From North Bayfront Park, visitors get a panoramic view of Corpus Christi Bay, the USS Lexington and the American Bank Center. Photo by JoAnna Kopp
Bayfront Park has a new name and a new addition. The Corpus Christi City Council voted to change the name of Bayfront Park to The Water’s Edge and officially accepted donations to build a dog park within the 30 acres of greenland along the downtown bayfront from Furman Avenue to Coopers Alley. The council also voted to change the name of Sherrill Park to Sherrill Veterans Memorial Park in honor of the veterans monuments there. The park is often used for veterans memorial ceremonies.
The main reason for changing the name is to rebrand Bayfront Park, now undergoing a renovation using $5.1 million in 2008 bond money. Shoreline Boulevard was recently rerouted to keep from cutting the parkland in two with traffic. (This current council has indicated it might vote to reopen that portion of Shoreline, instructing contractors earlier this year not to tear up the roadway to plant palm trees.)
“I think we can really market it,” said Mayor Pro-tem Lucy Rubio, referring to the new name. “I think we can go far with it.”
The council also approved adding a dog park to the other amenities planned for the site. The vote included accepting $126,000 in donations. Of that, $75,000 comes from the Rhagat Foundation, which also funded a dog park in Portland. That park is named after the family’s late dog, Kaiah. In Corpus Christi, the dog park will be named the Vishal Bhagat Dog Park as part of the condition for accepting the money. The remaining $51,000 comes from the Coastal Bend Community Foundation.
The vote to accept funds for the dog park was 6-2, with council members Joe McComb and Paulette Guarjardo voting against the proposal. Both were concerned with the source of funding and putting a dog park there in the first place.
“I don’t agree with putting a dog park on a multimillion-dollar piece of property in Corpus Christi,” Guardardo said during the meeting April 25.
Council member Rudy Garza countered that a dog park is an amenity the public will enjoy and fits into the basic goals of public parkland.
The park formerly known as Bayfront flirted with becoming Destination Bayfront, a private development that came before voters in the form of a $44 million bond issue in 2013. The bond was rejected by voters who believed the city should be focusing on finding money to repair its streets.
And just as a final note, the Texas State Aquarium agrees that the name has pizzazz and marketability. It named its cateriing company Water's Edge.
