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!

Nettie

I first met Nettie Hinton at a Dignowity Hill Neighborhood Association meeting about 2 years ago. When she got up and spoke she immediately made an impression on me. Well, any time that Nettie speaks she usually makes an impression! She's is one of those rare individuals that has the ability to immediately capture your attention. Undoubtedly, she also is one the most interesting people I have ever met. The great-grand daughter of a freed slave, Nettie's roots run deep in San Antonio and especially in the Eastside neighborhoods where she grew up in. After a 30 year career with the U.S. Customs that literally took her around the world, she returned to San Antonio and Dignowity Hill.
I Google'd Nettie Hinton's name and found out that she has been the recipient of numerous leadership awards such as the St. Philip’s College Artemesia Bowden Award, the Mission City Business and Professional Women’s Profiles in Leadership Award, the African-American Reflections Harriet Tubman Award of Courage, and the Bank of America Local Hero Award. Pretty good stuff. What Nettie really brings to the table is her absolute passion, courage and engagement to issues she believes in and cares about. When I've seen her tangle with city officials over neighborhood concerns or issues I always have to chuckle because she won't back down when pushed. No doubt that she can get your attention! Regardless of whether you agree with her or not she keeps you honest. And folks, we can always use a healthy dose of honesty to keep things in perspective!

Our Neighborhood Assocation

Our neighborhood association is a lively, passionate and interesting group of folks. Our meetings can be at times rewarding or frustrating events depending on the issues. As I've written before, our neighborhood is an interesting collection of professionals, artists, working folks, long time resident families, recent arrivals, black, white and otherwise. So you can imagine the diversity that shows up our meetings.
But I have to say that the folks that come to our meetings truly care about the neighborhood and I would like to think, ultimately about each other. So its going to be an interesting adventure for me as I step into the role as president of the association. I look forward to this new chapter with enthusiasm along with a healthy dose of pragmatic expectations. We also have new officers for the association. They are all great folks with good ideas and commitment to see our neighborhood continue to move in a positive direction. So thank you Liz, Kate and Hector for agreeing to serve! It should be an interesting and fun rest of the year!

Tipping Point

Times are a changing. Work on the train quiet zone has quietly progressed and should be completed within weeks. Soon the sound of train horns will be silenced. I'm going to miss the sound of those horns. All of of sudden some of our streets are getting repaved. Hays Street from Pine Street to the old bridge recently got a face lift and couple of more streets are showing signs of work in progress. That's encouraging and I'm hoping that it's the start of breaking a cycle of neglect that has long plagued this old neighborhood. Many of us that live in the neighborhood want to see our community shine. We want to see responsible property ownership not absentee landlords. We want better street lighting and well maintained streets. We want to see old misconceptions and myths about the Eastside buried. We're still have a little ways to go to make that vision a reality. There seems to be a historical and prevalent attitude of benign neglect towards our old Eastside neighborhoods from the City. Some of the complaints from neighborhood residents about the lack of code compliance enforcement tend to be valid. City services tend to be slow to respond or not respond effectively. The one bright spot I've noticed lately is the increase of police presence and that's a good thing. But to really change things it will be up to us who live in the neighborhood to create a tipping point. In his book "The Tipping Point" author Malcolm Gladwell writes about how little things can make a big difference. All it takes is one simple idea and one simple act of action to create a tipping point towards something great. Think about it this way: the simple act of picking up trash or just keeping your yard mowed or painting your house can be become contagious. And pretty soon before you know it, things are better.

New Year Connections

New year, new beginnings. After being off from work for two weeks its back to work today....not that I'm complaining....with daily news of layoffs and shutdowns, it's good to be employed! But it was good to be away from the daily grind. Nothing like some down time, especially during the holidays, to reconnect with family and friends and recharge your spirit.

Speaking of the spirit, we went to church this Sunday. Thought it might be a good idea to start the new year by connecting with the Good Lord. It was also good to reconnect with the two people who are the soul and most likely the the heart of this particular congregation....the preacher and his wife, Gordon and Jeannene. Actually, both of these folks are preachers...... Baptist preachers as a matter of fact. Gordon is the preacher in charge while Jeannene served as a hospital chaplain for several years until she decided that home was where she needed to be. I worked with Jeannene for about a year and I always enjoyed our conversations about religion, hospital work and how tough it is to work in health care. She also encouraged me to start writing a blog.....it took a awhile but the seed she planted finally took root. When we moved into our "new" old house, Jeannene did our house blessing. As is often the case, we didn't keep in contact with each other as our busy lives consumed our time. It was good to reconnect with these folks after not seeing each other for awhile....besides, it doesn't hurt to know a Baptist preacher or two.

The point of this ramble: take the time to connect or better yet to reconnect with something or someone that stirs your spirit.

End of Year Ramblings

Some of End of Year Ramblings to Close Out 2008:

Had breakfast at Tommy Moore's place this morning. Tommy's is on the Eastside near downtown. Nice place, good food and excellent service. Because of our work schedules it's a little tough for us to visit Tommy's Cafe and Deli on a regular basis. But each time we go there Tommy and his staff always treat us like royalty. Tommy seems to remember who you are even if you haven't been in for awhile. Great customer service but even more important, you feel like friends every time you walk into Tommy's place. That's nice.

One whole year of living in this old house. One year of living in Dignowity Hill. Looking back, the blessings out number the negatives. Saving and restoring our old house has made us realize that community matters. Because of this old house we've made new friends, strengthen old friendships and hopefully brighten our little corner of the world.

Dignowity Hill Watch List for 2009: Ft. Sam Houston and the BRAC impact on our neighborhood, the newly ordained Arts and Entertainment District, city elections and new council person for our district....all of these have great potential or they could be a great bust!

Dignowity Hill Wish List for 2009: better lighting for our streets, repave our streets, a stronger sense of pride in our neighborhood, less trash in yards and streets, stronger code compliance, improve our bike lanes, slow down the traffic on Pine St, get the Hays St bridge project going!

One last thing, someone once wrote that "change is the law of life".....well, 2008 certainly brought many changes not always good ones but change none the less. I think that 2009 will bring even more change to Dignowity Hill and our surrounding neighborhoods. Change by itself is a given. The real challenge is to move from change to renewal and transformation.

Happy 2009!!

Hope on the Hill

Man, where has 2008 gone! Is it me or is time really accelerating! I have to say that 2008 has been a tough one for many of us. With the economy tanking out, folks losing their jobs, our leaders (read: politicians!) letting us down....it's no wonder there seems to be a general gloominess about the future. But I feel hopeful. I know, I know....I may be going against the grain with this but I really do feel hopeful. We have a new president, the Bush era is finally ending and expectations are running high that things will get better....I have to believe that things will get better. But it won't be easy.....nothing worth fighting for making life better is ever easy. There an old Mexican "dicho" (saying) that goes like this: " La lucha es vida" (The struggle is life). How true is that! Its hard work making things better! Hope and struggle go hand in hand. It happens everyday and sometimes so close and in front of us that we can easily miss the good the comes from hard work, a little vision and hope.

Across the street from our house, on a little strip of property that belongs to the elementary school, is a little garden area. I see it everyday from my back porch. When we first moved into the neighborhood, the little plots of what once were apparently thriving gardens were neglected and overgrown with weeds and grass. Sometime last spring as the school year was winding down I approached the Principal with the idea of letting me work the gardens over the summer. She was gracious and agreed but because of my work schedule it was little tough to get to the gardens and work in them. So the summer past and it looked like the gardens were to be neglected for another year. Then one day shortly after the school year began my wife and I noticed someone working the gardens plots. It turns out that the Principal had contacted a local community volunteer group to work the gardens and was able to secure some grant funding to offset the cost of restoring the gardens. WOW! Since then the gardens have come back to life. It amazing what a little elbow grease, compost and manure can do to renew tired soil! So here we are, almost the end of December and winter veggies and flowers are growing and thriving in soil that was terribly neglected for who knows how long. The school kids love it and so do I!

So am I hopeful? Will 2009 be a good year? Yes....if this little bitty garden can make a comeback with a little bit of hard work, a little vision and hope....then think of what we can do together as neighbors and friends to transform our neighborhood!