Tag: the alamo

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.

Alamollywood Part I: Are the Daughters Extremely Savvy or Starstruck?

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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.

Ben Olivo briefly summarizes the year’s stories about the Alamo that dominated coverage of downtown San Antonio.

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….

And Scott Huddleston of the Express-News posted the news this evening that “Alamo concert now on hold.”

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.

This Deadly Scenario Should Not Have Been Written

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7 deadly scenariosAndrew Krepinevish has done what I would have sworn impossible.  He has almost managed to evoke a sentimental attachment to all of the horrible signage violations invading the Alamo Plaza Historic District, even Shamu disrespectfully flipping his tail toward the shrine of Texas liberty.

The West Point and Harvard graduate struck a little too close to home – only about six or seven blocks away – in one of his 7 Deadly Scenarios: A Military Futurist Explores War in the 21st Century.  His book, not light end-of-the-summer beach-reading material, was published in January 2009 by Random House, and I’m probably the last person to hear about it.  But the “future” he described is nearly here, and he is picking on the 175th anniversary of the Battle of the Alamo:

At precisely 8:28 a.m. on the morning of March 6, 2011, just as the city’s morning rush hour is at its peak…

Sorry to interrupt his story, but have the reenactors cleared out before 8:30, or are they in big trouble?  Am I on the plaza at the tail end of my morning walk?

…a blinding flash of light rips through the downtown area.  Nearby buildings are immediately vaporized.  Buildings farther off buckle and collapse….  A local television station’s traffic helicopter captures the blast at a distance of nearly nine miles away.  As the telltale mushroom cloud begins to rise from the city, the traffic reporter remarks, “My God, it’s an atomic bomb!…”

“Remarks?”  My loft and I were just vaporized.  That reverse commute my husband makes five days a week sounds pretty appealing at this point in the narrative.  I sure hope this is Krepinevich’s worst-case scenario.

The lead shot on the evening news, not only in America but around the world that night, centers on two images: the footage from the traffic helicopter with the reporter’s horrified voice-over; and on-the-scene reporters standing at locations where the severely damaged Alamo mission – the shrine to Texas’s independence – can be seen in the distant background.

The Daughters of the Republic of Texas must have gotten the roof repaired in order for it to withstand such a powerful attack, but I’m not reading another word.  This book gives me the creeps.  Ban this book. 

I certainly prefer a symphonic concert for the 175th anniversary.  But tell the reenactors to be on alert, and please, Tony, maybe don’t hang the banner.  Let’s not give the nefarious characters invented by Krepinevich that kind of directional signage. 

Rather selfish of me (an understatement much like “remarks”), but could we instead install a banner steering them toward the “reel” Alamo, John Wayne’s Alamo, the one in Brackettville? 

Update on August 31:  The “reel” Alamo is closing to the public.