CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The city's 2024 Proposed Bond has a price tag of $175 million and consists of four propositions. KRIS 6 News reporter Naidy Escobar looked into one of the biggest issues Corpus Christi residents are always concerned about — streets.
The bond includes Proposition A Streets, Proposition B Parks, Proposition C Public Safety, and Proposition D Cultural Facilities.
Proposition A focuses on improvements to the streets and it takes up a huge chunk of the proposed bond 2024 with a total of $89 million.
“There are 18 street projects that are currently included in Proposition A,” Engineering Services Director Jeff Edmond said.
But of those 18 projects, only two are on the city’s Westside.
“It’s frustrating you know because you think like what’s going to happen to this side town,” Westside resident Natalia Zavala said.
Zavala was born and raised on the Westside of town and said it’s often overlooked, and the road conditions aren’t the very best.
She has had multiple car issues because of the potholes.
“This side of town just going to be rejected," she said. "Like how it has been or what’s going to happen, it’s concerning because I would really like this side of town to be worked on and improved like the other parts of town."
Edmond said there is a process that they go through when it comes to considering projects. It is done with time and there are numerous meetings with stakeholders and with council members to discuss future projects.
“What we try to do is have something called rough proportionality, so there are certain projects that we consider city-wide projects that shouldn’t count against an individual district, and so we take those out, and the remaining of the funds we try to balance equally between the districts,” Edmond said.
District 3, which includes the Westside, has two big public safety projects included in Proposition C, they are the replacement of fire stations 10 and 8.
But even if Prop C passes, this would only mean that the two projects in Prop A would only fund the design phase of those projects.
That's also a source of frustration for west side residents.
"Certain streets are getting patches, and patches don’t last," Salvador, another Westside resident, said.
He added that it seems like certain sections are not being taken care of and those are the worst one.
“We never see anything happen because you know it’s only the beginning part of it; I guess they are only going to design it, and then whenever there is another bond, and we have enough money, then it will happen,” Zavala said.
Edmond added that there is also a city-wide residential street project in Propostion A , it's a $35 million investment to improve streets all over town.
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