Concerned Citizens

It’s been two years since the 2010 Census and cities in Texas are either finished with or are finishing their realignment of council districts. Houston and Dallas are done, Fort Worth and El Paso are in the final stages, and Austin and San Antonio are in the middle of their processes. San Antonio’s redistricting will most likely just involve a shifting of boundaries, primarily to accommodate the increased population growth to the north, specifically the northwest side. The same is true for most of the other districts in Texas, except for Austin. Austin is going through a much larger discussion about moving from 7 at-large districts to a different make-up, primarily focused on geographic districts but with some hybrid options offered as well. So in this discussion, you have to ask what really is the best type of city council make-up.

Read more…

Thursday San Antonio took another step towards becoming a greener city by passing an ordinance that requires multi-family dwellings to provide recycling bins for residents to drop off recyclable items. In doing so, the city possibly can divert as much as 25,000-50,000 tons of waste annually from the landfills to recycling facilities. This would represent a very significant change in San Antonio’s waste management structure and help move the city towards a zero-waste objective for the city. But this ordinance not only allows people to do the right thing; it also starts educating people on what can be recycled and how to purchase recyclable items. Read more…

On Saturday the city came out in big numbers to help kick off SA2020, the long range planning effort initiated by the Mayor’s office. It’s an opportunity for San Antonio to plot out a course for its future and what it would like to look like in the year 2020. It’s an ambitious effort and is pulling together people from across San Antonio to help shape that vision. From city leaders to students people gave up a Saturday morning to come listen to speeches and brainstorm about what they would change in San Antonio, what they would keep, and what they would like. Based on the participation and ideas San Antonio is ready to shape itself into a world class city. Read more…

Yesterday, at a rally at City Hall, LULAC president Rosa Rosales voiced her opposition to the proposed smoking ban by City Council. According to an article in the San Antonio Express-News Rosales said the proposal is racist and socioeconomically based. With all due respect to Mrs. Rosales that has to be the most outlandish claim I have ever heard on the proposal. What makes it even worse for LULAC is that it give credence to claims that LULAC is more focused on promoting racial division than promoting civil rights and justice by bringing race into a health and welfare argument. While Rosales made claims that such a ban would impact jobs and small businesses, that claim has been found to be shallow and unsubstantiated.
Read more…

We haven’t even gotten through the 2010 election cycle and candidates for the 2011 municipal election are already jockeying for position, especially in District 1. In 2011 Councilwoman Mary Alice Cisneros will be vacating her office due to term limits (she was not covered by the term limit extensions) and a field is already developing to run for her office. Greg Jefferson, columnist with the San Antonio Express-News, detailed some of the early political moves by District 1 candidates. It a good read and he’s a lot more cued in on the race than I am so I’ll leave any candidate analysis to him at this point. But a big question in mind is what would make a good District 1 candidate? Read more…

Tuesday night Mayor Julian Castro hosted the first virtual town hall in San Antonio, a fulfillment of a campaign promise. For the first time it turned out great thanks to the hard work of Trinity University, several members of his staff, and his campaign office. During the hour session moderated by Elaine Wolff of the San Antonio Current people could e-mail, chat or tweet up questions for the mayor to respond to. A limited audience at Trinity was also provided the opportunity to ask questions. Hopefully we’ll see more of this type event as Mayor Castro works to bring more transparency and accessibility to city government through online resources. He is becoming one of the most connected mayors San Antonio has ever seen. Read more…

CPS missed a great opportunity in the contract negotiations for its share of STNP. The board and management probably didn’t realize it but by revealing the increase in the contract price by $4 billion CPS could have leveraged public sentiment in driving down the price. By showing Toshiba the public would not tolerate such a large increase in project costs CPS could have taken Toshiba to task at driving for a more reasonable price. Then again, CPS seems to be missing a lot of great political opportunities these days. In an editorial piece in today’s Express-News the editors call for a more formalized reporting process between the public owned utility and city leadership. I couldn’t agree more. Because of the relationship between CPS and the city it is important to understand that the utility is being run in the best interest of the citizens of San Antonio. Read more…

This morning I woke up to a Facebook wall post from Mayor Julian Castro saying “It’s been 25 years since Target ’90, the last time San Antonians came together to answer the question, ‘What kind of city do we want to be?’ It’s time to envision our city’s future together again–and to act on it.” Wow, he’s a busy mayor. You see, he had just spent 5 hours the night before listening to public citizen commentary about the CPS’s planned expansion of the STNP. Oh, did I mention that message came in around 6 a.m. this morning? Yes, we have an active and engaged mayor. What is interesting is that this very idea is what essentially kicked his campaign off over a year ago through an editorial piece in the Express-News. But how do we get a plan after 20 years? Read more…

Tonight city council held a special session to allow for public discussion on the proposed investment by CPS for expansion of STNP 3 & 4. The session was one of many being conducted by members of city council throughout the city to allow for public input the upcoming decision by the CPS Board of Trustees on whether to approve investment and what type of investment option to move forward with. Up until this point CPS was proposing a 40 percent investment as a partner in the project with NRG, a New Jersey based energy company. After being elected Mayor Castro and Councilman Reed Williams, District 8, began to question that investment and have suggested a potentially lower investment in the project by CPS, possibly 20 percent instead. Read more…

Today Mayor Julian Castro proposed a new set of ethics reforms for city council that will be taken up by council in session next week. The proposal marks several changes to campaign contributions such as prohibiting not only but officers, attorneys/lobbyists, spouses and consultants of companies pursuing high-profile contracts with the city from making contributions to council members and the mayor. Castro also discussed CPS’s potential investment in expanding nuclear generation at STP. Finally, Castro said that possibilities of mixed-use development in Hemisfair Park will be an upcoming priority. It is evident from his actions in the first few months of office that he will be pursuing an aggressive agenda for San Antonio’s future. Read more…