Introduction
Brackenridge Park is in the news a lot these days -- we're working on its first new master plan in over 30 years, the Brackenridge Park Conservancy is starting to gain steam, and there's a bond election coming up that could fund some transformative projects in the park. In spite of that, many people don't really know much about the city's most popular park. So here are some facts and figures that you might find surprising.
It's the city's most popular park
"Oh," you say, "Is it really?" Yep. It's not close, either. Here's your first big surprise: the Witte Museum, the San Antonio Zoo, the Brackenridge Park Golf Course, and the Sunken Garden Theater are ALL in Brackenridge Park. You visit them, you visit the park -- close to two million annual visitors, though tracking visitation is tough.
Zoo: 605,000 visitors
Witte: 400,000 visitors
DoSeum: 400,000 visitors (adjacent to park)
Sunken Garden Theater: 20,000 visitors
Easter: thousands of campers and picnickers
Golf Course: Thousands and thousands of rounds played
In addition to that, the park has not just one, but TWO of the city's most popular playgrounds. All in all, the park sees nearly as many visitors as the Alamo -- annually one of the state's single most visited sites.
Visitation figures from publicly available data, including annual reports of cultural instiutions and information published by the San Antonio Express News.
Visitation figures from publicly available data, including annual reports of cultural instiutions and information published by the San Antonio Express News.
It has an incredible amount of history
Some of the oldest prehistoric artifacts in Texas have been found in the park, dating back over 12,000 years. The San Antonio River rises in the park and in areas to the north, so the area has been continually inhabited for millennia and was one of the original sites for settlement in the region. The park has not one, but TWO Spanish colonial dams, built to water fields around the Alamo and in what is now Tobin Hill and River North. The park was formed by the donation of the city's original water works, and the park contains 19th century structures dating from when the river was used as the city's only water source.
It's a big park
The park itself is about 390 acres. That's bigger than either Fiesta Texas or Seaworld San Antonio. It has nearly 2,000 parking spaces, plus as many more nearby, outside the park limits. Unfortunately, that translates into a nearly unfathomable 78 acres of paved area. The park is so big that it encompasses two city council districts, two United States congressional districts, and three Texas House districts. It has eight (eight!) different schools, universities, and school district properties along its edges.
Funding is...
Not great. There are lots of big numbers up above, so this one is surprising: the city's total annual budget for parks is about $100 million, with $37 million for capital improvements. Sound good? It's less than half of what the city spends on the airport. The entire operating budget for parks is less than the 2016 budget for new convention center construction. It's only a little bit more than the city will spend in 2016 on IT. It's well less than the median spend per citizen of the 100 largest American cities.
No data is available on what percentage of that goes to Brackenridge Park, but the park -- as big and significant as it is -- is only 390 out of 25,000 total acres of park land. That's 1.6 percent.
Surely wealthy individuals and private corporations take up the slack, like they do in Dallas and Houston, right? Nope. The Brackenridge Park Conservancy reported contributions of just over $140,000 in 2013.
So what should I take from this?
It's simple. The park's potential is inspiring, but its reality is challenging. It needs support from the public, including city funding and private donations, in order to transform its reality from a heavily-visited but poorly-supported present to a better future.
You can get involved. You can support the park through public advocacy, through volunteering, or through just donating money to the Brackenridge Park Conservancy. The more people who care, the better chance the park has of becoming a jewel in the crown of the city's parks system.
You can get involved. You can support the park through public advocacy, through volunteering, or through just donating money to the Brackenridge Park Conservancy. The more people who care, the better chance the park has of becoming a jewel in the crown of the city's parks system.
