Crosby, Texas

I am going to start off by saying that I love Newport. I’ve lived here practically my entire life. Newport was built in ‘78? My parents moved into their house in Newport in ‘78 and I was born in ‘79.

As a kid, as many kids in Newport do, we would trek down to Gum Gully to see what we could get into. I remember finding rope swings and makeshift tables and chairs from wood that children before me had left for us.

I can remember the Newport Clubhouse that used to sit in the circle at Newport Boulevard. Sometime in the ‘90’s, there was a game room there and a few friends and myself would go and play video games. They had air hockey, which was really awesome!

Cut forward three or four years, and those same friends and I would go down to Newport beach at night and have bonfires. This was way before the Lake and River Key or the Signed contracts. You could just drive straight down South Diamondhead right into the river. We would have our bonfires on what they called “Pipeline Road”… Just a dirt road off to the side. I’m not sure why we thought this was a good idea (to start a fire on ‘pipeline road’).

But I just can’t take it anymore, c’mon Newport…

First of all, I always thought that the piece of property between the swimming pool and the driving range belonged to Newport. Newport had a small playground there at one time, it wasn’t very cool though and didn’t last long, but I really thought it belonged to Newport. Well, there is a new builder in town, and they stuck a house right there. It’s facing the pool. The driveway dumps right out into the pool parking lot. The driving range is in the back yard. Really Newport?

And second, this has been getting to me for a LONG time… Off of Golf Club, there was a new subdivision put in. They built a handful of houses and then abandoned them. The builders did not build any more houses, nor did they sell these houses. And they sat vacant for YEARS.

I can remember before Hurricane Ike tore through Newport, I drove through this new section and the four houses that sat there were completely vandalized. There was spray paint on the garage doors, one of them had the front door open, and I’m sure there was someone in there. And ALL of the houses had broken windows. All of them were torn up from sitting vacant for so long. Well, after Ike, I was surveying the damage done to my neighborhood, and drove through what they call “Seven Oaks” now, and there was some significant damage to a couple of the houses. And if you remember, Hurricane Ike tore through Newport in September 2008. Here we are, in 2011 and they’re now advertising this section as “Newport's Newest Community.” LOL Newport. Are you serious? It is not new at all! How about “Newport's most recently revamped community”… That would be more suiting. Vandalism? Hurricane? Sure, it’s new. C’mon Newport. I hope you’re at least letting prospective homeowners know about their “New” homes.