Downtown vision falls short
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He brings up good points but I think its being somewhat unfair to Castro;
He is the one that said that SA needs to grow up and start acting like a world-class city. Just to hit on one topic though: I know the core has a long way to go to match up to the some other cities, but we don't necessarily need to match them on every level, we could counter with one better. I know most cities here in the US have dedicated bike lanes on streets, but in some parts overseas, they share a lane with pedestrians on sidewalks. In Korea and Japan, the sidewalks are a couple feet wider and are split; peds on the inner portion, bikes by the curb, and bikes follow pedestrian laws so that there is no confusion. They also don't secure their bikes over there either, but thats another topic. It solves their problem over there, and it could here as well. We have a habit of building sidewalks where they aren't really needed (like off of Airport Blvd, just as an example.) Why not give it to bikes for now? and then if it becomes more popular later, we can worry about the dedicated lanes. As for the other problems: I think one problem is being targeted (slowly, but it is,) housing is coming online; Steel House Lofts should come online by next spring and Hemisview Village (Durango Phase) should have its first residents by the fall. 500-600+ new residents does make a difference. But, the city does need to make a decision as to what they want Center City to be and have a full plan out that creates a city out of the "old" suburbs. |
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I don't think this means the end of anything. Just another step in realizing how much more the city needs to mature.
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The sidewalk thing irks me. There's been an issue with sidewalks in Government Hill since I was born almost 28 years ago, but not a single mayor really pays attention. And to top it all off, they ripped up the asphalt and never put down more on stretches of Mason, Muncey and Palmetto. Though if you've been on Palmetto north of 35, you'd know it never really had great paving or sidewalks to begin with.
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Rather than building a new sports stadium and re-doing the re-do of the re-do of Hemisphere, put some money into some retail/grocery downtown in a private/city project including office and condo and apartments. Think rail. And start charging new development for all their infrastructure needs and upgrades. |
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Perhaps that project could be on Hemisfair Park:jester: and tie in with rail as the proposed East-West line will run right through the park. |
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Does anyone know how the city plans to deal with future annexation? I imagine it's probably full speed ahead. I would like to see them say enough is enough, and anyone outside of the city can incorporate into their own town/city. |
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Couldn't find anything specific to future annexation. Heres what I found in the City Master Plan: Quote:
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The last annexation that I can find was 1604/Culebra @ 38 acres in 2006. The only thing since then has been disannexation of ~ 50 sq. miles. But just like you said, I would like for them to focus on quality. |
"Robert Rivard"
Is this a story or just a long rant from a biker. For starters two of his main examples; drainage improvements on Mulberry and Hildebrand are poorly represented. 1. Hildebrand does not have the ROW for bike lanes on 80% of his example 2. These drainage projects are ridiculously exspensive and people would be suprised about how much an extra 4'-5' of pavement on each side of the roadway would cost on some projects that are already lacking adequate funding. 3. The bridges that are going to be built on Mulberry are going to be built wide enough to accomodate possible future bike lanes. 4. These are drainage projects. The city evaluates all Capital Improvement projects to see if it will be cost effective to upgrade or build other infrastructures as part of the same project. I use to have to go to all of these meetings when I worked at CIMS and sometimes you can't always do what you want to. I don't know who is the public Works Bike coordinator now, but when I went to the meetings there was someone from bikes there always lobbying. Sometimes they would win and sometimes they knew that they wouldn't. To switch speeds a little, I do understand (to an extent) the "bikers" issue, but to compare SA's City Bike paths (that are a relatively new thing) to Madison (one of the most progressive cities in the country) is a little ridiculous. It is going to take time and a lot of money to have a comprehensive bike network in SA. It isn't going to happen over night and it also doesn't help that most of the tax payers in the area couldn't care less... but sometimes politicians have to do what is right not popular. Take it easy Mr. Rivard San Antonio is a monster of a certain type of values, progressive not being on of them. It is going to take time. |
This is a weak and very misleading article and typical of what I have come to expect from Mr. Rivard. His piece on MJ, dated 07/05/2009, was a real jewel.
What I would like to know is, what does having bike lanes at Hildebrand and Mulberry have to do with the downtown vision. I haven't visited Brackenridge Park in years, but I do not remember seeing bike paths there either. What he fails to mention is there are several bike and jogging trails either U/C or planned in SA. His article says nothing about what is or is not happening in DT. What a clown. :shrug: |
I think the article was just using those streets as an example that with the new construction happening on them they should have added bike lanes while they were doing the construction. I agree it is sort of odd since they aren't downtown which the title indicated what the subject was about. But I think they were just using them as an example for what could be happening in downtown and elsewhere in the city.
Also, bike paths such as ones shared by joggers, are not urban bike routes. They shouldn't really count as transportation routes for bicyclists, since they're strictly for recreational purposes. They're fine for mountain bikes, but do not work well for road bikes. I would never use a bike path as a viable route to get somewhere on a bicycle, unless I was riding for recreation, and not strictly for transportation. Quote:
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