Touring the City I love

FYI, yours truly is a member of a volunteer citizens committee, the ATD Oversight Committee. ATD stands for Advanced Transportation District. This was an entity set up by a vote of the majority of San Antonio citizens in November of A.D. 2004, who approved of a half cent raise in the local sales tax to fund improvements in the transportation infracstructure here. Half the raise was to go to VÍA Metro Transit and the remaining half to be split between the city's Public Works Department and the Texas Dept. of Transportation or TxDOT.

Being a constant bus rider, I was asked to serve on the oversight group, which means that regularly -- twice a year to begin with and now quarterly -- we gather and hear reports from the three bodies, as to what they are doing with the money raised for the ATD by the sales tax increase. It's been an informative and rewarding service.

Wednseday morning we Oversight Committee members were given a bus tour (VÍA bus, naturally) of various projects funded by the ATD sales tax. These were on the Westside and South Side of the city, and reps from VÍA, Public Works and TxDOT took turns describing their specific projects as the bus approached each. The Westside is, as you should know from reading my blog postings, my favorite part of the city. The South Side, particularly in vicinity of the old Spanish missions and along South Zarzamora Street, is also dear to my heart.

Among the projects we saw were some of the newest set of VÍA bus stop shelters, which are both attractive (including being a lovely green color all over) and functional, and the very first Super Stop that VÍA has installed, which is appropriately (?) on South Zarzamora beside the brand-new "super" H.E.B. store, north of the Zarzamora-Military Drive instersection. About a half mile or so to the south of the new Super Stop we went by the location for the proposed new South Central transit center, on the IH 35 access road near Zarzamora. This center will service the South side, which is already growning thanks to the new Toyota pickup plant out in the country.

We also saw such city Public Works projects as new sidewalks being installed on the near Westside, at Buena Vista and Colorado, which meet standards dictated by the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act), and crosswalks of a new thermal plastic material, which makes them longer-lasting than traditional paint. The city Public Works "tour guide" was Joe Marsilio, and one of the TxDOT officials, Carl Smith, sat next to me on the bus. One of the TxDOT projects we saw, the widening and improvement of IH 35 between Theo and Zarzamora, which is just getting underway.

At one point early in the tour the bus passed Sidney Lanier High School, the "Pride of the Westside", the football team of which will play this Saturday in the Chili Bowl. This annual celebration of the two oldest high schools in the city (the other being now named Fox Tech) is a grand tradition of this city of many traditions and parties. Alamo Stadium, if it will be near capacity for any game will be so for the Chili Bowl.

And I shall be there! Go Voks Go!