For a half-century, downtown San Antonio’s only big park sat near-vacant and underutilized after the closing of HemisFair ‘68, the world’s fair staged over six months in 1968. Locals had little reason to go there more than once or twice.
Many families staged their children’s birthday parties at the restaurant atop the Tower of the Americas. Years ago I raced up the 750-foot tower’s 952 stairs alongside firefighters for the annual Tower Climb and Run that benefits the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Periodic visits to the Mexican Cultural Institute or UNAM, the Spanish university and language institute, gave me reason to enter the park. But most locals left Hemisfair to convention-goers looking for a place to jog or walk. Downtowners had little or no reason to go there unless they were called to federal jury duty, or worse, found themselves on trial.
We owe our gratitude to two former mayors, Phil Hardbeger and Julián Castro, for having the vision and the public support to set the stage for redevelopment of Hemisfair, bringing it back to life as a district with public park spaces, apartments, offices, restaurants, a coffee shop, beer garden and much more to come.
After public meetings that drew hundreds to Sunset Station 13 years ago, the rebirth began with the 2015 opening of the four-acre Yanaguana Garden playscape on Hemsifair’s southwestern corner, an amenity that has drawn hundreds of thousands of families and children from all districts in the city. One of San Antonio’s smallest parks arguably has become its most popular park.
The next big moment in Hemisfair’s redevelopment will come on Sept. 30, with the official opening of phase one of Civic Park, a splendid green lawn and landscaping situated between the Henry B. González Convention Center and a newly planted, shady allée or promenade of sycamore trees that eventually will reach Market Street after the 2025 completion of phase two, thus connecting the Alamo Plaza with the historic Lavaca neighborhood through Hemisfair along vehicle-free pathways.
The reconstructed historic Acequia Madre de Valero built by the Spaniard colonizers runs through Civic Park, which also is home to several other water features and an artist’s palette of native plantings that have somehow survived the summer’s record heat. Visitors who come when big events are not underway will find Civic Park to be a quiet, peaceful and welcoming retreat from the busy urban surroundings.
It would be good at some point to see the addition of interactive media to educate locals and visitors on the land’s history and its prehistory, which dates back thousands of years to the indigenous people drawn to the region’s abundant springs.
While Mayor Ron Nirenberg, City Manager Erik Walsh and Hemisfair CEO Andrés Andujar will preside over official opening ceremonies that begin at noon on Sept. 30, the real opening will take place Sept. 29 as Jazz’SAlive celebrates its 40th anniversary with an evening of live jazz at Civic Park after permanently moving there from Travis Park. The festival will be the first big test of the resilience of the park’s new natural grass lawn. Admission is free, although premium seating and VIP tables are for sale. The posters say no “outside beverages,” but reusable water bottles are allowed.
Kudos to the San Antonio Parks Foundation, which presents Jazz’SAlive, for demonstrating environmentally responsible festival practices and making sure vegan, vegetarian and healthy options are available. Most festivals serve unhealthy junk food. Serveware and utensil ware are made from organic materials and plastic cups and commemorative cups are recyclable. The San Antonio Spurs have donated a Rebound 2 Recycle Game that lets fans shoot recyclable plastic water bottles into hoops and win prizes, thus avoiding more landfill.
“Sustained environmental responsibility occurs over time,” Mary Jane Verette, the San Antonio Parks Foundation’s president and CEO, told me last week as we discussed the tons of litter that are left behind by many festivals and parades in San Antonio. Noting that Jazz’SAlive has gone paper-free this year, she added, “We feel great knowing that climate friendly features have been incorporated seamlessly into an improved guest experience and a happier planet at all SA Parks Foundation events.”
Festival organizers hope San Antonio’s record run of 100-degree days comes to an end by then, but if not, Día de los Muertos aficionados can look forward to cooler weather by the time Muertos Fest, the city’s ever-growing celebration of this Mexican homage to lost loved ones, is staged at Yanaguana Garden and Civic Park on Oct. 28-29. The 11th annual event also is free and open to the public and will feature live music, original artwork, a dance, drum and puppet procession, live poetry and the largest open altar exhibition in San Antonio.
The redevelopment of Hemisfair ultimately will prove to be a 20-year effort. The Tower Park phase is not expected to be funded until the 2027 bond cycle, and the future of the World’s Fair-era buildings on Hemisfair’s southern flank remains a big question. Private sector projects on Market and South Alamo streets yet to be started will add as many as 500 apartments, a new hotel and many more retail establishments. That means construction will still be underway in April 2025 when the city hosts another NCAA Men’s Final Four.
It took four years to plan and stage HemisFair ‘68. It will take much longer to give San Antonio the downtown park district it deserves. The next big moment in that evolution is this month’s opening of Civic Park and the arrival of Jazz’SAlive.
