Last Friday, the 19th of October, Speaker and Technical Research Director of AGUA, Elyzabeth Earnley came and spoke to our Humanities class. One of her main focuses was the City Council in San Antonio and how it represents who we are, the passing of ordinances, and how the budget pays all employees here in San Antonio. The City Council has a variety of decision makers which are located in San Antonio and their job is to decide what exactly goes on. These members meet every Thursday during the day and all of the meetings that are held by the council, are always open to the public so that everyone has a chance to speak their opinion and to see what goes on. There are ten different districts that can be found in San Antonio and the council itself, gets help by Developmental Services and a review by the San Antonio Water System (SAWS), in which they ask a variety of questions.
Her second key point was the 1995 Water Quality Ordinance (WQO). This group preserves recharge features, such as buffers and has limited impervious covers in the Recharge Zone (ERZD). An impervious cover is the covering of the natural land surface and is a good proxy for the intensity of development. The Water Quality Ordinance also mandates detention, sedimentation, and filtration for commercial and multi-family developments, which has over 15% of the impervious covers. She also mentioned the recharge features which are normally located, beneath the surface or on top of the surface. An example would be an enormous cave or possible sink holes.
What I found to be extremely interesting, was when she had put us into groups and gave us a variety of handouts, in which I was absolutely clueless as to what many of these things meant. The different forms that she had given us were a zoning staff recommendation, SAWS staff recommendation, zoning codes and a water quality ordinance. The main task was to review the rezoning cases and make a recommendation for the City Council, in regards as to what we had thought that it had meant overall. The main idea was that it was about the approval of land in which each group had stated their own opinions.
Now that she has told us about the city council and the districts in San Antonio, Elyzabeth Earnley has taught me what she does for a living as being a director of AGUA and what she focuses on. She showed us pictures of where many of the Recharge Zones were to be found here in San Antonio, along with directions on where the City Council holds their weekly meetings. Overall, this does not seem very important to many people, including myself at first, because I was completely lost and had absolutely no idea why zones like she has mentioned are even important. So all I can say is hopefully people might actually take some time out of their busy lives to read some factual articles about AGUA or possibly attend a City Council meeting.
WORD COUNT: 508
Monday, October 22, 2007
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Small Radius, Bold Core
Approaching the green population sign with the all too familiar name, immediately gives a sense of comfort and safeness. A small change to the recognizable faces, cars, and houses in town is immediately apparent. Falls City is a small, friendly town and so much more. It is an extended family, a support group, a warm smile and a friendly conversation. Not all communities offer the same support system; because most towns do not have fewer than 600 people. Everyone in some way, shape, or form is connected; whether it be family or just generations of family friendships. When a crisis occurs, it hits close to home with everyone in town, and the pain feels as if it were someone in your immediate family. Nothing is more comforting than knowing that someone is always going to be there for support; whether it is a crisis situation or a celebration in your life.
However, in small towns such as Falls City, everyone is always aware of either the towns or an individual’s business. In a town that has 3 family-owned restaurants, 1 grocery store, and 2 gas stations, everyone knows everyone’s personal lives. People feed off of the trials and tribulations that life throws in our paths and enjoy speaking of these over coffee at the Palace Café. Walking into the doors you can feel the heads turn and the conversations begin firing up. What is she doing now? Who is she? Have you heard? There is a 99% chance anyone can guess what is on their minds. Those same faces and same looks can be linked to those same conversations.
There is one prominent religion in the town, Catholic. Everyone sits in the same pew week after week. It is certain if someone is passing through from out of town and decides to stop for mass, sits in a “reserved” seat, and did not want to move, they would be given a very unfriendly welcome. It is extremely humorous how hypocritical people in the town are about small things, such as the story just mentioned. There have been many times, incidences like this have all occurred and all one can do is laugh. Church is not the only area people are territorial about in Falls City. Community members will always drink coffee at the same time, same place, same table, leaving the same tip. It does not matter what the satiation may be, Falls City is full of creatures of habit. Change is unwelcome, regardless of the situation. This past year the athletic director made a decision to accent the football teams jerseys with a black border. Many parents demanded a school board meeting because they felt the athletic director was changing the school colors from traditional blue and white. Changes have to be made or that have been made have to be slow, to give everyone the opportunity to adjust.
Falls City is a place I would prefer not to make my home and a town not to raise my family in. Many people grasp the idea of a closely knit community and all the benefits it has verses a larger community. As in every situation people do not always see the downfalls to situations or the “bad” side of things in regards to small towns. Because of the lack of activities that go on in the community, most of the townspeople resort to sitting at the local gas station/bar most days of the week. Many families in town are broken marriages, which relate back to alcohol being the underlying factor in a majority of them. This, of course, can occur in any city, regardless of the size, but from a personal standpoint in small town allows its members to get away with it. There is not one police officer in the town, only a county sheriff. This is important because many people feel they can consume alcoholic beverages with no limit, because there is a very slim chance that they will receive a violation for their actions.
Word Count: 672
However, in small towns such as Falls City, everyone is always aware of either the towns or an individual’s business. In a town that has 3 family-owned restaurants, 1 grocery store, and 2 gas stations, everyone knows everyone’s personal lives. People feed off of the trials and tribulations that life throws in our paths and enjoy speaking of these over coffee at the Palace Café. Walking into the doors you can feel the heads turn and the conversations begin firing up. What is she doing now? Who is she? Have you heard? There is a 99% chance anyone can guess what is on their minds. Those same faces and same looks can be linked to those same conversations.
There is one prominent religion in the town, Catholic. Everyone sits in the same pew week after week. It is certain if someone is passing through from out of town and decides to stop for mass, sits in a “reserved” seat, and did not want to move, they would be given a very unfriendly welcome. It is extremely humorous how hypocritical people in the town are about small things, such as the story just mentioned. There have been many times, incidences like this have all occurred and all one can do is laugh. Church is not the only area people are territorial about in Falls City. Community members will always drink coffee at the same time, same place, same table, leaving the same tip. It does not matter what the satiation may be, Falls City is full of creatures of habit. Change is unwelcome, regardless of the situation. This past year the athletic director made a decision to accent the football teams jerseys with a black border. Many parents demanded a school board meeting because they felt the athletic director was changing the school colors from traditional blue and white. Changes have to be made or that have been made have to be slow, to give everyone the opportunity to adjust.
Falls City is a place I would prefer not to make my home and a town not to raise my family in. Many people grasp the idea of a closely knit community and all the benefits it has verses a larger community. As in every situation people do not always see the downfalls to situations or the “bad” side of things in regards to small towns. Because of the lack of activities that go on in the community, most of the townspeople resort to sitting at the local gas station/bar most days of the week. Many families in town are broken marriages, which relate back to alcohol being the underlying factor in a majority of them. This, of course, can occur in any city, regardless of the size, but from a personal standpoint in small town allows its members to get away with it. There is not one police officer in the town, only a county sheriff. This is important because many people feel they can consume alcoholic beverages with no limit, because there is a very slim chance that they will receive a violation for their actions.
Word Count: 672
Thursday, October 11, 2007
True Facts Spoken Aloud
On Wednesday the 10th of October, Heywood Sanders came and spoke to the class about San Antonio and its background. In the early 1800’s San Antonio was not a very important place, but in general it was considered a very ethnic place. The Germans built this city, but they had benefited from building things cheaply, and so this is why sidewalks are not in places where they need to be, along with having gutters for drainage and not all road conditions seem to be drivable. But suddenly in the 1920’s is when new streets and new businesses were beginning to be built. San Antonio is considered a massive place for manufacturing thunderstorms and in 1913 there was a major flood downtown which led to billions and billions of dollars in damage.
The aquifer in San Antonio is an underground limestone that holds billions of dollars in refreshed water and it is extremely unbalanced. The more people that are living here in San Antonio, means that we need more water which results in buying it from various places. Overall, this means that water bills are radically rising because we are tempted to be looking for more water. We are a very divided and separated city and this is reflected on how we are operated and how each and every individual looks upon one another. Here in Texas, Austin is number seven in the ten most educated cities and Austin-San Marcos is the tenth in the highest increase in manufacturing. During the election, all Hispanics had voted for Ed Garza, but comparing it with the Anglos, he did not do as well because Hispanics vote for Hispanics and Anglos vote for Anglos.
Word Count: 280
The aquifer in San Antonio is an underground limestone that holds billions of dollars in refreshed water and it is extremely unbalanced. The more people that are living here in San Antonio, means that we need more water which results in buying it from various places. Overall, this means that water bills are radically rising because we are tempted to be looking for more water. We are a very divided and separated city and this is reflected on how we are operated and how each and every individual looks upon one another. Here in Texas, Austin is number seven in the ten most educated cities and Austin-San Marcos is the tenth in the highest increase in manufacturing. During the election, all Hispanics had voted for Ed Garza, but comparing it with the Anglos, he did not do as well because Hispanics vote for Hispanics and Anglos vote for Anglos.
Word Count: 280
Monday, October 1, 2007
Holding on to History
-This photo was taken off of the website, google.com-Alamo images.
The movie The Alamo, starring Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie and William Barrett Travis was a very educational movie because this is one of the most important events that took place in American history. The fighting between these three heroes, and the Anglo settlers, Mexican forces and the Tejanos was that they were fighting each other for land. The Tejanos were the first people to settle in Texas and their beliefs of defending had a strong impact in the events and battles leading into the Alamo. Texas was a place full of cattle, water, and timber; this is where fighting was taking place. This film reminds me of the Alamo because they had all of their guns and weapons and rode on their horses to defend the Mexicans. The setting and structure where this is taking place, looks almost exactly like the Alamo itself today, because the way the buildings are built and how everything around it looks.
Davy Crockett had a very inspiring life and he did not want to split the army because he had believed that the war was over. Crockett supposed that he had the chance to fight the Mexicans out in the open with amateurs. But in return, they would end up coming back. He was known to have been a congressman who had wanted to fight only democratically. In the film, Davy Crockett, had stated, “That he cannot sacrifice Texas.” William Barrett Travis was a man who had wanted to defend the Alamo between the Mexican army. He was a leader in Texas, who had fought to keep slaves in Texas. James Bowie has said “I have hope.” He wanted to see what they were fighting for, he truly believed that he could not only go out and fight for himself but fight for other people and loved ones would not get killed. He had also found a mission more than a 100 years ago and many found this as what we call it today, The Alamo. Bowie wanted to destroy the mission.
The church was first built in 1756, but during the battle, the roof of the church was destroyed. Overall, the Catholics had actually never finished building it. These three men also had the courage of defending this fort in Texas with an entire army for only 13 days. This battle had over 200 men who helped fight for independence. Santa Ana himself had only wanted to rule and stand up for Mexico, but the Mexican army itself had to cover around 300 miles. The Mexican occupation in Texas was completely expelled because Texas rebels were able to gain control of the Alamo in San Antonio. General Sam Houston had an army of Texans who defeated Santa Ana’s army, and this is what led to the independence in Texas. All of the Tejano and Anglos were able to fight for both the independence and land from Santa Anna and the Mexican government.
After watching this film, it actually explains in full detail what went on with the Anglos, Tejanos, and Mexicans. This battle that took place is a very important piece of history that every Texan should want to learn about. After my visit to the Alamo, I had noticed both Bowie’s and Travis’s rifles and knives on display still today. The Alamo deserves to be acknowledged and shared because it is a structure that has held on to much triumph and pain.
Davy Crockett had a very inspiring life and he did not want to split the army because he had believed that the war was over. Crockett supposed that he had the chance to fight the Mexicans out in the open with amateurs. But in return, they would end up coming back. He was known to have been a congressman who had wanted to fight only democratically. In the film, Davy Crockett, had stated, “That he cannot sacrifice Texas.” William Barrett Travis was a man who had wanted to defend the Alamo between the Mexican army. He was a leader in Texas, who had fought to keep slaves in Texas. James Bowie has said “I have hope.” He wanted to see what they were fighting for, he truly believed that he could not only go out and fight for himself but fight for other people and loved ones would not get killed. He had also found a mission more than a 100 years ago and many found this as what we call it today, The Alamo. Bowie wanted to destroy the mission.
The church was first built in 1756, but during the battle, the roof of the church was destroyed. Overall, the Catholics had actually never finished building it. These three men also had the courage of defending this fort in Texas with an entire army for only 13 days. This battle had over 200 men who helped fight for independence. Santa Ana himself had only wanted to rule and stand up for Mexico, but the Mexican army itself had to cover around 300 miles. The Mexican occupation in Texas was completely expelled because Texas rebels were able to gain control of the Alamo in San Antonio. General Sam Houston had an army of Texans who defeated Santa Ana’s army, and this is what led to the independence in Texas. All of the Tejano and Anglos were able to fight for both the independence and land from Santa Anna and the Mexican government.
After watching this film, it actually explains in full detail what went on with the Anglos, Tejanos, and Mexicans. This battle that took place is a very important piece of history that every Texan should want to learn about. After my visit to the Alamo, I had noticed both Bowie’s and Travis’s rifles and knives on display still today. The Alamo deserves to be acknowledged and shared because it is a structure that has held on to much triumph and pain.
Word Count: 539
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