• Race for the Cure on Saturday, April 6, at 6:00 am
• Fiesta Carnival from April 17-28 at various times

The decal program is enforced on the northernmost streets (Lavaca, Barrera, Indianola, etc) of the neighborhood only. Special event parking street signs and street barricades will be installed prior to the scheduled event enforcement period. To report illegally parked vehicles or other traffic and parking concerns during special events, please call the SAPD non-emergency number at 207-SAPD (7273) or the Downtown Operations Parking Division at 207-8266 (Downtown Operations office hours are Monday – Friday from 7:45 am – 4:30 pm only).

Armando has lived in King William and Lavaca, and recently moved to Dignowity Hill, which is on the other side of the highway near the Alamodome. He’s enjoying his new neighborhood because the ‘vibe’ is very similar to Southtown, and it’s just a short bike-ride away from our neighborhood, which he loves.

Armando is a musician and writer, and spends much of his time dedicated to those passions. He teaches piano lessons at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center, which is an organization that promotes the arts and art education. He loves working at the Center and with its patrons, who range in age from young children to senior citizens.

He writes a music column for Art Magazine San Antonio, a publication that is available in both print and on the internet. He’s looking forward to South by Southwest — a two week music festival in Austin. Bands from all over the world converge on Austin and play at indoor and outdoor venues throughout the festival. Armando will be attending many of the performances and writing reviews and articles that will be published in the magazine.

Because of his interests in music, writing, and film, he’s always looking for projects. He and another San Antonio artist are currently planning a new venture. They have warehouse space in Lavaca in which they’ll host musical performances that will be recorded and posted on their upcoming website, deafmoose. The venue will also host art shows.

Armando has been working at Liberty Bar for six years, first in its original location on Josephine Street, and now in its current spot in King William. Liberty Bar has always been a ‘hang-out’ for artists and musicians, which makes it a perfect place for Armando. And he believes that Southtown — because of its abundance of resident artists — is the perfect place for Liberty Bar.

In his free time, Armando loves to read, especially poetry and classic literature (he had a copy of Farewell To Arms with him when we got together for an interview). He hopes to write a novel soon. He also loves hanging out with Julian, his five year old son.

Armando is a regular at our Happy Hour get-togethers, behind the bar offering up libations when we get together each week. Be sure to introduce yourself to him — he’s looking forward to getting to know us!

Originally published March 6, 2013, in the Lavaca & Friends Happy Hour update.

One of the nine square miles to be featured is in San Antonio (King William / Lavaca). PBS is seeking input from the local community to find the interesting stories, people, and perspectives that make up this square mile. The stories might be of a weekly domino tournament at the local barber shop – someone with a large extended family, or someone who is all alone – a new business just starting, or an older business trying to adapt to changing times – a well known restaurant, or someone who helps those without. The possibilities are endless and they would love to hear from you!

PBS is looking for stories that are both representative of the square mile and uniquely interesting. They are not looking for tourist’s perspective of this square mile, but rather a first person perspective of what it is like to live in this community on a day-to-day basis.The five themes they will be filming in this square mile are:
Community – What role does community play in this square mile? How do residents interact and socialize? Is community involvement centered at the school, the barber shop, the cafe or the home?
Family – What is the role of family in this square mile? What is it like to live, grow up or raise a family in this square mile?
Work – How do people earn a living in this square mile?
Food – How is food a part of the culture in this square mile?
Future – What is the future of this square mile?

PBS is looking for the obvious and the obscure.  Anyone within the community can make a suggestion on the OSMTX website at: http://www.osmtx.com/tv/San_Antonio.html

They will be accepting nominations until February 1, 2013, and begin filming all five stories shortly thereafter.

Today, the The Cannoli Fund for Dogs and Cats announced that funding would be extended for its program to fund spay/neuter surgeries for feral cats in Lavaca and King William. The announcement posted to its Facebook page reads:

Since April, 4,000 cats in San Antonio have been spayed/neutered for free, thanks to a grant from PetsMart Charities and the Best Friends Animal Society! The Cannoli Fund’s “cat carpool program” has accounted for over 30 of those surgeries for cats from King William and Lavaca. Best news is, the funding will continue for another year so more kitties can be taken care of! Hooray!

Click here for information on the Trap, Neuter, Release (TNR) program.

After school she lived in Colorado for awhile, and that’s where she began her career in the restaurant business. Having been to cooking school, she started working as a chef and running the kitchen for an independent restaurant. She quickly realized that to best serve her customers, she needed to spend time with them. So she split her time between the kitchen and the dining room, rounding out her experience. During this time, her mother and sisters moved to Arizona and Katie fell in love with the area on her visits. She relocated (and lived in both Tucson and Phoenix) and found her way into restaurant management. She learned about banquet and special events planning, which prepared her well for her current position. She worked for a family-owned restaurant chain and became the Executive Corporate Trainer and Director of Human Resources for all their restaurants.

While in Arizona, she decided to pursue another interest. She left the restaurant business to work in women’s retail, taking a job first with Lady Marden’s managing their Scottsdale location and doing management training / recruitment, and then with Catherine Stores. With Catherine Stores she relocated to Amarillo and eventually to San Antonio. Under her management, the Catherine’s San Antonio location became its number one store of 250.

At this point Katie turned back to the restaurant business, and has since worked for some of San Antonio’s finest spots — she has worked at Las Canarias in La Mansion, the Liberty Bar at its original location on Josephine St, the Monterey, Casbeer’s, and The Palm.

In September of this year, she was waiting tables at the Palm, not thinking about returning to restaurant management. A phone call from the owner of the Liberty Bar changed that, and she accepted a management position.

Katie is excited to be back at Liberty Bar, and feels like she is ‘home’. She loves the King William building (previously the mother house for the Benedictine Sisters) and is excited about exploring offerings that will further integrate the restaurant into the vibrant Southtown community.

Food and wine are a passion for Katie. They are her hobby as well as her career. She also enjoys gardening and watching flowers grow and bloom.

Katie occasionally stops in at the Lavaca & Friends Happy Hour, and she’s always in the neighborhood — spending most of her time, of course, at the Liberty Bar. If you haven’t been to the Liberty Bar lately, stop in and say hello to Katie. Have a favorite libation and congratulate her on returning home!

Originally published November 7, 2012, in the Lavaca & Friends Happy Hour update.

Rudy joined the Air Force when he finished school and served for four years. After his service he had a few jobs — in sales and working for the SA Police Department in the Radio Shop — before he began his career in civil service. His last civil service position was as a Procurement Analyst at Kelly Air Force base, and he retired from there in 1990.

It wasn’t until he retired, however, that he focused on his true passion — music. He had never played an instrument and decided that it was time to learn. He took lessons from Toby Torres at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center and learned to play the bajo sexto. Texas Folklife Resources gave him a grant to further study bajo sexto and he became a resident artist for the Texas Commission of the Arts. During that residency, he started a Conjunto program at the Teatro de Artes de Juan Seguin. 

In 2002, Rudy and a few other local musicians formed the Conjunto Heritage Taller (CHT) here in Lavaca. Located on S. Presa Street, the organization’s mission is to perpetuate Conjunto music… to teach it at a very affordable price. It is a 501( c ) 3 organization and provides lessons to students who range in age from 7 to 70.

Rudy describes Conjunto music as “European music with chilipitin flavor” — that is, ‘spiced-up’ European music. It’s more than concert music.. it’s dancing music. He loves to teach his craft as well as educate people about it, and explains that when Europeans came to Texas, they brought their accordions. After long days of physical labor, they’d bring out their accordions to relax. Locals would join them, pulling out their guitars to jam with the European accordionists. The combination was magical, and that was the start of Conjunto music. It’s since become very popular and it is very much the signature sound of this part of Texas.

This year, CHT is celebrating its 10th anniversary and hosting Tardeada (which means “late afternoon event”) this Saturday at La Villita’s Maverick Plaza. The performance will showcase CHT students and some of its Conjunto music legends, and raise funds so it can keep student fees affordable. Rudy is disappointed that the Annual International Accordion Festival (an October event in La Villita) was canceled this year. He hopes that the Tardeada concert can help fill the void, and looks forward to the return of the Festival in 2013.

Rudy and his wife Vera were married in 1965. They built their home on Camargo Street fourteen years ago and have been living in Lavaca since. They share their home with Ting and Frida — their four-legged family members. They have two daughters and three grandchildren. Their older daughter lives with her husband here in San Antonio. Their younger daughter lives with her husband and three children in Dallas.

Rudy is a ‘micro-rancher’ and describes himself as an ‘outdoors man’. He has property out of town that’s affectionately referred to as his ‘sand-box’ because that’s where he goes to play. There’s a pond on the property, and ponies, and Rudy’s been known to bring inner-city children out there to fish and ride the ponies.

Rudy enjoys the Lavaca & Friends Happy Hour at La Frite. Say hello the next time you see him there, and head on over to Tardeada this Saturday to support the Conjunto Heritage Taller and experience the best Conjunto music in Texas!

Originally published October 10, 2012, in the Lavaca & Friends Happy Hour update.

Corrie & Jeff with Simon & Capone

Jeff and Corrie moved to Lavaca earlier this year and love the neighborhood. Both are native Texans, but newcomers to San Antonio.

Jeff was born in Stanton, Texas and spent his childhood years there, in Odessa, Laredo and ultimately Houston, where he graduated from high school. He then went to the Naval Academy in Annapolis Maryland and spent 5 years in the Navy (a year of which was spent in Japan). After the Navy, he moved to Dallas and worked for his father’s oil and gas company. At the same time, he went back to school and received a master’s degree in business from the University of Texas. He spent a couple of years working for a business and management consulting firm doing a lot of international traveling — mostly in Germany, Italy and London. When he was ready to spend less time abroad, he took a job back in Texas, and in 2010 he started his current business — Cactus Power & Light — with his brother. The business provides oil fields with large equipment (light towers, generators, pumps, trash trailers), serves clients in Texas, and is growing by leaps and bounds. Two years ago it was a two-man show (Jeff and his brother), and today they have five employees. 

Corrie was born and raised in Plainview, Texas. She went to Texas A&M, studied accounting, and graduated in 2000. She worked for several years in public accounting in Houston, and today she is a CPA and works for Clear Channel as the internal audit manager. That position involves significant travel, both in and out of the country. She’s usually on the road for two weeks a month. Since she started with Clear Channel about 9 months ago, she’s been to Brazil, London, Mexico, Canada, and to several US cities.

Corrie and Jeff met in 2001, ‘over a pitcher of beer’ at a bar. They hung out together for the day, and they’ve been together ever since. They were married in 2004 in Rockwall, TX, which is a suburb of Dallas.

Both are huge sports enthusiasts. They were at the recent Olympics in London and attended a swimming event, a soccer match, the men’s cycling road race, and beach volleyball. They are avid Texas Rangers fans and after two disappointing Octobers, they are hoping that ‘this is the year’. They also enjoy NASCAR and will be going to the Formula 1 Race in Austin in November. In addition to watching sports, they also collect sports memorabilia.

Jeff and Corrie started thinking about moving to San Antonio a couple of years ago. It was a good geographic location considering Jeff’s client base. They ended up one day at The Friendly Spot and immediately felt a connection with the neighborhood. It didn’t take long for them to choose Lavaca as home. They lived in an RV in a trailer park for six months while their house on Leigh Street was being built. Their house is certified ‘green’ — in fact, it is certified emerald level green, which is the highest green certification available for a residence. When the house was completed, there were only 79 such certified homes in the US and only 11 in Texas. They describe themselves as “not tree-huggers, but passionate about the environment.”

They share their new home with Simon (aged 13), and Capone (aged 12) — the two adorable Fox Terriers pictured with them above. They love living in Lavaca and you may see them out and about on their “Fat Tire” bicycle (Fat Tire — the beer company — had a drawing for its 20th anniversary; Jeff and Corrie won and are now the proud owners of a genuine fat tire bicycle).

Jeff’s company — Cactus Power & Light — is generously providing a large light tower and a generator for our National Night Out Block Party next week! So please say hello to Jeff and Corrie when you see them at the event, and thank them for their generous contribution!

Originally published September 26, 2012, in the Lavaca & Friends Happy Hour update.

After college she stayed in NYC for a while working for a book “packager” that specialized in high-end children’s books. She did a lot of editing for well known adult authors who were taking a stab at writing children’s books. Her employer asked her to write a book of her own, to which she readily agreed. She wrote The Story of the Easter Bunny, which became a best selling children’s book.

She met her husband — Duncan — in NYC. He was an Oregon boy, and they soon moved from NYC to Sisters Oregon, near Bend. Sisters had a population of approximately 600, so it was quite a change from her life in NYC! She continued her career in writing and editing as a freelancer. She worked on a number of books, both as a writer and an editor. One of her most significant accomplishments from that time in her life was A Treasury of Children’s Literature. She wrote all of the stories in it (which were a ‘re-telling’ of popular fairy tales). That book is still in print and has stayed in the top one hundred for bestselling children’s books on Amazon.

In 1996 she went to graduate school at the University of Montana in Missoula. Two years later, she received two graduate degrees… a Master of Arts in English and a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing and poetry. Soon after, she moved to New Mexico so Duncan could attend graduate school there. She began teaching at New Mexico State University in its MFA program.

It was during her time in New Mexico that she focused on her real passion — poetry. After writing over 40 books — mostly children’s books, young adult books, and some cook books and science fiction — she started her first book of poetry.

Of all her writing work, there are two particular accomplishments of which she is most proud:

First, she was a compiler and editor of Beauty as a Verb: The New Poetry of Disability, which included poems and essays by writers with disabilities. This was a groundbreaking book that was chosen by the American Library Association as a Notable Book for 2012.

Second, earlier this year, she won a Witter Bynner Fellowship Award, chosen by Poet Laureate Phillip Levine.

In addition to writing and teaching, she also started a new career while in New Mexico: doing work for non-profit organizations. She took a job as director with an organization that provided support services to colonias, which are unincorporated communities of mostly impoverished residents. Her group assisted colonias in determining community needs (for example, roads, sources of water, electricity) and helped them put together plans and communicate with the government regarding their needs.

This work was significant for Sheila because it broadened her experience to include writing grants and doing non-profit programming. Her well-rounded background in literature, writing, and non-profit work made her a perfect candidate for her current position at Gemini Ink! She started her new job on August 1st.

Sheila and Duncan have three children. The oldest — Annabelle — is currently attending college in California. Their son Walker is 13 and very interested in computers and architecture. Their youngest — Eliza — is 12, plays the trombone, and has recently transitioned from a tomboy into being a teenage girl. Their family is rounded out by two dogs and two cats. The entire crew moved this summer from New Mexico to their new home in Monticello Park.

In her spare time, Sheila enjoys cooking, throwing dinner parties, reading for recreation, watching movies, and swimming.

While Sheila and her family live in Monticello Park, she works in Southtown and thinks it’s a fabulous neighborhood. She believes that the residents are lucky to live here because it’s a beautiful and historic area and the businesses are unique — not found on every main street USA. She’s also impressed that is hasn’t become gentrified or exclusive, but includes an amazing cross-section of people who give it a lot of character and energy. She also loves that it’s walkable!

In the short time that she’s been here, Sheila has been to multiple Happy Hour get-togethers at La Frite. Say hello the next time you see her there, and stop by Gemini Ink on Friday evening for its party to welcome Sheila to the Gemini Ink family!

Originally published September 5, 2012, in the Lavaca & Friends Happy Hour update.

The Rivard Report

A number of local people, business and groups receive shout-outs in these pieces, including the LNA and our National Night Out Block Party — complete with photos of last year’s event! Check them both out!

The Rivard Report is a local website launched by Robert Rivard, a veteran reporter, columist and editor, most recently editor of the Express-News, and his wife, Monika Maeckle, a marketing communications and new media professional (and butterfly blogger!).

Rivard describes the venture as “local, independent and all about San Antonio.” In talking about their goals for the site, Rivard goes on to say:

“We launched The Rivard Report…to become part of the public conversation at a time San Antonio is at a crossroads. Both our sons, Nicolas and Alexander, left San Antonio to attend college and are not coming home. While they hold San Antonio in their hearts, there was never any questions about their departures. The opportunities and lifestyle they sought were to be found elsewhere. That bothered us, as did frustrations we heard expressed by others as they struggled to recruit smart, educated people to come live and work here. The Rivard Report seeks to become an accelerator driving the kind of change that will reverse that trend.”

Read the full story at The Rivard Report > About Us.