Basic Stuff

If you live in Dignowity Hill and have walked around the neighborhood you've probably noticed that many of our sidewalks are in need of repair or need to be replaced. At the first public meeting of the reinvestment plan someone asked who is responsible for the maintenance or repair of sidewalks in the neighborhood. This question has been raised in other public meetings held for the reinvestment plan. Well, according to city code it is the responsibility of the adjacent property owner to maintain and/or provide for sidewalks abutting their property. Interesting.
The general feeling from the community is that we need to start with some basic infrastructure improvements in the neighborhood, for example, repave our streets, repair sidewalks, put in curbs, and improved street lighting, in order to start improving the quality of our neighborhood. This makes sense. But the current city code that puts the onus on homeowners to maintain or provide sidewalks does not make sense. The community is pushing for those basic infrastructure improvements to happen and city planners need to listen.
The reinvestment plan and neighborhood plan developed over the last couple of months has some excellent elements and goals that will over time have the potential to bring much needed positive change to the neighborhood. The point of this little ramble is that if these plans have any chance of succeeding then we have to start with the basics.

Dignowity Dog Tale

Our two dogs have names straight out of the bible, Hannah and Becka (short for Rebecka). We found them abandoned on our church property in 1996 when they were puppies. So by dog standards they're up there in age. We think they're sisters but we'll never know for sure. We also think that they are part border collie, lab and who knows what else. Over the last 13 years they given us lots of joy and grief.... sort of like children do. For 10 years they provided service as visitation dogs. Along with my wife, Hannah and Becca visited a local nursing home on the Southeast side of town. So in many many ways they've redeemed themselves of the mischief they would occasionally get themselves in. They're retired now from their visitation duties and ever since we moved into the neighborhood they've led a pretty laid back sort of existence. They're not as active as they once were, mostly they just lay around and sleep. They love to sit on the front lawn or porch just watching the world go by. But even in their retirement years they're still capable of bringing joy and touching people's lives in ways that are seem spiritual at times.

The other night, around 9pm, the dogs were in the yard while Barb watered our gardens trying to save our flower beds from becoming mini deserts. A car stopped in front of our house and a gaggle of kids and their parents spilled out. The kids had spotted our dogs in the yard and persuaded their dad to stop. The kids wanted know if the could pet the dogs. Of course Barb said yes and in no time the kids all with biblical names: Jeremiah, Hannah, Genesis, Hezekiah, and some names I didn't catch, were engaged with Hannah and Becca, our biblical named dogs. The kids and the parents had a great time visiting with the dogs. Hannah and Becka were their usual gentle and unconditional selves.

After the family said their goodbyes, we were struck by what just had happened. Here we are, it's late in the evening, getting dark, this family shows up unannounced and we have this wonderful visit with total strangers. And all because of two old and gentle dogs with biblical names. You all can draw your own conclusions as to how these things happen, all I know is that Dignowity Hill can be an interesting place at times.

Perfect Storm

Our little corner of the world has been getting a lot of attention lately. All of sudden there seems to be a "perfect storm" of initiatives, projects and renewed energy converging upon our quiet neighborhood. One initiative that has the most potential for really changing the face of the Dignowity Hill is the Eastside Reinvestment Plan. The plan is an outgrowth of a city Strategic Community Plan that was developed a few years ago. The initial focus of the reinvestment plan will be on Dignowity Hill and if this plan comes to together as envisioned our neigborhood will experience positive change like never before! This plan has the potential to bring improvements in infrastructure, better lighting, improved streets and sidwewalks, improvements to our parks, raising the awareness of the historical nature of our neigborhood and other key quality of life improvements.
The first public meeting to introduce the plan and get community input was held this past week. The attendance was incredible, 113 people signed in and the head count came in at 132! That's a good sign.....it means that folks are interested but most importantly they want to provide input. Some challenges that I see: financial resources will need to be secured, so funding sources will need to identified. We also need to overcome a healthy dose of skepticism within the community that this will actually come to fruition.
But, I'm hopeful that this initiative will eventually deliver the goods.

Finding a Balance

Sometimes it takes the wisdom of Solomon to find a balance between the greater good and the interests or concerns of individuals. Take for example the issue of serving the poor in our neighborhood. There are numerous ministries or programs in our neighborhood that provide services to folks that are homeless, dealing with addictions, unemployed or barely making a livable income. As our neighborhood has revitalized these social ministry programs have become lightning rods of concern as we all struggle to find a way to coexist and yet keep the momentum going on the road to continued renewal. There's a perception out there that these types of social outreach programs can be detrimental to the revitalization of a community. The notion here is that these types of programs attract and bring "undesirable elements" into our quiet neighborhood and that having these "elements" in our community will have a negative affect on property values, the safety of our community and feed the negative perception of the Eastside. There may be some validity to that notion yet if we look in our own backyard you're likely to see neglect in the form of empty houses and overgrown and trashy empty lots. This kind of neglect contributes to the "broken window" theory of community apathy and does nothing to improve or erase old perceptions about the Eastside.
So I get a little confused when we focus our attention on these ministries yet there seems to be little that we do or can do about absentee landlords, that we allow trash to lie along our streets, that we allow dogs to run free in the neighborhood, that houses go unpainted, that empty lots are neglected....you get the picture.

The point of this rant: The poor and the needy will always be with us so we need to be compassionate and find ways to provide dignity...that's called service. As residents of this community we can do something about maintaining our homes and our lots, we can push the city for infrastructure improvements....that's called responsibility. Finding that balance between service and community responsibility takes a relationship. And like all relationships it takes a little bit of give and take to reach a healthy balance between the visions of those that feel called to serve and those of us that feel that this community could be even better.

Some Cool Stuff

Life is interesting at times. There's lots of things going on in and around the neighborhood. At our last neighborhood association meeting we had the police chief, the Eastside substation captain and our neighborhood SAFFE cops in attendance. The meeting was well attended, lots of folks that hadn't attended a meeting in awhile showed up. The chief and his troops gave a nice talk.
Our meeting that evening was probably the safest place in San Antonio!

Activities with the neighborhood association are gaining some momentum. About a month ago we applied for a mini grant from the city for funding to do a community fair and it was approved. Then I got a call from the city planning division wanting to discuss a re-investment plan focused on Dignowity Hill. This initiative has the potential of truly revitalizing the area in terms of real investment in the neighborhood. We're also going to apply for some free trees. The city through it's neighborhood tree challenge program will give us up to 25 trees for residences or park spaces. So a little committee has formed to get this tree show on the road. Come this fall we should have several new trees in our two parks and in some of our neighbors yards

Besides the Hays Street Bridge restoration, another cool happening is the opening of the River Walk extension north of downtown. This is great because it is a literal 10-15 minute walk from our neighborhood to this wonderful extension of San Antonio's famous River Walk.















City elections were held earlier this month and our city council district race went undecided because no one received a majority of the vote. So a run off election between the two top vote getter's is scheduled for June. My hope is that whoever gets in will be more responsive to the concerns of the district neighborhoods. Things can only improve after a poor showing from the previous council person's track record and strained relationship with our neighborhood.

The economy still stinks although there are signs of improvement and many folks are still struggling to keep things together but lately things have gotten a little interesting, maybe even a little hopeful, on Dignowity Hill.

Hays Street Bridge Project Gets Going!

Finally after a few years of planning and discussion, the Hays Street Bridge restoration was initiated. On Saturday May 9th the project was kicked off with a ceremony. Within a couple of days demolition of the old approaches began. By the end of the 1st week the old planks on the bridge it self were gone! We went by to look at the progress over the weekend. It is so cool to see this actually happening. Another sign that things are beginning to change in our historic neighborhood!

Happy Birthday Rose!

Our house, Rose, yes that's her name, turned 100 years old this month! So we threw her a party. We wanted to honor her not only reaching the 100 year milestone but also honor those that help restore her. So we had a bunch of our neighbors and friends over for a little celebration. Byron, Bill and Geno the three guys who literally saved this old house from becoming a pile of rubble were toasted for their good work. We also wanted to shine a light on our neighborhood. One of the local TV news stations sent over a video guy and we made that night's news! The message we wanted to get out is that this old neighborhood is coming back! Rose: we wish you another good 100 yrs!