San Pedro Creek project kicks off with waterworks

Groundbreaking ceremony held Thursday

SAN ANTONIO – Phase 1 of the San Pedro Creek Improvements Project kicked off with a lot more fanfare than the usual hard hat and shovel ceremony during Thursday’s event at Fox Tech High School.

“It’s exciting,” said Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff. “There’s never been a groundbreaking like this.”

After several speeches, the stage was filled with multiple performances, including mariachis, a Native American ritual and one act from a mythic opera, telling the legacy of the creek.

“San Pedro Creek has a very long history in our community,” said Suzanne Scott, general manager of the San Antonio River Authority. “It’s actually recently been discovered that it was the original location for the Presidio, or Alamo, as we know it today.”

“I think this is one of the best projects the city could fund, getting the urban core unified and investing in the city,” said Mason Stark, who has lived in the city for four years. “I think this is going to draw both locals and tourists downtown.”

Focusing on the creek’s history and significance to San Antonio are major elements in the project plans.

“Through this project, we’re going to celebrate the history, but also doing that through transforming a drainage ditch that’s there today and creating more of a wonderful creek, bringing life back to the creek in many ways,” Scott said.

The nearly two-mile linear park will also provide plenty of acreage for new developments leaning toward reinvigorating the urban core.

“It’s more locally focused,” said Sasha Faust, a Santa Fe, New Mexico resident who’s attended Trinity University for the last four years. “I think the River Walk is a beautiful place to walk around, but it also has a lot of tourist attractions and the same with the Museum Reach. I like going to the museums, but I think their primary target is getting people here. A project like this has the potential to engage with communities more.”

Wolff said part of the Phase 1 project from Fox Tech to Dolorosa should be finished by mid-2018, in time for the San Antonio Tricentennial celebration.