The BRAC Thing

This past Monday Texas Public Radio broadcasted an interview with yours truly and our esteemed Council woman, Ivy Taylor. The interviewer wanted our take of the BRAC and what impact it will have on the surrounding neighborhoods. Then on Tuesday, Ms Taylor and I were part of panel discussion at st Phillip's College on the BRAC that was recorded for later broadcast by Texas Public Radio. Besides myself and the council woman, the panel included the post commander at Ft Sam Houston, Col. Mary Garr and city official, James Henderson. You can catch the interviews and panel discussion on line at: http://www.tpr.org/programs/thesource.html

In case you've been away for awhile, the BRAC at Ft Sam Houston will be bringing an estimated 12,000 troops to the post. The potential economic impact from this BRAC expansion is estimated to be $8.3 billion. On the surface it sounds like a huge impact but to put things into perspective 80% of that impact is due to the new construction currently taking place on the post. Once construction is finished then it is estimated that the economic impact will increase $1.6 billion annually with additional annual sales tax revenue of $4.9 million. During the construction period on the post an estimated 62,000 construction jobs could be created. After the BRAC is completed an estimated 15,000 jobs could potentially be supported by the community due to the increase in missions on the post. The on-going earnings potential from these post-BRAC jobs is estimated to be $1.3 billion annually. Pretty impressive!
Source for the above data: Ft. Sam Houston Economic Impact Update, March 2009, http://www.sanantonio.gov.oma/

So what does this all this mean to the neighborhoods the surround Ft Sam Houston? Well, at this point not much. Expectations had been raised that since no new housing would be built on the post for the expected influx of troops, the surrounding neighborhoods would be absorbing those folks. Realistically, that is not going to happen, at least not immediately. Neighborhoods such as Government Hill or Dignowity Hill are still in the nascent stages of revitalization with much work to be done on improving infrastructure, dealing with aging housing stock, and other quality of life issues. The current reality is that many of the troops that will initially make landfall at Ft Sam will be making home buying or house renting choices away from these historic neighborhoods. This has already occur ed with the first wave of troops and civilians that have arrived at Ft. Sam. There are other questions and issues that need to be addressed as well. For example, the New Braunfels Street gate that leads into Ft. Sam Houston from IH 35 has been closed since after 9-11. Having this gate closed has had an adverse effect on businesses on that corridor and on the Government Hill neighborhood. The military is not willing to either open up the gate again or even consider the possibility of engaging in a conversation with neighborhood or community leaders. Hmmm....interestingly, the logo for the BRAC tells us to Embrace BRAC but the current attitude from the military on the New Braunfels street gate issue is not exactly a warm abrazo!

But...I remain hopeful.....the best thing we can do at this point is to plan for the long term, continue revitalizing our neighborhoods, keep nudging both the city and military on finding ways to create positive solutions and most importantly, get over the fact that this BRAC thing is not all what it was hyped up to be for our neighborhoods!

Pushcart Derby

Well, another successful Pushcart Derby took place this past Saturday. The year's event was by far the biggest so far with double the number of entries from last year. Mucho thanks to Cruz and Rina Ortiz for their vision and tireless efforts in organizing what has become a great event for the neighborhood.

Progress on the Hays Street Bridge

We went by the Hays Street Bridge the other evening to check out the progress on the restoration work. It's coming along nicely. The word is that it should be finished sometime this summer or early fall.

An Old Church

There's an abandoned old church building on the corner of Hackberry and Burnett. According to county property records it was built in 1940. Like many of the old buildings and houses in our neighborhood I'm drawn to it. I was poking around it the other day and I was surprised to see the pews were still in there.The building has simple lines and from the outside it looks to be in relatively decent shape. It could be rehabbed into a nice functional space. During windy days the loose metal roof will flap in the wind and I'm sure rain gets into the inside as some of the windows are broken. I get a excited when I think of the possibilities for buildings like these that are scattered around the Eastside.

The other night I was on my way home from the airport and I happen to come up to the corner where this old church is located. I noticed someone bedding down for the night on one of the small porches of the church building, no doubt a homeless person. I couldn't help but think that the vacant old church is at least serving the time honored function of providing sanctuary.

Garden Day

Today was a work day......spent most of the day helping out in the community garden. We had a good turn out of volunteers and we made some good progress!

Perceptions of the Eastside Need to Change

There was a recent article in the newspaper in which a developer is quoted as saying that "there are only one or two houses worth saving in Dignowity Hill". That by it self is bad enough but unfortunately for this developer he made the statement in the presence of our Council woman, Ivy Taylor, who of course, lives in Dignowity Hill. Comments like the one this developer made are uttered out of ignorance, a lack of sensitivity for a community and misguided perceptions .....and that needs to change if we're going to progress in a positive manner.
The recent economic summits have brought much needed attention to the Eastside and it's about time. Undoubtedly, there will be many moving pieces to revitalizing our neighborhoods and bringing much need economic development.
In the case of our developer, he got an instant education about the historic nature of Dignowity Hill and why it's so important to be sensitive or at least have some common sense if you're not sure of what you think you know. The lesson for those of us that live in the Eastside is that we have to do our part to continually educate the uninformed.

Good Day in the Neighborhood

Had a good day today. The sun finally broke through and the rain has gone away, at least for awhile. Our good friends Jeanine and Gordon dropped by and we spent the afternoon exploring the neighborhood together. We went by visited James Hendricks' studio and got to see some of his creations. Stopped by 724 Nolan, what a great old house! The house is being restored and the workers let us go inside and see the work in progress. It was built in 1885 and has some wonderful balconies and even a basement! Walked over to the Hays Street Bridge. The rehab of the old bridge is really taking shape now. Some of the lights are in and the approaches are complete. It was good to see lots of folks out and about in the neighborhood. After what seemed like an eternity of gloomy and rainy days it was good to take a walk in the neighborhood.