San Antonio’s Eastside has long been known for its rich history. Originally built around Fort Sam Houston, the Eastside is home to some of city’s oldest neighborhoods such as Government Hill, Dignowity Hill and Denver Heights. These neighborhoods, along with the Eastsides’ commercial districts, are being transformed thanks to a strong sense of community and the commitment of businesses large and small that call the Eastside home, including Coca-Cola Bottling Company of the Southwest, Holt, HEB and Spurs & Entertainment.
In the winter of 2010 hundreds of San Antonio residents came together to participate in the Eastside Reinvestment Summit. The aim of the summit was to identify ways to drive economic development on the Eastside. In 2012, economic development is underway and the building blocks are in place. Jobs have been created, new businesses have opened, and catalytic projects have begun. Click here to see details from the summits shared by Mayor Julian Castro and District 2 Councilwoman Ivy Taylor.
The future promises more transformation for the Eastside as San Antonio becomes the home of military medicine through a joint agreement by the Army and Air Force to create the San Antonio Military Health System SAMHS), with the majority of the mission based at Fort Sam Houston. The Defense Department’s consolidation of enlisted medical training programs at the base will create a military medicine complex expected to have an average daily student enrollment of approximately 9,000, making it the largest institution of its kind in the world.
Rich in cultural diversity, San Antonio’s Eastside is home to some of the city’s most significant institutions, including those of higher education. St. Philip’s College is one of the oldest and most diverse community colleges in the nation. It is the only college to federally designated to both a historically Black college and a Hispanic-serving institution. Today, St. Philip’s College is a comprehensive multi-campus institution of the Alamo Colleges with an enrollment of more than 16,000 students and offers recognized programs in culinary arts, health science and technology.
There will soon be more opportunities for students to earn advanced degree on the Eastside, as the University of the Incarnate World plans a new clinic on East Commerce St. that that will be tied to its School of Opportunity.
The Eastside is home to five distinct historic districts; San Antonio’s first exclusive residential suburb; Government Hill, the neighborhood established in 1876 around Fort Sam Houston; Knob hill, a four-block area first known for its views of the city; and Healy Murphy, with a school and church established in 1888.
Notable landmarks and organizations include the Carver Community Cultural Center, Cameo Theatre, the Hays Street Bridge and the Powder House Hill cemeteries, which are listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. San Antonio’s Eastside is future with revitalized neighborhoods, new and expanding business and great cultural offerings for all of San Antonio. We welcome you to visit our Eastside.
W.W. White Road is quickly becoming a shopping and dining destination for people from all areas of San Antonio. Popular restaurants like Big Lou’s Pizza, easy access to Loop 410, and proximity to attractions like MLK Park are making W.W. White an increasingly important corridor in east San Antonio. In addition to long-standing businesses like Chatman’s Chicken new businesses, such as Inspirational Grounds, continue to open.
Near the heart of this corridor is the Mega Warehouse, a 50,000 square foot building owned by the Bexar County Opportunities Industrialization Center (BCOIC) that has sat vacant for many years. The City of San Antonio has been working with BCOIC to find a way to refurbish the building and add jobs to this expanding corridor. The City is considering providing BCOIC a loan of $2 million in HUD 108 funds to rehab the building. BCOIC is working to find tenants for the building in order to be able to repay the loan.
The Wheatley Heights Sports Complex, a multi-million dollar project covering over 65 acres, will bring state-of-the-art athletic facilities to the Eastside. The sports complex will be able to attract athletic competitions from across the state and provide local children and teenagers with a place to practice and play multiple sports. The complex has four softball/baseball fields, one football field, one football practice field, eight soccer fields, a hike and bike trail, and a 3-mile cross country track along the Salado Creek trail.
The sports complex is an asset to our community and will provide our children access to first-rate athletic fields. Participation in athletics will show our children the value of a healthy and active lifestyle and encourage them to become involved members of our community. The partnership between Eastside Christian Action Group, City of San Antonio, and Bexar County demonstrates the commitment San Antonio has to the children of the Eastside.
During the 2010 summit, participants stressed the need for a holistic approach to many of the challenges facing the Eastside. Improved housing alone would not revitalize the Eastside, and better education alone could not do it, and neither could enhanced child services. A holistic approach that addresses all these issues and more was needed. The Eastside got closer to this integrated service when it was awarded the planning grants for the Promise and Choice Neighborhoods. In December of 2011 San Antonio’s Eastside was awarded the full Promise Neighborhood grant from the United States Department of Education.
The Promise Neighborhood grant, a collaboration led by United Way of San Antonio and Bexar County, is a $24.6 million grant from the federal government to provide “cradle to career” services. The grant is aimed at improving educational services at all steps in the educational pathway from pre-K to college. The grant will be distributed over five years and will cover an area of 3.2 miles that includes Wheatley Middle School, Bowden, Washington and Pershing elementary schools, Tynan Early Childhood Center, and Fort Sam Houston High School.
Our area was also a recipient of the Choice Neighborhood planning grant, a two-year $250,000 United States Department of Housing and Urban Development grant that will help transform the Wheatley Courts area into a mixed-income neighborhood. The Choice Neighborhood program connects housing improvements with various other public services including education, employment, and public transportation. The San Antonio Housing Authority looks forward to applying for Choice Neighborhood implementation funds from HUD when the planning is complete.
In a joint effort to highlight the 25th anniversary of the San Antonio MLK Day March and achieve the quality of life goals laid out in the 2010 summit meetings the MLK Drive corridor has undergone a tremendous amount of change. Through a partnership with CPS, SAWS, the Spurs, SAGE, Home Depot, SAHA, and SAISD the MLK Drive corridor and march route has undergone extensive rehabilitation.
The rehab efforts include clean ups and future capital improvement projects. The rehab program consisted of graffiti removal, cleaning vacant lots, painting houses, planting new trees, repairing streetlights and poles, painting murals, and repaving and restriping the street. The work was completed over the course of multiple weekends in late 2011 by groups of volunteers from organizations and Eastside residents.
In addition to the work of our public partners the City of San Antonio through the Public Works Department invested over $390,000 into the cleanup of Martin Luther King Drive.
