Bowie Street could be shortened--in name only.
Bowie Street--already only a mile long--is of course named after Alamo defender Jim Bowie. The owners of the restaurant at the top of the Tower of the Americas, and Mary Alice Cisneros (wife of you-know-who), want to rename 60% of Bowie Street Tower of the Americas Way so people can find their way to it more easily. Because, in the words of the newspaper, "[i]t seems a tower rising 750 feet isn't enough of a beacon for travelers."
The DRT doesn't care, because it's not the portion of the street by the Alamo.
Quick show of hands--what is San Antonio best known for, the Alamo, or an admittedly impressive remnant of a 40+ years ago World's Fair?
And for the record, you can indeed see the tower in spite of the Convention Center and Alamodome and even the Charlie Foxtrot of a hotel they built nearby. The reason more folks don't go is because it costs $11 to take a damned elevator ride, and once you've seen it once, there's really no reason to go a second time. (But hey, at least the elevators haven't broken halfway up in a while.)
If current signage isn't enough, hanging secondary signs (รก la Cesar Chavez Way, which is technically some other street) ought to be.
6 comments:
40-plus years and the tourists are still having trouble finding the place? That's their problem.
San Antonio had a World's Fair?
Yeah, Hemisfair '68 was a designated World's Fair: http://lib.utsa.edu/SpecialCollections/Guides/hemisfair/history.html
It was also the site of SA's only monorail, monorail accident, and monorail fatality: http://www.flickr.com/photos/reweston-sat/2928463232/
I love San Antonio but we have the worst - I mean worst street naming and signage usage anywhere.
From a tourist or newcomer point of view, the fact that street names constantly start and stop and start up again seemingly randomly is tough enough. I give you Loop 13 or Military Drive (not to be confused with Military Highway on the north side) which starts as WW White on the east side, goes along the south fairly normally, then crosses Cleto Rodriguez Expressway (Highway 90), Stotzer Freeway (or Highway 151 if you prefer), crosses Loop 410 (Connally Loop?) and then stops at Potranco Road. Then, Military picks back up in the middle of a sub-division along Reed Road and crosses Highway 151 a second time before cutting through Sea World and crossing 1604 (The Death Loop) and terminating somewhere in another sub-division.
There are any number of confusing examples just like Military where a road abruptly stops being called one thing, suddenly changes names to another, then, a totally different street not even connected picks up the first street name again.
Changing a portion of an existing street (Bowie) to a new name (Tower of Americas Way) just adds to the confusion. And imagine all the new stationary that will have to be purchased for the businesses along that road.
Great point on the Military Drive thing, Dave. I told Erik the other day that we could take Southcross down to Military. Of course we got there and it was still labeled WW White, and I had to reassure him I wasn't lost, it's all part of Loop 13!
Over where we used to live, Walzem Road takes a right turn, hits Eisenhauer, and takes a left turn, where it becomes not just Walzem but FM 1976. (Of course Gibbs-Sprawl is another FM road...)
Yep. It's all pretty strange.
WV: abinexpo - Definitely not a World's Fair
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