Councilman John Courage is a former teacher and Air Force veteran who has represented District 9 since 2017. He has run for office previously as a Democrat, and held a seat on the Alamo Colleges Board. He folded his mayoral campaign in December, but jumped back in the race on the last day of the filing period.
Hear from the candidate
Please tell voters about yourself.
I was raised in a suburb of Boston Ma. I came to San Antonio in 1971 for military service in the U.S. Air Force and served till 1975. I married, raised my children, and have settled in San Antonio for more than 50 years. My first San Antonio job was supporting children at St. P/J’s Children’s Home. I earned my bachelor’s degree at UTSA and masters from Walden Univ.
I was elected to the Alamo Community College District Board in 1981, I played a role in the creation of Palo Alto College. I worked 25 years as a schoolteacher in San Antonio.
I was elected to City Council in 2017. I have been re-elected 3 times. As District 9 Councilman, I have worked to address the needs of my district and improve the quality of life for all San Antonians.
In a field of 27 mayoral candidates, what differentiates you from the others?
My preparedness for San Antonio Mayor stems from years of dedicated service to our community, built on a foundation of knowledge, understanding, analysis, experience and common sense necessary to lead San Antonio, the 7 th largest city in the country.
My earlier years on the ACCD Board and my current eight years on the City Council—serving on numerous critical committees, community boards, and commissions, and collaborating with various private, public, and non-profit organizations, as well as my working relationships with other Councilmembers and the City Executive staff and department leaders- have prepared me to make meaningful contributions improving the quality of life for all our residents from Day One. A Councilmember for one District is a Councilmember for the entire community and that is how I have always served.
If elected, you would be taking over at a time when the city has spent more than a year negotiating a massive downtown redevelopment effort in Project Marvel. How would you approach this project?
Currently I recognize the value of Project Marvel’s original plan to expand the San Antonio Convention Center to keep us competitive with other convention destinations, make improvements to the Alamodome to keep it relevant as a prime sports and entertainment venue, redeveloping the Wood Federal Courthouse building as an attractive entertainment venue, make additional improvements to Hemisfair Park, and consider allowing private developers to build a new convention hotel across from the convention center. These can make a significant impact on expanding our cities status as a convention destination of choice, while also providing jobs and making a long-term investment in growing our economy downtown and city wide.
I am supportive of this proposal. Simultaneously, I support allowing the Spurs organization to explore building a new basketball, arena within the footprint of Project Marvel, providing we do not commit General Fund tax dollars to pay for their project. There are several reasonable funding possibilities built on future revenue growth to the city and county that will not burden the local taxpayer. Those should be further explored and if viable can financially support Project Marvel inclusive of a new Spurs Arena.
In the city’s 2024-2025 budget survey, residents ranked homelessness, streets,
housing and animal care services among their top concerns for the city to address. Which issues do you consider a top concern and how would you work to address them in your first 100 days?
First and foremost, it is the responsibility of city government to provide for the safety of our residents so expanding public safety including additional police officers and firefighters and the resources they need to do their jobs is every mayor’s first priority. Our City Charter also states that it is the responsibility of the city to provide for the welfare of every resident, that why I believe the next mayor’s job is to expand economic growth providing more jobs and better paying jobs, support the construction of more housing of all types high end, mid-range and affordable, and work to insure the lights and water stay on and everyone can afford their utilities.
The first 100 days of the next mayor better be aimed at putting together a sound and meaningful budget. I believe that we need to create a more efficient growth plan for the city to better regulate development so that business and residents travel is not as disrupted as has been occurring recently. I think we need to take a back to basics look at how city governments is performing and make needed improvements without taking a hatchet to it as seems to be occurring in Washington.
For the past four years San Antonio has worked closely with the Biden Administration on federally funded projects like airport development and Advanced Rapid Transit. How would you approach working with both state leaders in Austin and a new presidential administration in D.C.?
As I have always acted as a councilman, the next Mayor must have an open mind, and open door, be willing to ask the needed questions, listen to diverse voices and opinions in order to develop the knowledge, the understanding, and the insight required to make common sense decisions for our city.
The willingness to communicate both ways, talking and listening to our state and national representatives and agencies will be critical in dealing with whatever comes our way. Finally, we need to act in the best interests of our residents to preserve and protect their quality of life where federal and state oversight is a consideration.
Read more about John Courage
Inside the expensive, ‘confusing,’ 27-candidate race to be San Antonio’s next mayor
John Courage drops out of San Antonio’s 2025 mayoral race
Councilman John Courage looks for consensus in 2025 mayoral bid
