Progress Report: South
Noon, February 24, 1996
Day One
by Mike Greenberg

The South team's site flanks the San Antonio River and includes a multitude of parks and recreatrional or cultural facilities -- Mission San Jose, the Charro Ranch, Mission County Park, Padre Park, Sanchez-Spencer Field (home of the Spanish-American Baseball League), a VFW Hall. and the Mission Outdoor 4-screen movie theater. East of the river is the historic Hot Wells Hotel property. In general concept, the team is attempting to enhance the sites existing attractions and help them coalesce into a "destination-oriented" whole. Some particulars:
  1. Build a pedestrian bridge across the river to link the parks on the west with the historic acequia system on the east, a little south of the Hot Wells Hotel.
  2. Soften the edges of the main river channel (previously straightened and denuded by the Army Corps of Engineers) and enhance the reastern edge of Mission county Park to orient it more effectively toward the river.
  3. Create a marsh and lake as a buffer between Padre Park and the Symphony Lane residential enclave.
  4. Redevelop the drive-in theater property as a hotel and conference center with adjacent culinary institute.
  5. Preserve and enhance strategic views toward Mission San Jose.
These ideas were still to be fleshed out Saturday afternoon. One preliminary observation: There is a curiously poignant time-warp quality to this part of town. This quality can be seen in the deep cultural roots and gritty patina of such facilities as the Charro Ranch and Sanchez- Spencer Field, in the fascinating ghost of the Hot Wells Hotel, and in Roosevelt Road's classic road-out-of-town feel -- fragmented, desultory and dusty; builings set far back from the street behind wide shoulders; architecturally very plain-spoken, though with recollections of the '40s and '50s. There is a distinctness and a heart in the look and feel of this part of town that demands to be respected by any intervention.