A fantastical land bridge that appeared in Project Marvel renderings in 2024 dropped from the picture early on as hope for federal funding dissipated.
But Arlene Swan, who grew up on the East Side and still attends church there, said she wasn’t sure how one footbridge spanning the highway would make up for all that was lost.
Built in the 1960s, U.S. Interstate 37 corridor split San Antonio’s urban core from neighborhoods to the east, closed off streets, and created a kind of physical and economic barrier that the city has sought to vanquish.
Plans for a sports and entertainment district at Hemisfair accelerated those ambitions.
Though the Project Marvel land bridge idea was eventually scrapped over its potential cost, the city had a $3 million Department of Transportation grant to study the project, funds that are now being used to look at all types of connectivity and pedestrian access across I-37.
The city hired infrastructure consulting firm AECOM to conduct the Reconnecting Communities Across I-37 study which got underway in the spring.
On Thursday, during a second round of public meetings for input to the study, Eastside residents and others came with their doubts and questions.
“One bridge can’t make up for 10 streets,” Swan said, referring to the number of east-west thoroughfares that were closed when I-37 was built.
But at least one woman at the recent session was hopeful. “I think it can be done, if they do it smart,” said Julia Domaradzka, a resident of the Dignowity Hill neighborhood.
AECOM project manager Phillip Baker said the first phase of the study looked at existing conditions in the area along with the city’s formal policy plans.
Those include SA Tomorrow, the Bike Network Plan, a downtown accessibility and mobility plan and VIA Metropolitan Transit’s plans for the Silver Line advanced rapid transit system, among others.
It’s also feeding input to another federally funded study currently underway through San Antonio for Growth on the East Side (SAGE), which is looking at connectivity across highways on the East Side.
“We don’t want to ask people the same questions that we’ve already asked here. We have a lot of feedback we’ve gathered here,” said Erika Ragsdale, downtown administrator for the City of San Antonio. The completed study is expected to be released in January, she said.
Baker said they are gathering all the ideas from each session into four categories — complete streets, re-connecting, placemaking and gateway intersections.
One major talking point has been about the challenges pedestrians have crossing I-37.
“What we really heard out of that was that people do see it as a physical barrier,” Baker said. “But then we also heard that it’s a perceived barrier in the way that the land use is on both sides, particularly on the East Side [where] we have a lot of vacant lots, a lot less shade.”
Another frequent topic was how crossing to the East Side did not feel welcoming or inviting, he said.
Brett Rea works downtown along Commerce Street and said he’s concerned about how all the city’s plans will come together — and not bottleneck vehicular traffic along Commerce and Market streets.
“We have a lot of people that work over here [on the East Side] and so I was curious,” he said. “I really wanted to understand what everything was all about and what the plans were.”
Community members also left Post-it notes with input and questions that reflected longstanding concerns on the East Side:
“What about community-based services to address poverty across the bridge?”
“Will this ‘improvement’ increase taxes and instances of gentrification?”
“Will jobs-opportunities be brought to the East Side?”
“Please add bicycle amenities wherever possible.”
“Making Montana wider can create a better solution for stalled trains.”
But Alamo Heights residents Parker and Brittany Ruhmel, who frequently visit downtown, were mostly interested in another kind of connector.
“My concern is the stadium,” Parker said. “I think it needs to connect to the river and I haven’t heard anybody talk about that yet.”
Bringing together the basketball arena and the River Walk would help with people flow downtown and also make it feel more like San Antonio, Brittany said, “not like we threw up an arena that is the same arena you’re going to see in Charlotte or Memphis or wherever.”
