“I’m here today … not to go ahead and convince you to vote for me for mayor, as much as I’m here to convince you not to vote for somebody who shouldn’t be mayor.”

— Councilman John Courage (D9), who rejoined the mayoral race to stop a trio of outsider candidates, in his opening statement

“He was born March 11, which is 3-1-1.”

— tech entrepreneur Beto Altamirano, whose company designed the city’s 311 app, referring to the recent birth of his son

“My parents only went to first and second grade in Mexico. They still only speak Spanish. Yet by the third grade, I was in [gifted and talented]. By Southwest High School I was the president of National Honor Society, I was the president of student council, and I was a dance team captain.”

— Councilwoman Adriana Rocha Garcia (D4) in her opening statement

“It hasn’t been easy. I worked in restaurants, washed dishes, served tables. That’s actually how I met Laura, my wife, I was serving tables and they sat her in my section.”

— former Texas Secretary of State Rolando Pablos, in his opening statement

“The reality is, even if we had a different president, or a different governor, we’d still have over half the kids in our community not reading at level, math skills not at level. We’d still have 95,000 folks who are housing insecure in our community. And we would still, if we were on I-37 at 5pm, be questioning our life choices.”

— former Air Force Under Secretary Gina Ortiz Jones, who ran for Congress twice as a Democrat, in her opening statement

“Compassion and equity are buzzwords that are thrown around a lot, and I can’t say that working now for my beautiful city, my hometown, that I always see compassion and equity.”

— Councilwoman Melissa Cabello Havrda (D6) on addressing historic inequity

“I had to go to my community and explain … ‘I know you want your slice of pizza equivalent to everybody else’s slice of pizza, but we’ve committed a crime over the past 100 years in the city that needs to be addressed, and that is the crime of disinvestment and redlining.'”

— Councilman Manny Pelaez (D8) on the need for San Antonio to keep using “equity lens” budgeting to address areas of historic underinvestment

“That the City Council didn’t know about it until we heard about it in the newspaper, is something that continues to frustrate me.”

— Councilwoman Adriana Rocha Garcia (D4) on city transparency

“All of a sudden, here’s these pretty pictures. … where’d that come from? Who’s been working on it?”

— former District 10 Councilman Clayton Perry on a lack of transparency surrounding Project Marvel

“They literally walked out and said, ‘This is one of the most valuable experiences I’ve ever had.'”

— Manny Pelaez touting a Project Marvel info session he hosted with city leaders in District 8

“I would like to say that I was also shocked leaving that meeting, about how much we learned in it, and [I] was surprised that it was the first time hearing some of those things.”

— San Antonio Report moderator Andrea Drusch, responding to Manny Pelaez’s assertion that the community doesn’t know details about Project Marvel because the media isn’t covering it enough

“I trust City Manager Erik Walsh. I trust him with my life.”

— Councilman John Courage (D9), on whether the city needs to restore confidence that city leaders work for the people

“One of the saddest things that I have learned about during my career as a District 4 Councilwoman was when a mom chased her little girl around an apartment complex and stabbed her to death.”

— Adriana Rocha Garcia, who grew up in a high-crime zip code, on plans to address crime through mental health investments

“I think it’s a good thing that I would be able to get an audience with our governor.”

— Rolando Pablos, who served under Gov. Greg Abbott, on working with state and federal leaders

“Rolando wants us to take our partisanship and check it at the door. Which door? The door of the rape crisis center? The door of Endeavors that was just defunded? The door of the Food Bank and just lost millions of dollars to feed poor people?”

— Councilman Manny Pelaez (D8) on when to fight back against state GOP leaders

“You’re going to hear from our friend named Manny Pelaez, la chancla, the flip-flopper on issues.”

— Melissa Cabello Havrda, in her opening statement

“OBGYNs, for example, they don’t want to come here. They don’t want to train here. We’re not going to Project Marvel our way out of that.”

— Gina Ortiz Jones on when its appropriate to stand up against state GOP leaders

“We’re missing too many opportunities. We need a cheerleader.”

— Clayton Perry on companies skipping over San Antonio to locate elsewhere

“Anybody who tells you that we are missing out on economic development has no idea what they’re talking about.”

— Manny Pelaez, who chairs the council’s Economic Development and Workforce Committee, on whether San Antonio is missing too many opportunities on companies locating elsewhere

“It was Governor Abbott who brought all of those jobs here.”

— Rolando Pablos, responding to Pelaez’ assertion that San Antonio has actually added many high-paying jobs in recent years

“I care about local issues, I really do. And maybe that’s why people have the confusion about whether I’m a Democrat or a Republican.”

— Beto Altamirano, who started his career working in Democratic politics, on his approach to working with state and federal leaders

“They’ve written laws, HB 2127 a couple of years ago, that has nine categories to limit the effectiveness and the efficiency of city government. That is not the kind of relationship that we just stand there and follow.”

— Councilman John Courage (D9) on when to fight back against state GOP leaders

“Economic empowerment through education is what I’d like to be known for.”

— Adriana Rocha Garcia on what her signature accomplishment would be as mayor

“I’ve been called a lot of things in this race. I’ve been called unbecoming. I’ve been called too aggressive. I have been called bitchy. But I’ll tell you, I make no apologies for that. Don’t you want a mayor with spine?”

— Councilwoman Melissa Cabello Havrda (D6), in her closing statement