Lone Star Complaining

Urbanism/Urban Design/Public Policy/San Antonio

It seems in Sunday’s paper1 there was a whole lot complaining being done by the Newell Recycling plant near the Lone Star. They can’t develop former brewery while operating their plant nearby, but they can’t find a place to move so easily. This is tangentially a city issue because of the immense potential for the land to become Pearl South2. For its part, the City has done much to revitalize the area and for the most part is willing to do any and everything to make good things happen3. The Newell folks don’t see it that way.

Well, they might, but they don’t say that.

The dirty little secret about Business and especially Entrepreneurs is that they are mighty complain-y. I’ve spent enough time around those types to know this4.

Admittedly this is all a little more tolerable when you are doing good things. It’s hard to knock a guy creating jobs, housing and so on.

Using the “Government Stifles Business” crutch does a disservice to all, however5.

Newell Recycling isn’t a restaurant, which can be given license to operate pretty damn much anywhere. It seems to me like the Newell folks want their Plant and Real Estate Tycoon-dom, too. It sounds like a them problem to me. Once they decide which part of the business has the most profit potential we can get on with putting some Urban Living at the Lone Star and figure out where we will get our groceries downtown.

This was originally published here

  1. MySA.com 

  2. Although many statements have been made – in this article no less! – that the Pearl is decidedly different than the Lone Star in many respect simply because of the culture/neighborhood. History tells us that no one is going to heed this warnings. 

  3. I mean just look at that $175 million Mission Reach Project. Sure, that was the County, but Ol’ Nelson wants to integrate the two governments anyway. 

  4. I was/am an aspiring one also. UNT Entrepreneurship ftw, ya’ll! 

  5. I’m not privy to San Anonio’s particular brand of City corruption – and I’m sure there is some (I’m a cynic) – but in this case being conservative with zoning a recycling center in light of the pro-business decisions doesn’t seem really Stifling.