Dignowity Farmer's Market

I went to the organizing meeting for the Dignowity Hill Farmer's Market last Sunday. I was impressed with the turnout and also pleased to see friends from Government Hill. What a great idea and what a great way to bring neighbors and friends together. With the Dignowity community garden a success I have no doubt that this venture will also be successful.

For anyone interested in being a part a farmer's market in Dignowity Hill, then join us on August 15th at the Dignowity Center on the corner of Nolan and Pine at 3pm for the next meeting of the Dignowity Hill Farmer's Market Steering and Planning Committee. I posted a Face Book link to the Farmer's Market in the "Links to Explore" section of the blog.

Can We Keep this Going?

This past Saturday we had a gathering of Dignowity Hill residents and city officials at the Carver Center to celebrate the completion of the ACTION (Advocacy to Combat Threats Impacting Our Neighborhoods) program in our neighborhood. The city's Neighborhood and Housing Dept organized the ACTION program as part of the Eastside revitalization initiatives to improve and address quality of life issues. Dignowity was chosen as the pilot neighborhood. It was a relatively successful program which brought together code compliance, animal services and waste management services to the neighborhood in a concentrated focus. One statistic that really struck me was that in 4 months almost 9 tons of trash and brush were picked up in the neighborhood. So far since the beginning of the year when the quality of life initiative for the Eastside was started in February over 180 tons of trash and brush have been pick up. That's pretty impressive but when compared to 2009 when only 6 tons of brush/trash were picked up in all of District 2, I have to wonder what happened in 2009!

Well, I don't want to dwell on the past, obviously not much was being done. So moving forward can this effort be sustained? The only way we can happen is by residents proactively in engaging code compliance and other services and by city departments being actively responsive to our needs. Otherwise, we will surely slip back to old habits.

All Lit Up

The Hays Street Bridge is now lit up. The city finally figured out who is going to pay for the light bill....thank goodness!

Hays Street Bridge In the Dark

Took a walk over to the Hays Street Bridge Saturday evening expecting to see it all lit up. Not sure what's going here but the bridge is in the dark. The lights were all out. I hope the city or who ever is responsible for turning on the lights will do so soon. Or did someone forget to pay the light bill? In spite of the lack of lighting on the bridge it was still worth the walk from our house. The view of the moon rising over Dignowity Hill was awesome!

Good Stuff on the Eastside

The Hays Street Bridge opened up again after 28 years of being closed. Kudos to the Hays Street Bridge Restoration Group for their vision and tireless efforts to save the old lady.

A couple of articles appeared in the newspaper this week regarding the impressive progress the police department has made in lowering and preventing crime in District 2. Problem oriented policing seems to be making a considerable dent with the bad guys in our neighborhoods and businesses. This is truly encouraging as public safety is a key piece in sustaining revitalization.

I recently attended a meeting of business owners of the New Braunfels Street corridor. The biggest topic of discussion was the gate closure at New Braunfels and Grayson streets. The gate has been closed since 9-11 and has adversely impacted many of the businesses along this stretch of New Braunfels street. Not sure if the gate will re-open anytime soon but I was encouraged by the willingness of the business owners to work together for a common cause.

In the meantime we need to explore creative ideas to bring traffic to that corridor. At the last Ft Sam Houston Avisory Board a proposal surfaced that VIA should look at developing a trolley loop route from Walters street through New Braunfels street to bring much needed customers down to New Braunfels street. I like that idea and it could be an effective and creative way to partly address a continuing frustrating situation.

We still have a lot of work in front of us but it feels like the momentum is starting to swing around for the Eastside.

Summer Nights and Basketball

One of the the nice things of living in Dignowity Hill is having two great parks- Dignowity and Lockwood- located right in the middle of the neighborhood. The parks are adjacent to each other and overlook downtown. The view of the city in the evening from the parks is spectacular. Lockwood Park has an outdoor basket ball court and if you happen to pass by on a warm summer night chances are good that you'll find a night basketball game going on.

Business Realities

The other morning we had breakfast at Tommy's Cafe with Norma Witherspoon. Norma owns and operates Nick's Beauty Supply on the corner of New Braunfels and Burnet Streets. She wanted to talk about the New Braunfels street business corridor. The area she is concerned about runs from the Ft. Sam Houston gate to Houston street. Her and other small business owners along this stretch of New Braunfels street feel they may be missing on the economic development promised by the BRAC and the Eastside re-investment initiatives being promoted by the city. The gate closure at the New Braunfels street entrance to Ft Sam and the opening of Walters Street as the main entrance to the post were two reasons for the concern.

There is no question that the gate closure has had the greatest impact on businesses just outside the gate since there is no direct traffic coming in or out of the post. It's unlikely that the military will open the gate any time soon. One compromise would be to open the gate as an exit only but so far the military is not listening to community and neighborhood concerns. Further south from the gate on New Braunfels and past the interstate there is a healthy infrastructure of small businesses already in place. At the intersection of Houston and New Braunfels streets there are several anchor businesses that appear to be thriving, although a major upgrade is sorely needed to the HEB grocery store at that corner. As for Walters Street, its still too early to determine if the corridor will eventually develop into a viable business gateway. Walters street past the interstate is mostly residential and it will take some deep pockets to develop the area with new businesses.

Norma is a long time Eastside business owner and over the years she's heard many promises for economic development and seen little change. On the other hand, the way I see it the New Braunfels street corridor stands a good chance of further development if the small business owners are willing to organize themselves into a common voice and are willing to work together to bring the right kind of attention and resources. Timing is every thing in life and I think that the time is ripe for business growth along this stretch of the Eastside.....but the reality is that these business owners and the community cannot stand around and wait for it to happen.