Corpus Christi Caller Times Caller.com - Neighbors find it hard to leave

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Monday, November 29, 1999

Neighbors find it hard to leave
Homeowners bought out for new H-E-B
By Deborah Martinez
Caller-Times

George Gongora/Caller-Times

Josephine De Leon Meave (centeR) cries with her daughter Roxanne as the two reminisce about living in their house on MacArthur Street. Meave's husband, Rudy, listens in. H-E-B purchased the property in the area in order to build its largest store in Corpus Christi on South Port Avenue and Tarlton Street.

After nearly 30 years in her MacArthur Street home, the thought of packing up and moving to another one brought tears to the eyes of Josephine De Leon Meave.
   "It hurts me to leave this house," said Meave, a 58-year-old grandmother on Social Security. "This house used to be my mother's. There's a lot of memories. I'm not going to find me another family house like this, one where we can be home."
   Meave's home is one of 10 recently sold to H-E-B so the grocery chain could have enough space to build its biggest store in Corpus Christi on an adjacent lot.
   The new H-E-B will be on South Port Avenue and Tarlton Street and replaces the H-E-B stores on Ayers Street and Baldwin Boulevard.
   In total, 15 lots on MacArthur Street will become the new store's loading dock and employee parking lot, said Debbie Lindsey-Opal, public affairs manager for H-E-B's Gulf Coast region.
   The home sales were voluntary and in the best interest of the neighborhood, Meave said. But the demolition of their homes is a bittersweet end to an era.
   Many of the residents here on the 3000 block of MacArthur Street have been neighbors for decades.
   Their kids played together. They went to school together. They went to nearby Holy Family Parish together.
   Meave's children, now grown, still live on her property. The back of her lot is filled with five efficiencies for her five children. Though Meave has a place to move to, her family will not fit in her new home and will have to be spread out across the city, she said.
   Despite her tears, Meave said she and her neighbors know the chain will improve the neighborhood.
   Aside from filling a vast, vacant lot, the new store will create approximately 40 jobs, Lindsey-Opal said, and all employees at the Ayers and Baldwin stores will be transferred to the new unit.
   "We're going to build on the best of what we have in (the Ayers and Baldwin) stores," Lindsey-Opal said. "We want to be a part of their neighborhood.
   "We wouldn't have built there if they didn't want to sell," she said. "We would've moved on to look elsewhere."
   Neighborhood improvement
   When the new store opens next fall, it will include a sit-down deli and a broader base of Mexican products. Studies by the grocery chain show a large part of the customer base in the area is Hispanic.
   H-E-B will also set up a To-Go truck in the parking lot. The truck will have deli meals that customers on the run can pick up for dinner.
   Lindsey-Opal said discussions between H-E-B and the Regional Transportation Authority are also underway so customers without cars can have easy access to the store.
   Michele Mora-Trevino, communications manager for RTA, said the grocery chain contacted them two weeks ago. A bus stop/shelter at the new H-E-B site is very likely, she said.
   Difficult to move
   "It's going to be beautiful and an improvement for the neighborhood," said Meave, who finally decided to sell her house after she realized she was the only one left on her block who hadn't. "It's going to be a help for the old people so they don't have to walk as far for groceries. I just wish I could stay to enjoy it."
   So does Elodia Valdez, who said her house on MacArthur has been her home for 50 years.
   Simply trying to talk about her upcoming move from the house her late husband built cracks her composure.
   She raised 12 children in the brown brick home. A few still live there, as well as some of her 26 grandchildren. The 69-year-old business owner said the memories her family built there aren't the only things she'll miss when she moves.
   The friends she's made out of her neighbors will be irreplaceable too. Some of those, including next-door neighbor Sulema Lopez, are even her comadres.
   Valdez said she and her neighbors sponsored a lot of one another's children for their Holy Communion at Holy Family Parish.
   "I didn't want to leave," Valdez said. "I don't think anyone wants to leave but since it's for the community, and they're going to benefit from this, we are."
   Boost to area economy
   While some people are losing an emotional stake because of H-E-B's latest development, it will make the area more attractive to other business in the long run, said Paul Garcia, president of the Westside Business Association.
   It will also bring more business to the small establishments already there and boost the area's economy, Garcia said.
   For the city, he said, the new H-E-B on Port and Tarlton means less traffic at the already dangerous intersection of Port and Ayers. The Baldwin H-E-B is just too small for customers.
   "We welcome them," Garcia said. "You'll have some people who won't like the change but they'll be fairly compensated. The H-E-B will improve property value. It'll clean up the area and revitalize the Westside. It'll help it look a lot cleaner on that empty lot where a lot of trash is."
   Memories left behind
   Residents such as Meave, Valdez and Lopez understand that. They've accepted that their homes will give way to progress.
   But it's still hard.
   "It's time to move," said Meave, her voice cracking and tears filled her eyes. "I don't think I'll be able to see them tear down my house. I'm going to send someone to take a video of it. I'm leaving a lot of memories behind."



Staff writer Deborah Martinez can be reached at 886-3622 or by e-mail at martinezd@caller.com

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