The Bayfront

George Gongora/Caller-Times

For many who live in Corpus Christi, taking Ocean Drive to work can be a relaxing preparation for a long day or a small reward for having just endured one.

Corpus Christi's 3.5-mile-long bayfront seawall has steps similar to those found in stadiums, with one important difference: No admission fee, ever - for fireworks shows, sailboat races or windsurfing regattas, or for fishing or just looking out at the water, the ships and the birds.
   For those who want to guarantee a spot, houses along Ocean Drive average $500,000 - allowing for fluctuation both ways.

   Other things worth knowing about the bayfront:
  

• Trees: 300-plus Washingtonia, Robusta, Florida and Texas Sabal palms on Ocean Drive's 9-mile median.
    
• Marina: 585 boat slips, generally 85 percent occupied; 92 percent of the boats are recreational, 8 percent commercial, mostly shrimpers.
    
• What Jesus did: A 15-foot bronze sculpture, titled "It is I," by sculptor Kent Ullberg depicting Jesus on a boat stilling the storm stands in front of First United Methodist Church, overlooking the bay. The statue, completed in 1995, stilled a storm of debate that had raged off and on at least since the 1920s, when the artist who carved Mount Rushmore proposed a statue of Jesus out in the bay.
    
• More beach, less riprap: $3 million, 1,200-foot-long, 250-foot-wide beachfront project under way across the street from Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. Sandy beach will replace jagged chunks of concrete debris called riprap.