820 N. Lower Broadway Corpus Christi, TX 78401 P.O. Box 9136 Corpus Christi, TX 78469 (361) 884-2011
To the judges: It’s one of the first things visitors to Corpus Christi notice: The streets here are in bad shape. Terrible, embarrassing shape. The streets have been an issue for decades, and for decades, city administration after city administration put off fixing them. Of course this only leads to more costs, and by 2012 the estimate was nearing $1 billion: $55 million a year for 22 years just to get the streets back into manageable shape. That’s when the Caller-Times decided to make the streets its reporting priority for 2012. We started in January with a four-page pullout section, “Our Roads,” written by city reporter Jessica Savage that explored the problem in depth, from how the roads got into this shape to how we might fix them, and most importantly, pay for fixing them. Jessica fought the city for a database of road condition scores for every stretch of road in the city. Street officials initially did not want to release the database because they didn't want residents to find out how bad their streets were -- and then demand action. When Jessica did get the data, she made it accessible on Caller.com through a searchable database and a map showing all the roads' conditions. Her work is a powerful tool for residents to learn about and get involved in the issue. She continued to follow every step of the City Council’s debate throughout the year. Meanwhile, editorial page editor Tom Whitehurst Jr. was hammering the issue in the opinion pages with columns and editorials. He took the City Council to task for waffling on the issue, and in an especially poignant column he took some responsibility for the streets being in such poor condition, saying the paper had not fulfilled its watchdog role as the streets deteriorated. This year certainly changed that. By December, the council had decided that a street user fee would be in place by May to help bring the streets up to par. Jessica’s and Tom’s work set the tone for the extremely important debate in this city. Thanks for your consideration of their work. Sincerely, Denise Malan, data/investigative editor