Feb 24: SAMA celebrates its 30th anniversary at the Museum's Annual Gala held on Thursday, February 24, 2011. The evening's festivities will honor The Robert J. Kleberg, Jr. and Helen C. Kleberg Foundation, a major supporter of SAMA since its founding in 1981.   

The 11th Annual Downtown's BEST Awards, hosted by Downtown Alliance and presented by Weston Centre, will celebrate the people, organizations, and places that have made significant contributions to Downtown San Antonio, creating a better place to live, work, shop, play, and be entertained. Winners will be announced April 1 at the Awards Luncheon, being held this year at the Embassy Suites River Walk.

Before we crown the 2011 winners, we need your help to nominate the best pool of deserving candidates through our Call for Nomination process. You are invited and encouraged to submit a nomination through our online form at http://www.downtownsa.org/best  

 
Categories include:

• Adaptive Use
• Arts & Culture
• Development/Construction
• Event/Marketing/Promotion
• New Business/Office
• Public/Private Partnership
• Residential
• Restaurant/Retail
• "Wild Card"-You name the category!
• Works in Progress
• New: Best Urban Front Door* (no-fee for this category)
• Downtowner of the Year (no-fee for this category)

We are excited to partner with the City of San Antonio this year to introduce a new: Best Urban Front Door. This category is open to all downtown businesses and was created to help make our downtown even more welcoming. Starting March 7, Amigos and City Staff will judge nominees on cleanliness, landscaping, signage, and aesthetic of business store fronts. The top 10 will be posted on Facebook on March 24. The three businesses with the most "likes" will be voted on at the BEST Awards luncheon, with the winner being announced at the event.

There is no limit to the number of nominations you may submit, however, you must complete a different form for EACH entry. Nominations are due by March 4 at 5pm. The fee is $99 for each nomination, $75 if you are a Downtown Alliance member.  

To nominate someone or something, please visit http://www.downtownsa.org/best  

On May 23, 2011, please join us for a great afternoon out of the office with fellow downtowners at the beautiful and recently renovated Brackenridge Golf Course.

A portion of the tournament proceeds will be used to help fund the various educational activities undertaken by Downtown Alliance and Haven for Hope. DTA's mission is the continued improvement of property and business interests in the center city.

Registration opens at 11:30am

Shotgun start at 1:00pm

Boxed lunch at noon, dinner after play provided.

Entertainment to include hole activities and raffle with prizes!

Special thanks to our tournament co-chairs Wende Blumberg of the Hotel Contessa and David Palans of Frost Bank.

Stay tuned for more details.

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Taking out the trash is never on anyone's favorite to-do list at home, but imagine picking up 250 bags of trash a day!  

The Centro San Antonio Amigos recently released these and other impressive statistics of the services provided in the downtown Public Improvement District during the first quarter of the fiscal year, stretching from Oct 1, 2010 to December 31, 2010. Centro San Antonio provides a variety of services to businesses and properties downtown (with different types of Amigos,) including maintenance, landscaping, and ("Ambassadors") public service representatives who help locals and visitors with information about and directions to get around downtown. All Amigos sport the khaki and gold uniforms with purple jackets in cooler months, making them easy to spot.  

Over the course of these three months, Maintenance Amigos picked up 23,294 bags of trash, powerwashed 9,574,451 square feet of (pavement) sidewalks, removed over 2,000 graffiti tags, and removed weeds from more than (weeded over) 134 block faces. Landscaping Amigos planted and watered over 1,272 plants, and Ambassador Amigos assisted 182,570 people.  

This quarter also marked the first time Centro measured how active the Amigos were by providing pedometers that measured steps and mileage throughout the course of their shifts. (When including all service contracts such as the River Walk and River North,) During this period, the Amigos collectively took 56,852,305 steps, translating into over 21,535 miles of service to the Downtown District!