169. How Phil Hardberger Built a Park, a Land Bridge, and a Wildlife Corridor for San Antonio

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This week on bigcitysmalltown, host Cory Ames tells the story of the Robert L.B. Tobin Land Bridge at Phil Hardberger Park — in a new format for the show. Rather than a traditional guest conversation, this episode is a narrated oral history, recorded in the field at the park itself, weaving together tape from a morning walk Cory took with former Mayor Phil Hardberger and natural resources manager Wendy Leonard. Just a week or so before this episode was released, a bronze statue of Phil Hardberger was unveiled at the park that bears his name. He is 91 years old and still walks the trails. The episode covers: * How Phil Hardberger promised San Antonio a new park while running for mayor — and spent two years looking for the right land * The phone call that led him to a former dairy farm on the north side, never fully clear-cut, 330 acres still largely as nature left it * How Wurzbach Parkway split the property in two — and why that became the genesis of one of the most celebrated wildlife bridges in the country * The $23 million fight to fund the land bridge, the jury of architects Phil assembled, and the moment he committed to raising $12 million himself * How the bridge was engineered — steel girders, three feet of soil, Corten steel walls designed to block sight and sound from 60,000 cars passing underneath daily * Why animals began crossing before construction was even finished — and how within one year, all 31 mammal species known to inhabit the park had been documented using it * What Wendy Leonard has learned managing the bridge's natural systems, and why the vegetation hasn't always cooperated * How the land bridge reconnected a wildlife corridor stretching to the Salado Creek Greenway — and brought painted buntings back to the park RECOMMENDED NEXT LISTEN: ▶ 168. More Than Parks: How San Antonio Is Building Trails, Gardens, and Green Space Into a Growing City [https://www.bigcitysmalltown.com/168-more-than-parks-how-san-antonio-is-building-trails-gardens-and-green-space-into-a-growing-ci/] — A Creative Futures panel on green equity, urban nature, and the push to integrate green spaces into every corner of a fast-growing city. Essential context for this conversation. ….. GET THE NEWSLETTER 🗺️ If you enjoyed this conversation, subscribe to The San Antonio Something — Cory's newsletter with few things worth your attention about the city we call home. Things to do, taste, read, notice, and consider. Thoughtful, grounded, and unapologetically local. Subscribe here. [https://cory-ames.kit.com/cfc0c898b2] -- -- CONNECT 📸 Connect on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/bigcity.smalltown/] 🔗 Join us on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertjrivard/] 🎥 Subscribe on YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/@bcstsatx] SPONSORS 🙌 Support the show & see our sponsors [https://www.bigcitysmalltown.com/sponsors/] THANK YOU ⭐ Leave a review on Apple Podcasts ⭐ Rate us on Spotify

170. Don Graham and Dr. Abel Antonio Chávez on Journalism, Our Lady of the Lake, and Why Access to Education Changes Everything

This week on bigcitysmalltown, Bob Rivard sits down with two guests at the podcast studio at Our Lady of the Lake University — a first for the show. Don Graham is the retired chairman and publisher of The Washington Post Company, whose family also owned Newsweek Magazine, where Bob worked as a war correspondent and later chief of correspondents in the 1990s. Dr. Abel Antonio Chávez is the 10th president of Our Lady of the Lake University, a position he has held since July 2022. A first-generation, first-in-family college graduate and son of immigrants, he went from Front Range Community College to a BS in mechanical engineering, an MBA, and a PhD in civil and environmental engineering, and built a career partnering with local governments and universities across the globe on community-based energy and emissions accounting. Graham came to campus as a commencement speaker. The visit grew out of his decades-long commitment to college access — work rooted in Washington, DC, where the city's lack of a state university system means students pay out-of-state tuition everywhere they apply. They discuss: * How Our Lady of the Lake has served San Antonio's most economically challenged students for 130 years — and what it takes to sustain that mission today * Dr. Chávez's path from a Denver neighborhood to a top engineering school he couldn't afford, a pivot to community college, and eventually the presidency of a university in a neighborhood that looks just like the one he grew up in * How Don Graham's time as a beat cop in Washington, DC after Vietnam shaped his understanding of what college access actually means * The federal scholarship program Graham helped push through a unanimous Republican Congress in 1998 to help DC students afford college * What Graham witnessed as an early Facebook board member — and what it taught him about giving young people real responsibility * The sale of The Washington Post to Jeff Bezos in 2013, why it happened, and what Graham thinks of the paper today * San Antonio's deep economic and cultural ties to Mexico — and how tariffs are affecting the local auto manufacturing economy * What it means to be an optimist about American democracy after decades at the center of Washington life RECOMMENDED NEXT LISTEN: ▶ 149. How AlamoPROMISE Continues Expanding College Access for San Antonians [https://www.bigcitysmalltown.com/149-how-alamopromise-continues-expanding-college-access-for-san-antonians/] — Stephanie Vasquez, Chief Program Officer for Alamo Promise, on what it takes to make college accessible to every Bexar County high school graduate — and what the program has learned from serving more than 30,000 Promise scholars. GET THE NEWSLETTER 📰 If you enjoyed this conversation, sign up for Bob Rivard's Midweek — sharp takes on San Antonio's politics, culture, and civic life, delivered to your inbox every week. Independent, nonpartisan, and free to read. Subscribe here. [https://bigcitysmalltown.kit.com/fb1825d442] -- -- CONNECT 📸 Connect on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/bigcity.smalltown/] 🔗 Join us on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertjrivard/] 🎥 Subscribe on YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/@bcstsatx] SPONSORS 🙌 Support the show & see our sponsors [https://www.bigcitysmalltown.com/sponsors/] THANK YOU ⭐ Leave a review on Apple Podcasts ⭐ Rate us on Spotify

12 de may de 202646 min

169. How Phil Hardberger Built a Park, a Land Bridge, and a Wildlife Corridor for San Antonio

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