Why Brackenridge Park is at a crossroads

• The park, which has been celebrating its 125th anniversary this year, is a microcosm of residents' concerns over growth and development in San Antonio.

State of play: Brackenridge Park is run down after decades of neglect, per a Cultural Landscape Report by the nonprofit Brackenridge Park Conservancy. Officials at the conservancy and the city have looked to make upgrades and incorporate the park's history.

• But some residents are concerned the proposed projects will take away from what people want most: to simply enjoy the wildlife, green space and shade.

Catch up quick: The first phase of a 2017 city bond project to restore the Pump House at Lambert Beach — and historic river walls built by the Works Progress Administration — has faced pushback ever since city officials announced the work would entail cutting down trees, some of which are more than a half-century old.

• The bond project also surfaced concerns among local Native Americans that the city and conservancy weren't respecting the park's Indigenous use and history, eventually spurring a lawsuit.
• Just before the bond project heated up, officials revealed plans for a multimillion-dollar makeover of the park's historic Sunken Garden Theater that would turn it into a modern concert venue.

Zoom in: Sullivan grew up in the historic River Road neighborhood, nestled between Brackenridge Park and U.S. 281.

• Her family has witnessed nearby shifts since her father moved there in the 1960s, but the landscape always remained relatively untouched.

Zoom out: Now, the neighborhood surrounding the park is changing. Broadway is home to multiple new chain restaurants and a 13-story office tower. Housing costs are rising.

• The 78215 ZIP code — which covers the southern half of the park where the Brackenridge Park Golf Course is located, Pearl and the swiftly growing Broadway corridor — saw some of the greatest home appreciation in the San Antonio area from 2023 to 2024.

Friction point: As the area and the park develop, Sullivan and others want to ensure its long history is respected.

• "I always felt like Brackenridge Park should be treated with the same reverence as the most historic and important sections of the River Walk and the San Antonio Missions," Sullivan tells Axios. "It's really that important."

The big picture: Conservancy CEO Chris Maitre, who took over the job in July, tells Axios that a park like Brackenridge needs financial support and attention beyond thinly stretched city budgets, which is what the conservancy is there to offer.

• He says he's also there to preserve the reasons people love it in the first place.
• "You want it to be quirky, you want the trees and the birds and the things that make it unique, and we're going to also preserve and protect that," Maitre says. "The core of the park will always be green."

Lewis F. Fisher, a local author who sits on the conservancy's board, wrote a book about the park and its central place in the city's history.

• Brackenridge Park wasn't created by a professional park designer, yet top U.S. park designers have since said no other urban park has the same layers of history, Fisher tells Axios.
• The park was founded in 1899, according to the conservancy, but its history reaches back at least 12,000 years. About 1.5 million people visit the more than 300-acre park every year, the conservancy says.
• Generations of San Antonians have enjoyed Brackenridge, and Mexican Americans "developed a strong loyalty to the park," Fisher wrote in the book.

The bottom line: "It mirrors the entire evolution of the city of San Antonio," Fisher says. "And there's a lot of that remaining to be seen."

Editor's note: This article is the first part of a series about the challenges facing Brackenridge Park.

• Keep reading: Brackenridge Park bond, tree removal remain on hold