COMMENT OF THE DAY: YOU CAN LOVE THE BAY YOU’RE WITH AND STILL HARBOR SHIP CHANNEL FANTASIES 
“I know that Galveston Bay is the economic engine of the Houston area, but it’s fun to ponder what 42 prime bayside acres could be other than a barge staging area, or what the bay woulda/coulda been had oil not been discovered nearby. Coulda been San Francisco, got Can Cerisco.” [JoeDirt, commenting on Kirby To Lease New Ship Channel Barge Parking Area, Pay for Barge Collision Oil Spill] Illustration: Lulu
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Realistically, that would be Corpus Christi’s destiny, not Houston’s. It’s just a matter of when…50 years out or 100?
Well, if you want an idea of what kind of community might grow out of some prime bayside acreage, look at La Porte and Morgan’s Point. But that’s *actually* bayside. This 42-acre tract adjoins the Houston Ship Channel; real-world comparables include Channelview and Brownwood, which are very dissimilar from San Francisco.
I would rather fantasize about Galveston Island NOT being wiped off the map from a Hurricane. Houston Ship Channel not getting federal funds to dredge. But, things happen for a reason. Otherwise all of our skyscrapers would have 5 story lobbies and the skywalks would be on the 6th foor. Plus the whatever comparable suburb Bolivar would be… would no longer be. The comparison to San Francisco with a lack of oil would put us on par with something like Mobile.
Surely there’s another city besides Mobile (say, on the way to Mobile) that this alt-universe Galveston/Houston might closely resemble (if only in our dreams)…