City officials celebrated the grand opening of the Alazán Creek Linear Trail Saturday morning as children rode bikes, neighbors walked their dogs, and joggers passed by on the new trail.
The 10-foot wide path is an expansion of The Howard W. Peak Greenway Trails System. Alazán Trail is located across from Woodlawn Lake, and is one of the four creeks undergoing restoration in through the San Antonio River Authority’s (SARA) Westside Creeks Project.
San Antonio is channeling their waterways to connect the city in a tributary way. Literally.
The Howard W. Peak Greenway trails is a growing network of winding trails throughout San Antonio creeks: Salado, Leon, Huebner, Huesta, Culebra, Alazán, Apache, Martinez, San Pedro Creeks and the Medina River. The greenway has more than 52 miles of developed trails and more grand openings are coming.
The City of San Antonio is investing more than $10 million in the westward expansion of the creeks this year, funded through a voter-approved 1/8-cent sales tax. The Alazán Creek project cost $1.2 million.
Four of the nine creeks are located in the Westside of San Antonio. Alazán, Apache, Martinez and San Pedro creeks are are the focus of the Westside Creek Project. The goal is to restore 14 miles of the Westside creekways.
“You don’t know whats coming,” Olga Lizcano, Westside Creeks Committee co-chair said. “To see the restoration, you are going to be so proud of our city. You won’t believe it’s the same park.
Alazán Trail is already providing many Westsiders benefits. The trail stretches from Woodlawn Lake to the West End Parks, and provides safe pedestrian passage from Waverly Ave. and Culebra Streets.
“It’s exciting,” Councilman Roberto Treviño (D1) said. “This is the heart of what we are going after. We want to do things that truly impact our city, to connect communities, to emphasize all the great priorities we have in our community.
“Trail connections like this one are an incredible asset for all San Antonio residents and visitors. They increase our mobility across the city, improve out quality of life, and make San Antonio a healthier and more livable city.”
Not everyone is celebrating the Alazán restoration. Shirley Aguilar and Rudy Garcia live two houses away from the new trails. They say that since the restoration, they’ve seen people at the park at all times of the day and night, despite the midnight curfew, and an increased number of break-ins.
Garcia said the situation could be improved if park police would enforce the curfew, increase lighting in the parking lot and installing a private fence barrier to prevent passerby’s from entering neighbor’s backyards.
Councilman Treviño listened to the two residents, and said the city would begin looking for solutions to make the area safer for the closer neighbors.
The Westside Creeks Committee remains positive about the change, and hopes to create a long-term goal of connectivity.
The vision of the Westside Creeks Committee is to have an integrated system of creeks, where residents can enjoy them as the center of community interest. Robert Ramirez, co-chair of the Westside Creeks Committee said he wants the creeks to be like a “spiderweb that connects the city.”
“The Westside has long been an ignored part of the city,” Ramirez, continued. “There are a lot of misconceptions about this side of town. By doing this, we are letting the other sides of the city come in (the Westside). We have to act as good stewards. These pieces will come together like a mosaic.”
More trails will open up this summer, according to Ramirez.
Related Stories:
City: Greenway Trails Need Better Connections to Neighborhoods
Your 1/8 Cent Sales Tax at Work: Olmos Basin Gets its Greenway Trail
When is Rosillo Creek going to be the next project for the east side….https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Rosillo_Creek
Unfortunately, with the first half-mile stretch of Alazan Creek trail completed (somehow, nearly two years behind schedule) there are some serious design flaws or corner-cutting in terms of safe pedestrian access and enjoyment of the trail.
There’s no safe pedestrian crossing of Cincinnati Avenue / Tobin Drive (not even a posted yield sign) from Woodlawn Lake Park to the Alazan Creek trail head off Alexander Avenue. It is a mad dash across a wide, curved and fast street between the trail head and the main section of Woodlawn Lake Park.
Also, Alazan Creek trail currently ends abruptly a half-mile down creek at a point on Lombrano Street with no curb cuts and a long block east of West End Park. Sidewalks and crossings on Lobrano Street have not been improved to meet ADA passing requirements or allow easy ADA access to the new trail from housing immediately adjacent to the trail head.
In addition, access to Alazan Creek trail from neighborhood streets between Lombrano Street and Cincinnati Avenue is dangerous. On my first bike ride of the trail, I heard and then spotted neighborhood kids jumping from a ledge at least four feet high to reach the trail from a side street not far from Nelson Elementary School (SAISD) and Little Flower of the Basilica. Neighborhood sidewalks have not been extended to connect with or provide ADA access to the trail from side streets that the trail crosses and should help link.
The project was planned by SARA in 2011 to help improve neighborhood pedestrian connectivity (not just pedestrian through-way) — including via an Alazan Creek trail connecting Woodlawn Lake Park with Martinez Creek trail work at Mario Farias Park and with Apache Creek trail work near Laredo Street as ‘Phase One’ work.
SARA’s vision of fully connected Westside Creek pedestrian trails (meant to help dramatically improve bicycling and other pedestrian infrastructure) informed the 2013 US Army Corps of Engineers San Antonio Channel Improvements Projects (SACIP).
The actual stunted first phase of completed Alazan Creek Trail work suggests a disregard for the Westside Creeks Restoration Project plan approved by SARA, endorsed by county voters and supported by the US Army Corps of Engineers.
Noting the incredible delay in building a half-mile section of trail, the lack of any noticeable flood remediation landscaping along the trail segment and poor pedestrian connections and ADA access to the stunted stretch of trail that has been completed since 2011, it is hard to imagine that the SARA that built the Mission and Museum Reaches ‘completed’ this first small segment of Alazan Creek Trail.
See:
Crossing Cincinnati at Woodlawn Lake Park
https://www.google.com/maps/@29.449803,-98.5282238,3a,75y,73.19h,71.62t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1siqH1nH7cK-tydmOZyKeWfg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
Lombrano Street from Alazan Creek trail head to West End Park
https://www.google.com/maps/@29.4431402,-98.5280778,3a,75y,310.43h,66.41t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s-m857U_wmj2H98h_v9gEbw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
US Army Corps of Engineers (2013) – San Antonio Channel Improvement Project
http://www.swf.usace.army.mil/Media/Public-Notices/Article/480321/westside-creeks-san-antonio-channel-improvement-project-general-re-evaluation-r/
SARA Westside Creeks Restoration Project (2011)
http://www.westsidecreeks.com/westside-creeks-restoration-project-conceptual-plan/
When I wrote my comment above, I was not aware of how closely my observations of the recently completed half-mile Alazan Creek Trail segment echoed concerns raised by community members during the design phase in 2013 — particularly about neighborhood connections with the trail (and an overall eventual connected West Side Creek Trail system), but also in regards to seemingly extremely lopsided public spending, with an estimated only $1.5m of $270m in public river improvement funding spent on Martinez Creek and Alazan Creek trails collectively to date?
Based on 2013 and more recent reporting, it seems that San Antonio is about to spend more on pedestrian bridges across the planned downtown San Pedro Creek segment — $28m of an estimated $175m for two miles of downtown San Pedro Creek segment work — than what has been spent on all West Side creek flood remediation and connected trail work since first budgeted in 2010.
Indeed, it seems that recent San Pedro Creek downtown segment design changes cost more ($1.9m) than what has been spent on Martinez Creek and Alazan Creek trails to date.
As we set our 2017-2022 bond program priorities as well as rush (and likely pay more) to try to complete recently conceived downtown projects in time for the City’s 2018 tricentennial, we should remember former SARA board member Roberto Rodriguez’s quoted words from 2013 (when West Side creek flood remediation and connected trail work was considered ‘long-awaited’):
” . . . you have neglected the West Side creeks for all these years . . .this is a story that hasn’t been told. They haven’t done justice to this area.”
See:
Long-awaited trails coming to four West Side creeks (2013)
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/article/Long-awaited-trails-coming-to-four-West-Side-5067263.php?cmpid=twitter-desktop
County Selects Sundt/Davila to Manage San Pedro Creek Construction (2016)
https://therivardreport.com/county-selects-sundtdavila-to-manage-san-pedro-creek-construction/
San Pedro Creek design changes add to cost (2016)
http://www.expressnews.com/news/local/article/San-Pedro-Creek-design-changes-add-to-cost-6785560.php