River Walk Leans Away From Tourism in San Antonio

"[S]tarting with the opening this spring of Phase 1, there will be hike-and-bike paths and something called “mission portals” — an attempt to use architectural features, pathways and landscaping to reconnect the river to both the Spanish missions and the South Side neighborhoods that dot its banks.

It's a new, more natural concept for a city whose approach to the river long has been to either manicure it or use it as a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers drainage ditch."

The new stretch will focus more on reconnecting riverfront neighborhoods to the river.