Didn’t really want to go here again. Blame it on the Downtown Alliance. The organization has added a Best Urban Front Door category to its annual Best Awards. “Best” is important in this category, and I only wish they had established a “Worst” category as well to underscore just how important. Recognition in this category could be used to shame property owners into cleaning up their acts, similar to the strident efforts in Webster, Massachusetts, discussed on National Public Radio’s Talk of the Nation today.
In an earlier post (Okay, in post after post), I identified some of the welcoming signs and entrances found within the Alamo Plaza Historic District. The “Welcome to the Basement” sign setting the upscale fashion tone for the club was my favorite for the opposite effect it has. The Basement now has added a second ugly, illegal sign that should make it a logical candidate in a rather competitive environment for the ugliest entryway (Please refer to earlier posts to view additional possibilities around the plaza.).
But its neighboring shop on the other side of Fuddrucker’s frontage absolutely blows away the multitude of contestants around the plaza seemingly vying for the Worst Urban Front Door award (The wart built to hawk audio tours at the Alamo does not count because it is not the Alamo’s front door.).
Nominations for the Best Awards are closed, but nominations for the Alamo Plaza Hall of Shame remain open until no qualified candidates remain.
Just when I thought it could not get any worse update at 9:58 p.m. on March 8, 2011: Sarah forwarded photos to me of hawkers lurking around the entrance of the Alamo to solicit business for the Alamo’s new green screen.
Being squawked at by hawkers promoting fake Alamo photos at the door is a new low. Of course, one of the reasons you need to pose in front of the Alamo on a green screen is that is the only way to take photos out front without having them include Alamo staff at tables selling audio tours and, now, the hawkers. What is the selling point? “Hey lady, if you want a photo without me in it, you have to come pay for it around back?”
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!'”
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.
Didn’t really want to start the year off with another post about the Alamo, but several emails I received in the past 24 hours and Jan Jarboe Russell’s column on the future of the shrine of Texas liberty in today’s San Antonio Express-News compelled me to head down this blog’s wellworn path to the door of the Alamo.
This morning’s email had brought me a summary from wordpress.com listing the top five posts on my blog during 2010. Three of the five are Alamobsessive:
In the Express, Russell shares concerns expressed by state Senator Leticia van de Putte about the contract the Daughters of the Republic of Texas have entered into with WME Entertainment:
Meanwhile, Van de Putte and others are uncomfortable with the governing board’s recent decision to hire William Morris Endeavor Entertainment at $75,000 a month for a year to promote the Alamo. The Daughters’ own efforts to raise significant money for an endowment have failed.
“This is an agency that represents movies stars like Madonna and promotes celebrity brands like Tommy Hilfiger,” Van de Putte said. “This would be the first time the agency promoted a historic landmark. I don’t think it’s appropriate.”
WME Entertainment was formed by a 2009 merger that shook up Hollywood. According to answers.com:
What do you call an aging Hollywood star trying to regain youth and vigor by marrying a much younger starlet? Try William Morris Endeavor Entertainment (WME Entertainment), the new talent agency formed by the 2009 merger of 100-year-old William Morris Agency and Endeavor, born in 1995. The new super-agency ranks in size (boasting more than 300 agents) and scope with the Creative Artists Agency, a leader in the talent representation industry. WME Entertainment’s roster of stars includes Adam Sandler, Clint Eastwood, Denzel Washington, and Russell Crowe, among other A-list names. William Morris brought its primacy in books, music, and TV to the marriage, while upstart Endeavor adds young stars and momentum.
Now add the ancient Alamo to that roster.
Generally, the best way to quell a story and end rumors is to lay out the facts in a straightforward fashion. But it seems the contract the Daughters signed includes a major confidentiality clause that damages their credibility in dealing with the public. To someone unfamiliar with the high-dollar entertainment industry (as in me), the figure seems steep:
In consideration of the marketing services to be rendered by WME as set forth herein, WME shall be outlined to receive a guaranteed total of Nine Hundred Thousand Dollars ($900,000) for the term payable in equal monthly installments of Seventy Five Thousand Dollars ($75,000) for the months from November 1, 2010 until October 31, 2011.
Photo from Mail Online
Lips remain zipped over who is footing the bill to support this contract, but bets are on Phil Collins. According to Mail Online:
He recently secretly bought a shop next to the Alamo mission simply so that he could dig under it in search of artifacts. He’s also spent hundreds of thousands of pounds on memorabilia…. Collins spends weeks at a time in Texas, and his friends believe that he is preparing to buy a home there…. He’s addressed a local historical society, is thinking of writing a book, and is coming out of semi-retirement next spring in order to do a benefit gig for a restoration fund in San Antonio.
Not only does he collect everything Alamo, Collins apparently believes he was at the Alamo in 1836. Again, according to Mail Online:
Gary Foreman, a fellow Alamo enthusiast, recalled the moment that his wife Carolyn “revealed” Phil’s former life as Texan courier John W Smith, a man who was known as El Colorado — the redhead — because of his hair. Foreman said his wife called Collins over and shared her conviction with him. “When she made the revelation to Phil, his face lit up. His reaction was he felt very much at home at the Alamo and now it made sense.”
If Phil Collins is the mystery philanthropist, it is great to have someone outside of San Antonio take intense interest in and demonstrate a willingness to invest in such an important landmark. But, whoever the funder is, it takes a leap of faith to believe Hollywood marketing expertise will treat the history part of the story of the Alamo with the respect it merits.
Russell writes:
What the Alamo needs isn’t a promoter, but steady, reliable management and a staff of historians and professionals with a solid understanding of quality museum practices.
Hopefully, the Daughters will emerge from this with a new image as incredibly savvy businesswomen who have found a brilliant fundraising strategy to keep the Alamo in repair for years to come. Or….
Update on January 5, 2011:
In 2010, the byline of one Scott Huddleston, a longtime Express-News reporter, was most associated with the Alamo. And what a roller coast ride it was.
January 6 Update: Phil Collins’ and Ricky Skaggs’ fans shouldn’t book their plane tickets to San Antonio yet. While the DRT website still has March 5th posted as the date for the free concert on the plaza, the Convention and Visitors Bureau now lists it as happening on the Fourth of July….
Update on January 24: One website suggests tongue-in-cheek that the Daughters pretty much just go all the way Alamollywood and chuck the real Alamo for the “reel” Alamo.
Postcards from Barton Springs 
