With the mayor and 80% of the new City Council, including me, to be sworn in Thursday, what should you be hoping for in the next two years?
To start, we should acknowledge that politics from Washington, D.C., to Austin and to our own City Hall has seemingly become more divisive with each passing year. From Republicans fighting with Democrats, to interparty fighting between the centrists and the extremes, the bickering, name-calling and lack of respect our leaders have shown for each other has done nothing but cause legislative gridlock and cement the public’s feelings that the system is broken and nothing productive ever gets done.
As I walked District 10 over the past three months and talked with many others from around the city, it was clear to me that people are fed up with what they have seen and are looking for their politicians to do the job they were elected to do — represent their constituents and solve problems.
Make no mistake about it: San Antonio is at a critical juncture in its history. We are a city that has a rich culture, is made up of great people and is located right in the heart of the greatest state in the union. The possibilities for San Antonio are endless. We are currently positioned to be a city that can be a top destination for new businesses, have big time sports (plural) and can be a nationwide leader in industries such as health care, tourism and food. And we can do all of this without sacrificing our identity, the comfort of our neighborhoods, and the easy living that San Antonio offers.
But this won’t happen if we spend our time on purely symbolic, toothless and divisive resolutions that don’t solve San Antonio’s problems or improve our business environment. Resolutions and propositions such as the one supporting the Paris Climate Accord (which is a matter for our federal government) and Proposition A (which involved matters of state law) — to name just two — are examples of where we have wasted time and money on issues we can do nothing about. All too often it seems that the national, divisive issue of the moment has distracted us from what we, the elected leaders in San Antonio, are here to do.
My conversations with the public during this year’s campaign confirmed that the public does not want our time and their tax dollars spent on these issues. Doing so will only divide us further and cause us to miss our moment to fulfill the great potential that I know we have. So what should we be doing?
We should responsibly allocate the funds in our possession, put policies into place that directly and positively impact our citizens’ lives, and strive to make San Antonio the first city that comes to mind when people from around the country think about Texas.
Let’s fix the streets that need fixing. Get a plan together to reduce property taxes. And find a way stop the increasing crime that is wreaking havoc in each corner of the city. But at the same time, let’s dream big for San Antonio and push our city to heights that it hasn’t seen before. A revitalized downtown. A makeover for the Northeast Corridor. A new, clean and safe set of parks. And yes — an airport we can be proud of.
All of this is possible, but it won’t be easy. The presidential election is 17 months away. And locally, the 2025 race to be elected the next mayor of San Antonio seems to have already begun. Those races, in addition to issues we cannot yet foresee, will threaten the 2023-2025 City Council’s ability to stay focused on the task at hand.
Since being elected on May 6, I’ve had the opportunity to speak with everyone who will be sitting on the dais during the next two years, and I’m encouraged by the sincerity and the seriousness with which each person seems to view their respective position. Everyone seems to know the stakes, and as such, I’m excited about what we can accomplish together.
The next two years offer a chance to be some of the best years our city has seen. You — the public — need to hold us to account by making sure we stay focused on the real issues for San Antonio. If we all work together, the future for the city will remain bright.
