Councilwoman Sukh Kaur (D1), who unseated two-term incumbent Mario Bravo for a seat on the council last year, drew her first challenger this week.
Greater Harmony Hills Neighborhood Association President Patty Gibbons told attendees at a San Antonio Neighbors Together event Tuesday night that she plans to run in District 1 next year — citing concerns about projects like a new minor league baseball stadium downtown and VIA Metropolitan Transit’s Green Line, which will run from the airport to downtown on San Pedro Avenue.
“There are big projects coming, and the neighborhoods are being ignored,” Gibbons told the San Antonio Report on Wednesday.
Neighborhood leaders were a big part of Bravo’s support base, but Kaur, a political newcomer, harnessed dissatisfaction with city-run construction projects to finish first in a three-way race in 2023. She went on to take a decisive 59% of the vote in a runoff with Bravo, who had been censured for berating a colleague and former romantic partner on the dais.
Kaur has a background in education and owns her own consulting company that helps set up public charter schools.
Gibbons is a formidable conservative organizer who has been rallying fellow neighborhood leaders against the plans for denser housing along the Green Line.
At a Greater Harmony Hills Neighborhood Association meeting earlier this year she introduced Kaur as having had a “rough start” on the council — a nod to the councilwoman’s significant staff turnover. She’s had two chiefs of staff within her first 18 months on the job.
Kaur said Wednesday that she plans to seek a second term and already has a campaign team in place. Her most recent campaign finance report, filed in July, showed $62,000 in the bank.
“We are working really hard on a daily basis for our District 1 residents and getting a lot of comments about the support the office is providing,” Kaur said. “…Our focus is to make sure that the priorities of infrastructure, public safety and affordable housing are kept at the forefront of all the work that we do.”
District 1 encompasses most of downtown and is considered one of the city’s most left-leaning districts.
Gibbons lives on the district’s northern edge and has run unsuccessfully for City Council in the past in District 9 — one of the city’s most conservative districts — before she was redistricted against her will in 2022.
“I think that they put me in D1 hoping I’d never run again,” said Gibbons, who went to incredible lengths fighting the change. “But after realizing how similar Greater Harmony Hills is to these other neighborhoods — very vocal, very informed, very knowledgeable — I think it was a good fit after all.”
