"The Cut" Area NW of Downtown (Corpus Christi, Rockport: wood floors, apartments)

[ocean2026]

I always sort of liked this place. Police once stopped me and said I don't belong there (Its a mostly Black Neighborhood and I'm not).

It has been a few years and more of the shacks have been torn down and replaced with nothing which doesn't bother me. 20 years from now it will be a totally green area unless something comes there.

The notorious North Side Manor Project seems to have been removed from the City Housing Projects, Wonder if it is still used.

Does anyone ever go there? Its easy to find drive north on Staples - cross the highway and you're there.
They were selling St Pauls' Church a few years ago but guess they didn't find a buyer.

[gabetx]

It could be a cool area once the neighborhoods there are razed. Hopefully the new Harbor Bridge project will aid with that.

Northside Manor is still in use, but is being replaced with the townhomes/apartments being built at Leopard and Palm, near Miller High School.

I go there, but only during work or on the way to a Hooks game.

[Rust Never Sleeps]

Originally Posted by ocean2026

I always sort of liked this place. Police once stopped me and said I don't belong there (Its a mostly Black Neighborhood and I'm not).

It has been a few years and more of the shacks have been torn down and replaced with nothing which doesn't bother me. 20 years from now it will be a totally green area unless something comes there.

The notorious North Side Manor Project seems to have been removed from the City Housing Projects, Wonder if it is still used.

Does anyone ever go there? Its easy to find drive north on Staples - cross the highway and you're there.
They were selling St Pauls' Church a few years ago but guess they didn't find a buyer.

Recall reading an old post of yours regarding the "Cut." You mentioned having bought some property there and visiting it often. I remembered the post for several reasons. I was in the Cut in the early 60's, a white kid, interested in the music at the old "Downbeat Club." For all intents and purposes the Downbeat was an "after hours club." It was known to the police as such but since they had white after hours clubs . . ."what the hell did it matter" was the then line of thought. It was the very best place in town to watch and learn to dance, imo. This was long before hard drugs took over.

I remembered your post because I wondered "why" you bought land there. I wondered if you had a Phase I done on the property before you bought it. I wondered if you went by the property like I sometimes did with land I bought . . .sorta' surveying my domain thinking how can I best make a profit with this property.

Do you have a digital aerial photograph and/or digitized topographic map of your property? What about old aerial photographs . . .easy to find. Actually, that might not be a bad investment given enough time and depending on what you do with it while you own it.

I'm sure you do know about this:

Collaborative on Health and the Environment :: Corpus Christi: Hillcrest Residents Exposed to Benzene In Neighborhood Next Door to Refinery Row

[ocean2026]

I did buy a lot but I was getting mowing fines and it was a pain- sold it to a church. It was on North Staples. I twas hard to do much with. I had considered buying St Paul's Church but it had leaks. Code Enforcement is really aggressive there.

I like the old Sunrise Market bldg--from the outside

[Rust Never Sleeps]

Originally Posted by ocean2026

I did buy a lot but I was getting mowing fines and it was a pain- sold it to a church. It was on North Staples. I twas hard to do much with. I had considered buying St Paul's Church but it had leaks. Code Enforcement is really aggressive there.

I like the old Sunrise Market bldg--from the outside

Smart move. The first thing that came to my mind was lead in the soil from both the old leaded gas days and lead-based paints (LBP). Any old painted bldg is suspect for LBP and asbestos containing underlying mastics on old floor tiles. If it's on wood floors it's very expensive to abate. Some of those old shotgun houses were 75 years old, with many layers and years of peeling LBP, left blowing in the wind, that deteriorated in the soils in some cases. O.K., let's just call it super expensive "bad dirt." That area of Corpus calls for Herculean due diligence, imo.

I wouldn't put up with aggravation from the local control nannies in the first place. Not to say I wouldn't have complied with the RULES, but why put yourself in a position to have to deal with them. Another concern would be the new eminent domain procedures.

Where are the Code Enforcement Rangers with regard to CC's asphalt pavement failures (potholes) and city street litter, the wadded-up What-A-Burger (HEB, etc) bags skittering across streets and parking lots like little urban tumbleweeds. To say nothing of, can you believe, dumping disposable diapers where ever seems convenient, like the mall parking lot . . . that falls under the category of municipal solid waste, doesn't it?

Fifteen years ago, when I lived on the coast, a small group of us old sports would breakfast most Sunday mornings in the Back 40 (now permanently closed) in Rockport. We had a reserved table in the back where your face and sides would ache from laughing so hard when one of us would get on a colorful rant. That was when Rockport was putting in the new sewer lines, which conveniently, just happened to be in place along Omohundro St., and just prior to the new HEB and Walmart having advance men doing Phase I ESA's.
Old folks will remember there was a large trailer park and pond on the site. God works in happenstance, serendipity, and mysterious ways for good Piscatarians.

Two facts anyone considering buying property in San Patricio County Should know.

1. DWI cost (which I agree with) and 2. Unpaid property tax penalties are expensive, they can exceed 47% in the first year. And I might add 2 (a) School taxes.

Btw, ever wonder why the house located on the southwest corner of E. Maple and Omohundro with that large "shop" attached . . .exists, and that little drainage feature on Omohundro St. . . .oh maybe 20' north of the property line's expanded metal (wire) fence?

Being new to City-Data I was amazed at first to see just how many post were titled "What/Why "SHOULD" I buy in bla, bla, bla. . .all across the nation. "Should" is an implied demand, is it not? Frankly, I'm laughing right now, with my first cup of coffee . . . when I read those titled post I substitute "Should" for "Just let me walk into this thing naked." And how obliging City-Data habitués, long on irrepressible up-and-at-'em chirpiness, sunnyside-up breeziness or apocalyptic hysteria, lead them down the forking garden path. What's often fobbed off as "unmentionables" , with a thick unwelcome, are dirty little facts You almost want to say, "Ms. Sweet Twist, you don't need to worry about swimming with sharks in coastal waters, it's the land/property species that will eat you alive." Next time you drive down Omohundro, think "merciless details", have a laugh and a beer on me.

The unobservant reader might have missed my spelling of "habitué" . . .from the theatre history of France in general, and Guy de Maupassant in particular. . .I think Ol' Texas Jack Omohundro Jr., would approve of that message.

Anyway, I thought it interesting you planned to acquire that property as opposed to reacting to a need for property/housing etc.

[ocean2026]

NOt sure what I could have done about the housing problem with a lot. Had someone wanted to build on it Iwould have been fine. There are plenty of lots around there. +