San Antonio – The San Antonio District 1 City Council Office held a parking solution meeting Saturday at the San Antonio College Gym to address the ongoing parking and safety concerns in the North St. Mary’s area.
Concerned District 1 residents, small business owners and stakeholders filled the gym to discuss a solution regarding limited parking, littering, noise and crime.
Due to the heavy reconstruction in the area, nightlife crowds are finding it difficult to find parking. It’s forcing them to park in nearby neighborhoods including the Tobin Hill area, which in turn is creating growing issues for the residents.
“We want peace for the residents and prosperity for the businesses,” said Alfonso Robalin, interim president for the Tobin Hill Association.
During the meeting, District 1 Councilman Mario Bravo asked people to write suggestions for parking and safety solutions on flashcards. However, some people found the process ineffective.
“[This is] something that could very easily be done with a Google form. Even residents who weren’t able to come out here today…would have been able to partake in such a meeting,” said small business owner Maricela Olguin.
A resident also expressed her frustration with the meeting. She and others said they were disappointed the councilman did not moderate a discussion.
“We want this problem to go away too, but it has to be a true collaboration and it can’t just be pushing one idea through at the expense of everyone,” said North St. Mary’s neighborhood resident, Catie White.
Regardless of the meeting’s agenda, people pushed through their frustrations and added solutions they want to see put into action.
KSAT 12 asked the councilman how he plans to develop the solutions and if he plans to present them to the city council.
“We’re going to collect all this input, distill it down, and then…revisit with the community and say, ‘look, these are the top solutions we heard. This is the feedback we heard on how it would or would not work,’ and see where we can go from there,” Bravo said.
As of now, there’s no word yet on when the next meeting will take place and it remains unclear how the best-suggested solutions will be put into action.