Category: Alamobsession

Is this a picture worth a thousand words? 99 cents?

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Another Say Si Small Scale Art Auction approaches, which reminds me I have been blogging away for almost a year. I wanted to make a statement.

At the end of 2009, I decided to mount a visual protest against the visual clutter surrounding Alamo Plaza. A picture’s worth a thousand words.

Had not Delacroix’s unveiling in Paris in 1824 of his monumental “Massacre of Chios” swayed public opinion in Europe toward intense loathing of the Turks for slaughtering 10,000 Greeks? If the painter had chosen instead to depict the earlier savagery of the Greeks at Tripolitsa, might Europe have supported the Turks instead?

Inspired to try to motivate someone in the world to clean up Alamo Plaza, I assembled two of the ugliest collages ever created by combining photos snapped around the plaza.

Well, to put it mildly, Delacroix was more successful. Maybe my works are too small in scale. Maybe it’s because I have no bare-breasted women up front and center. Okay, I admit it. You can’t have known Delacroix personally; yet you know I’m no Delacroix.

So I switched strategies to attack by blog. The press is a powerful weapon.  After much haranguing, not much progress to report. Okay, I admit it. I am no great poet either.

Alas, even Lord Byron thought the sword mightier than the pen and found himself among the inspired volunteers traveling in resplendent uniforms in 1824 to join Prince Mavrocordato at Missolonghi. Byron wrote:

                    The sword, the banner, and the field,
Glory and Greece, around me see!
The Spartan, borne upon his shield,
Was not more free.

Awake! (not Greece–she is awake!)
Awake, my spirit! Think through whom
Thy life-blood tracks its parent lake,
And then strike home! ….

If thou regrett’st thy youth, why live?
The land of honourable death
Is here–up to the field, and give
Away thy breath!

Byron perished soon after, and most of Europe then seemed to pay attention to his call to support Greece.

I’m just not willing to sacrifice my life for signage. So I’ve come full circle and have donated “We’ve Lost the Alamo” for Say Si to include in the benefit auction on February 25.

My initial thought was that someone would see it and be so offended he or she would buy this print and insist it be hung at City Hall. If first impressions are important, why is this what we show more than 2.5 million visitors every year? Maybe that person should order another print for the office of the Convention and Visitors Bureau to show them that no matter how sleek the ads are trying to sell San Antonio this is the reality of what is here. Why the pair of prints should be in the office of every city council representative, every member of the Historic Design and Review Committee, in the home of every officer of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas and every member of the board of directors of the San Antonio Conservation Society and in every office at the Texas State Historical Commission. Governor Rick Perry himself should have to look at this every single day. I never should have limited this edition of prints to only 25.

Okay, that is not going to happen. I decided to make my point, though, about the general appearance of Alamo Plaza by valuing the price of the print as that of the frame only – $20. As I drove off, I thought I should have requested its value be 99 cents.

As I felt guilty about using Say Si’s fundraiser as a political forum, I donated two more marketable prints based on “San Antonio Song” to make up for “We’ve Lost the Alamo.”

And, fortunately for Say Si, a multitude of artists stepped forward once again to contribute art you actually will want to have in your home. The work is all up for preview prior to the auction, or view it online in advance. Call 210-212-8666 to reserve a ticket for Friday, February 25 – $40 per person in advance, or $50 at the door.

Someone at Say Si felt sorry for the lowly valued print, “We’ve Lost the Alamo,” and decided to up its value to $45. Guess it’s coming back home with me to inspire me to keep typing. Here go another 700 words….

February 26, 2011, Update: Even “We’ve Lost the Alamo” found a new home, and the buyer really got the message without having to read the 700 words above.

The year 2020 is another 22.5 million visitors to the Alamo away…

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But with much of the “visioning” aimed at reinvigorating downtown, it would be a shame not to take on a challenge that has bedeviled local visionaries for decades:  Re-thinking Alamo Plaza.

Specifically, the tacky atmosphere that prevails across from our city’s most famous landmark cries out for another look.

In the January 7 edition of the Express-News, Scott Stroud urges city leaders not to forget Alamo Plaza in its visionary focus on downtown.

He continues:

But the carnival atmosphere poses peculiar challenges.  These are private properties and successful businesses, and it will take a lot of creativity — and maybe a lot of money — to alter the feel of the area.

Further, there are aspects of the current atmosphere that have value.

“There’s something nice about all the animation and activity, and the fact that people are there,” said Xavier Gonzalez, former HDRC chairman and the design director at RVK Architects.  “But once you think about it, you begin to say this is kind of cheap, and not really its highest and best use as far as history is concerned.”

DiGiovanni thinks re-zoning and other changes could be put in motion gradually, partly by involving property owners and the citizens of San Antonio.  He said a master-planning process aimed at “restoring the reverence” of the plaza could lead to a grander vision with broad public support.

Imagine if the plaza’s carnival atmosphere gave way to sidewalk cafes and art galleries, with apartments looking out on the Alamo from above. Imagine also a day when every first-time visitor to San Antonio wouldn’t gaze up at the iconic wall, then turn around and go, “Ugh.”

Start now, and maybe in a few years you’d have something — by, say, 2020?

While the vision Stroud lays out is great, there are major improvements that could be made at virtually no expense today. 

Just because buildings contain junk does not mean they have to appear junky (Have I written these exact words before?).  If the city merely enforced the ordinances governing the Alamo Plaza Historic District currently on the books, all of the tacky illegal signs cluttering the plaza (see examples) would vanish, including the sandwich boards the Daughters of the Republic of Texas place in front of the Alamo itself.

The city needs to act today.  Inaction until 2020 means another 22.5 million visitors to the Alamo will emerge from the Alamo and say “‘Ugh!'”

March 5, 2011, Update:  Scott Stroud recommends keeping “rethinking Alamo Plaza” simple in his Express-News column:

A more dignified plaza doesn’t have to involve removing buildings across from the mission. They’re historic in their own right. But we do have to dial down their garishness.

And David Phillips, a major investor in businesses on Alamo Plaza, offers a well thought-out response to criticism of the businesses around the Alamo.

Update on March 6: The Express-News Editorial Board weighs in on the plaza and historical accuracy.

Tried to Forget the Alamo….

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Have kept my lips zipped for a remarkable amount of time, but find it frustrating everyone ignores the fact there is such a thing as the Alamo Plaza Historic District.  And in this district, sandwich boards are not allowed. 

One would think the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, as custodians of the Alamo, would be zealots about complying with the signage codes designed to protect the integrity of the area.  But no.

As for the ice cream and sandwich signs on the opposite side of the plaza, code compliance already has notified this business the signs are illegal.  City staff leaves, and the signs come spilling right back out onto the building’s facade and sidewalk.  Couldn’t they just be confiscated?