By Sam Kathryn Campana | Scottsdale
San Antonio welcomed tens of thousands of college basketball fans recently! As you watched the revelers near the Alamo, celebrating/lamenting their team's efforts, know that the little ditch – a "river" – was the inspiration for our Scottsdale Waterfront!
Texas Arts Advocates invited cultural leaders to San Antonio in the 1980s and I was amazed to see this narrow, shallow waterway anchoring festivities with thousands of tourists, families, college students, residents enjoying. Could Scottsdale do this?
We met with the longtime President of Salt River Project (SRP) Bill Schrader, an early Scottsdale mayor. He was intrigued and flew a small group of us to San Antonio where we enjoyed their city's presentation on how the Riverwalk evolved into an economic engine. Both SRP and city staffs were directed to devise a plan that would emulate their success.
Imagine gravel banks, utility lines, overflowing commercial garbage bins – a dangerous eyesore – becoming a new linear park with luxury condo living, office buildings, ground-floor retail, meandering lighted pathways for strollers, bikers, shoppers. The Waterfront now links Fashion Square with historic Fifth Avenue shopping, the Design District along Marshall Way to Main Street and our Civic Center.
Canal Convergence, spring festivals, music, buskers, artists – everyone's waterfront in the desert.
Thanks to SRP, over the Easter holiday, walk the historic Canal, admire Scottsdale Public Art's Passing the Legacy, and the astounding Paolo Soleri Bridge & Windbell assemblage. Our McDowell Sonoran Preserve is framed looking east.
So, we cheered Final Four in San Antonio. But remember to cheer on Scottsdale's smart, talented, creative staff to imagine big ideas and work collegially to make them happen.
Mayor Borowsky has an inspired idea about the downtown parking garage. Often doing it Scottsdale-style is preferable to expediency. Let's find the right place and design the best!
Go Scottsdale!
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