Commentaries at the San Antonio Report provide space for our community to share perspectives and offer solutions to pressing local issues. The views expressed in this commentary belong to the author alone.
San Antonio is a city on the move.
Our skyline is changing. Our footprint is growing. And the way we get around our community is evolving.
Even as change happens, it’s important to preserve what makes our city unique — including our neighborhoods. I know, though, that we can foster progress and preservation simultaneously, and we must, to get where we need to go.
I am a longtime San Antonian who spent the past eight years serving the community as a member of VIA Metropolitan Transit’s Board of Trustees. Now term-limited and retired, I’m proud of the work we accomplished for our community.
Four years ago, San Antonio voters overwhelmingly approved new funding for transit that allows VIA to secure significant federal grants — more than $415 million in federal dollars for new investment in San Antonio and a new type of public transportation: Advanced Rapid Transit, or ART, known as VIA Rapid service.
Among other things, VIA Rapid offers faster, easier boarding, smoother traffic flow, safer sidewalks and crosswalks and shorter trips. The Green Line, VIA’s first ART line, will run from the San Antonio International Airport to Steves Avenue. The second planned corridor, the Silver Line, will connect the East and West sides through downtown.
Recently, we’ve heard some concerns about how the VIA Rapid Green Line could impact San Pedro Avenue and adjacent neighborhoods. Some residents in Monte Vista and Alta Vista have voiced concerns about how the project could change the character of the neighborhoods or increase cut-through traffic.
I attended meetings with the Monte Vista and Alta Vista neighborhood associations and hear those concerns. I lived in Alta Vista for nearly four decades and care deeply about the area. And I’m confident the work that the City of San Antonio is doing on land use through transit-oriented development planning will protect the fabric of our historic neighborhoods.
There are important institutions in those neighborhoods — schools, churches, businesses, retail and restaurants — that draw drivers onto neighborhood streets. The reality is that cut-through traffic has always happened, and I don’t believe that VIA’s planned Green Line will cause it to grow.
Those places — like Mark Twain Dual Language Academy, St. Anthony Catholic School, San Antonio Academy, Great Hearts Monte Vista and Keystone School — draw from all over San Antonio, and there’s no way to get to them without using San Antonio’s roads, including neighborhood streets. These existed long before the Green Line was envisioned, and it’s a problem in need of a solution. Perhaps the Green Line is the solution.
There are also concerns about the use of dedicated lanes — a requirement from the Federal Transit Administration and a key element for the corridor. VIA has taken a community-first approach to designing the VIA Rapid lines, taking into consideration existing right-of-way and the fabric of adjacent neighborhoods.
This means rather than taking large swaths of property to make way for dedicated lanes, VIA is employing curb-running business-access transit lanes between Hildebrand and Ashby — a key concern for some in Monte Vista and Alta Vista.
Those types of lanes aren’t new to San Antonio. Anyone who’s driven through downtown has experienced them, and I’d wager that the general consensus is that they’re not bad.
Many, many years ago, I was working south of downtown and my daily commute took me through the city center when diamond lanes were installed. At the time, I worried they would hinder my commute. Those concerns ultimately were unfounded. Similarly, Business Access Transit lanes along San Pedro won’t adversely impact neighborhoods.
I understand the concern, and I also know that when the city’s first rapid transit line is delivered, it will be good for our community and our neighborhoods. We’ll certainly face some unexpected hiccups along the way. I also acknowledge that the Green Line project comes at a time of construction fatigue from work happening in every corner of our community.
Between the city’s bond projects, the San Antonio Water System’s sewer projects, the Texas Department of Transportation’s highway projects, independent school districts’ building projects and more, it feels like we’re completely enveloped by construction.
Next year, VIA will break ground on the Green Line. It’s a big and important project, designed to be done in phases, and I’m confident VIA and its construction partners will go above and beyond to minimize disruption and over-communicate information and plans to the community. And when it’s done, I know we’ll have a project that my old neighbors in Alta Vista and Monte Vista — and the whole city — will be proud of, find useful and enjoy.
