Bexar County Investments San Antonio is the county seat of Bexar (pronounced “bear”) County, the 19th-mostpopulous county in the United States. A few years back, the municipality began a new round of investments — totaling almost $2 billion — designed to transform the region on many fronts. In sum, Bexar County is spending nearly $900 million on health care; $500 million on flood control infrastructure (a 10-year effort); and more than $400 million on the arts, amateur athletic facilities, the San Antonio River and community arenas. (About $415 million of those monies come from county visitor taxes and will be leveraged by another $300 million county project partners.) Many stages of the fast-tracked, more highprofile projects are completed or well under way. For example, the San Antonio River Improvements Project (SARIP) is a $358.3 million ongoing investment funded by Bexar County in partnership with the city of San Antonio and other public and private groups. When finished, it will be a 13-mile, continuous connection between Brackenridge Park in the north to Mission Espada to the south. SARIP is comprised of four distinctive reaches: The Museum Reach (partially completed), a four-mile segment of the river from Hildebrand Avenue south to Lexington Avenue; the Downtown Reach (completed 2002), a segment of the original River Walk from Lexington Avenue to Houston Street; the Eagleland, a onemile segment from South Alamo to Lonestar Boulevard; and the Mission Reach, an eight-mile section of the river extending from Lonestar Boulevard south to Loop 410 South. All phases of SARIP will be finished by 2014. These river enhancement efforts not only link communities by water, but also encourage millions of dollars in new economic development destined to make the San Antonio River region an even more popular place for leisure and business activities. County funds also are helping to construct up to 13 amateur sports facilities and a dedicated performing arts venue, as well as to execute future improvements to the AT&T Center and the Joe and Harry Freeman Coliseum. About $4 million in county monies helped give birth to the new Dolph and Janey Briscoe Western Art Museum, opening in 2011 on the banks of the River Walk. The county’s nearly $900 million public health program, “Target 2012,” will build a stateof-the-art emergency center and 10-story trauma facility at University Hospital (one of just 15 www.sachamber.org
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