As the East Side prepares for a $191.8 million investment in the Frost Bank Center and the eventual departure of the Spurs, leaders gathered at a community event Wednesday morning to deliver a message: Investing in arts and cultural spaces will help bring attention east.
San Antonio for Growth on the Eastside (SAGE) hosted its State of the Eastside event and CEO James Nortey said he wanted to widen the lens of economic development. The event’s speakers focused on reasons for residents to spend their time and money in the area and highlighted arts and culture as a way to bring people in.
“Today we wanted to show an undervalued, underinvested segment of our economy and really bring it to the forefront,” Nortey said after the event.
A group of politicians, businesses and nonprofit groups gathered at the Embassy Suites by Hilton at Brooks as leaders of the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo, St. Phillip’s College and the Carver Community Cultural Center talked about the role cultural institutions can play on the East Side. All three institutions have been centered in the area for decades.
“We had been seeing out there all over the nation how rodeo and stock shows can essentially become a central hub, bringing in out-of-town people that stay for extended days at our competitions, our events,” said Stock Show and Rodeo CEO Cody Davenport. “That creates an opportunity for overnight stays and eating and all the things that we’re looking for on the East Side.”
Cassandra Parker-Nowicki, the executive director of the Carver Community Cultural Center, pointed to the array of performances coming to the center this year, including music, dance and theatre.
The speakers also discussed their institutions’ role in creating education, workforce development and youth opportunities.
“For more than 100 years, we’ve been developing a pipeline of individuals that will respond to the needs of our community,” said St. Phillip’s College President Adena Williams Loston.
She noted the college’s earliest degrees — sewing and cooking courses for women leaving slavery — and the institution’s current educational opportunities in the hospitality and restaurant industries. Those programs support San Antonio’s workforce, Williams Loston said.
Parker-Nowicki and Davenport discussed youth programs. The stock show and rodeo has scholarship programs for local kids. Davenport also said agricultural robotics and technology competitions the rodeo helped sponsor exposed youth to new skills and opportunities.
Parker-Nowicki highlighted the Carver Community Cultural Center’s summer activities for kids. Those gave them pathways to careers in dance and music, she said, but also created exposure to the arts that low-income communities don’t always have.
“It’s really about contributing to the holistic well-being of the communities that we are part of, and that’s probably one of the most fulfilling aspects of what we do,” she said.
Parker-Nowicki, Davenport and Williams Loston were preceded by Bexar County Commissioner Tommy Calvert, who represents the East Side. Calvert also called for more retail opportunities on the East Side and criticized the typical, private business-driven economic development process.
“In economic development theory, retail follows rooftops,” Calvert said. “In 2014 on the East Side, the median income was a mere $17,800. Stores and markets didn’t see a customer or consumer to buy their products.”
Calvert highlighted the improvement of the area’s housing stock, which helped “bring the middle class back to the East Side.”
That was another key to bringing entertainment and retail options to the neighborhoods in his precinct.
Creating retail and cultural spaces has become a greater focus recently on the East Side. SAGE is creating plans for a public market complex that will incorporate local art and business.
At the same time, community leaders are ironing out the future of the Frost Bank Center, armed with $191.8 million from Proposition A’s passage. Nortey wants investment in the arts to be part of that future.
“We want to send a signal to the business community and to our East Side that it’s worth investing in arts,” Nortey said. “In that way, we try to respond to the needs of residents who feel like they’re losing their sense of community or culture.”
