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Originally Posted by miaht82
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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Cities can't act like "world class cities". They have to do acts that make them "world class". Hopefully one day San Antonio will figure out their is a price to annexation and developing all that cheaper land out around the loops. San Antonio has sooo much potential and energy and viberance. Hopefully it will start living into it's potential and towards becoming a world class city.
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.