Downtown Residents Association

Downtown Residents Association

Purpose of the Association

The purpose of the Association is :
1. To perpetuate the social well being of the residents living in downtown San Antonio.
2. To preserve, protect & develop the downtown area.
3. To provide a quality environment for living & enjoying the multi-cultural heritage of downtown San Antonio - past, present & future

Officers & Board of Directors

Downtown Residents Association
P.O.Box 1555
San Antonio, TX 78296

President: Cathey Meyer
Vice President: Vacant
Secretary: Joanna Foster
Treasurer: Fred Preston

Board of Directors
Tom DeBrooke
Kay Kutchens
Joanne Stawicki
John Bonny
Rose Bonny
Sandee Willis
Robert Potts
Joan Korte


Meetings

The Annual Membership Meeting will be held during the month of March, usually on the 3rd Tuesday.

Special meetings, other than the annual meeting, shall be held at such times & places as the Board of Directors or the President may designate, generally every month on the 3rd Tuesday.

Email us
President@drassn.org

About our association

DRA Annual Activities March 2008-March 2009

DOWNTOWN RESIDENTS ASSOCIATION
San Antonio, Texas
Board of Directors Annual Report
March 2008—March 2009

The Board of Directors of the Downtown Residents Association (DRA) has worked diligently in 2008-09 to continue the tradition of excellence established by our organization since 1982.

In an effort to expand our membership, downtown influence and build a following of people who not only live downtown, but work and play downtown, we have reached outside our traditional neighborhood boundaries to successfully involve a number of potential new members in our organization.

Fred Preston has worked diligently to create new and innovative projects that have infused a new level of participation in DRA. The creation of ZOCOLOCOS, our social networking group, has averaged nearly 100 participants at the every-other month gathering. Downtown hotels, restaurants and businesses are lining up to be hosts of this gathering and the word-of-mouth/hand-delivered invitations have now grown to an impressive email listing of neighbors to our downtown neighborhood. The Lavaca and King Williams Neighborhood associations are regular participants as is the new residential town, The Vidorra.

Developing for late 2009 is the Designer Showcase. Fred continues to volunteer exceptional time to organize an impressive team of arts, business, visionary and political participants to establish what the DRA plans as an annual event to bring people from all over San Antonio into our downtown community to see how urban spaces can fit almost any lifestyle.

The establishment of the new River North Master Plan, the effort by the city of San Antonio to rezone property use, establish Form Based Zoning, and develop the area north of the San Antonio River at Lexington Avenue, got local property owners to unite and establish the San Antonio River North Improvement Association (SARNIA). Members of the DRA Board sat on the city committee established to review the plan and provide input on long term planning of the area development. With a year of bi-monthly meetings, subcommittee meetings and public general meetings, a final plan was established with public input and is scheduled to be presented to city council in 2009.

State Representative Mike Villarreal began quarterly meetings with neighborhood association presidents to discuss the needs of each community and bring together representative from surrounding neighborhoods to get to know one another and share needs and concerns. He has been extremely effective in defining the difference between city and state governmental concerns and how we can approach public officials when seeking assistance for needs in our neighborhoods.

San Antonio Independent School District (SAISD) Superintendent Robert Duran began hosting quarterly meetings with area neighborhood association presidents to discuss changes coming to the school district as population shifts and funding continue to decline and how those events will affect the area neighborhoods. The SAISD is very open to public input and response to proposed plans for combining school attendance areas to more efficiently utilize available funding.

Our annual events: Fiesta Luncheon, National Night Out, May Cook-out and Holiday Party continue to encourage camaraderie among our membership and bring in new members. We continue to donate to the SAMM shelter at the end of each year.

On-going issues for downtown residents include:

*Establishment of a better public transportation plan for the interior of downtown to possibly include free bus/trolley zones within a limited downtown area.

*Street related Issues: parking/parking pricing; street and sidewalk repair; commercial delivery on public streets; noise concerns.

*Homeless/Transient population in public spaces and parks. The Haven for Hope Project is in partial operation but full services are not scheduled to begin until early 2010. Feeding of the population in Travis Park continues to be a problem for residents of downtown.

*Graffiti, while an on-going problem, has increased notably in public tourist spaces including for the first time in memory, tagging on Riverwalk walls.

We are fortunate to have the support of our Downtown SAPD Bike Patrol and San Antonio Park Police officers. They are regulars to our monthly meeting and keep a special watch on the residents. Our thanks to the Radius and their staff for allowing our monthly board meetings to be hosted in their space.

A continued thanks to our membership for their input and participation in our monthly meetings. We are one of the few neighborhood organizations that host a regular monthly meeting. For all those who support our Lunch Bunch, monthly meetings, ZOCOLOCOS and special events, we thank you and look forward to fellowship and growth in 2009-10.

Respectfully submitted for the DRA Board of Directors by

Cathey Meyer
President

DRA Annual Activities March '06-March'07

DOWNTOWN RESIDENTS ASSOCIATION
Board of Directors Annual Report
March 2006 to March 2007


As I begin this report I am reminded that this is the end of my presidency. The last 4 years have been enjoyable experiencing the DRA grow into a “critical engine of our downtown energy”. We are a very important voice in major plans and decisions concerning growth, protection and quality of life in our neighborhood. Considering that our neighborhood lies in the heart of the city, our actions affect all of San Antonio. Thank you for having the confidence in me to allow me to head this fine organization. I trust you will have the same for my successor.

Last year, at this time, we became involved in the Main Plaza Project. I spent many hours in meetings and before the City Council trying to keep all the streets adjacent to the Plaza open. Unfortunately we were only allowed two, as a compromise, but they were the main arteries. “The Aztec On The River” reawakened bringing a new explosion of sights, sounds and shows to the downtown.

We celebrated our Second Annual Fiesta Luncheon on Acenar’s patio overlooking the River Walk. The DRA planned a very successful tour of downtown residences for the American Planning Association. We received rave reviews from the planners. We established a small office/storeroom in The Towers of the Majestic, thanks to the Van Steenbergs. Problems with roving vendors on the River Walk surfaced and, again, many hours were spent at meetings and in front of City Council. This time a favorable solution was reached.

In May, we formed a partnership with the San Antonio Ragtime Society so they could obtain funding from the Office of Cultural Affairs under the Neighborhood Arts Program. We had our annual pool/barbecue at the Left Bank condos. The River Oversight Committee asked for our approval on the light fixtures that they planned to install in the Museum Reach Extension. We celebrated National Night Out in Travis Park again in August. This time we had live music supplied by Terri Toennies, General Manager of Sunset Station. Due to the intense heat, it has been suggested the we use an indoor venue next year. District 1 held a Community Budget Hearing introduced by the City Manager, Sheryl Sculley. Our association was represented. Our Board of Directors voted on the idea of researching the possibility of having a Free Bus Zone in the downtown area.

In October, Paula Stallcup was selected, by the City Manager, to head the newly developed Downtown Operation Department that will streamline maintenance problems and address downtown issues. Our annual Christmas Caroling Event took place on a barge making its way down the SA River amid the Holiday lights and revelers. The Fosters were kind enough again to host our Happy Holidays Party. It was a huge success and we are grateful to them for their hospitality. Our contribution to the SAMM Shelter amounted to $500 in cash and several thousands of dollars worth of clothing and other items. We renewed our membership with the Downtown Alliance and the Paseo Del Rio. We attended most of their meetings and events.

I want to thank all those who have helped and supported the Downtown Residents Association. That includes the restaurants, hotels and other venues that have made rooms available for our meetings; the guest speakers; the sponsors of our raffle prizes and our sister organizations whose only goal is, like our own, to promote & secure a quality downtown. I especially want to thank Andres Andujar who has been kind enough to allow us to use his conference room for our monthly Board of Directors’ meetings.

Respectfully submitted for the DRA Board of Directors by



Joan Korte, President

DRA Annual Activities March '07-March '08

DOWNTOWN RESIDENT ASSOCIATION
San Antonio, Texas
Board of Directors Annual Report
March 2007—March 2008

The Board of Directors has worked diligently in 2007-08 to continue the tradition of excellence established by our previous officers. We have continued to pursue projects begun back in 2005 and began the endeavor of projects that will continue for the next couple of years.

The New Centro Info Center is the result of hard lobbying from Joan Korte to establish clean, convenient restrooms for downtown visitor. The Center is scheduled to be open 24 hours/7 days a week with 12 operating restrooms, including a family/disable stall. The center will also provide general information covering locations and events downtown with an interactive media station. A 24 hour restroom location is scheduled to open in Main Plaza after the renovation is complete.

Our general meeting format changed to allow our guest speakers to open the meeting and we continue our general meeting following the speaker. While this has been met with positive feedback, requests have been made about what we, as the umbrella organization for downtown information and unity, can do to update our format and begin to respond to the growing number of residents to downtown.

In the short term, we have opened our membership to surrounding neighborhood organizations, inviting members from not only those associations, but business partners in the downtown area. According to our By-Laws, you must be a resident member of our downtown boundaries to be a VOTING member, nothing prohibits NON-VOTING members from joining our organization. Fred Preston lead a subcommittee on formatting ideas for future changes to the DRA organization and meetings continue to finalize gradual changes and alterations to the traditional DRA meetings. The time has come to be proactive and reach out to our younger residents of downtown and meeting the needs of all members from all demographics of our association.

The By-Laws were successfully amended to include the area in and around Sunset Station, adding to our geographic area. The development of the River North area of the River will eventually add to our residential base. While completed development of this area is five to 20 years in the future, we will continue monitor the dramatic changes in this boundary area and be prepared to welcome new residents to our organization.

We have adopted Travis Park as our new ‘front yard’ and are making progress in cleaning up the area, adding new, colorful landscaping and committing ourselves and area businesses to schedule events in the park to show this a significant piece of downtown real estate we want to be proud of and utilize to its fullest potential. Thanks to our good neighbors at the St. Anthony Hotel, the park celebrated a Holiday Lighting and sparked good cheer in a long ignored area of our downtown.

Our meeting locations have been exciting and informative this year. The annual Fiesta Luncheon was a great success at Acenar; The annual bar-b-cue brought a crowd to the Left Bank Condos; Sunset Station opened their doors for our National Night Out Celebration in August; Our thanks to DRA member, Father David Garcia, for opening his private space just off Main Plaza for our September meeting. October found us in Travis Park with an excellent history of park. We featured the photography talents of Fred Preston as The Southwest Center for Art and Craft hosted our November meeting. Alteza Condominiums hosted our Holiday Party in December, offering a spectacular 360 degree view of our neighborhood.

We are fortunate to have the support of our Downtown SAPD Bike Patrol and San Antonio Park Police officers. They are regulars to our monthly meeting and keep a special watch on the residents. Our thanks to the Radius and their staff for allowing our monthly board meetings to be hosted in their space. We are fortunate to have the support of downtown businesses and churches who are regular participants in events and meetings.

A continued thanks to our membership for their input and participation in our monthly meetings. We are one of the few neighborhood organizations that continues with a regular monthly following and works hard to maintain a community feel in a unique neighborhood space. For all those who support our Lunch Bunch, monthly meetings, special events and encourage new members, we thank you and look forward to fellowship and growth in 2008-09.

Respectfully submitted for the DRA Board of Directors by


Cathey Meyer, President