Commentaries at the San Antonio Report provide space for our community to share perspectives and offer solutions to pressing local issues. The views expressed in this commentary belong to the author alone.
Last week, San Antonio City Council greenlit a $160 million public investment in a downtown baseball stadium, part of a larger $1 billion private investment in market-rate housing and other amenities. Plans also loom around a $3 billion-$4 billion investment to create a downtown sports and entertainment district.
As someone who worked on downtown redevelopment during the Decade of Downtown under Mayor Julián Castro, I see this as an exciting investment in our urban core. It promises to enhance San Antonio’s downtown into a vibrant urban neighborhood and boost our competitive edge with other major cities for jobs and talent.
At the same time, however, as the former CEO of Prosper West, my heart breaks knowing that this economic promise for downtown will come just as the city turns its back on our downtown-adjacent neighborhoods.
On Thursday, City Council will adopt its annual budget and quietly defund critical organizations that support the neighborhoods most likely to be impacted by such projects. This leaves vulnerable small businesses, residents and other community organizations alone to deal with the rapid economic changes that such projects ultimately bring.
Prosper West San Antonio, San Antonio for Growth on the Eastside (SAGE) and Southside First Economic Development Council serve on the front lines working hand in hand with small businesses and neighborhoods to advance economic opportunities while staving off the harmful effects of gentrification and displacement. Locally we refer to them as business development organizations, but nationally, they are referred to as community development corporations since their role is much more expansive than just supporting small business development. These organizations play a critical role in balancing the economic growth of our city.
As the co-founder of these organizations, the city has historically been their primary funder to the tune of approximately $750,000 per year in operating dollars. In last year’s budget, City Council approved funding for each of the organizations, but the payments were withheld. Then in April, the organizations were informed that they would not be receiving the funding at all.
As a result, these organizations have struggled to keep their doors open, have had to eliminate programming and staff and are left wondering what the future will hold for them and their vulnerable communities.
Thursday’s budget adoption will confirm that no funding is coming in 2025 either. This will effectively leave vulnerable and historically neglected neighborhoods to fend for themselves as downtown receives millions in additional investment and support.
Some city leaders have floated the idea of replacing these community-based organizations with city-run initiatives. While this may seem efficient on paper, it overlooks the trust and relationships that these organizations have built with local residents and small businesses — particularly minority-owned businesses. Trust is the cornerstone of successful community-based work, and without it, many of the most vulnerable businesses and residents will simply be left out.
In the past 5 years, these organizations have distributed millions of dollars to support small businesses, provided technical support for hundreds of businesses to ensure their continued survival and advancement during the pandemic and launched key initiatives to strengthen area neighborhoods.
Prosper West, for example, led an effort to create a 40-member coalition of Westside organizations (ESTAR West) to strengthen the small business ecosystem and mitigate community displacement. This included the launch of a $15 million real estate fund to reactivate vacant commercial buildings and preserve them for long-term affordability in the face of growing gentrification of the area and a program to rehabilitate vacant homes for affordable resale. SAGE, with its promising new leadership, has been working on building its capacity to launch similar efforts.
As a private consultant now working with communities across the country, I can tell you that other major cities are looking for ways to strengthen their place-based community development corporations in the face of growing gentrification. Meanwhile, San Antonio risks doing the opposite by weakening these vital organizations just as the threat to vulnerable neighborhoods intensifies. You need look no further than the unfortunate displacement at the Soap Factory Apartments to get a taste of what is to come without more strategic and proactive intervention.
During the Decade of Downtown, the city allocated $2 million annually just to staff the revitalization of one central neighborhood. By contrast, the community development corporations surrounding downtown have had to share a fraction of that for much larger areas in deeper distress.
As we embark on a new phase of downtown development, now is not the time to pull back on resources for these vulnerable areas. It’s time to double down on our commitment to inclusive, equitable growth through these community champions.
City Council must take decisive action to restore funding to these organizations and provide them a comparable level of support that our downtown has enjoyed for the past 15 years. Releasing the still-withheld 2024 funds and allocating new funding in 2025 would be a good start.
As we move forward with ambitious projects like the new stadium and the proposed entertainment district, we must not repeat past mistakes of neglecting the neighborhoods most vulnerable to the impacts of these projects. Our community development corporations, when properly resourced, are our best hope to ensure that growth is inclusive and equitable.
I urge residents and businesses to contact your councilmember and ask them to support funding for Prosper West, SAGE and Southside First Economic Development Council to ensure that our downtown-adjacent neighborhoods are not left defenseless. Let’s commit to an inclusive vision for San Antonio, where every neighborhood has the opportunity to thrive.
