The Denominator is a weekly brief of significant numbers underlying our latest news stories.
Rain keeps fallin’
7 inches of rain fell in the Elmendorf area over the past two days, though most of San Antonio saw only 2-3 inches. (Sept. 3 was the the 10th-rainiest day ever recorded in San Antonio, with the city’s official rain total at 6.07 inches.)
Heavy precipitation last week shut down more than 30 streets in the city Monday, but also replenished the Edwards Aquifer. Its level went from just under 642 feet above sea level at midnight last Tuesday to nearly 660 feet Monday – an 18-foot rise, according to measurements tapping the aquifer below the city.
UTSA’s downtown expansion
$70 million will fund high-tech facilities for the University of Texas at San Antonio. Last Thursday, the University of Texas System Board of Regents approved funding for the UTSA National Security Collaboration Center, a $33 million, 80,000-square-foot hub for the school’s cybersecurity researchers, faculty, and students whose downtown facilities will be co-located with private and government partners in the national defense sector.
The regents also allocated $57 million for a new School of Data Science building — 138,000 square feet of classrooms, labs and research space.
“The economic future and well-being of San Antonio is very much tied to big data, data sciences, information management and technology, and cybersecurity,” UTSA President Taylor Eighmy said in a news release.
Women in the spotlight
12 female composers, six female instrumentalists, and one female conductor fill out the Classical Music Institute’s 2018-2019 program.
Next year, CMI will include concerts of works by Fanny Mendelssohn, Dora Pejacevic, Amy Beach, Joan Tower, Teresa Carreño, Vitezslava Kapralova, and Louise Farrenc, among others.
Paul Montalvo, artistic director of CMI, insists that the work of female composers is not hard to find. “Not if you’re willing to search,” he said.
Campaign begins
250 people attended a GoNoVote rally Saturday hosted by political action committee Secure San Antonio’s Future (SSAF). The PAC, which was formed to fight the three charter amendments put on November’s ballot by the city’s firefighters union, hosted City, Bexar County and state officials supporting the Go Vote No campaign.
The charter amendments, known as Prop A, Prop B, and Prop C, are explained here.
“Lord knows we did not want to have to fight this fight,” Mayor Ron Nirenberg, one of the speakers, said. “But Lord knows we will.”
