Downtown Residents Association

DRA Annual Report 3/07-3/08

Nov 11, 2008

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