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Forbes
10-08-2025
- Forbes
San Pedro Creek Culture Park: San Antonio's Other River Walk
The "Restoration" section of Kathy and Lionel Sosa's 'La Gloriosa Historia de San Pedro Creek On My Mind' ceramic tile mural. Chadd Scott The San Antonio River Walk has been drawing tourists since the 1940s. They have come by the tens of millions through the years, strolling after visits to the Alamo a block away. Visitors enjoy the shops and restaurants and hotels lining the banks of the river's downtown loop. It's concrete banks. The San Antonio River through San Antonio is river in name only. Man-made efforts to control the flow of water dating back over 100 years have converted the river into what would more accurately be described as a flood control ditch. An engineering project. No more natural than the canals of Venice. Like all rivers, the San Antonio River periodically floods. At least it used to. Dams, straightening, dredging, channelizing, and an unseen network of pipes and drains and overflow tunnels have nearly eliminated the river's likelihood of overflowing its banks and destroying businesses downtown. That's good. The cost, however, was the river. That's bad. The San Antonio River through downtown exemplifies mid-20th century thinking about urban river flood control. Then, the goal was moving water away from populated areas as fast as possible by deepening, straightening, and lining with concrete river banks and bottom. Nature and aesthetics be dammed. Like the Los Angeles River, another river in name only. Twenty-first century thinking about flood control on urban rivers flows 180-degrees in the opposite direction. Today's best practices encourage moving flood water as slowly as possible by returning bends and curves to urban rivers. Adding native plants and trees along the banks to soak up and slow down water. River rocks and aquatic plants in the channel to slow down water. Less concrete. Attempting to mimic nature, not control it. Efforts at controlling nature rarely work long term. This 21st century thinking can be seen in San Antonio along the San Pedro Creek Culture Park, a 2.2-mile river walk flowing through the city a few blocks west from its more famous predecessor. The Locals River Walk A "before" picture of what would become the San Pedro Creek Culture Park. San Antonio River Authority Groundbreaking on the San Pedro Creek Culture Park began in 2016. The $300 million dollar project completed its final section in May of this year. The Creek has been rebuilt, not restored. There was nothing left to restore. When work began, parts of the Creek had been fully channelized, other portions covered by development, others existing as nothing more than trash and weed choked trickles. San Pedro Creek Culture Park, like the San Antonio River Walk, is an engineering project. Unnatural. The great difference, however, is the Culture Park having been rebuilt in a naturalistic way. The Creek was widened to slow the flow of water. Curves were built into its banks and those banks planted with native plants and trees returning some small portion of the biodiversity the Creek once featured. Visitors to San Antonio staying at the Element San Antonio Riverwalk hotel downtown are on the doorstep of the River Walk and two blocks from San Pedro Creek for easy comparison and contrast. An "after" picture along the northern section of the San Pedro Creek Culture Park from the same viewpoint as the above "before" picture. San Antonio River Authority From time immemorial, indigenous people occupied areas around San Pedro Creek taking advantage of its incredible natural abundance. Then the settler colonials came, first with their missions and towns, then their industry. The Creek–and San Antonio River and nearly every other river in America–became a 'working' river in the 19th and 20th centuries, used for turning water wheels, for power, for tanning and textiles and milling and soap making in the case of San Pedro Creek. The industrial waste, and then their city's human waste, was sent into the river. The rivers died. The fish died. Giant freshwater river shrimp from San Pedro Creek as long as a man's forearm used to feed local people. The species is now locally extinct. A reminder can be found in Camaron Street paralleling the northern section of the Culture Park. 'Camarón' translates to 'shrimp' in Spanish. America's rivers were turned into lifeless toxic waste dumps and open sewers. San Pedro Creek could never have been returned to what it was in 1750, but it's a hell of a lot better now than it was in 1950, or 2015. Now, San Pedro Creek casually makes its way through San Antonio past park spaces, green spaces, and art installations created as part of the project, past the University of Texas San Antonio's Institute for Cyber Security and a new federal courthouse. In summertime, the Park's length features a riot of blooming wildflowers attracting clouds of butterflies–queen, Phaon crescent, gulf fritillary, monarch. Herons and egrets have returned to the channel. Turtles–big ones–occupy a pool beside the massive flood control tunnel outlet on the southern end. In 1991, a tunnel 24-feet in diameter was constructed at a depth of 140-feet below the Creek's surface running a length of 1.1 miles to both divert flood water out of the creek bed downtown and supply water to the creek bed in times of drought. An even larger stormwater tunnel was constructed in the mid-90s under the San Antonio River through downtown. Interstates 10 and 35 bracket the Park on either end, eight lanes of traffic, an additional reminder that the Creek is now an urban science project. To wit, it flows with treated wastewater. It's perfectly safe and has no smell, although you wouldn't want to drink it. The natural springs and aquifer once feeding the Creek no longer supply enough water–too much is taken by thirsty San Antonians and their homes and businesses and agriculture and golf courses. Unlike the touristy downtown River Walk, the San Pedro Creek Culture Park was designed and built for locals. A community amenity. As it always has, San Pedro Creek continues giving more than it takes. Its gifts today are beautification, recreation, shade, cleaner air and water, walking and biking paths, dabs of nature in the city, the enchanting sound of falling water, programs and events, and art. San Antonio's History In Art A portion of Adrian M. Garcia's ceramic tile mural 'De Todos Caminos Somos Todos Uno (From All Roads, We Are All One).' Chadd Scott A perforated stainless steel wall screening mechanical operations from visitors sets the Culture Park's northern limit. Among those operations, a seine removing trash from the water flowing here out of San Pedro Springs Park 1.5 miles north, the original spring site feeding the Creek. Fun fact: San Pedro Springs Park is America's second oldest city park behind only Boston Common. At night, the wall's perforations are backlit to reveal what the stars looked like on May 5, 1718, the day San Antonio was founded by Spanish colonizers. A large pool fed by falling water from behind the steel wall begins the Creek's new journey. This is Plaza de Fundación. Visitors can walk over a metal grate and look down at the flood control tunnel beneath, or wade in calmer waters below. Here, elevated on one side of the bank, Creek Lines mirrors the historic flow of San Pedro Creek to its confluence with the San Antonio River via a canopy cutout. Thirty curved poles more than 10 feet tall, each with a plaque detailing a singular event from the city's history, support the structure. Two blocks south of Plaza de Fundación, Adrian M. Garcia's ceramic tile mural De Todos Caminos Somos Todos Uno (From All Roads, We Are All One) stretches 117-feet along the creek channel. The artwork shares snippets of San Antonio history from indigenous habitation on either end, working toward present day in the middle. Like almost all the Culture Park's commissioned artists, Garcia is local. She was born and raised on the West side, San Antonio's historic Mexican district. San Antonio was segregated and the Creek acted as dividing line between the West side and the Anglo part of town, the downtown with banks and tourist attractions and government buildings. Joe Lopez' Bellos Recuerdos del Teatro Alameda y Tiempos Pasados recalls this segregated mid-20th century period in the city's history with another tile mural along the creek bed. Murals and tile work across San Antonio recall Mexico's wonderful mural and tile traditions. Lopez' artwork depicts the Alameda Theater, a cultural hub for the city's Spanish speaking community throughout the 1900s. The title translates to 'beautiful memories of Alameda Theater from times past.' The historic theater visible from San Pedro Creek in front of the mural, and the first in San Antonio to integrate, has been vacant for decades. Continuing south and occupying the most developed portion of the Creek, Kathy and Lionel Sosa's La Gloriosa Historia de San Pedro Creek On My Mind –another spectacular tile mural–shares five eras of San Antonio history across five separate murals: Foundation, Confrontation, Separation, Inundation, Restoration. The colorful images are a mashup of people, places, animals, events, and symbols each deeply meaningful to city residents and the visitor experience today. It's one of the finest public art projects in America. A previously straightened and channelized portion of the San Pedro Creek through downtown San Antonio. This picture is taken from the same vantage point in the opposite direction as the below "after" picture. Chadd Scott An "after" picture of the San Pedro Creek Culture Park project through downtown San Antonio looking north with the creek bed widened, curved, and the banks filled with native plants and trees. Chadd Scott San Pedro Creek Culture Park's linear continuity is only broken in one place, for a block, just south of the stretch through the heart of downtown. City sidewalks easily span the gap. The southernmost portion, the last to be completed, traverses more industrial sections of the city before opening up to feature the Park's greatest stretch of nature. Steep, wide banks, not yet filled out by native plants and wildflowers, already greet passersby with a melody of birdsong. For lovers of native plants and trees and butterflies and birds and nature in urban settings along rivers like this, the San Antonio River Walk's southern section, the Mission Reach, has been built with this in mind, not commerce. After exploring San Pedro Creek Culture Park, go straight to Confluence Park, a national model for restoring urban waterways, sustainable urban parks, and environmental consciousness in big cities. A worthwhile break on the southern end of the Culture Park comes by way of Piedras Pegras de Noche, a local Mexican restaurant far off the tourist path where two large breakfast tacos and a pecan pancake costs less than $10. Total. The walkway goes right past the eatery's parking lot. At the Culture Park's southern end, one last art installation deserves attention. Mark Reigelman's giant, Corten steel, cupped hand, Falling Water captures stormwater runoff from the interstate above, filtering out trash and sending the cascading water into a natural area for filtration and dispersement before joining San Pedro Creek. More From Forbes Forbes Strolling Through Culture And Cuisine: One Perfect Day In San Antonio By Chadd Scott Forbes Rediscovering Michael Tracy At The McNay Art Museum In San Antonio By Chadd Scott Forbes Mississippi River Centers Inaugural Wakpa Triennial Art Festival In Minnesota's Twin Cities By Chadd Scott
Yahoo
29-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Pickleball civil war erupts in West Palm Beach gated community RiverWalk
Welcome to The Dirt! I'm real estate, weather and critter reporter Kimberly Miller with the latest developments in the sizzling market. Ho-hum, it's the dog days of summer in South Florida and if you're not endlessly circling the parking lot looking for shade or dodging Coldplay's kiss cam, you may find yourself embroiled in a pickleball civil war in one of Palm Beach County's many gated communities. RiverWalk of the Palm Beaches is toying with the idea of building six new pickleball courts in an area of greenspace that some community members really like. But RiverWalk's pickleball committee (yes, there's a pickleball committee and it's something we should all aspire to in retirement) says that two Realtors told it that new pickleball courts will increase home values. There are already pickleball courts at RiverWalk, but they're clay. Quelle horreur! Now the anti-picklers have formed a limited liability company to fight the pro-picklers because this is South Florida and we love us some LLCs. So pick a side, make your bets and stay tuned. Want to get The Dirt? Stay up to date on South Florida's sizzling real estate market and sign up for The Dirt weekly newsletter, delivered every Tuesday! Exclusively for Palm Beach Post subscribers. In other real estate-related news, two Reality TV stars are teaming up to hawk homes in Palm Beach County, there's an old cabin in Northwood Shores that may or may not date back to 1893, there's a plan for rooftop dining at the Offices At The Press, and take a tour of some of the reject homes in Palm Beach that ARCOM put the kibosh on. Former 'Bachelorette' star joins Ryan Serhant's real estate team in Jupiter Jupiter native and veteran of the reality television scene Tyler Cameron is now selling real estate with "Owning Manhattan" star Ryan Serhant, and it's like "The Bachelorette" and "Million Dollar Listing New York" had a really handsome baby who wants to sell you a house. Because I live my life vicariously through the crewmembers on Bravo's "Below Deck" (espresso martini anyone?), I wasn't as familiar with Cameron, who is already a real estate pro with his Emmy-nominated home remodeling show "Going Home with Tyler Cameron." Besides the intrigue of two reality stars joining forces, it was also another sign of Serhant's longterm business plan in Palm Beach County which is to crush his enemies, see them driven before him and hear the lamentations of their women because that's what's best in life. But no, really, Serhant has opened three offices in Palm Beach County since 2023 and recruited powerhouses such as Palm Beach-based agent Gary Pohrer. Is there a franchise of the "Million Dollar Listing" juggernaut headed to South Florida? It's already been attempted once, so we'll see. Rooftop dining at the Offices At The Press The landmark Palm Beach Post building at Belvedere Road and South Dixie Highway, which is still host to the award-winning 109-year-old newspaper but also a slew of other companies, could be getting a rooftop bar and restaurant under a plan pitched by its owner Boca Raton-based Pebb Capital. The four-story building has views of the Intracoastal Waterway and downtown West Palm Beach, and is part of the burgeoning South Dixie Corridor of design shops, restaurants and boutiques. In the same plaza is Joseph's Classic Market, Pink Steak steakhouse, Amped Fitness and a standalone Starbucks. The employment opportunities are appreciated as artificial intelligence takes all the desk jobs and we descend into a dystopian hellscape à la "The Purge." My money's on the Gen Xers because their survival skills were honed from years of climbing out bedroom windows with smuggled Boone's Farm and Bartles & Jaymes. Thank you for your support. Old home in West Palm Beach needs a new home A cabin hidden for years on a property in West Palm Beach's Northwood Shores community may be that of early pioneers to the area Lucretia and Henry Hannong. If so, that means it dates to 1893. While additions and modifications have obscured much of its original construction, neighborhood historian Carl Flick has gathered enough evidence to make a convincing argument that it is the Hannong's cabin. The death of the previous owner, who had built a 12-foot security fence around the property, and two subsequent sales left the cabin open for inspection by Flick, city officials and descendants of Lucretia and Henry. The race is on to move the structure and set it up as a museum to the area and the pioneers who persevered without air conditioning, bug repellent or White Claw hard seltzer. It was a tough life. Live lightly. Kimberly Miller is a journalist for The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA Today Network of Florida. She covers real estate, weather, and the environment. Subscribe to The Dirt for a weekly real estate roundup. If you have news tips, please send them to kmiller@ Help support our local journalism, subscribe today. This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Rooftop bar and restaurant pitched for Palm Beach Post building in West Palm
Yahoo
27-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Mike Duggan can't claim sole credit for Detroit's amazing recovery
Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan gave a masterful presentation Tuesday evening that I heard as much as an opening speech in his run for governor as his final State of the City address. Speaking at the new Hudson's Detroit building, Duggan touted the city's fiscal stability during his three terms, the city's new investment-grade credit rating, thousands of new housing units built and even a slight rise in Detroit's population after decades of decline. A lot to celebrate, for sure. And Duggan can justly claim credit for much of it. But what Duggan and many others miss is how deep the roots of Detroit's recovery go. Key building blocks of Detroit's comeback were in place at least a decade before Duggan took office in 2014. And before his time in office recedes into the history books, it's worth taking another look at exactly how this amazing city came back from the dead. More from John Gallagher: I'm a historic preservationist, but these RenCen towers have to go Certainly, the city's fiscal stability during Duggan's term owes much to Detroit's spin through Chapter 9 municipal bankruptcy in 2013-14. The Grand Bargain ― a financial agreement between philanthropy, the state and the Detroit Institute of Arts to secure the museum's collection and protect retirees' pensions in the bankruptcy process ― wiped some $7 billion of debt off the city's books, giving Detroit what former federal Judge Gerald Rosen, who served as mediator in the case, called the cleanest balance sheet of any city in America. Twelve years of balanced city budgets under Duggan flowed from that settlement. Then, too, the role of philanthropic foundations that pumped more than $300 million into the Grand Bargain followed years of an activist approach by philanthropy to help revive Detroit. The Kresge Foundation, Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan, Hudson's Webber and other philanthropies, flush with legacy wealth from Detroit's glory years, were already bankrolling the RiverWalk, the revival of Eastern Market, and a host of other social, artistic and neighborhood programs before Detroiters elected Duggan. Indeed, it's fair to say that philanthropic dollars, which I sometimes think of as money from heaven, has underwritten a vast amount of Detroit's revival. And speaking of the RiverWalk and Eastern Market, those were just two municipal operations languishing under direct city control that were handed off during Detroit's woeful pre-bankruptcy years to non-profit conservancies and public authorities. A city government too broken and dysfunctional to create the RiverWalk or revive the market spun those off to a whole series of newly created non-profit entities, where they thrived. Nor were they alone. Campus Martius Park, the city's convention center ― now called Huntington Place ― the city's workforce development agency, the DIA and Detroit Historical Museum ― all these and others were spun off from direct city control into non-profit stand-alone entities that took them in many cases from mediocre to newfound success. Ditto the many improvements to Belle Isle Park, once the island was handed off to the state's Department of Natural Resources, during the bankruptcy, after years of neglect. And more: The long-term transition in the city's economy from one based entirely on giant auto-related corporations to a more entrepreneurial model with hundreds of new startups ― all started in the decade before the mayor took office. And of course Dan Gilbert moved his mortgage business from the suburbs to downtown in 2010, and had already begun his unprecedented work of revitalizing downtown's derelict buildings and filling them with his workers by the time Duggan was sworn in. More from Freep Opinion: In race to succeed Gretchen Whitmer, Gilchrist says he can unite Democrats Don't get me wrong ― I believe Duggan will rank among Detroit's greatest mayors. He ran a tight fiscal ship, won back the confidence of both residents and business leaders, restored the city's parks, nurtured a revival in many Detroit neighborhoods and used the leeway given him by the bankruptcy and Gilbert's efforts to keep moving confidently forward. You might even say his record sets him up as a credible candidate to be Michigan's next governor, as he hopes to be. But he didn't do it alone, nor did the revival start with him. One day, historians write the full history of Detroit's amazing urban recovery. They'll give Duggan his full share of credit. But they'll note the recovery was a mosaic, not a silver bullet. Duggan is one in a vast cast of players who believed in the city and worked to make it better. John Gallagher was a reporter and columnist for the Free Press for 32 years prior to his retirement in 2019. His book, Rust Belt Reporter: A Memoir, was published last year by Wayne State University Press. Submit a letter to the editor at and we may publish it online and in print. Like what you're reading? Please consider supporting local journalism and getting unlimited digital access with a Detroit Free Press subscription. We depend on readers like you. This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Mike Duggan was just one part of Detroit's comeback| Opinion
Telegraph
04-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
From rollercoasters to rodeos – your guide to the ultimate family holiday in San Antonio, Texas
When sightseeing with children, parents must become social chefs, carefully seasoning holiday itineraries to ensure everyone is happy. The good news for those looking to travel as a family is that San Antonio, Texas, is a destination with all the right ingredients for success. The best way to get your bearings in this beautiful city is with an open-air Go Rio boat tour of the leafy San Antonio River Walk – complete with a tide of family-friendly jokes as you float through the beautiful heart of this 300-year-old city. From here, you'll be spoilt for choice, even for a week-long trip. San Antonio is known as the Theme Park Capital of Texas, boasting more than 160 rides across an impressive collection of parks, from Six Flags Fiesta Texas with its towering rollercoasters (headlined by the infamous Iron Rattler) to AR's Entertainment Hub with its indoor bumper cars and virtual-reality games and Schlitterbahn, considered be be among the world's best water parks. Then there's the extraordinary Morgan's Wonderland, which is hailed the world's one and only ultra-accessible theme park, with its autism-friendly sensory playgrounds, four-seater ziplines and wheelchair-compatible swings. The park is seasonal, so check dates on the website. If you're on foot after your River Walk cruise, it's a simple stroll through San Antonio's typically sun-drenched heart to the Shops at Rivercenter – home to two of the best downtown family attractions: the Sea Life Aquarium San Antonio and Legoland Discovery Center. The former is packed with engaging child-friendly exhibits and underwater tunnels, while the latter is an opportunity to get hands-on with millions of Lego bricks in the company of trained master-builders, before checking out the jaw-dropping Lego reproduction of the city itself. If learning is your priority, San Antonio has you covered too. The main children's museum – the DoSeum – is designed as a place where play and teaching overlap for kids of all ages, from the self-explanatory Spy Academy and Musical Staircase to the impressive Imagine It – an innovative area dedicated to teaching youngsters how to construct and write good stories. There's even a space called Little Town – exactly like a mini city, with shops, building sites, an airport, bank and post office – which is designed for babies and toddlers to explore in tiny cars. While the DoSeum justifiably gets the lion's share of attention, don't sleep on San Antonio's other family-friendly favourites, including The Buckhorn Museum, where you can learn all about the Lone Star State's pioneering past, before sitting down to a Texas-style family feast in the cowboy-themed restaurant. When it comes to Texas history, however, one site stands out above all others. The Alamo, a fortified Spanish Mission which saw a history-altering battle between Texan settlers and the Mexican Army in 1836, remains the number one free attraction in the entire country, with an on-site museum providing basic introductions to the Wild West legends involved in the battle, such as famed frontiersman Davy Crockett. Opened in February 2025, the San Antonio Missions National Historic Park combines the Alamo with four neighbouring historic Missions, to create Texas's only Unesco World Heritage Site. For kids with energy to burn (and sun cream judiciously applied) San Antonio has plenty of outdoor spaces to enjoy too, from sprawling Brackenridge Park – which also contains the city's world-class zoo and its 3,500 animals – to the San Antonio Botanical Garden, with its 38 acres of beautifully landscaped grounds, including the Family Adventure Garden (think treehouses to play in, water features to splash in, and a maze to explore). With its rich history, thrilling theme parks and fascinating cowboy culture, San Antonio is a city that promises unforgettable experiences for families – particularly if you can time your visit to coincide with one of the big annual events that take place throughout the year, from the epic Stock Show & Rodeo each February to the otherworldly Dias De Los Muertos Festival in October – an occasion which young fans of Disney's Coco will immediately adore – and the Tejas Rodeo Company's weekly rodeos up in Texas Hill Country, between March to November. And if you want to get any more hands-on and get your feet in the stirrups, a day or two at a dude ranch like Rancho Cortez with its Lassoo Lessons will get you hollering like a proper cow girl or boy. Whenever or however you visit San Antonio, the only problem you will face – like the heaped plates of spicy Tex-Mex being served all over town – is that there is simply too much good stuff to get through.
