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!

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.