let me just say that i hope the $3M grotto isn't too Disney-ish... i have fears that it will be...and maybe the whole word "grotto" has been tainted by Hefner...but i was really hoping that the beauty of this new reach of the river would be in highlighting the natural serenity and beauty of the SA river through these parts.
i also wanted to chime in on the naming debate. i think that we have to be careful in assigning names that don't naturally fall on areas. whenever i refer to anything on south flores, i find myself saying "south flores" and not soflo...i mean, it's 3 syllables instead of 2. not a huge difference there in terms of effort and i want people to know that i'm proud of this city - and sometimes the little abbreviations work to erode local flavor.
"flores" is puro san antonio. "soflo" could be in des moines or tuscon or boise. if, after 30 years, south flores is a known entity, then maybe it gets shortened and nothing is lost.
we (downtown enthusiast types) are more influential than you might think. we are the people who leak out information to people who care much less but may be much more influential. and friends and family ask us when they see a crane or a cleared lot - because they know that we care. so we have a chance to help set the tone a little bit with these areas. let river north be river north until something organically changes that. let the near-eastside be the near-eastside....if it eventually earns itself a name, great - if not then it never deserved one in the first place.
