Friday, August 01, 2008

Goodbye Dolly






I'll do one more post about Dolly because there's some great new stuff happening, like Willie Nelson coming down in November for the music fest (starting October 31). Looks a little scruffy but the island still works. I took some pictures "downtown" on the bayside today and the bayside still looks a little rough, to say the least. The picture just above is of what used to be Tequila Frogs, of spring break fame. The rest are from Fisherman's Wharf to Palm Street Pier.

I guess a little "urban renewal" along the old Tompkins Channel and the old entertainment district will be a good thing. It could take a years or two to get back to a nice bayside, given all the permits and expenses. But much of the damage I saw was from docks that were built in the 70's and 80's. Even concrete pilings were rotting, the rust hanging off them, due to the high salinity of the Laguna Madre. You could obviously see that giant bolts and nails were just orange rust spots.

Once we get those three or four boats off the shore and the wreckage cleared out it will look much better. Charlie was down at Palm Street saying they had pulled a lot of trash out of the water, but his jet-ski business is back open and things are doing better already. I think Dolly showed us how important the bayside is to our economy - and why we need to maintain it better in the future.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Sam,
Glad you and Lori made it through! I heard that my condo is ruined and hopefully it will be fixed by next summer. I really need an island fix. Take care,
Char

Sam said...

Gosh I feel horrible, Char, your place seemed OK from the outside, other than the usual stuff. We still owe ya a big ole Chinese dinner so come on! Let me know if you want me to look into your unit but I'd need special permission ... maybe I can help. Take care,
sammie

Anonymous said...

anyway you can load the pics you took for all to see...

Sam said...

OK