{"id":419827,"date":"2026-08-29T03:04:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-29T03:04:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/419827\/"},"modified":"2026-08-29T03:04:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T03:04:12","slug":"what-people-are-saying-about-connecting-east-side-to-downtown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/419827\/","title":{"rendered":"What people are saying about connecting East Side to downtown"},"content":{"rendered":"

A fantastical land bridge that appeared in Project Marvel renderings<\/a> in 2024 dropped from the picture early on as hope for federal funding dissipated.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But Arlene Swan, who grew up on the East Side and still attends church there, said she wasn\u2019t sure how one footbridge spanning the highway would make up for all that was lost.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Built in the 1960s, U.S. Interstate 37 corridor split San Antonio\u2019s urban core from neighborhoods to the east, closed off streets, and created a kind of physical and economic barrier that the city has sought to vanquish.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Plans for a sports and entertainment district at Hemisfair accelerated those ambitions.<\/p>\n

Though the Project Marvel land bridge idea was eventually scrapped over its potential cost, the city had a $3 million Department of Transportation grant<\/a> to study the project, funds that are now being used to look at all types of connectivity and pedestrian access across I-37.<\/p>\n

The city hired infrastructure consulting firm AECOM to conduct the Reconnecting Communities Across I-37<\/a> study which got underway in the spring.<\/p>\n

\"\"Eastside community members review info, plans and ideas shared during a community meeting on Thursday. Credit: Shari Biediger \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n

On Thursday, during a second round of public meetings for input to the study, Eastside residents and others came with their doubts and questions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOne bridge can\u2019t make up for 10 streets,\u201d Swan said, referring to the number of east-west thoroughfares that were closed when I-37 was built.<\/p>\n

But at least one woman at the recent session was hopeful. \u201cI think it can be done, if they do it smart,\u201d said Julia Domaradzka, a resident of the Dignowity Hill neighborhood.<\/p>\n

AECOM project manager Phillip Baker said the first phase of the study looked at existing conditions in the area along with the city\u2019s formal policy plans.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Those include SA Tomorrow<\/a>, the Bike Network Plan<\/a>, a downtown accessibility and mobility plan and VIA Metropolitan Transit\u2019s plans for the Silver Line<\/a> advanced rapid transit system, among others.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also feeding input to another federally funded study currently underway through San Antonio for Growth on the East Side<\/a> (SAGE), which is looking at connectivity across highways on the East Side.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t want to ask people the same questions that we\u2019ve already asked here. We have a lot of feedback we\u2019ve gathered here,\u201d said Erika Ragsdale, downtown administrator for the City of San Antonio. The completed study is expected to be released in January, she said.<\/p>\n

Baker said they are gathering all the ideas from each session into four categories \u2014 complete streets, re-connecting, placemaking and gateway intersections.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One major talking point has been about the challenges pedestrians have crossing I-37.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we really heard out of that was that people do see it as a physical barrier,\u201d Baker said. \u201cBut then we also heard that it\u2019s a perceived barrier in the way that the land use is on both sides, particularly on the East Side [where] we have a lot of vacant lots, a lot less shade.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"An aerial image shows downtown San Antonio, the Hemisfair area, I-37 and parts of the Alamodome and East Side in August 2025. Credit: Cooper Mock for the San Antonio Report<\/p>\n

Another frequent topic was how crossing to the East Side did not feel welcoming or inviting, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Brett Rea works downtown along Commerce Street and said he\u2019s concerned about how all the city\u2019s plans will come together \u2014\u00a0and not bottleneck vehicular traffic\u00a0along Commerce and Market streets.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a lot of people that work over here [on the East Side] and so I was curious,\u201d he said.\u00a0 \u201cI really wanted to understand what everything was all about and what the plans were.\u201d<\/p>\n

Community members also left Post-it notes with input and questions that reflected longstanding concerns on the East Side:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat about community-based services to address poverty across the bridge?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWill this \u2018improvement\u2019 increase taxes and instances of gentrification?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWill jobs-opportunities be brought to the East Side?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPlease add bicycle amenities wherever possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMaking Montana wider can create a better solution for stalled trains.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Alamo Heights residents Parker and Brittany Ruhmel, who frequently visit downtown, were mostly interested in another kind of connector.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMy concern is the stadium,\u201d Parker said. \u201cI think it needs to connect to the river and I haven\u2019t heard anybody talk about that yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bringing together the basketball arena and the River Walk would help with people flow downtown and also make it feel more like San Antonio, Brittany said, \u201cnot like we threw up an arena that is the same arena you\u2019re going to see in Charlotte or Memphis or wherever.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A fantastical land bridge that appeared in Project Marvel renderings in 2024 dropped from the picture early on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":419828,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[96,4805,15479,17038,3083,82,84,83,4744,3028,6251],"class_list":["post-419827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-east-side","tag-icymi","tag-interstate-37","tag-land-bridge","tag-project-marvel","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news","tag-spurs-arena","tag-typedaily","tag-wc-500-750"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=419827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419827\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/419828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}