I grew up in Corpus. My grandfather, father, mother, stepmother , uncle, my sister and I all went to Miller. My grandfather on my stepmother's side was the first band director at Miller and wrote the school Alma Mater. My folks still live there in the area, although they moved from our family home on the westside about ten years ago and bought some land in Calallen.
My Mom and Dad can go for hours on what they think is wrong with Corpus, although their theories as to who is responsible probably can't be posted on TexAgs.
I only get down to see them twice a year so take what I say with a grain of salt.
The adjectives I think best describe Corpus are sleepy, torpid, slow-moving,
manana. Corpus is like the proverbial fat man who is forever going to start his diet and exercise program next week. He could get in shape, get some snap to his life and occasionally he really means to, but always seems to put it off. Corpus has enormous potential, it could be another Miami, but every-time it stirs itself a little and takes a couple of steps it then has to sit down to rest.
I get frustrated everytime I go down there. I see a downtown that is dead, a North Beach area that is still underdeveloped after all these years despite the Lexington and Aquarium. Occasionally the city will do something right, like the new arena and Whataburger Field. But how the hell did Sea World wind up in San Antonio instead of Corpus? What idjit decided to put the greyhound track way out on I-37 near the frickin refineries? Who allowed the Columbus ship replicas to fall apart? Why is that eyesore of a County Courthouse and the old Memorial Coliseum still around?
Maybe it's all the retirees down there. The local realtor Bernie Seal used to rant about the "aginers", the folks who don't want tax money used for anything except roads and police and are "agin" anything else.
Corpus just seems content to be a tourist town but doesn't
really seem to want to make too much of an effort at even that.
If you're looking for a place to retire, Corpus is a good spot. The cost of living is low and the pace of life is slow. Even after all the years since I left, you can still get anywhere in town in about 20 minutes.
But if you're a young person living single, it's boring as hell. If you're a young person trying to raise a family, the schools are mediocre.
One of the things that might help Corpus tremendously if A&M-CC, which is really becoming an attractive university (a big change from when I was growing up and it was CCSU; seems like most of the buildings were old Quonset huts back then). A growing, vibrant university down there might do much to invigorate the nightlife and culture in that area.
My Dad says Corpus needs a ramrod, someone with the money and political power to fix things up and get the city moving but that someone doesn't seem to be around. His joke is that instead of billing itself as "The Sparkling City by the Sea" the motto should be "Corpus Christi, The City Most in Need of a Kick in The Ass"
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[This message has been edited by HeyMoe (edited 4/12/2009 12:19p).]
It is a very good program, and that is looking back at it with an MEd. Other good programs in town are Incarnate Word Academy (IWA) and St James Episcopal. St James only goes through (at least as far as I know, I have been gone from CC for years) 8th, so those I know who did that ended up going to Ray for HS. That's because most of them lived in Lamar Park or Ocean Dr. We even had some smart people in our high school who went the public school route through Hamlin MS. I went to Ray, so I don't know much about the South Side. 
