Category: San Antonio Parks

Balance the Budget by Enforcing the Code

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In June, San Antonio City Council will vote on proposed amendments to the Unified Development Code (UDC).  This seems frightening, as this code governs the appearance of our cityscape.  Commercial interests have attorneys and lobbyists pouring over the language in documents such as this, objecting to things here and there and suggesting insertions beneficial to their clients.  They do not care about the little things I do (Please change Riverwalk to River Walk throughout the document.); size matters most.  Big asphalt lots without trees taking up valuable  parking spots and big, huge, giant, preferably electronic winking and blinking signs.   

I made the mistake of opening the portion of the document affecting historic districts.  Fifty square feet of signage per building in a primarily pedestrian zone, such as Alamo Plaza seems huge to me.  (I know you probably have tired of my tirades about the appearance of the plaza, but The Alamo is the most visited attraction in Texas.  If we are not taking care of this cash cow, then the rest of the city must really be going to hell.) 

What struck me most about the document is not only what is changing, but what already is on the books and clearly not enforced by the city.  It is as though San Antonio Council passes ordinances and then naively places businesses on the honor system in terms of compliance.

So I took another stroll through Alamo Plaza with the existing UDC Code in mind.  Signage regulations apply to any sign on a facade, even those on windows and doors: 

A facade shall be considered the entire area of a building elevation extending from the roof or parapet to the ground and from one corner of the building to another including the entire building walls, recessed, wall faces, parapets, fascia, windows, doors, canopy, and all other components that make one complete architectural elevation…..

Installation. Commercial signs, posters, decals or advertisements may not be tacked, nailed, pasted, painted or taped to any portion of a building, object, site or structure visible from the public right-of-way….

Signs, visual displays or graphics shall either relate to the historic district or advertise a bonafide business conducted in or on the premises….

The number of signs on each building shall be kept to a minimum to prevent unsightly clutter and confusion…..

Many of the businesses on Alamo Plaza have a multitude of infractions, but, in addition to the problems mentioned above, I am including a portion of the applicable language from the UDC under some photographs.

Prohibited: “Billboards, junior billboards, portable signs, advertising benches and sandwich boards shall not be permitted within historic districts or on historic landmarks.”
Unsure what part of the code regulates this, but, if there is nothing in there, please add it quickly.
Prohibited: “Any sign placed upon a building, object, site, or structure in any manner so as to disfigure, damage, or conceal any window opening, door, or significant architectural feature or detail of any building.”
Prohibited: “Any sign which advertises commercial off-premises businesses, products, activities, services, or events.” This is on the west side of Alamo Plaza. IMAX is not located here.
We are two blocks from the Buckhorn.
Although, the Buckhorn is two blocks away, a promotional video advertising it runs continuously in a window on Alamo Plaza.
Made the mistake of rounding the corner to Houston Street, but decided not to go further.

All of the signage regulations mentioned above remain in the proposed revisions to the UDC, but what good is it?  No one is minding the most critical storefront this city has.

Hey, Sheryl Sculley, no need to look any further than Alamo Plaza to balance the city budget.  Just send inspectors and start collecting fines on the west side of Alamo Plaza, and San Antonio should be in the black.

Note Added on June 1:   The Infrastructure and Growth City Council Committee will meet to discuss changes to the Unified Development Code (UDC) at 2 p.m. on Tuesday, June 8, in the Plaza B Room, Municipal Plaza on Main Plaza.

Note Added on June 6:  Can’t believe I missed this earlier, but the illegal portable sign on the left of the top left photo above actually is an advertisement for Fiesta Texas.

Note Added on June 30:  Sam’s the man!  Sam Perez is the city’s code enforcement officer downtown who is in charge of trying to keep the sidewalks free of sandwich boards and other clutter.  He has his hands full, but he has made several sweeps through Alamo Plaza recently.  Unfortunately, he can do nothing about the illegal signage in the windows – not his department.

Farmers Spared Towering Oaks from the Bulldozers of Urbanization

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After an aquifer-filling 24 hours, the clouds parted just in time for this morning’s opening ceremonies for Phil Hardberger Park. 

Former Mayor Hardberger does not take the responsibility of having the 300-acre park named in his honor lightly.  Since leaving office, he has assumed the presidency of the Phil Hardberger Park Conservancy; along with his wife Linda, donated $100,000 from their private foundation; found the conservancy a home in his former office space in the Milam Building; and, perhaps most importantly for the future of the park, installed the powerhouse behind several former mayors – Betty Sutherland – as the conservancy’s executive director.

Where’s the dogpark?
Bonnie Conner
Father David and Banks Smith
Pug Pining for Dogpark
Former Mayor Howard Peak, Mayor Julian Castro and Former Mayor Phil Hardberger
Marcie Ince and Parky
Anne “Parky” Alexander
Father David Garcia and Linda Hardberger
Former Mayor Howard Peak and Mayor Julian Castro

The opening provided a break from editing the edits in a book about the farmers, Max and Minnie Voelcker, who lived on the land now Hardberger Park.  Editor Lynnell Burkett and I agree about the placement of the oft-cursed comma (refer to earlier ‘ode’) surprisingly more frequently than that of the devilish colon.  

During this morning’s ceremonies, the former mayor said the parkland will endure for centuries to come, long after those who had anything to do with it are forgotten.  Already, Voelcker is far from being a household name, even for those living near the park. 

Although the Voelckers ran cattle on their land once dairy-farming became unprofitable for small operators; they always considered themselves farmers.  The stories of their farm and all the dairies that flourished in this part of San Antonio once known as Buttermilk Hill are endangered.  A May 14 editorial in the San Antonio Express-News provided evidence some of the few who know the Voelcker name now term the land’s historical usage as “ranch.”

While Max and Minnie were simple farmers, their legacy stands in the towering oak trees they carefully preserved and the foundation they endowed to support medical research of benefit to many, The Max and Minnie Tomerlin Voelcker Fund.  But, having spent months and months with their papers and photos encircling my desk, I want others to know these stubborn farmers who so tenaciously clung to their land despite the immense pressures of urbanization.

So back to the edits.  Let’s get The Last Farm Standing on Buttermilk Hill on the press, before everyone forgets that “on this farm there was a cow.”

‘Faux Bois’ Roots Run Deep in San Antonio

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Like remnants of an ancient petrified forest blending in with the urban landscape, San Antonio’s cement artworks, faux bois or trabajo rustico, are cherished landmarks.  The rough “bark” of the old trolley stop near Central Market in Alamo Heights; the covered bridge in Brackenridge Park; and the entrance to the Japanese Tea Garden has been rubbed to a sheen by the exploring hands of generations of San Antonio’s children.

The craft of creating trabajo rustico sculptures could have been lost for San Antonio following the deaths of Dionicio Rodriguez and Maximo Cortes, but fortunately Maximo’s son, Carlos Cortes, inherited both the secret formulas and the talent to continue to add prominent public artwork throughout the city.  Carlos installed a graceful “cypress” bursting through the ceiling in the middle of the San Antonio Children’s Museum; built the Treehouse for the Witte Museum; added a trellis to the River Walk; recently completed the massive Grotto for the river’s Museum Reach; and installed benches in a pocket park.

Carlos Cortes’ cypress tree seems to grow through the ceiling of the San Antonio Children’s Museum.
Private donations garnered by the San Antonio River Foundation funded Carlos Cortes’ fanciful grotto along the Museum Reach of the San Antonio River Walk.
Carlos Cortes

San Antonio’s connections to the art form of trabajo rustico are explored during an exhibit and related symposium, both part of the celebration of Historic Preservation Month.  The Tradition of Trabajo Rustico:  Fantasies in Cement can be viewed in the Russell Hill Rogers Lecture Hall in the Navarro Campus of the Southwest School of Art and Craft through May 30.

Speakers at the symposium on the morning of Saturday, May 15, include Patsy Pittman Light, author of Capturing Nature:  The Cement Sculpture of Dionicio Rodriguez.  Following a box lunch, there will be a bus tour of some of San Antonio’s faux bois landmarks and a demonstration by Cortes at his studio.

The morning session is admission-free.  The fee for lunch and the afternoon bus tour is $25.  For more information, telephone the San Antonio Conservation Society, 210-224-6163.

January 16, 2013, Update: San Antonio’s faux bois art and artists are featured on KLRN ARTS.