Any help from the alderdude?

Tha Beerman :),

Sam said...

Naw, Beerman, the dune shebang is on for the 14th.

What I was referring to were recent approvals of 3-4 dune destruction permits. The Town is now in the position of (a) promoting dunes and (b) destroying them. Gosh I love America!

Everett,

That's a bad place there and it looks like your Town is being slightly negligent. If you lose the roadbed in an overnight storm, it might take months to get it back!