San Antonio's River Walk

Many cities were built on rivers. The waterfronts serviced industry and transportation as it was usually easier to build a private boat than a public road. For centuries, rivers were also used to flush waste gradually polluting the waters. Fortunately manufacturing has decreased and the public appreciation of urban waterfronts has increased slowly improving water quality. As cities grew, internal waterways were usually buried so that development could spread undeterred. Because subsurface waterways do not disappear just because they are unseen, many buildings built over them have basements that require constant pumping.

San Antonio has a river running through it. To control flooding, in 1939 the EPA built flood gates, the Olmos dam and channelized part of the river. In 1962, two miles were improved using local limestone making it cleaner and safer. Since then, its length has expanded to five miles with extensions under way for a northern Museum Reach and a southern Mission Reach. Along the walk are waterfalls, an amphitheater and other places for gathering. Hotels, apartment and office buildings open directing onto it, and restaurants commandeer space for sidewalk cafes. A convention center and Rivercenter Mall anchor an extension. The historic district called La Villita has preserved mid-nineteenth century cottages used by local artists. Tour boats holding 40 occupants paying $15 apiece motor along only a few minutes apart. Needless to say, this destination is a magnet for tourists and boasts that it is the biggest attraction in Texas. Is this a prime example of a possible response to the Walmart effect that has decimated so many town centers with further threats by online shopping limiting urban street life to patronizing Starbucks? Is this destination the public place of the future?

If so, then the “Rules of Common Courtesy” that list prohibited activities in the Mall area will come to define proper urban behavior. Noting concern for public safety and comfort, smoking, obstructing customer traffic, possessing or consuming drugs or alcoholic beverages (except in licensed restaurants), disorderly or disruptive conduct, pets, unlicensed (street vendor) sales, skateboarding, bicycling although you can bike there, and possession of illegal firearms although in Texas it’s hard to know what that exactly means is not tolerated. People must wear shoes and shirts, and wearing clothes with vulgar, obscene or sexually explicit language is forbidden. People stroll, shop, eat and watch each other. About 20 activities such as craft fairs, culinary tastings and water races are held annually. While people have always come to cities for economic opportunity, they get the city they make.

New urban mixed-use development labeled “Work, Live, Play” market the advantages of dense urban living. Even though most of River Walk does not have a Disney-like appearance of newness and homogeneity because it has taken over fifty years to develop, it’s still a place of spectacle. One look at the declining areas beyond the River Walk District in San Antonio shows what can only be described as the new Walmart effect.