 It's well-recognized that Americans have Trouble meeting their minimum required or recommended activity levels And so having bike paths and sidewalks that you feel comfortable using helps you kind of kill two birds in one stone If you're going to do an errand and you can be active doing that it helps you to meet those levels So we might Kind of feel when we are in a walkable community how it's more comfortable than when we're in an unwalkable community There are elements that that we can actually pick out and describe when we're there and these Lose span from land use to access safety security and aesthetics and I'll go into these a little bit more but in this image That you see it is a historic neighborhood in Washington, DC area It doesn't look very inviting at least I Feel that it wouldn't be that fun to walk around that street It actually kind of resembles Some of the parts of new Braunfels up near I-35 So if you can envision this as an example will Will show you how you can change some of these walkability elements and come up with a better neighborhood So there's several challenges facing the street. There are So many vacant and empty lots that there's really not a reason to be there The sidewalks are available and there is some signage To help point out where pedestrians would cross but the empty streets really invite cars to just speed through the area There isn't any shade for people that are walking and the lights that are there are Really tall street lamps so they're producing light for the street more than for the sidewalk where you'd be walking This is the same street with a little bit of walkability elements phased in you can see that a few of the vacant areas and Empty lots have been filled in with some buildings. So it improves the land use Across walk has been added to help increase the safety of the pedestrians using it There's lighting to fit the scale now of people on the sidewalk The trees make it more aesthetically pleasing and comfortable to walk along that street All right Thank you, Neil and Finally with a few more elements of walkability Phased in we have more buildings we have on-street parking and these both kind of serve to narrow The street and give it a defined edge which makes it a lot more inviting to to just walk and linger within There's a lot of pedestrian activity now and the lights make it feel safe even though this is a picture depicting it at night So this has Really changed the character of the previous the first slide showing this area So we'll go a little bit more into the land the walkability factors The first is land use and if you're not familiar with that term It's a little bit of an odd term It just describes what kind of purpose a piece of land is put to so is it put toward a residential? Purpose where you would live or a retail business where you would go shopping When land uses are mixed such as in the right side of the slide here You can walk more easily to the school to the mall to your home But on the more left side of the slide it shows that there's more separate uses of the land So walking from your home here Would take a lot more distance to get to the school It becomes almost impossible to make that trip on foot or by your bike a Side note if you've heard of the term mixed use This means that mixes are literally mixed on top or within each other So that you might be able to live on the second story of a building Whereas the first story is used as a like retail and shopping So that might be a term that comes up in conversations later Access is a second type of a walkability element and It really influences the degree To which you would be encouraged or discouraged from using a certain transportation choice Hold the sacks like this one Make it really indirect to reach your destination So even though these neighbors are back-to-back They have to walk around the entire circle to to say hey to each other It's not very natural to want to walk in an environment like this And what we want is an environment that it does feel natural to be able to just step outside and walk a short trip Next slide this is a picture from Google Earth and You might recognize it as a neighborhood that we're in now This shows a really fine-grained grid network and it is an exceptional It shows the potential that this neighborhood has for being a lot more walkable because of the number of Intersections that you can reach by just walking down one street. This helps you Walk and bike more directly. It also helps filter traffic Around different routes so that there aren't as many cars along some of the major streets and they have more options to To move around the neighborhood Safety is a highly important factor of walkability Driving speed can contribute to how safe it feels to walk and bike next to the road Crashes that occur at about 20 miles per hour Are much less severe than those that occur at a higher speed. In fact, they are about 95 percent Likely to be all right if you're hit by by a car moving at about 20 miles per hour, which is a school speed limit and a car hitting a pedestrian or a bicyclist at 40 miles per hour has It's a four out of five percent or four out of five Chance that that pedestrian would then be fatally struck so that difference in speed really influences The the impact on that life Vehicle speeds The what the wider a road or a traveling is actually can Influence to the driver how fast it seems he seems able to to move the car and the faster the cars are traveling The less safe it feels to walk next to them so designing narrower streets and Lanes adding pedestrian crossing signals Adding pedestrian medians Medians, sorry such you can cross a lane of traffic and wait until it's safe to cross the next lane of traffic Are ways to enhance the safety? This is an example of a miniature roundabout Which allows? Cars to yield for each other instead of coming to a four-way stop But greatly reduces the speed at which they're interacting in that intersection and Therefore reduces the impact if the crash occurs and then safety improvements can also be They can be built or they can be programs this really fun picture on the left is an example of a walking school bus and This is a program that a cog helps schools Develop And it essentially relies on parent volunteers to pick up kids on the way on the route to school So that by the end they have a number of kids Essentially as a school bus walking and then security is another important aspect of of of walkability We can call it eyes on the street These two photos show quite a difference in how secure you would feel walking by the the two buildings This one is Has no transparency. There's no windows for anybody inside to be looking out and and watching the road whereas This this photo shows lots of windows. So not only is it safer for people walking by They have people looking after them. It's more interesting. You can look in and see what people are doing in there and then finally aesthetics and Or comfort is another way of looking at it can greatly enhance just how enjoyable it might be to to walk This shows a very comfortable and pleasing environment enhanced by trees sidewalk tables and Just a pleasant environment in general So I'm going to show another example of Of how you might change part of the neighborhood that that feels like it could be improved This is Lacking people lacking in activity lacking security. There's really no reason that you would be walking here unless You absolutely needed to be with some phase improvements Such as adding crosswalks Cleaning this up to be more like a park adding trees We have a much much nicer kind of residential area to to be in but it feels safer and calmer than the previous photos this is Kind of similar to that photo that we just looked at being developed and it's an example from around here Does anybody know do they recognize where this intersection is? Exactly. All right, you can give it away. There we go so last weekend Patrice and Ori and I had the opportunity to go out with a few Children who are residents in the neighborhood and go to schools here We're accompanied by officer Mike and his officer friend who is not here and I'd like to invite You guys to come up Okay, so we have With us J beyond who is in fifth grade and Latrell who is in sixth grade Diana who is now in ninth grade. She has She's reached high school Always really cool and so these are This shows the beginning of the walking audit and y'all can if you wanted to see y'all can go over there That we took on Saturday We essentially started off at the Wheatley Heights Community Center and Next slide Took notes about what we saw So here we see that some bus stops had shelters Like the one on the top left or a bench but maybe it just had a waste basket and This is what it felt like for us when we were walking along new Braunfels Avenue the more commercial strip you can see how Solid the walls were there were no windows for people to be looking out of or for us to look into the Traffic was very close to the sidewalk and I should have mentioned. I'm sorry. These photos were all taken by these three young adults here, so they had a great eye and really Have contributed a lot to the visuals in this presentation right now Alright these show trash some abandoned properties A stray dog and people that don't have it a permanent home here yet in the neighborhood and then some sidewalk impediments Here we can see I think Latrell was taking photos behind his little brother JV on and At the top right is where we were trying to we're approaching Wheatley Middle School on Louisa And we just ran into this lot that was overgrown with trees So right before approaching this school, you just can't keep going on that sidewalk But there were also some cool things that that Everybody got to see there were some yards that were really well kept up. There was Some cool some cool art that kind of helps people when they're walking Get a sense of place and then there was a block Party and rummage sale that really was bringing out a lot of community members at a local Community Center and afterward we all sat down in the Wheatley commute and Heights Community room and talked about what we saw so I'm going to ask y'all a few questions And I'll hand the mic over to you. I'll start with you Latrell. What was it that you liked about the walk? I'm taking pictures Talking about the different lands and everything It's just like I like the walk because I just like take pictures be safe on this on the sidewalk instead of the street because Because it's never like you you not on the sidewalk you might get run over by a car And you have to just be safe to stay on the sidewalk and look back way to see any cars are coming and I don't know but last year. This is um Wheatley middle school. I was like a great I saw one of I saw one of one in the mid also one may almost got run over by a car because he was on the sidewalk But he used to be on that on the street Because um he didn't have a little both ways all of that. You know, but he's got lucky. He didn't get run over that time He just like, okay He was just okay not not it's gonna happen So we just wanted to be we just want all the people just be safe we save on the sidewalk just say going on the streets Okay, I just want to interject here because they're acting all shy Now but on Saturday, we were asking okay, so you guys gonna be ready to participate They're gonna be a lot of folks and are you ready? We want you to come up and we want you to talk and What did you tell me Latrell? Latrell said oh, yeah, I got it. Now, you know, I performed I've been on stage before so I had I had this now They're acting all shy But they just need to know that you the audience, you know, you're here for them and you support them and Just need them to be just tell us talk to us and Let us know what you think because they gave us some really profound Information they said things, you know out of the mouths of babes They said some things on Saturday that had Ali and I clutching the pearls because we were like, you know so Taking a back by what these children was saying so I want you guys to stand up And then I want you to see how I talk and see how Miss Ari holds the mic I should talk in the mic. See how I talking to Mike Okay, I want you to talk in the mic and talk up so we can hear you and when Ali asked the questions Answer and talk to us like you did talk to this audience like you did on Saturday The difficult parts about the walk was like all the trees and everything they're like when we're walking They're on the sidewalk and we have to go on the street And the sidewalks are too small the difficult part of the walk was having to Go on the street because the trees and all the grass and bushes were blocking us from From walking on the sidewalk When we were looking at the houses I was picturing it like all my game that I play a Minecraft where you get to build all these kind of different houses and Like I was saying that on Minecraft like you get to build all these different kinds of houses and I was like We could take all the abandoned houses and build something with them like take the land and build something or some more different houses and And like when we're walking I was looking at the houses and I was picturing the game that I play at my house Like like it was real life Yeah, it was hard to picture All the houses and everything a little bit. It was a little difficult Difficult to picture different houses because of the way the neighborhood had looked it like because all the houses were boarded up or abandoned and All the grass is messed up the gates were messed up and everything like that If you could change anything about the neighborhood what What were some of the ideas that you wanted to see? I really want to see a change about this reveal reveal the new house the several old house because Because then because the old house of the people lives in it doesn't it doesn't look right for them It just needs them. It just need no house to build everything for everyone. So they could find a house what they want But make trees all of that just maybe one or two trees pretty pretty good grassy flowers Have their own past have a family get a new restaurant go to a store One thing I would like to change is the houses even if they weren't boarding up Some of them look old and kind of messed up a little bit some of the things that I would like to change is some of the abandoned houses you can take them and Make them into game arcades for some of the kids out here because a lot of them don't have what they really want in the In the neighborhood you have to travel to get to those places for your kids And I thought that we could make it closer. So we won't have to go far That was excellent. I'm was really happy to have a chance to walk with y'all on Saturday and get a better perspective of the neighborhood and see what could Be talked about tonight and ideas for changing it. So y'all can sit down if you want to now Thank you guys again And with that, it's a great transition So we won't be doing a walk ourselves But we do have some really great maps of this area and we will roll them out onto tables and we'd like You guys to participate by breaking up into a few different a few groups Do we know about how many people we have here? probably groups of Maybe a groups of five or so I give us five different groups, so We'll do that in just a second. We'll roll out those maps We also have one really long map that specifically looks at givers street Which is designated as an education corridor because it connects both Wheatley Middle School here with Washington Elementary a few blocks down and This is a special interest to you that choice and promise projects. They'd like to Really understand what kind of obstacles the children and the parents of those children that attend those schools run into So if you could raise your hand if you attend one of those schools or if you're a parent of one of a child Who goes to those schools and it would be excellent if y'all could participate on with that map and I Just read the slide. Did you guys read it? Well That would have been the key to your stream that but we'll have it in actuality for y'all to write on Okay, so let's take a break and get situated for this more interactive mapping session and we'll come back in about half an hour and Report back have y'all report back about the types of problems that y'all see and the solutions that you Have ideas for Solving All right awesome and Have five groups to give comments so I'd like to start with the group closest to the front right here and Who can I ask to kind of share with us? What? What you marked on your map what you noticed or wanted to share with the rest of the group? All right, so for our table in the front here We identified some problems being Trash and brush those were two major things that we identified Trash being on the North Walters Street and then also along let's see That one's not Labeled all right, and then lighting in general was pretty poor that we couldn't really identify any spot in particular because it was Everything was identified as poor lighting Vacant housing was a big problem as well There was also stray dogs Seems to be a problem in this area with people dumping dogs off Train noise as well, I guess the train horn From 11 to about 6 in the morning goes off and that is kind of a nuisance and Then rental versus absentee ownership is a problem. There's more Rentals in this area, but the ownership that there is there's a lot of absentee ownership So those were main the main things and then we identified in the middle Areas of crime and then areas of speeding as well, and then on the left side in the red There was some infrastructure with possibly plumbing there was like an odor that was being emitted So we identified that as well and a possible part too that there's a lot of people that would like a pike there, so Do y'all have a specific location about the plumbing and the odor and Okay, very good Could I ask you to introduce yourself? My name is Ruby Sheffield. I live at 1419 on slow Mary I'm a sonata with 1351 on slow and I'm president of power place east on neighborhood association Also on the advisory committee for promise neighborhood Many Apple white 618 Larry Beverly wants Davis that was great with a lot of specific locations, so we appreciate that And can you introduce yourself right before you start talking all right? I'm Alberta Harris. I'm a resident of the east side and I work for the east side promise neighborhood We redid our whole map and Somebody told me two minutes and so I'm gonna go through it real quick We have several elementary schools in this area and I was explaining to them the people that lives on The right-hand side of Walter Street kids go to Have to go to China to catch the bus to go way up here to Persian So it was dangerous for the kids and we had shown in certain areas on haze and real grand to Walter's It's no sidewalk and we have kids walking down there We talked about Walter Street As people come off 35 and come on Walter's they pick up speed They doing like 40 to 50 miles all the way down to St. Philip's and that's a danger hazard for our kids Because the Walter Street bridge do have sidewalk But no protection for the people who are walking on the sidewalk and then we talked about the drainage area How the drainage area Surrounds over here by Wheely Middle School. It's an area up under the Walter's Bridge called the Goonies where our kids skip school that but it's down in the drainage ditch where our drainage need to be safer because as you're walking and it's a Hard rain, it's like the Rio Grande River and all I had to do is just push you in there and you're gone and our drainage runs all the way to behind the AT&T and Then we talked about can we clean up in the Brownfield Street? And then over here on Hudson Hudson is at the end of the football field where In certain areas of Hutton Street is no sidewalk And the kids are walking in the street because their parents tell them don't walk on the side the courts are So they are in the streets about to get hit because it's no sidewalk Did I miss anything else? Okay, thank you. Oh Okay, and these are my team members and we talked about H.E.B.'s H.E.B.'s need to be cleaned up a little Okay, and this are my team members Chuck Landon Eric Acons Many Collins and this is our team Thank you very much Alberta and the team I'm gonna come over next to Miss Darcy Schiphol and Frederick Who will speak a little bit about? What maps they were working with? So our group kind of dwindled they had places to be So Fred and I we kind of tried to gather what I think it was Melanie and Martha had to say about their area they looked at we were looking at Gever Street and They really to them felt like Gever Street wasn't really where the issue lies They felt that there were some other corridors Lamar Street was one of them that they recommended and one of their concerns was the vacant houses and The visual the lack or visual appeal Of those vacant houses and how they're boarded up and so one of Fred's recommendations was that maybe code compliance could have some stricter regulations on how those houses are boarded up and Maintained when they are vacant so That was kind of part of what we discussed and then also code compliance said as A reminder that you can call 311 and identify those homes to code compliance so that they can go by Take a look at them and try and see what? What the rules and regulations allowed them to require of those abandoned properties That was pretty much what we got I Know I saw that y'all were having a lengthy conversation with code compliance So it was really great that they were there and able to take part in that Thanks Clay and the group over here who would like to summarize the conversation they that y'all had Okay, so We we marked up a lot of areas on our map. We got a lot of really good discussion some of our top concerns were traffic calming around the schools Because there is a lot of speeding and we kind of suggest a lot of ideas about Speed bumps and flashing overhead lights at some of the these roads along here Where near the ones kind of near the school? There's a lot of areas that are too dark and There's a lot of speeding so just a lot of different ideas I'm we even circle little areas like where there'd be a like a roundabout would be a really nice solution to Prevent cars because sometimes the streets don't go straight through you have to make a sharp turn and then another quick turn And so it creates a lot of conflict for the pedestrians cross crossing the street so We also identified areas where there can be a lot of sidewalk improvements for I guess wheelchair access and Along especially along on the main roads like Walters and new brothels And then some gaps as well near the schools shown on the map You know around the elementary schools There are some areas where there is no sidewalks and it would just be you know the the nice thing to have those sidewalks You know filled in so that the kids have a nice area to walk and Also, yeah, the power lines in the in the sidewalks as well our obstacles for wheelchairs, so but that's kind of a summary of Some of the things that we talked about and then yeah, like I said kind of in this the most Western part of the neighborhood There's you know a lot of missing sidewalks and it's very dark for like around Bowdoin Elementary and The speeding so crossing guards also would really help to I guess get the kids from you know the different sides of the street and That's a that's about it Yeah, oh, and then the boarded up houses as well. I know it's kind of An issue is summons in this part of the neighborhood is kind of the one that we singled out in particular Thank you very much That was That was really great and especially for that part of the neighborhood is that where y'all reside So thank you for being the eyes There for that. That's yes New Broncos close to Olive Park and A little close to Olive Park in Ella Austin in Bowdoin Right along this area right down here along Lamar haze and all that the streets are really bad And if you notice there is no sidewalk around Bowdoin at all the cars park on the grass on the outside There's one way in and there's one way out and if you go down Burleson, which is the front of the school There's only one way to get down there and then on the other side There's are a lot of abandoned houses no sidewalks anything to be totally honest if you look across the street You would be kind of embarrassed that your child goes to the elementary school right there And if Ella Austin is a part of the east side promise You wouldn't want somebody to travel all the way down Lamar on a bumpy road It is horrible to get to an organization that we have in our community We don't have a lot down there due to the fact of the traffic and no sidewalks So our group was focusing mainly on the safety of the children because we have no sidewalks with them to walk on So as parents, we're not gonna let them out. We're not gonna let them walk along the streets in the grass Thank you guys Thanks Tiffany for for adding that and for letting your kids participate on Saturday, too Yes, would you be able to say who you y'all are? I think that I'm getting a cold shoulder Oh, my name is Shonda Thomas Gladice Glad Gloria Rainey Lisa Bailey, thank you And our last group for the evening to report back to us Yes, yes, since y'all are at one side everybody if y'all can shift this direction Good afternoon. Good evening. First. We'll introduce our team Who did they Oscar Banner Joaquin Arch Turn the other way So so we've color-coded our map So we started with with the red So what we said about the red We've identified areas where there's drug drug trafficking going on where gangs hang out and the exes Identify where the corner stores are so we said that something needs to be done about those So if we're gonna talk about security, let's start focusing on those areas first The green is we identified Is To widen the sidewalks because there's not enough room for anyone to walk up and down on a lot of areas Up and down new brothels you have some driveway. So there aren't there aren't sidewalks at all and She suggested that, you know families With a stroller and a child they all can't fit at one time. So they're like trailing behind the red all the way up and down that Up and down new brothels There there are several areas where stop lights need to be put in or around about The area that we focused on for a roundabout to be put was at the corner of new Bronfers and Burnett Just because at that intersection the buildings or historic so they can't be moved So when you get to that stop sign you have to kind of come out almost into the street before you can either go left Or right so once we saw the Demonstration about the roundabout that may be maybe a easier fix than doing some altercations there Also, we discussed is making new Bronfers a one-way either using Parking on on that outside lane closest to the sidewalk or like we said earlier Widening that sidewalk because if the kids are walking down and there's parking there You won't necessarily have to worry about your child trailing you The other area that we identified is how can we fix and make more beautiful that that path between the two schools? Was a protected a protected bike lane so that would also, you know alleviate you having a widened the sidewalk just put a protected bike lane on either side of the street and Using some type of buffers So putting new trees in to make it look uniform all the way down and also Maybe coming up with some type of plan if it's a grid upon by the residents that live there a Uniformed pencil line that takes you from the whole street all the way to the school The blue dots that you see here are bike lanes That would connect Wheatley to St. Phillips even though it wasn't in the In the footprint, but you know we want to create that from elementary to middle and middle all the way to college We also discussed on the buffer you see around The train track so a lot of the people that live here have to face the train tracks So putting a tree system in along that that street would alleviate Some sound and also a view We the pink you see or the two bridges that represent at Walters and New Braunfels and doing some type of beautification of the bridge and Where the Martin Luther King vision is being able to change that out Maybe quarterly to go along with the themes or whatever is going on in the city like Fiesta Martin Luther King single to Mayo Whatever else is coming up at that time and then Eliminating maybe the concrete barrier and making that some type of decorative design or some type of color or just pressure wash it for right now On the other bridge We have it in colors because you can make these two different colors and have different themes going on So people can identify if you're at the red bridge or the blue bridge Things like that so necessarily you know you have people that may not speak English You know that these bridges are color-coded so to go along with that the yellow you see going along the creek line We said this could maybe be a biking trail that goes along the creek that connects Maybe some type of way into the back of the AT&T Center and then also coming back down here and connecting to the H3 Bridge so that it's all the way inviting from downtown to here and then we also talked about you know definitely the need for sidewalks whether there's no sidewalks and Other than that that that pretty much covered it Oh, there was one thing that we talked about on that walking trail was maybe putting some lion paws Along that trail just because of the school and what it represents So going one way or the other on the same side as you have the bike the protected bike lane That's it That was really great and what was cool is that y'all had some possible solutions for some of the Identified challenges that some of the other teams had found and I think together There's a lot of insight Here that we will be able to to work with as we move into the next Steps real quick. Thank you so much to the facilitators at the tables I Think it got off a little bit to a chaotic start which I apologize for but everybody seems to have really found their footing in And knowing what to to look for on the map and then what to talk about so Thank you to to each of you Neil and Cecilio and clay Darcy and We had a group with I guess y'all just kind of did it on yourselves, but who did also for for being from Metro health The next steps for the the workshop are To continue commenting on an online mapping feature that we have it's at this website Which is a Metro plan org slash choice promise. It's not that easy to remember, but we will but it's on the flyers that were handed out for this event and Feel free to ask me if you'd like That written down for you On that is just a map a virtual one that you're able to continue commenting on and Listing where you'd like to see different improvements So we'll be taking those through next week and after that we'll be incorporating everything that everybody's been saying tonight Earlier and then over the next week in a report that will be going to elected officials in the area as well as the east side choice and promise Programs and they'll be on the website SM Metro plan org so that you can access them as well That should be out within about a month and I look forward to hopefully Crafting something that is worthy of of all the comments that y'all had spoken of tonight Finally the MPO is Preparing for enough series of its own workshops to update its long-range transportation plan This is called mobility 2040 and it happens every five years. So two workshops are The closest to are listed here on on the slide and All eight workshops that will be provided are on mobility 2040 org You've probably noticed the cameras around the the room This is now cast SA and they've been recording the entire presentation and workshop that y'all have been participating in so it will be available for you to To watch as a recording as well and this entire presentation will be available through that in case you were near the back Or had heads in front of you and weren't able to to see part of part of the presentation I think that is all and Believe it or not. We're out like just right on schedule. Maybe even a couple minutes before so If you have questions for myself For any of the other staff feel free to come and and talk to us afterward Ari, would you like to have a final word? Okay? I just want to tell you all how much we appreciate you've taken the time out of your schedules to be here with us this evening at this workshop and You know, there's more to come and we need the community engaged We need our residents our neighbors Our partners we need everybody to be a part of this transformation if it's going to be Successful, so thank you so much for coming out and we just look forward to bigger and better things Mrs. Watts Davis, did you want to have a word? Okay. All right, so thank you so much and We'll let you know please you know look at our our website and Just stay in tune because we want to ensure that we're doing a good job of Communicating and if you guys have any ideas about that Please let us know that also Adrian Come on up Adrian Lopez is our director of community development initiatives at the San Antonio Housing Authority Okay, national night out October 1st and this will be on the Wheatley property Adrian at the Wheatley property or Closer to one of the streets so great So just keep your eyes and ears open and look for the activities our promise partners we want to think Thank you guys for coming out and patrice Everybody we want to thank our children for being involved and our parents who saw to it that their children participated, so thank you all so much if you filled out a survey that you picked up when you signed in Please leave it at the same sign-in table as you leave Thank you so much for coming out