Editor’s Note: Susan Blackwood, executive director of San Antonio Sports, presided over many of the Alamodome’s most memorable sporting events in her 16 years at the helm of our city’s sports commission. Under Blackwood’s tenure, San Antonio Sports has hosted three NCAA Men’s Final Four Basketball Championships, two Women’s Final Fours, two NCAA Division I Women’s [...]

All great communities are ultimately defined not by their profits or product, but by their contributions to society, in culture, art and creativity—these are the things that transcend time. There is a direct tie between the growth and success of the cultural arts and economic development of a community. It is no accident that the [...]

Editor’s note: Helen Dutmer is one of San Antonio’s longest-serving civic  leaders. At age 92 she still serves on the City of San Antonio’s Board of Adjustment and the San Antonio Water System’s Grievance Commission. She lives on the near-Southside on McKinley Street on land that a century ago was the family dairy farm. Of [...]

Editor’s note: Henry Cisneros was elected in 1981 as the first Latino mayor of a major U.S. city, a post he held for four consecutive terms until 1989, the only person to do so in contemporary times. He was mayor when the Alamodome was first conceived and then approved in a highly contested city election [...]

If it weren’t for Jocelyn “Joci” Straus, the Majestic Theatre and the Charline McCombs Empire Theatre might have gone the way of many other long-lost theaters and buildings: knocked down in the name of progress, parking and revitalization. Straus didn’t know how she was going to do it: she was busy working on a number [...]

It’s a terrible feeling when you miss a good friend’s important birthday. That’s why the Rivard Report is calling attention to Wednesday, May 15. There’s no party planned, not even a birthday cake, but it is the 20th anniversary of the Alamodome. The Rivard Report has organized its own commemoration with a week-long series of [...]

Last year about this time, we detailed a turf-to-bed conversion in the front yard of our rental house in the downtown Lavaca neighborhood of San Antonio.  We thought it would be helpful to share what happened over the past year on that small square of yard, thoughtfully converted from a drought-damaged lawn to a mostly [...]

Depending on your level of experience, San Pedro Avenue is an intimidating street for bicyclists. The avenue is fed from northbound downtown traffic, interstates and highways. For more than ten miles, starting at I-35 and eventually becoming highway 281′s access road, San Pedro is crowded with nightclubs, auto shops, banks, chain and local restaurants, credit [...]

Every city government loves to trumpet that good times are ahead and San Antonio is no exception. Having lived here most of my life – I’ve heard the rhetoric, but it wasn’t always clear that our city was truly on an upward trend. Now, it seems to me that the stars are aligning in favor [...]

Claudia Loya is an intelligent, vivacious and publicly engaged young woman – a prime example of the “young professional” that city officials, urban planners, and talent and economic geographers say is essential to growth, revitalization and a sustainable future for San Antonio. Just about every conversation of urban renaissance focuses on the energy and economic importance of young [...]