Scattered Work

Defining the Alamo

My most recent column in Plaza de Armas covers an ongoing debate about how to improve Alamo Plaza — and in the process how to understand its meaning to San Antonio visitors and residents. My characterization of the factions was informed to a large extent by a recent article in the Express-News. Today I received a thoughtful response from Gary L. Foreman (author of the Alamo Plaza Restoration Project) that I think is worth publishing in its entirety. I certainly hope his understanding of the planning process is more accurate than what came across in my column and in the Express-News piece, and there are reasons to think it is. The Alamo is a contentious place, which makes it fertile ground for a vital dialogue about history, culture, and place. My hope — and I think Gary’s and Phil’s — is that we can use this dialogue to build a stronger community.

Mr. Judson,
A brief introduction — I’m Gary Foreman, author of the Alamo Plaza Restoration Project. Phil Myrick of PPS drew my attention to your recent and timely column about the potential transformation for this historic space and I wanted to take a few moments to share some thoughts on the subject.

Although some people have anticipated this exercise as extremely politically sensitive, the public forums professionally conducted by the city and PPS are showing that perhaps a major tipping point has been reached in what people now expect of this Plaza environment. Will there be 100% agreement? Of course not, but now there is more to agree about than disagree. Part of that comes from a momentum that has been developing since the early 1980s as sincere philosophical exchanges about what the Plaza could be has resulted in a series of studies and debates that basically led us to where we are today. In your column you mentioned that there are three camps with three ideas. We think that the camps are blending quickly because the uniqueness of Alamo Plaza can no longer be denied. In other words, it’s the History that now drives the design and intention. Those of us in the ‘History Camp’ actually feel the proposal is typical of a world-class historical site, and not glitzy. The statement made by a single DRT official is not necessarily representative how a majority of ‘Daughters’ feel about that space. Many will tell you that all ‘shrines’ need education and interpretation about its evolution. Likewise, the ‘Placemaking Camp’ understands now that Alamo Plaza is unlike other urban spaces and that the passion for finally interpreting this rich history is paramount to typical considerations, something the locals do understand– as witnessed in the public discussions. They, like the visitors, want to feel the past and see it come alive in an appropriate setting.

Finally, we’ll be submitting the thousands of letters, petitions, and notes we have collected during the last decade from concerned Texans and Americans and delivering them to city and state officials. These statements fundamentally remind us why millions invest their time, money, and passion to visit this ‘Sacred Ground.’

We look forward to a personal meeting with you in the near future.
All the best,
Gary

Tags: Alamo Plaza, Alamo Plaza Restoration Project, Project for Public Spaces, public meetings

Better Block comes to San Antonio

Since the Better Block Project is coming to San Antonio on March 4, I thought I’d post a couple of videos about the project. My column in Plaza de Armas on Monday discusses the project in more detail.

This first video talks about the logic behind Complete Streets and what the Better Block Project is trying to accomplish:

This one shows what they actually did at the first Better Block in Oak Cliff, Dallas:

Tags: Build a Better Block, Complete Streets, Oak Cliff, pop-ups

The cost of fracking

Photo by Flickr user chibi_ro

One point I make in passing in today’s column about CPS Energy’s solar deal is that the value of solar power is relative to the cost of other sources of electricity, primarily coal, natural gas, and wind. And as more of the environmental costs of the fossil fuel sources are factored into their market prices, solar becomes more attractive.

For instance, CPS opted to close an old coal plant 15 years ahead of schedule shortly before EPA regulations mandating new scrubbers were announced. These scrubbers, which remove mercury and other pollutants from power plant emissions, had been required for new facilities, but a large number of coal plants built in the 1970s had been grandfathered in. So the cost of bringing these aging facilities up to code has pushed some utilities to think seriously about retiring them in favor of cleaner sources of power.

As regulations have made coal more costly, natural gas has become much more affordable, due to the surge in fracking. Right now, fracking is almost totally unregulated. Texas is actually one of the first states to require energy companies to even disclose what they are putting into their fracking compounds. But this situation is likely untenable. Most of the concerns about fracking related to contamination of water supplies as millions of gallons of water and chemicals are forced underground to break apart rock and release natural gas. The EPA recently released a report linking fracking to contamination of water supplies, and recommended that the State of New York tighten its proposed fracking rules.

There are also concerns about the sheer quantity of water being used in these operations. As the Texas Tribune reports, the new Texas law, which will go into effect February 1, requires not just disclosure of the chemicals used but also the amount of water consumed by fracking operations. Although the amount of water used in fracking is a tiny fraction of what a big city consumes, in some regions it can be quite significant. From the Texas Tribune article:

Dan Hardin, the water board’s resource planning director, said fracking is not expected to exceed 2 percent of Texas water use.

But drilling can send the water numbers much higher in rural areas, Hardin said. For example, he projects that in 2020, more than 40 percent of water demand in La Salle County, in the Eagle Ford, will go toward “mining,” a technical term that in this case means almost entirely fracking. Until recently, no water went toward mining there.

As these natural gas operations come under closer scrutiny, and eventually actual regulation, the cost of natural gas will naturally rise. Cities like San Antonio, with ambitious solar and wind projects underway, will see the benefit of a diverse energy portfolio with a high level of renewable sources.

Tags: fracking, natural gas, renewable energy, solar power

Pocket neighborhoods in San Antonio

The Compound behind Sala Diaz. Photo by Thomas Cummins.

This article was originally published in Plaza de Armas.

On a recent drive through the Government Hill neighborhood, along the edge of Ft Sam Houston, urban developer Peter French noticed something curious: a cluster of eight small homes with a private parking court. The cottages debuted in April 1929 on a lot that stretches one block, from Grayson to Quitman, with a typical width of about 65 feet. All the homes face inward, and are connected by a walkway that bisects the lot.

A small but growing group of urbanists, French among them, see this design as a key to building healthier communities.

These “pocket neighborhoods” simply turn houses away from the street, toward a semi-public space, which often takes the form of a landscaped courtyard. Residents give up their private yards in exchange for a larger communal area where children can play safely and adults can forge stronger relationships as they garden, barbecue, or have a drink with their neighbors after work. Proponents of this style of development claim that it has far-reaching implications for safety and social well-being. Ross Chapin, author of Pocket Neighborhoods: Creating Small Scale Community in a Large Scale World, argues that this layer of small-scale shared space helps “mend [the] broken web of belonging, care and support” that is missing from many suburban communities.

I can’t speak for the relationships forged at the Whippoorwill Cottages (a name for this development that French’s research turned up; they were originally named Grayson Courts), but I do know quite a few people who have lived in a cluster of homes with a shared courtyard off St. Mary’s Street, just south-west of King William. Often referred to simply as “The Compound,” this group of homes was not originally designed as a courtyard neighborhood: all the houses face outward toward either St Mary’s or Stieren Street. Real-estate lawyer and art enthusiast Michael Casey was approached about buying a group of four adjacent duplexes on this corner around 1990. He decided to purchase a vacant house with a large, fenced-in back yard behind the duplexes at the same time.

› Continue reading

Tags: King William, New Urbanism, pocket neighborhoods, Sala Diaz

Centralized Solar

When you hear people talk about the potential of solar energy, often it is in the form of small systems on business and home rooftops. These systems would either power the immediate location, or feed into the grid, with a distributed power generation model. The idea is not to replace power plants that provide our base energy load, but to reduce demand on the grid during peak hours. In Texas, we tend to draw the most power to feed our air conditioners, meaning that the solar panels will be creating the most energy at the same time that we are consuming the most energy.

But several experimental projects have shown that solar also has potential to replace coal plants. A Spanish solar power plant was recently able to generate power for 24 hours straight, demonstrating the possibility meeting base-load requirements, at least during the summer months. The plant is small compared to a typical coal or natural gas facility — just under 20 MW, compared with something on the order of 700 MW produced by fossil fuel stations.

But the technology is fascinating, and shows real potential for an approach that has not been pursued very aggressively in the US. The project, called Gemasolar, consists of a tall, narrow central tower that collects energy at the top. Around the central receiver, a huge array of heliostats (basically moveable mirrors) reflect sunlight onto the receiver. The energy is stored in molten salt, which maintains a temperature of nearly 1,000° F. The salt is then used to heat water to power a steam turbine. Because the energy is stored in this way, it can produce electricity continuously throughout the day (at least on sunny days).

Of course many questions remain, most importantly how well this approach can scale. But when we look at the collapse of companies like Solyndra, it’s important to realize that the solar industry will require a lot of risky investment before we hit on the truly viable technologies. And those technologies could come in many different forms — from large, centralized solar arrays to distributed public-private hybrids like CPS Energy’s Solartricity.

Tags: CPS, renewable energy, solar power

Placemaking in Texas

Discovery Green in Houston, TX

Project for Public Spaces has a new article up about the placemaking renaissance going on in Texas right now. Some may be surprised to learn that Houston (declared the “North America’s placemaking capital”) is the focus of the piece, and Austin isn’t mentioned once. Things are changing rapidly in Texas, and every city has plenty to learn from its neighbors.

Dallas is one of the few cities in the United States with a comprehensive light rail system, which runs all the way out to Fort Worth. It is also the home of a potentially game-changing DIY planning project called Build a Better Block. Houston opened Discovery Green a few years ago, which has already seen more than 2 million visitors. It has also seen unique projects like Baker-Ripley Neighborhood Center, a public-private partnership that mixes park and community center with commercial spaces.

San Antonio also gets a mention, near the end of the article. Project for Public Spaces is leading a placemaking process here to expand on the successes we have seen at the Pearl Brewery and in Main Plaza. You can contribute ideas at this website, and join the discussion on August 18.

As San Antonio moves forward with major redevelopment projects like HemisFair Park and Midtown Brakenridge, we should not overlook the planning successes and failures of Houston, Austin, and Dallas, as well as those closer to home. As city-dwellers, we are also city-makers, whether or not we intend to be. We should look closely at the paths other cities have taken, so that we can better understand our own opportunities.

Tags: Dallas, Houston, placemaking, Project for Public Spaces

Banks of the Ohio

They say that the murder ballad Banks of the Ohio has been recorded by dozens of artists, but to my knowledge I’ve only heard two versions: one, recorded in the 1950s by a pair of Greenwich Village twins known as the Kossoy Sisters; another, recorded in 2003 by Scottish artist Susan Philipsz, and temporarily installed at Chrispark down the street from my house.

I just came from there.

I read that before there were public parks, people living in the cities used to go to graveyards do to all the things that parks came to be used for. In some places the graveyards would be overrun with people on the weekends. Chrispark is not a graveyard, but it is, in its way, a place of mourning.

Watching the light fade while listening to Philipsz’ “Sunset Song” feels like a distant echo of William Basinski’s “Disintegration Loops” video. The sense of loss begins to seep up from the grass. It makes me think, too, of Old Man Hill.

There’s a little creek that runs behind Chrispark, or rather it was a creek, now it is more of a drainage ditch. If you follow it down, under a highway, and past the old stock yards, and under another highway, you’ll end up on the San Antonio River. You start to wonder whether anyone ever drowned his girlfriend in this creek, or played a banjo on its banks.

Tags: Chrispark, creeks, graveyards, parks, Susan Philipsz

Wanderings

One day, rode my bike past the old Lone Star Brewery by the river, and saw a circle of people praying in front of this sign. The next day, I took this photo.

The old CPS power plant is across the river from the brewery. It used water from the river for cooling. Later, in the 1950s and 60s, CPS was one of the first municipal power companies to use grey water for this purpose.

I’ve been seeing a lot of these along the river. The birds must be enjoying themselves.

Behind the office where I now work, across the highway from the airport, in the midst of a light-industrial, well I don’t want to say ‘wasteland,’ is this flood-plain area where no one can develop (that is, make buildings or parking lots). Sometimes I walk around back there on my lunch break.

Tags: CPS, crawdads, flood plains, Lone Star Brewery, San Antonio River

Geoffrey West on the scaling of cities

This discussion of scaling in biology, cities, and companies is quite remarkable. Geoffrey West (of the Santa Fe Institute) explains what network theory can tell us about how cities and companies grow. It’s almost an hour long, but very much worth the time.

[hat tip Andrew Sullivan]

Tags: Geoffrey West, scaling, urban growth

“Our private hall of flattering mirrors”

This morning Facebook selected for my news feed a link from my girlfriend, who has been 12 times zones away for far too long, to a Jonathan Franzen piece making the argument that love and consumer culture are antithetical to one another. There’s a line in it that may be more true than Mr Franzen realizes. This line was referenced by my girlfriend in a bit of irony as she posted the link: “To friend a person is merely to include the person in our private hall of flattering mirrors.”

Yesterday I wrote my column for Plaza de Armas on a topic closely related to this. Although I’ve realized for a while that Facebook and Google (and many other information portals) have been filtering search results and news feeds based on their algorithmic interpretation of personal preferences (search history, click history, etc), I’ve only in the last couple of weeks started to think about how truly radical this idea is.

The thing that got me thinking more critically about the implications of personalized information filtering was this TED talk by Eli Pariser on what he calls the “filter bubble.” The idea is simply that if Facebook chooses to show you only what it has calculated that you already like, you won’t be exposed to new ideas. This has been a problem that tech companies like Amazon and Netflix have wrestled with for a while: how do you make “suggestions” that actually expose people to something new?

So, this isn’t particularly revelatory, but important to think about as the problem extends from “you might also like…” to actually, in effect, hiding ideas and information from people. And it becomes particularly acute as we start to move real communities online. So, in the case of Facebook, the authority that deems a particular piece of news relevant is not a newspaper editor, or the collective opinion of my peers, but simply the links that I have clicked on, or liked, in the past.

The media echo chamber idea has been codified to create implicitly closed communities. But what exists on Facebook could hardly be called community, because it is based to a significant extent on what Franzen rightly refers to as a narcissistic hall of mirrors. And so many of the vital functions of natural, face-to-face social networking actually cease to function in this environment.

One example I bring up in the Plaza de Armas piece is related to Iran’s ‘Green Revolution,’ and the current wave of ‘Arab Spring’ uprisings. Stratfor released an interested report on the role of social media in contemporary political uprisings. Contrary to some uncritical discussions, they found that social media presents a real liability for these protest groups. Part of the reason is that these information networks are relatively easy for authoritarian governments to monitor. But the report also notes that on networks like Facebook, the protestors have a hard time coming into contact with potential allies that may have different values, but shared strategic goals. The social network then fails to serve the needs of the oppressed, because of an over-reliance on a social media that actually separates people into small, homogeneous groups.

The “openness” that Mark Zuckerberg loves to tout comes with some significant caveats. And this is where I come back to Franzen. If this social media is built on likeability rather than love, superficial openness rather than real honesty, then it does not serve a social good, but is merely narcissism dressed up to look like community.

Tags: consumerism, echo chambers, filters, love, Mark Zuckerberg, revolution, social networks