I thought I’d get a to take a breather before San Antonio kicks into its summer of festivals. I mean, sure we celebrate Cinco de Mayo here in San Antonio. But after eleven days of Fiesta, it’s really anticlimactic and pales to something as big as Fiesta. However, that little rainstorm we had back in March pushed one of our other big celebrations to May, this weekend in fact. So, for the first time I’m going to experience something all my friends have been enjoying for several years – Luminaria. In fact, not only will I be seeing it for the first time, I’ll be a part of a team from the Social Media Club of San Antonio helping NowcastSA live stream the fun and festivities from Hemisfair Park.
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Yesterday I met a friend of mine who works in the Weston Centre for lunch at one of the food truck pilot locations. It was a good break from the usual downtown dining and also the chance to be a part of something potentially big for downtown San Antonio. While the selection of trucks at the Weston Centre was pretty limited (Cheesy Jane’s and DUKTRuck) the food was pretty good and the atmosphere Puro San Antonio. Far from the penetration of trucks you’ll find in downtown Austin, it’s a pilot by the city to see how to infuse these mobile eateries amongst the many restaurants and storefronts of our downtown. One thing I can attest to in the first week, it’s definitely a pilot with some things needing to be tweaked.
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It’s great to get up in the morning without having to worry about “all things Fiesta.” Yes, I probably obsess over the 11-day festival a little too much but that’s because I really do care about how Fiesta presents itself to San Antonio and the world. Each day was spent making sure the recycling plans were being executed, that we were keeping people informed via Facebook through status updates, and that any questions were being answered as promptly as we could. One FB inquiry was almost completely in Spanish (thank goodness for Spanish-English translation tools). The picture I posted pretty much sums up why I do what I do for Fiesta and invest the time and effort into the organization. Seeing Ebony and Eleazer recycling on their own after the Battle of Flowers Parade made all the work a worthwhile endeavor.
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I’m live blogging from the TechStars Cloud Demo Day at my technology blog today. If you want to follow the latest cool innovations by some creative people who’ve been working on this for the past 3 months, follow the link. It’ll last until about 1 p.m.
I’m wrapping up my fifth year of SXSW Interactive, one of the biggest tech and social media conferences in the nation, just right up the road in Austin. This year’s attendance has not been announced but estimates are that it will be well over 20,000, eclipsing last year’s attendance of 19,364. Even with the incredible growth the organizers of SXSW were able to accommodate everyone by expanding the footprint and introducing transportation shuttles between the campuses. Still, there were some challenges with the festival, especially with registration when most people showed up almost all at once to get their badges, resulting in 2+ hour lines. Not much can be done to speed that up except encourage folks to show up early to get badged or have remote badging sites at the campuses. But all that aside, what draws people to this annual week of geekdom?
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Since moving downtown, I’ve found the experience to be interesting in many ways but it hasn’t really had a true urban feel. Yes, where I’m at is really in the urban core, located right across from Milam Park and between Houston and Commerce Streets. When there’s a march down Commerce I hear the drums and shouts. When Friday or Saturday night rolls around I know it’s best to drive away from the Riverwalk on Houston. When I have a meeting downtown, I walk or take the bus to it. But to say I’m “living” downtown, I have to say there are several things missing. But last night it was apparent things are starting to change and in a good way.
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This past week I had an invitation from a Facebook friend to attend an event helping Steve McHugh, executive chef of Lüke and a good downtown friend, in his candidacy for King of the Riverwalk. Of course I’m going to be down for that. Steve’s a great guy and one of the friendliest people you’d ever meet. Top that off with the wonders that come out of the kitchen at Lüke and you have a great combination. Besides, I’m all for helping out anything associated with downtown and the Riverwalk. But I had to ask the question – where did this new set of royalty come from and what’s going on with it? Didn’t we used to have a Mud King and Queen of the Riverwalk?
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The start of my day had an air of optimism to it as I read several accounts by political reporters and pundits around the state that the attorneys for the state and plaintiffs in the Texas redistricting case were working towards a settlement. It all seemed to make sense and had the air of rational thought behind it. I guess in all that optimism I underestimated some of the actors and problems that might kill the deal. I posted my thoughts on the matter and even how it might benefits Democrats in Texas. That last statement should have been my cue that this deal might be DOA when the hardliners got involved, one being Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas). While any hope for a deal isn’t dead, there are some serious hired hands working to kill it if it does surface.
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Amazing how in politics some things somewhat unrelated can have an effect on other things. Kind of a “butterfly effect” in a political sort of way. In this case, it appears the tight race to select a Republican presidential nominee may be pushing parties in the Texas redistricting case to come to a swift agreement. According to Michael Li, a Dallas attorney who has been closely following the process, we could see a settlement between both the plaintiffs and the state sometime early this week, ahead of the February 6th deadline ordered by the San Antonio court if an April 3rd primary is to be expected. Considering how strongly a line Attorney General Abbott has been holding up to this point, why does there seem to be such a change of plans?
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“Once again, what a difference a week makes” was the way I started a Facebook status after seeing the latest Real Clear Politics summary graph of the Florida polls. That was before the release of the NBC/Marist, PPP, and Rasmussen polls were entered but even after those polls factored into the mix, the result was still the same – Romney leads Gingrich by double digits going into primary week in Florida. What’s more striking is that if you look at the graph you’ll see the South Carolina spike by Gingrich but then comes the plunging poll numbers of the former speaker. So what happened in that week that has flipped the numbers?
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Today Newt Gingrich urged the other two conservative candidates, Rick Santorum and Rick Perry, to drop out of the race so conservative voters can rally around a single “anti-Romney” candidate. Of course, you can just imagine how much support he got from the other candidates on that suggestion. “It’s an enormous amount of hubris for someone who lost their first two races, who thinks enough of themselves –- because a couple of polls have him at this moment in time ahead of me –- that everybody should step aside and let him, who hasn’t defeated me in two of the elections so far, to let him have a wide berth,” said Santorum. While there’s a certain amount of arrogance to Gingrich’s suggestion, is there some validity to his claim that he is the only candidate capable of beating Romney?
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As some of you may know, I conducted interviews with the three candidates in the upcoming CD-35 race. It followed the same format as I’ve done for city council races and other races – you pick the place and I pick up the tab. I’m sure the candidates are ready to see the interviews published but I hate to say I’m holding off a little bit to see how the Supreme Court rules on Texas redistricting. Some have predicted the ruling could come as early as next week. Almost all are certain the interim maps will not hold, hinting that the Court will consider the publishing of interim maps by the San Antonio District Court a presumption of Section 5 violations, a jurisdictional area reserved for the DC District Court or the Attorney General. Those same people have also speculated the maps drawn by the Texas Legislature will not be used as well, based on discussion by the Court about leveraging maps that have not been precleared. So where might that leave us?
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So it’s looking more and more like Mitt Romney will be the Republican nominee for the presidential race. He won, for all intents and purposes, Iowa and handily defeated Ron Paul in New Hampshire. He’s leading the in the polls in South Carolina, although the latest poll shows him only two points ahead of Newt Gingrich. Florida has him with a double digit lead ahead of Gingrich, something that will only increase if he wins South Carolina. But is he really the nominee the Republicans want for 2012? More importantly, if he’s not will they hold their nose and vote for him in the general election in November just to get rid of Obama? Maybe this presidential race is a signal to bigger issues within the Republican Party that they don’t want admit.
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Coming off a sprint of debates, one last night hosted by ABC News/Yahoo/WMUR and one this morning hosted by NBC News/Facebook, the Republican candidates had a chance to make their case for the New Hampshire voters before the primary on Tuesday. While the debate might shake up the lower tier of candidates, Mitt Romney will still win the state with a sizable margin and Ron Paul will come in second with his own sizable margin over the rest of the field. While there have been upsets in the past in New Hampshire, this race will moss likely hold true to the polls. In reality, New Hampshire is just a stage for voters in the South Carolina primary, scheduled two weeks later. So what can we expect to see in the Palmetto State and how will it possibly affect the Florida primary.
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Here’s a list of articles or blog postings I have found interesting from my review of subscriptions today – 1/6/2012. The news covers most of the things I follow including politics, local events, media information, and general interest. While I try to follow a lot of things, I probably miss some things. If you have something interesting add it in the comments section of this posting. If you have comments on some of the items feel free to drop them in the comments section. Just remember to follow the Guidelines.
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I thought I’d get a to take a breather before San Antonio kicks into its summer of festivals. I mean, sure we celebrate Cinco de Mayo here in San Antonio. But after eleven days of Fiesta, it’s really anticlimactic and pales to something as big as Fiesta. However, that little rainstorm we had back in March pushed one of our other big celebrations to May, this weekend in fact. So, for the first time I’m going to experience something all my friends have been enjoying for several years – Luminaria. In fact, not only will I be seeing it for the first time, I’ll be a part of a team from the Social Media Club of San Antonio helping NowcastSA live stream the fun and festivities from Hemisfair Park.
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