Phase I of San Antonio’s San Pedro Creek Culture Park formally opened to the public after a grand opening ceremony stretching across Friday and Saturday.
San Pedro Springs and the creek that flowed out of it were the origins of the city. Artist Kathy Sosa said, however, those life-giving waters also took lives away.
“After the big flood of 1921, this city started thinking seriously about what to do,” she said.
Sosa noted that San Antonio’s recurring problem was downtown flooding. That 1921 flood killed at least 80 people, and in its wake the city started the work to protect its downtown.
“They built the Olmos Dam on the North Side. Eventually, flood control took the form of constructing the creek into ugly drainage ditches,” Sosa said.
The San Pedro Creek was remade into a three-sided concrete ditch to route floodwaters away.
Years later, and given the successes of the remaking of the San Antonio River, the Museum Reach and the Mission Reach, the county turned its sights to the San Pedro Creek and proposed creating the San Pedro Creek Culture Park.
A study was conducted to determine viability. “That study came back in 2013. It showed that the great restoration would move 30 acres out of the flood zone. It would be four miles of trails, 60,000 feet of linear walls and 11 1/2 acres and landscaping and eight bridges and six pedestrian bridges,” said Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff. “After the completion of the engineering study, the Commissioners Court voted and put up $125 million to do this project.”
That wasn’t enough to complete the 2.2 mile project, so the city put up $20 million, and $60 million in federal funds were also found. Its premise was all about flood control, but Wolff said its execution was about far more than that.
“We wanted to tell the story of the history of our merging cultures through the use of color, words, murals, sculptures and tile design all up and down this creek,” Wolff said.
They broke ground in September 2016.
Six years later, the single longest phase is now open. What do San Antonians think of it?
“This is a fantastic concept. We're so proud of it. I hope everybody in the community can come out and see this,” said Robert Ramirez.
He hoped that the San Pedro Creek Culture Park will open the door to other West Side creek re-imaginings.
“This is a gift to the community. And we hope that the community can enjoy it," he said. "And certainly tourists are welcome. But this is really for us.”
Chris Castillo described what he’d seen of the park.
“There have been art installations, a lot of nice water features. Seems like it's built to last — high quality — like it's not going to fall apart in a few years,” Castillo said.
Castillo also said that these kinds of public works projects pay many dividends to taxpayers.
“I do appreciate them putting money into infrastructure projects like this because the River Walk is one of those things that draws in a lot of people, and this seems like a section that would probably be used more by the people in this area,” he said.
His friend Marian Davalos works near the park. She said she could use this new public space to unwind.
“A lot of people like need extra green spaces, open spaces where they can just relax in their free time,” Davalos said. “I think it's a great, great addition.”
Armando Gutierrez-Bravo watched events unfold with his wife Katherine.
“It's just absolutely beautiful now. I can't even believe, this is the first time I've been downtown and walked this walk,” he said. “It's gorgeous. I really think they've done they outdid themselves.”
Former Poet Laureate Carmen Tafolla was there with friends.
“San Antonio is becoming better and better known as a center for public art and for making people feel good about who they are, where they come from, and really presenting a model for the world that it is possible for different ethnic groups and races to get along and to be part of American history that we are American history. I think that's really critical to recognize,” she said.
Kathy Sosa contributed her art to the new stretch. Her and her husband Lionel’s murals adorn the west-facing wall behind the Spanish Governor’s Palace, just south of Commerce Street.
“These are five monumental murals all in a row between Commerce Street and Dolorosa Street,” she said. “And they picture five important episodes in the history of San Pedro Creek.”
“The murals that are finished in tile, they're 24 feet high by 28 feet long each,” Lionel Sosa explained.
He added that that the creek had an original basic function but eventually became a line of demarcation.
“I think very few people know how important this creek has been to our city and how it became the original source of water for the city,” he said. “How it at one time became the dividing line between the West Side, the poor people and everybody else.”
Kathy Sosa said those five murals depict five specific events important to San Antonio, and specific to San Pedro Creek history. QR codes will soon allow smartphone users to hear from the figures pictured in the murals.
“So our hope is that people will come back and back to see them and see something different every time they return,” she said.
Hundreds of people gathered outside TPR studios for the ceremony. Cristina Martinez said one art installation had her on the edge of her seat.
“I'm really excited to see the waterfall installation,” she said.
Brooklyn artist Adam Frank designed the 250-foot long waterfall. He had a quirky litmus of success.
“What would my grandma think of this? You know, this is public art,” Frank said. “So I feel very responsible to every part of the public.”
He sat among the visitors as a countdown came to an end and the waterfall began.
The crowd cheered the beautiful display.
That waterfall stretches the length of TPR's headquarters building, then another 125 feet almost to Commerce Street, defining the eastern edge of the plaza.
A silver retro-looking microphone stands at the closest point to the creek. Frank said the microphone works. “And when you speak into this sculpture, and when you make any sound, your sounds are visualized in the lights, in the falls,” he said.
Given that the gathering was quite loud, the falls were constantly changing color.
Art group Urban-15 played music, while dancers emerged from under the Commerce Street bridge costumed as butterflies.
Former Mayor Henry Cisneros was among the visitors. When asked about the project’s nearly $300 million price tag, he grew philosophical.
“How do you put a value on the most attractive downtown in Texas? Safe. Primed for development, yet done with a view for human beings and the scale that human beings enjoy,” he said. “How do you put a value on that? You can only evaluate it at the end of a decade or several decades, and then that $300 million will be minuscule against the billion dollars of investment that it makes possible.”
Writer and local culture adjuster John Phillip Santos said San Pedro Creek’s story is similar to a phoenix rising.
“That is the underlying story ... that she lay underground for a hundred years, and she has been returned to the light in our time and fused with this idea of using public space — city space as a tabula rasa — for telling stories and convening that with the public,” Santos said.
