I haven't been to CC for 20 years. I stayed for 4 days at the OMNI.
Close to Marina with a good view of the bay.

Lots of Homeless? I could figure out why….is it because the Catholic Church offers good support to street people?

Old buildings reminded me of older west Texas towns where the old town squares are abandoned or way under utilized.

That whole area just appears to be stagnant except for the Aquarium, Lexington and some access to bay front beaches.

It is like there is no plan to develop an area that appears to have lots of potential. Anyone have some insight?

I live nearby. It's one of the oddest cities going when it comes to development and navigation.

My hot sports opinion is that it has absurd, untapped potential as well. Call me crazy (and many will) but it's the Texas version of San Diego if someone had the proper vision.

I actually like the downtown area and think it's pretty cool. It's easy to walk around for the most part and there are some newer bars and restaurants that have popped up in the last few years. There are pockets of development and positive change here and there if you explore a little bit. There are also pockets and swaths of neglect.

My understanding is that a lot of the land is owned by a handful of old money that simply refuses to do much with it. I don't know how true that is.

It will be interesting if someone can capitalize on all of the land beneath and/or near the old Harbor Bridge when it goes away. May already be spoken for; don't know.

The corpus metro area hasn't experienced double digit percent growth from one decade to another since 1970-1980, and the growth has been lower than national birth rates for most of that time since then. Which for a population that is largely catholic and largely poor, I don't think it would be an unfair claim to say the area has experienced a net negative in terms of people moving in vs out.
I think it's hard to say though whether the slow growth is the main cause of the lack of development/progress or vice versa.
I think part of it could be that its location between Galveston and S. Padre is bad for tourism. Every significant metro area aside from San Antonio is closer to the other two.

I spent the first 18 years of my life there before going to A&M (so first 22 off and on I guess) and it's always been perplexing to me. Twilight zone-ish in terms of how slow it changes.

Rockport here. Just a tad North of Corpus Christi and almost never go. Very strange town, very! Does not seem to have a 'vibe' of its own, seems to try hard, but just never gets there. As Aggie_Boomin21 said, it may suffer from not being that far from South Padre. I dunno, but just does not give you a warm and fuzzy!

I hadn't thought about it but the location aspect may be part of this. It sits kind of in this pass over spot between Houston and S Padre and about the same distance to Austin / San Antonio as Houston. Sort of in no man's land.

I'm totally cool with that though now that I'm a nearby local. Ha. Selfishly, I don't want too much growth here because I moved here to get away from a big city. I think CRP is just big enough and we only go there on the weekends anyway.

It sucks because in the late 90s there was a great bar scene down there. Had Tom Foolery's, Harry's piano bar, Buckets sports bar, dragon bar, Dr rockits bar all right there and was packed every weekend. The bike cops showed up and harassed the crap out of everyone down there and the scene died and hasn't come back. Had some damn good times

Reel Aggies said:

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It sucks because in the late 90s there was a great bar scene down there. Had Tom Foolery's, Harry's piano bar, Buckets sports bar, dragon bar, Dr rockits bar all right there and was packed every weekend. The bike cops showed up and harassed the crap out of everyone down there and the scene died and hasn't come back. Had some damn good times

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I'm not sure how frequented they are but there are some cool looking bars down there now.

Born and raised but haven't lived there in two decades. Still frequent often and have a lot of family and friends still there.

1) extremely corrupt leaders in the positions of county judges, city Council members, the port, construction, and the school board. Go google Fulton construction and CCISD and understand that's about .01% of what goes on down there. Ingrained in the city and its leaders and prominent families down to the core and has been forever.

2) very hard to bring back high end young talent post college because there are no real professional jobs in engineering, finance, or law. Big refineries which most refuse to work at, personal injury law, and massive Medicaid and Medicare fraud. Of course there are exceptions and entrepreneurial routes but that's a big ask for the vast majority of people.

3) drugs. Huge money laundering spot at extremely high levels all the way down to very easy access beginning in middle school.

Add it all up and you get the sparkling city by the sea. I still love it!

My sister still lives in Corpus and she agrees with you about drugs really being bad.
Says it's SOP for kids to be offered free drugs in order to get them hooked.
But I do enjoy an occasional visit from Austin, love the gulf beaches.

It is a strange city. When you visit contemporary cities around the South and Gulf Coast, you realize that CC is a case study in "what went wrong." It has natural beauty, proximity to great fishing and hunting, and a mild winter. I cannot put my finger on what the issue is, but it has systemic problems.

Visit Savannah, Pensacola, Chattanooga, Asheville and compare to CC. You realize right away that something is wrong.

YouBet said:

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I live nearby. It's one of the oddest cities going when it comes to development and navigation.

My hot sports opinion is that it has absurd, untapped potential as well. Call me crazy (and many will) but it's the Texas version of San Diego if someone had the proper vision.

I actually like the downtown area and think it's pretty cool. It's easy to walk around for the most part and there are some newer bars and restaurants that have popped up in the last few years. There are pockets of development and positive change here and there if you explore a little bit. There are also pockets and swaths of neglect.

My understanding is that a lot of the land is owned by a handful of old money that simply refuses to do much with it. I don't know how true that is.

It will be interesting if someone can capitalize on all of the land beneath and/or near the old Harbor Bridge when it goes away. May already be spoken for; don't know.

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Hasn't the Port bought out a bunch of that land?

No. Most is still owned by Bob Rowling or affiliated entities.