Noi Mahoney

VIEWPOINT: ‘Neglected’ East Side

Char Miller wrote a guest commentary that appeared in Sept. 18 Southside Reporter. It discusses the city's failed efforts to revitalize the East Side. The commentary centers on the expansion of Fort Sam Houston and how its growth could affect the East Side. I have reprinted some of it here:

"Something called the Fort Sam Houston Growth and Mission Expansion project (recently )cropped up; former San Antonio Mayor Howard Peak called it a “bold concept,” a beguiling mix of improvements in transportation, housing, and commerce.

But (East Side) residents have heard such promises before; they’ve watched as one loudly touted project after another has failed to deliver on its potential. They have good reason to feel like a forgotten people inhabiting a neglected landscape.

When mayors and on occasion county judges have needed space to construct a monument to their civic ambitions, suddenly the East Side is the perfect locale.

Former Mayor Henry Cisneros decided to build the Alamodome on a large tract just east of Interstate 37.

To secure much-needed votes for project funding, Cisneros championed the stadium as panacea for the east-side ailments. He said it would generate lots of jobs in service-related developments that would boost the area’s economy.

It did no such thing; the surrounding streetscape was flattened for parking lots but little else came of the venture.

That failure did not stop Bexar County from making the same claims when it launched a bond election to pay for the East Side AT&T Center.

Its commissioners trumpeted how this facility would generate new work, better housing, and stronger schools. Wrong again: Once more a stand-alone structure with massive parking lots produced no real growth, no enduring change."

Miller teaches at Trinity University, and is a visiting professor of environmental analysis and history at Pomona College in California. He is also the author of "Deep in the Heart of San Antonio: Land and Life in South Texas."

 

Mission Road Power Plant

Lost in all the hoopla over the recent announcement of the Lone Star Brewery redevelopment is the rebirth of the old Mission Road power plant located nearby.

Douglas Architects recently unveiled drawings and plans for the plant’s redevelopment as a 250,000-square-foot mixed-use project that would include shops, restaurants and condominiums.

“I think we need something like this, and like the Lone Star Brewery, this is going to be a catalyst for the South Side,” Scott Smith, director of environmental planning and compliance for CPS Energy, said.

CPS Energy owns the 100-year-old power plant, which was closed in 2002. Located next to the Lone Star Brewery, the power plant is also close to established parks, such as Roosevelt and Concepcion, as well as older neighborhoods such as King William, Lavaca, Riverside Park and Roosevelt Park.

Candie Beltran, president of the Roosevelt Park Neighborhood Association, said overall that CPS Energy’s plans address what residents wanted. CPS Energy employees met from January through March with neighbors and officials such as Mayor Phil Hardberger and Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff to discuss a feasibility study for possible uses.

“When they asked everybody what they wanted to do with (the power plant), everyone had different thoughts,” Beltran said. “Some wanted a museum, others wanted a library. I think they kind of put everyone’s ideas and picked everything. When it is finished everyone will be a happy, especially with Toyota anchoring on the end of the South Side.”

  

 

Battle of Rosillo

I recently wrote an article about Ed Crawford, a South Side man who worked for more than a year to get a historical marker for the Battle of Rosillo a better home:

Crawford was disturbed when a year ago, he drove by its South W.W. White location and saw that the marker had fallen into neglect.

“Over the years, it’s been knocked down and vandalized,” Crawford said. “It is also unsafe for anyone to stop there and read about. You can get run over. This isn’t right. This is our history, the people of San Antonio.”

Through his hard work, Crawford was able to find the marker a more suitable place at The Republic Golf Course off of Southeast Military Drive. Crawford, who described himself as just a regular guy, shows that if you have determination, you can achieve great things.

 

(Ed Crawford, left, and State Rep. Joe Farias help commemorate the new home of the “Battle of Rosillo” historical marker at The Republic Golf Club. Photo by Noi Mahoney)

22-year-old runs for school board

Michael Sanchez, a 22-year-old student at Northwest Vista College, recently announced he would campaign to become a South San Antonio Independent School District trustee.

"I can bring fresh ideas to the South San ISD school board," Sanchez said. "When I saw the decisions made, I wondered who was speaking for the kids. It was something that I felt I wanted to do for a long time."

Sanchez is running for the District 2 trustee position, which puts him against Trinidad T. Mata, the South San board of trustee’s vice-president.

Temp workers laid off at SA Toyota plant

A company that supplies 208 contract workers to the Toyota auto plant on SA's South Side recently learned they would not be rehired when the plant resumes operations in November. These positions were well-paying jobs, between $13 to $15 an hour.

San Antonio freelance writer Tony Cantu broke the story:

A recently released layoff notice to state officials reveals new details on the fate of more than 200 temporary workers put out of work from the recent South Side Toyota temporary plant shutdown.

Aerotek Inc., a national staffing company with offices at 10010 San Pedro Ave., notified state and city officials in June of plans to lay off at least 200 of its temporary workers at the Toyota plant’s assembly line.

Documents show the layoff ends employment for 208 workers – eight more than previously disclosed. The jobs lost offered better-than-average wages locally; assembly workers having earned the highest wages at an average $13.88 an hour topping out at $15.23 an hour on the high end of that pay scale.

"Due to economics, high price of fuel and low sales of large trucks, Toyota had to make a business decision," Aerotek’s account manager Jon Boggess said. "We were supplying employees for their assembly line, but unfortunately our workforce was eliminated."

Earlier this year, Toyota plant officials disclosed they would halt production at the facility until November to help rid itself of its existing inventory of Tundra trucks produced there.

 

(Above, an aerial photo of the South Side Toyota plant by Jerry Lara/ San Antonio Express-News)

Landlords of Lavaca

(Roberto and Elsa Trevino by Rita Zenzen Heck)

Here is another story from the Lavaca neighborhood (what is it about this 'hood?). It is about Roberto and Elsa Trevino family, who began buying property in the neighborhood back in the 1960s.

Today, the Trevinos and their children own more than a dozen houses in the Lavaca historic district. Many of them are rentals, but the Trevinos still live in the neighborhood. The Trevinos said they had no idea the neighborhood would take off the way it has now, where homes sell for as much as $1 million or more.

In 1963, the couple moved from a small village in Mexico to Victoria Courts, a subsidized living project formerly on Durango and Refugio streets. It was redeveloped in 2004 as Victoria Commons.

Roberto Trevino worked at several menial jobs around the area to save money for his dream: to own real estate. A few years later, the Trevino family, then numbering six children, moved into their first stand-alone home, a duplex on Barrera Street, down the street from Victoria Courts.

"The place was very small for eight people, but we rented out the other half to get money for Dad's dream," son Hector Trevino said. "In 1967, just in time for HemisFair, we moved to a bigger house on Lavaca where our parents still live and rented out the entire Barrera duplex. At the time, Dad thought that HemisFair would spill over to our property and buy everything. But that never happened." - Story by Rita Zenzen Heck for The Southside Reporter

Unique townhouses slated for Lavaca neighborhood

Architect Lewis S. Fisher is in the beginning stages of developing four townhouses on a small sliver of land in the Lavaca neighborhood south of downtown S.A. No price range yet, but my guess would anywhere from $200,000 up to $400,000 per unit.

Here is where he's building them. 

 

Haunted San Antonio

I found this video on youtube. It's pretty funny. It's about many of the haunted places in and around the city, including the Donkey Lady Bridge and the haunted railroad tracks. Many of these places are on the South Side. The video is fairly well shot, and they have a good camera too.

Lone Star Brewery redeveloping as condos

Yet another brewery is slated to be redeveloped into condos, shops and restaurants. This time its the Lone Star Brewery just south of downtown on the edge of Roosevelt Park. (Photo by Gloria Ferniz/ San Antonio Express-News)

Creighton A. Welch, a reporter for the Express-News, has the story here. No word on how much the condos will go for once completed, but my guess would be in the $200,000 to $400,000 range. From the story:

"Austin-based B. Knightly Development & Construction bought the 22.8-acre site Aug. 1 and plans to turn the brewery, vacant since 1996, into an urban community.

Plans for the site, along the San Antonio River near Roosevelt Park, include multifamily housing, commercial space, a bar, beer garden, microbrewery and boutique hotel, according to the May 15 City Council minutes that approved a zoning change of the site."

Several years back it was the old Pearl Brewery off Broadway that was redeveloped into condos, shops and businesses.

Bargain hunter's nirvana

(Mission Open Air Flea Market owner Joel Dauley, left, with vendor Robert Sanchez. Photo by Steve Valdez)

Mission Open Air Flea Market

Contrary to rumors, Mission Open Air Flea Market is not being sold to H-E-B. Also, no one from U.S. immigration has ever set foot on the 23 year-old flea market, said its owner Joel Dauley.

"The rumors about H-E-B, and immigration, not true," Dauley said with a chuckle on a recent summer day.

What is true is that the flea market located at the intersection of Loop 410 South and Moursund Boulevard is expanding. Mission Open Air Flea Market recently leased about 8-acres of land next door. The land previously belonged to Lozano Trucking Company.

Dauley said they are moving the flea market’s administrative offices to the new property. The land will also house maintenance facilities and additional parking for the flea market.

"We opened in 1985 with a half-acre," Dauley said. "We had to buy 14 different properties over the years to get to where we are now. Today, the market has 45-acres."

On weekends, people come for the bargains, but also to share "local" gossip, taste the food and visit with friends.

"This is the South Side mall," Dauley said. "It’s a mall without walls. It’s a little bit of Mexico, 10 miles from downtown."

(Brenda DeHoyos shows off her merchandise at the Mission Open Air Flea Market off Moursund Boulevard. Photo by Steve Valdez)