In his last official address as mayor, Ron Nirenberg described how a global pandemic shook the one of the country’s most impoverished large cities into action on addressing poverty — and shaped his own approach to leadership for whatever comes next.
To a City Council chambers packed with friends and supporters on Monday, Nirenberg said the role has taught him much about guiding principles.
“In short, you bet the farm on the potential of the people,” he said.
Just weeks before the Covid-19 pandemic, Nirenberg said that San Antonio was celebrating low unemployment and a booming quarter for economic development.
That’s despite the fact that some 60,000 of the city’s residents already relied on assistance from the food bank, and one in four of the city’s adults were considered functionally illiterate — problems that exacerbated rapidly once the pandemic hit.
To Nirenberg, who was just 40 when he was elected mayor, the realization was stark.
“Despite all the growth and economic progress … far too many of our residents had been left behind,” he said. “We were faced with a pretty blunt question: Where do we go from here?”
Within months, Nirenberg’s administration would ask voters to approve sales tax referendums to expand the city’s free Pre-K program, launch an enormous workforce development effort known as Ready to Work and help fund the city’s first bus rapid transit route.
Shortly after that they would also seek $150 million in bond money to build affordable housing.
All told, the investments totaled roughly $2 billion within two years, Nirenberg said, and voters approved them overwhelmingly.
San Antonio’s poverty rate and housing insecurity have since outperformed the national trends, leading him to believe that “the path to economic mobility” is a combination of housing affordability, education and workforce training and transportation access.
That, plus a community that’s compassionate enough to make those kinds of investments in its own residents.
“Rarely do you get to choose your battles in life, but you can choose how you respond,” Nirenberg said. “It’s comforting to know with all my heart that in San Antonio — we always respond together.”
“It makes leaving this office easier than you’d think.”
As for what’s next, Nirenberg has shot down questions about a handful of potential bids for higher office.
But he’s continued raising money throughout his final months in office, used the recent Final Four to make inroads with Democratic leaders across the country, and spent some campaign funds on what appears to be a ghostwriter for a future book.
A political future?
Rumors have been swirling for months about what might come next for Nirenberg, who managed a radio station at Trinity University before running for public office.
He unseated an incumbent to become mayor, then took office with a distinctly apolitical approach to the nonpartisan role — steering the city away from ideas like defunding the police that made progressive leaders in Texas’ other urban centers less popular.
Near the end of his term, however, Nirenberg, now 48, went full Democrat, hitting the campaign trail for Vice President Kamala Harris, helping approve a controversial abortion travel fund and sharpening his criticism of state GOP leaders.
At the San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce gala roughly a week ago Nirenberg joked that by the next time he addressed the group, it could be with a different political title — and he vowed to keep finding ways to serve the community.
But as far as formal plans after leaving office, so far he’s only announced a part-time teaching gig at Trinity University this fall.
Still, as Nirenberg prepares for a potential future in the hyper-polarized world of partisan politics, he continued leaning into his attacks on Republican policies coming out of the state and federal government in Monday’s speech.
“We continue to weather the state and national politicization of disease, gender, autonomy, and the simple freedom of choice,” Nirenberg said. “We deserve to live our lives how we want to live them — and until all are able to do so, the work must continue.”
Tough transitions
His successor, Gina Ortiz Jones, did not appear to be in the audience.
Nirenberg stayed out of this year’s mayoral race, to the irritation of some local Democrats who said he should have helped the progressive Jones in her race against the GOP-aligned Rolando Pablos.
She went on to take a convincing 54% of the vote, and Nirenberg said Monday he wished her well, and would help Jones and the new council transition into office.
He also reminded those in the audience — which included many political insiders who’ve been skeptical about Jones — that how a candidate campaigns doesn’t necessarily reflect how they’ll approach the job once they get there.
“In 2017 it would have been difficult to stand before you and claim that I knew with any certainty what the next eight years would hold,” Nirenberg said. ” .. What that really means is political campaigns seldom reflect the whole future that lies ahead.”
Among the newcomers elected this year is Nirenberg’s former chief of staff, Ivalis Meza Gonzalez, who will take over the District 8 council seat Nirenberg once represented.
She was among the dozens of department heads, council members and City Hall staffers Nirenberg called out by name in Monday’s farewell speech to thank them for their service over the past eight years.
Afterward Nirenberg unveiled his already completed portrait, which will hang in the city’s Municipal Plaza next to dozens of other past mayors.
It was painted by Lionel Sosa, a longtime San Antonio political consultant who is also a renowned portrait artist.
“It’s just such an honor to be able to paint a portrait of this man, because to me, he’s the perfect example of the proper public servant that we should look up to,” Sosa said.
Turning to the mayor, he added, “Ron, you, you’re an inspiration to everyone in our city.”
