Placemaking in the Barrio: Conceptualizing Infill Development in Disenfranchised Communities

Everyone is talking about placemaking. Although it is hardly a new concept, the practice of intentionally leveraging a community’s assets to spur people-centered growth is becoming more common in cities across the United States. San Antonio, Texas, the seventh largest city in the country, is at a point where its civic leaders are thinking about what placemaking looks like in a city burdened by sprawl. 

San Antonio is one of the largest majority-minority cities in the United States, and it consistently ranks amongst the most car-centric metropolises. Furthermore, the legacy of redlining is extremely visible, as the city’s Westside is homogeneously Latino, while the Eastside is historically Black. White communities in San Antonio tend to cluster in the Northside and unannexed suburbs. But those patterns are changing.

Today, San Antonio’s skyline appears dotted with cranes and modern high-rises that were absent in past decades. As real estate developers become more interested in the “biggest small town in America,” local leaders are starting to think about how attracting young professionals to the urban core and surrounding areas will impact local communities in and around Downtown. While the gentrification of the Westside is not right around the corner, it is no longer off the table. As San Antonio starts to see investment return to that corner of town, the city must be intentional in how it incorporates and supports the existing community through new growth.

What makes a place?

In conceptualizing placemaking in the barrio, we ought to start by defining what we even mean by “place.” In doing so, I look to thinkers in human geography (Ipsita Chatterjee, David Harvey, etc.) whose works distinguish space from place. Whereas the former is the physical and tangible location in question, the latter is a space that has been imbued with a personality that reflects the community in which it sits. A vacant piece of land is a space, but that same land becomes a place when it is developed into a built environment that incorporates the community around it and reflects its image inward and outward.

Thinking about this in practice in San Antonio, Buena Vista Street, running west from I-35, can serve as a useful exercise. What would this community look like if developers took an approach to placemaking that centered around developing the corridor to be reflective of its current community? To start, we can explore some goals of placemaking in this context:

• Economic development, as property owners are able to generate wealth by investing in equity and increasing the value of their land; underutilized land is developed to generate tax revenue to fund public services; increasing the supply of housing helps keep housing costs down; and growth in the community gives locals hope for the future and a vision that is possible for their children and their loved ones to have a better quality of life.
• Preservation of both current community members by working against gentrification and displacement as well as historically and culturally significant assets.
• Community resiliency, in the sense that contemporary placemaking and densification allow for neighbors to interact and bond in ways that single-family development hinders.
• Sustainability, as denser neighborhoods consume less energy, produce less carbon pollution, and reduce the urban heat island effect.
• Quality of life, by ensuring that the various facets of placemaking and infill development come together to bolster public safety, improve local amenities, and support social determinants of health in the local community. 

So, purportedly flowery and touchy-feely programs like “placemaking” can have a legitimate and significant positive impact on residents. Still, the need for placemaking to reflect the identity of the community itself remains a sticky topic. What informs that identity? It could be things such as:

• History
• The built environment
• Culture
• Language 
• Socioeconomic status
• Art 
• Music
• Aesthetics/design
• Race/ethnic origins

Keep in mind that this is not an exhaustive list. As such, putting the “place” in “space” requires inviting the community to give input on the design and aesthetics of their neighborhood. In San Antonio’s Westside, this identity could manifest in motifs that acknowledge and represent:

• History: The centuries of events that shaped the contemporary Westside, from the early Canary Island settlers to 20th-century activists and organizers that helped advance the movement for Latino rights.
• The built environment: Architecture and design that melds the Western frontier aesthetic with Indigenous and Mexican elements.
• Culture: The fusion of Tex and Mex that San Antonio exemplifies.
• Language: The Tejano dialect of Spanish (rich with unique jargon and expressions) that even other Spanish speakers find quirky and distinctive.
• Socioeconomic status: The impacts of redlining and the means of subjugating the local population are important reminders of why the community has historically lacked investment.
• Art: Traditional motifs like the vaquero, the cholo, the Virgen de Guadalupe, and other Mexican American icons.
• Music: The German-inspired thump of Norteño music is emblematic of the fusion of cultures that makes San Antonio different from any other major city in Texas (or, for that matter, the United States).
• Aesthetics/design: The vibrancy of Mexican culture that radiates throughout the Westside and particularly illustrates the impact of Norteños in the community.
• Race/ethnic origins: The diversity of the Westside has changed over time, from the pre-colonial Indigenous communities to Germans, Spaniards, Italians, and others that left their mark on the neighborhood. 

Applying placemaking theory at ground level

So, thinking back to Buena Vista Street, how could the built environment reflect this culture and identity in future development?

Luckily, there’s already one good example: The Parish. John Hernden purchased a defunct church, along with a handful of other properties in the area, intending to convert it into a co-working space for creatives. In preserving the unique architecture of the building, Hernden created a place that looks like the Westside; the graffiti and raza aesthetic is the first thing one notices, after all. Now, the formerly vacant structure is full of life and community while giving local artists a low-rent venue to create, collaborate, and invigorate.

Coupling this example with the outlined goals and cultural elements, there are several sites that could thoughtfully drive community and economic development along Buena Vista Street:

• 1322 Buena Vista Street: This vacant property along the Alazan Creek is prime for development, and the possibilities for it are endless. Being on a commercial corridor in an area with a high concentration of multimodal commuters, a mixed-use three-story development to provide housing stock and spaces for restaurants and other amenities would be ideal. One could argue that the location along the creek and the surrounding single-family residential lots pose a challenge to that level of density. So, this space could be a proof-of-concept test for cottage courts in San Antonio, a trend that has thus far remained minimal in the city. In this case, three to five small cottages could fit snugly on the lot and leave a communal space out front that will allow for organic interactions between neighbors. Furthermore, front-door access to the creek is an amenity few would turn down.

• The Alazan Creek: This site, too, is ripe with potential. Using the success of the redevelopment of the nearby San Pedro Creek Culture Park as an example, one could imagine what sustainable landscaping and community space along the Alazan Creek would look like. Drought-resistant flora and strategically diverse tree assemblage would drastically increase the aesthetics of the Alazan, as it did for the San Pedro, while offering the community a shaded space to stroll and cycle. Benches and miniature amphitheaters would provide space for families to sit and enjoy the tender comfort of San Antonio’s (admittedly short-lived) spring weather, while also perhaps enjoying a concert from a local DJ or musician. Murals affixed to retaining walls could continue the theme of graffiti and Latino artwork that represents the community, such as that of local artist Eva Marengo Sanchez.

• 1202 Buena Vista Street: Following years of abandonment, the Buena Vista Service Station building now features a beautiful mural on its side façade, which helps display the community’s dynamic culture and history. Still, could the front of this building be reimagined to remove the lifeless concrete and replace it with landscaping and seating for visitors? While the front façade is emblematic of San Antonio’s arches and quatrefoil motif, it could be enhanced by native plants, grass, and trees to cool the place in the blistering Texas heat. This project shows the ways that small acts (like tearing out concrete and planting trees/flowers) could support placemaking.

Though each site is unique with many possibilities for use and development, each could be a step towards revitalization and development in the Westside community that would also celebrate the identity that makes it special. But it is unfair to say that this side of the city is currently not ‘vitalized’ or vibrant. Simply exploring the corridors that line the Westside’s gridwork will prove to anyone that the community is alive and that opportunities are everywhere.

Urban leaders who have a sincere interest in supporting neighborhoods like the one on San Antonio’s Westside ought to approach redevelopment work with respect and appreciation for the locals who, while often disenfranchised, remain vital to their neighborhood’s social and economic success. If done right, San Antonio could become a model for turning barrio spaces into barrio places.

Matthew Reyes is Texas-based urbanist whose interests include placemaking, queer spaces, and community development. He completed his undergraduate studies at the University of North Texas, and he holds a Master of Regional Planning degree from Cornell University.