Sunday, October 11, 2009

Explain it to me

Ok, so I really make a big effort to find what's good and unique in each place I visit, and I really like regional idiosyncrasies like food, language, architecture, and arts. Man, there's a LOT of that here! It's great--such a pronounced regional identity! It's character, and it's why here and Texas in general are great in so many ways.

But Corpans, you have to tell me about this: the lead article on the Sunday paper is about the new plan for Memorial Coliseum, and, as you probably already know, it's an ice-skating rink.

How did this come about? Do people feel that tourists are going to visit Corpus to go ice-skating, or is this more something for residents? (I have a hard time visualizing taking most of your clothes off for swimming and hot-weather activities, then buttoning up with ice skates and mittens. Maybe I just lack imagination with my thinking about vacations!) Why does this make sense over, say, a world-class swimming facility, a serious water park, a pier or boardwalk, or a waterfront golf course (much less a waterfront sculpture park like Seattle's)?

Forgive me for not understanding, lo, explain it to me. I want to know what you think.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

A skating rink is actually a nice idea. In the summer, you can get out of the 100 degree, 100% humidity for awhile. In the winter, it would provide a chance to do something you can't do normally because of the weather.

rbubp said...

Right--so you feel this is more for residents, then? I still have a hard time imagining that tourists would use it very much. But I could be wrong.

Anonymous said...

Residents and visitors.People may not come just to skate but as long as they are are here it would be something fun to do. Odessa put a rink in their mall and it gets a lot of use.

rbubp said...

Respectfully, Anonymous 10:19, I think the city should hold a contest to honor the first tourist to go to ice skating. And they should ask them if they planned it into their activities when visiting Corpus or if it was spontaneous.

The skating rink is for the locals. People don't go to Colorado to go swimming, and they don't go to the southern beaches to go ice skating.

None of this would be an issue if Corpus didn't already have a fair amount of indoor activities for tourists (the art museum, the Lexington, the aquarium)--but not a whole lot of outside or between-buildings life in the downtown area other than the marina.

Anonymous said...

Robert,

I am sure by now you have heard and read plenty about Memorial Coliseum and perhaps the Old Nueces Courthouse by I-37, downtown. I am also sure you have seen these structures for yourself. What would you do with these buildings? There has been plenty of talk about tearing them both down. Would you be interested in drawing your conception of one or both of these buildings for your exhibition in January?

TOMSCatherine said...

What I love, personally, about Corpus Christi is the little electrical boxes downtown. They send students out to paint them to reduce graffiti. And, they all are really well painted. It looks so cool!

Hilari Martin said...

I think tourists and residents would like to go to an ice skating rink. Considering how hot it so here ALL THE TIME, it can be an escape from the hot weather and can be somewhere to cool down. Also, a lot of people don't know this, but here in Corpus we have a youth hockey group that could use that extra space and not have to juggle with the times at the America Bank Center because of all the other stuff that goes on over there. Plus, we can make lots of money off kids who come to just have fun and we can use that money towards something else that needs to be fix in the city.

Anonymous said...

The ice skating rink idea came about as a default. Since it once housed the hockey games and served as a skating rink (sometimes) in the past it did not require any imagination to come up with that idea. Nobody has figured out what to do with the courthouse for over 25 years and in ten more it will crumble on its own. The city addresses problems by ignoring them until they become un salvageable thus passively forcing a definitive fate. You naively assume the skating rink idea actually had some thought behind it.
KK

Al Stevens said...

The Coliseum was used by the Rays a few years back, and they used to allow people to skate on it during the off-season, or days it wasn't in use. I did that a few times, it was quite fun. I say they keep the building, and restore the ice rink. It would be a nice change from the heat down here. There is water everywhere in Corpus, but how many places can you find large chunks of ice in this town?

rbubp said...

It kind of amazes me how many people have complained about the heat, but I do get that, I lived in the South for 27 years. But here's the thing--you all need a place to get out of the heat, and hockey is popular. But tourists, they come here FOR the heat. That needs to be recognized. If you're doing it right your tourists aren't from Kingsville, they're from New Hampshire. The fact that the weather is vacation-friendly for 10 or 11 months out of the year is a bonus even though it's hard to handle for residents during the summer months.

Anon 12:21, I have thought of doing that. The large drawings I'm working will be open-ended--there will be a lot of white space with varied citizen suggestions pencilled in the gaps--but I will make some smaller ones that address the coliseum and the courthouse.

The courthouse, wow. That one is really tough. Why did they move out of there in the first place? Was there a problem with the building? It seems a little unusual to change govt buildings in the downtown area.