SAN ANTONIO — Susana Segura loves her garden on San Antonio’s West Side.
“This is a celosias, which is a type of amaranth. Amaranth is an ancient grain that our people used for food,” Segura said.
Segura lives in one of the most impoverished zip codes in Texas, the 78207. It’s an area that doesn’t respond well to heavy rain, especially her backyard. Segura shared a recent Facebook live video that she captured of the Alazán Creek, which is virtually in her backyard, flooded from the rain.
“You know nothing pisses me off more than bad engineering. We deserve nice things too. So, this is the Alazan Creek right now,” she says in the video.
In the video, the entire sidewalk was under water, but the water also comes from down the road as well.
“And a lot of that water comes down the street and ends up in our creek ways, carries with it all of the trash, anything that is on the street,” Segura said.
Just up the Alazan Creek there was a memorial for the lives lost on the West Side during the 1921 floods.
“So, people here have stayed property poor, but culture rich. I think that property poor has continued, it’s systematic,” Segura said.
Change is coming to the Alazan Creek. U.S. President Joe Biden is allocating $2.34 million from the fiscal year 2022 budget to the West Side Creeks Projects, which aims to restore the environmental condition and mitigate flooding.
Geremy Landin lives a block away and he’s a part of the West Side Creeks restoration oversight committee.
“Then, we have all these conversations about how important the safety around our creek is and the flood plains that a lot of our residents sit in, or their homes are in,” Landin said.
Segura has doubts about this because she believes it can lead to gentrification.
“Actually a flood plain suddenly becomes river front property to people. That’s scary because then people can start being pushed out,” Segura says.
Landin says there’s going to be plenty of opportunities for community input, so people like Segura can voice their concerns.