The Rivard Report: Local Needle in a Haystack

Rivard Report-courtesy graphic

With decades of professional journalism under his belt as former editor-in-chief of the San Antonio Express-News, Robert Rivard launched the Rivard Report in early 2012. His staff aims to contribute to the public conversation on the urban renaissance of San Antonio, creating a community forum through their online magazine.

The diversity of the RR lies in its contributors, presenting their perspective of the Alamo City with regularly featured columns. (See Rendon Retrato, The Feed)

After meeting with managing editor Iris Dimmick at a TEDx-Geekdom workshop in August, we exchanged contact info, shared our stories, and here we are - the RR has given me the opportunity to tell my story of manifesting change in San Antonio. With many friends leaving San Antonio and staying gone, I made the decision years ago to hold on and get to the heart of the people and politics shaping the culture of this city.

Following the site since its inception, I continue to be inspired by the wide range of issues covered on the RR. They have all the momentum behind them in igniting this community dialogue.  So stay tuned, spread the word, and if you have a story, they'd love to hear it.

 - Taken from the RR:

I realized I was a part of a network of talented individuals, all striving to make San Antonio a better place for our communities through music, through art, through culture.

I set a goal for myself: redirect my energy to staying in San Antonio, immerse myself in the history of this city, and get a better grasp of the social, political, and economic issues affecting and shaping San Antonio.

Dia de Los Muertos altar for Maury Maverick, former progressive mayor of San Antonio who “defeated the machine.” Photo by Rene Jaime Gonzalez.

In surveying the story of San Antonio, I fell in love with this city. I fell in love with the beautiful struggle that is present in the everyday lives of its citizens. I’ve embraced all aspects of its rich and turbulent history.

The impact of Emma Tenayuca’s pecan sheller strike in the 1930s continues to resonate in Westside communities. The political domination of the Good Government League and the restitution enacted by Community Organized for Public Service (COPS) illustrate the turmoil between suburban sprawl and the role of government acting a public steward in addressing the rights to civic benefits for all.

As a DJ I engaged in the booking and organizing process with music venues and nightclubs, establishing residency in 2011 at Tucker’s Kozy Korner alongside fellow disc jockey JJ Lopez, spinning an eclectic mix of soul, funk, and jazz on vinyl. We’ve dubbed our night The Soul Spot.

Read the rest of the article here: From the City of Brotherly Love to Falling in Live with the Alamo City

• You can follow the Rivard Report on facebook and twitter

Dialogues in Planning: Urban Connectivity hosted by UTSA

2nd installment of Dialogues in Planning
- hosted by UTSA, presented by imagineSanAntonio and UTSA

courtesy graphic-UTSA

With a packed room on the first floor of the UTSA College of Architecture, Dialogues in Planning brought together professors, citzens, policymakers, and students alike.

The night began with presentations from Dr. Richard Tangum, Director of Center for Urban/Regional Planning(UTSA), and Bob Wise, president of imagineSanAntonio. Both presentations gave the audience a historical evolution of street patterns of San Antonio. Tangum as a San Antonio native provided us with colorful stories of growing up in his neighborhood  - reminiscing of a time when a pharmacy, grocer, corner store, and other amenities were all within walking distance - in what is now known today as Hemisfair Park. His and other neighborhoods were razed for the development of Hemisfair Park, the Alamodome, and other public-private projects.

With the new Federal-Aid Highway Act implemented by President Dwight Eisenhower in the 1950s, San Antonio began developing its highways that would shape the future of its commerce. Unfortunately this construction would tear through the heart of many communities, displacing families and severing connections between neighborhoods. A diagram displaying numerous inner-city streets removed since 1904 to present-day proved staggering in its impact, eliciting moans from the audience.

Notice the boundaries of San Antonio's modern inner-city area confined by I-35 to the north/east, I-37 to the west, and I-10 covering the south, creating a box-like border. The northwest sector of downtown, once the heart of San Antonio's Italian community replete with churches, markets, and public spaces, was part of the cultural geography affected by highway development.

Picking up where Tangum left off, Bob Wise illustrated this disconnection causing major problems for our communities such as social isolation, environmental deterioration. His presentation demonstrated the need for neighborhoods to be self-sufficient, compact with mixed use, and provide a broad range of housing in creating diversity.

He presented his case for complete streets with a thorough investigation of the pros and cons for residents, business, public transit, etc.  He warned of the "superblocks" created by acquisition of public streets or spaces in serving the organization and excluding pedestrian traffic or vehicular mobility. (see: SA Current article by Charlotte Luongo) "The UTSA downtown campus is itself a superblock. No disrespect intended," he stated.

The completeness is created by setting priorities not only for motor vehicles, but for pedestrians, rapid transit, and cyclists. He emphasized the planning - with community input - for urban streets will create an efficiency of mobility, enhancing the quality of life for everyone.

Panelists

Moderator David Bogle inquired into the panelists' views of the history and future of the streets of downtown San Antonio. Andrew Perez, a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, in great detail gave a history of the significance of San Antonio as a major city, beginning with travelers settling here some 1200 years ago. They discovered the bountiful water supply of the San Pedro Springs area and the San Antonio River. The French LaSalle expeditions of the late 17th century recognized San Antonio as the future sight of a major city. 

Christine Drennon, Director of Urban Studies at Trinity University, also alluded to the Interstate Highway Systems destroying communities in her studies of Treme, New Orleans. Most recently the community organizations are making efforts to revitalize the original neighborhood affected by I-10 construction.

Angela Hartsell completed a unique case study of five cities - Vancouver, Chicago, Istanbul, Kyoto, San Antonio - in which she studied a specific street segment unique to each region, with downtown Houston Street fitting the model for the study. San Antonio definitely fails in maintaining a green grocer, but she was impressed with the sidewalk widths and ease of navigation with directional and historical signs indicating downtown destinations.

As the dialogue was between the moderator and panelists, an audience Q&A session was not held. So I pose my questions at this point:

• Given the evident lack of street lighting, walkable sidewalks, and pedestrian development, will we see a shift in public policy to address the essential social fabric of communities?
• Time will tell whether the VIA streetcar will effectively serve commuters and tourists. San Pedro, Culebra, Bandera, Broadway, and other main streets serving as arteries prove to be so wide that rapid transit, whether bus or light rail, would substantially benefit commuters and motor vehicles. Along with the new streetcar, can we expect to see San Antonio adopt a mass transit system in the near future?

P.S.
In an effort to increase walkability in neighborhoods, the San Antonio-Bexar County Metropolitan Planning Organization has developed the Walkable Communities program, recently taking on Wheatley neighborhood on San Antonio's east side, broadcasted by Nowcast SA. See video below: