My husband has a job opportunity that would require us to move to Corpus for 3 to 4 years. We have a 3 year old daughter as well. So she would being going to k-2 in Corpus during this time.

If you have lived there, what are your general feelings about the city and surrounding areas? Is it a safe area and are the schools good for my daughter? We are a little worried about the move, so any information would be nice to have. Thanks.

It's like any big city, you've got your good part of town and your bad parts. I lived near the university for a while (I've lived southside, on the island, and on ocean drive) and we had someone try to break in, and a car get tagged one night over there, but I really liked that neighborhood. I always felt safe on the island at night, and near the university. My other apartments, not so much - my car was broken into when I lived at Saratoga Cove apartments. Rent is high in this town, I pay 800/month right now but I'm on the ocean. What exactly are you worried about in corpus?

There are a lot of transients in this town, a lot of drug use and, to me, the city has a dingy, used feeling to it. Just anecdotal information I would get from patient's parents when I worked with children is that Gregory-Portland was the best school district in the area (public), then Flour Bluff, but I don't have any personal experience and my co-worker's kids are in private school because they don't like CCISD. The hospitals are good, there are two main hospital systems - Spohn and Corpus Christi Medical Center as well as a children's hospital.

I'm going on 2 years here. but no kids. If you know you are going to only be here for 3-4 years and already have a significant other, CC isn't a bad choice. It seems to have a harder time retaining the single young adults.

I've never had issue where I live, but one of my neighbors is retired, another is a professor at the university, another is a sub and then one of my roommates goes to A&M CC so we constantly have people in and out on our street. You will either want to live on the stretch from Louisiana to the university somewhere off Ocean or on South side.

No kids but wife is an elementary teacher. I grew up in Houston and not use to CC's lifestyle. As in all of texas, public schools are good, but CC has these "magnet" schools where kids go for a specialized focus. My wife teaches at a fine arts magnet school and there is also one geared for technical/engineering (starts in middle school). I thought this was pretty neat. They still do all the STARR testing that is required by public schools.

Flour bluff is a very decent school district and you can have your child go there by living on the island which is not like sea pony described. Totally different feels and vibe. It's very laid back. A lot of families and retired folks and everyone is friendly for the most part. The con is that you will have to deal with tourists and rowdy beach goers during the peak seasons. (Spring break)

The south side of corpus has great schools as well Zachary Kolda elementary is brand new and my neighbors say they are very please with the staff. If your child can test in and you guys are willing there is Windsor Park which is a GT program school (I went there) and is one of the better/best elementary schools in corpus.
London ISD is also top notch but has a "hoity toity" feel to is and you wouldn't think that as it is sort of in the country but median household cost of families who live in London is around 350k which for corpus is upper tier.

Of course there are "dingy" areas and there is a problem with litter! but for the most part corpus is very laid back and friendly and has plenty of outdoor stuff to do.

Make sure you get involved with the Aggie group we have a very strong and active alumni association.
www.saltyaggies.com
Hope that helps !

Unless your kid is in the gt program living off ocean will not get them into a good elementary school IMO. It's an area that blowing up or young professionals and some older houses with "character" that folks are updating and remodeling.

I've lived in corpus my entire life minus 8 years when I lived in college station and Dallas and never felt unsafe or had my home or vehicle violated. (Knock on wood). Lived in Dallas for 4 yrs and had my car broken into twice and my buddy had someone kick his door down and rob him. So this happens everywhere !

Yes rent is higher now bc of the explosion of folks into town due to eagleford shale but bc of this corpus is growing and a lot of new restaurants shops etc. are opening around town.

[This message has been edited by Lazuras_dc (edited 1/31/2014 8:39a).]

Crime does happen everywhere. We've had 3 break-ins in our neighborhood and at least a couple attempted ones over the last 4 or 5 years, and we live in a fairly low crime area in a suburb north of Dallas.

But back to Corpus, I know it is a generalization, but is it fairly safe to say that the South side is a lower crime area and the North side a higher crime area?

My general thought as been to avoid living anywhere inside 358/I37/286

Downtown is hit and miss and generally not too developed for downtown living, although some of my buddies live there

Also beginning at cole park and hugging the water down to the univeristy then up ennis joslin to 358 is good. Also the further from ocean drive you get, more or less, the sketchier it gets.

Not familiar with South Side or Flour Bluff. I hear South side is safe.

[This message has been edited by tpnick87 (edited 1/31/2014 11:25a).]

Edit to fix picture then I noticed I typed in wrong street.

[This message has been edited by tpnick87 (edited 1/31/2014 11:26a).]

Cool. Thanks for the info tpnick.

I live on the south side off of Saratoga, and feel safe. It's like any city though, if you leave valuables out in plain sight in your car, you're asking for trouble.

Otherwise the south side is where most of the growth of the city has occurred over the past 10-15 years.

Avoid North/West

IMO i'd do the Island or anything south of Holly and east of Everhart.

My wife and I have an apartment near Saratoga and Staples. We like the convenience to most things but do not like the traffic situation. Saratoga and Staples seem like the main arteries into south side. This wouldn't be so bad except that that Corpus drivers are so bad. Having to do all sorts of U-turns to get where we want to go on Saratoga can be annoying too.

We plan to buy a house in the next couple months and are looking at Portland, Calallen, and Padre Island as a distant third. We are planning to have a kid in the next year or two. Those areas seem like the like a good combo of good neighborhoods and good rated public school systems.

Are there any Aggie realtors down here?

Cil Pesek w/ Remax

http://public.remax.net/public/pages/AffiliateProfile.aspx?usrprof=782C3022-0058-445E-B95F-8AD76C40C1A4&resultindex=-1

Due to the traffic of South side and my hate for the burbs, i bought a house near Incarnate Word. No complaints here. 5 min drive to work and easy access to the freeway

Edit to fix my crazy auto correct

[This message has been edited by tpnick87 (edited 2/4/2014 12:33a).]

If schools are a priority, look no further than Calallen. Stay the hell away from CC ISD.

[This message has been edited by B-1 83 (edited 2/4/2014 7:47a).]

Been In CC all my life except when I was in College Station. CCISD is ok, but Calallen and Flour Bluff would be better in my opinion but there has been some cases in recent history of bulling at both schools which were reported in the news, but im sure that happens everywhere. Kings Crossing area is new and being developed it is going toward the island, that might be a good area to look into as well. Im not too sure about the schools in that area but they are new and so are most of the infrastructure toward that area. I havent heard anything bad about that area and that is the direction corpus is expanding to.

I would recommend the Flour Bluff school district.

CCISD just got slaughtered in their yearly evaluations with a slug of schools ranked "unacceptable". STAY AWAY FROM CCISD AT ALL COSTS!

London ISD is very solid if you are trying to avoid CCISD.

Thank you to everyone who gave the opinions above.

Calallen is one area that we were told was a "nicer" area. What are housing cost like in this area? I see above that some say schools are good there. Also is it more of a suburb or is it still a part of CC?

I'd say its still corpus... It can't be more than 15 miles from downtown which is nothing compared to any big city

I don't live in Corpus/Calallen, but my Doctor is in Calallen and we travel thru there a lot. I would either live there or on the island ...and retirement isn't that far off. They are planning on building a HEB Plus in Calallen, and that will be an improvement, also.

IMO callalen is terrible and I don't consider it part of Corpus... its a "suburb" at best and is about a 30min drive. I don't know why people are into that area. But I guess the schools are decent. I still don't agree that they would be better than London ISD or Flour Bluff ISD.

Let me add to my previous post with: The only reason I would live in Calallen would be for acreage property.

If I had children and wanted plenty of things to do for the family or as a younger couple or single adult there is no way I would ever consider Calallen.

They do have a great sports program and they ARE maroon and white !! London is in our district (basketball)...nice enough school, but certainly in the middle of the cotton patch. Guess their academics are good...but not sure where you would live if your kids went to school there. Oh yes, London is maroon and white, too !!

Yeah most of London ISD is further out from Corpus but not near as far as Calallen but you can definitely get home on 1-2 acres easily.

I've never even heard their school was good. Everyone I know who grew up in Corpus talked down on Callalen... thats saying something.

Looks like all three are good school districts. From the '10-'11 rankings.

Calallen: Recognized
Flour Bluff: Recognized
London: Exemplary

http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/school.finance/forecasting/summaries/district_summary_1011.html

Brush Country Ag, I assume you would prefer Calallen on account you can get more land for your money? Is that correct?

Usually school district ratings are a good indicator of quality of life, so when I looked at these ratings I'm thinking the London ISD is a better area.

I might be retiring in a few years as well (have to wait at least another 5 years, probably 7). Like you, I'm weighing my options. Parents live on the island and I kind of like the area (spent 6 years of my childhood in Hawaii and I like the beach). Although I don't want to live on the island (contradiction I know, but I don't want to pay the extra $$$ and deal with Spring Breakers). And since I drive 30 min everyday to work in Dallas, a 30 min drive to me is nothing.

I am more impressed at the fact a woman is on texags! #keeper

"Usually school district ratings are a good indicator of quality of life, so when I looked at these ratings I'm thinking the London ISD is a better area."

London ISD is literally out in the cotton fields. There really aren't houses nearby the school.

If you look at a google map for Corpus Christi, go south on Weber Road (CR 43) out into the country, and keep going until you reach the intersection of CR 33. It's literally farmer's fields surrounding the school campus (not multiple campuses, just one).

That said, they have good academics. I think you can apply to transfer into their district from other parts of Corpus Christi if you want to.

[This message has been edited by Aggie87 (edited 2/20/2014 4:04p).]

My wife and I looked at CalAllen when shopping for a home. It seems nice but is just like any other suburb in Texas. We figure if living on the coast and having to pay windstorm anyways, why not live near water?

We are currently under contract on a home in Portland by the bay. I don't think GPISD is rated as high as CalAllen, but I grew up in Bryan ISD so our future rugrats can just deal with it.

quote:

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London ISD is literally out in the cotton fields.

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So they're living in high cotton, huh?

Okay that joked sucked.

Yeah, from that link, which is a couple of years old so things could have changed, Gregory-Portland is rated acceptable.

Our kids would be out of high school if we moved so the school district rating isn't all that important. Parent involvement is as important as the teacher so a kid can still get a good education if the parents take an interest. And you can still have good schools in a mediocre district.

However, I noticed that the percentage of disadvantaged students seems to be high in all three (Flour Bluff, Gregory-Portland and Calallen). I don't know much about the other two areas, but that kind of surprises me about Flour Bluff. I assume the students at A&M CC are skewing the stats. Although the average family wealth for a Flour Bluff student is close to that of our current district (Lewisville).

I would definitely begin our home search in Flour Bluff should the youngest choose A&M CC and the wife go along with it. My parents are the island and hers are in Seguin. Her brothers are in SA too. Nice to be close to family. My sister is in Burleson but we don't talk much these days.

Moving to Calallen soon.

Sure, Calallen is 30 from the mall and downtown, but we're also 30 minutes closer to San Antonio and College Station.