11 minute read
News
HAs COVID-19 again fi lls San Antonio hospital beds, local leaders are begging residents to get vaccinated. At press time, more than 1,000 people hospitalized here fi ghting the virus, including an 11-month-old, and medical facilities are pushing back elective surgeries. “If you have any concern about your fellow citizens and the children who are going to be going back to school, I urge you to [get vaccinated],” Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff said.
HA federal judge has blocked Gov. Greg Abbo ’s executive order asking state troopers to pull over vehicles they suspect of transporting migrants who “pose a risk” of transmi ing COVID-19. U.S. District Court Judge Kathleen Cardone granted the Justice Department’s request for a restraining order and wrote that Abbo ’s order likely interferes with federal immigration law.
Advertisement
HMuch-loved San Antonio Spurs guard Pa y Mills, the lone remaining member of the team’s 2014 championship lineup, has departed to sign with the Brooklyn Nets. Mills, 32, played in San Antonio for a decade — endearing himself to the city with his steadfast support for social justice causes, most notably last summer, when he donated $1 million of his salary to Black Lives Ma er groups.
The Tobin Center for the Performing Arts has launched a new discount program for members of the armed forces. Active-duty members, retirees, veterans and their families will be eligible for discounted and free tickets to a variety of shows and events under the new program. To become eligible, current and former military personnel need only register on the center’s website and provide a copy of their Defense Department identifi cation or a Certifi cate of Release or Discharge. — Abe Asher
YOU SAID IT!
“[Y]ou’ll hear the president convey later if you are not going to be a part of the solution, if you’re not going to be a part of saving people’s lives, then get out of the way and let other people do the job.” — Jen Psaki,
White House Press Secretary when asked how much responsibility Gov. Greg Abbott has for rising COVID-19 numbers in the state.
Twitter / @FloorCharts
ASSCLOWN ALERT
Having It Both Ways With Ted Cruz
Assclown Alert is a column of opinion, analysis and snark.
When it comes to the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill, Sen. Ted Cruz wanted to have it both ways.
One one hand, the Texas Republican delivered a fi ery speech last Thursday warning fellow GOP lawmakers the legislation would spur runaway infl ation and that it was those sneaky Dems’ “down payment” on the Green New Deal.
“This is reckless, and it’s unprecedented. As Admiral Ackbar said in Star Wars, ‘It’s a trap.’ This is a trap,” the pop culture-obsessed Cruz said, citing a line from Return of the Jedi.
However, two days before aiming his rhetorical blaster at the infrastructure bill, Cruz pushed to make the future Interstate 14 — which would extend from West Texas through the Eastern U.S. — a top priority project in the legislation, the Houston Chronicle reports.
Indeed, the famously partisan Cruz even worked across the aisle with Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Georgia, to add the expansion as an amendment.
So, what gives?
Turns out the expanded highway would connect Texas’ oil-rich Permian Basin with the Port of Savannah, the third-largest U.S. port, and Cruz is one of the Senate’s top recipients of cash from the oil and gas industry.
Such cozy relationships with industry are par for the course in Washington, and those contributions don’t necessarily prove Cruz’s motivations. But it sure looks like the assclown is trying to throw red meat to his ideological base while delivering a big wet kiss to his backers.
No one said subtlety is one of Cruz’s strong suits. — Sanford Nowlin
news
The year’s second special session of the Texas Legislature kicked off last Saturday with an expanded, 17-item agenda that now includes the dissemination of federal COVID-19 relief funds and potential changes to the body’s quorum rules. Texas Democrats are still in Washington, D.C., where they have been campaigning for voting rights legislation, and the special session cannot proceed without them. Gov. Greg Abbo has vowed to continue calling special sessions until they return to the state. PETA is asking the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service to penalize a San Antonio laboratory after 159 baboons it was holding in captivity suff ered amputations due to frostbite from February’s winter storm. Texas Biomedical Research Institute, located in far west San Antonio, receives federal funding to maintain a colony of some 2,500 primates, which it uses to test disease treatments. The USDA is reviewing PETA’s complaint.
Another Republican who mocked COVID-19 mask mandates and vaccines has died of the virus. H Sco Apley, a Texas Republican Party leader who served as a city councilman in the town of Dickinson and was a member of the State Republican Executive Commi ee, died in a hospital last Wednesday after being on a ventilator. As recently as the Friday before his death, he shared a meme arguing against the eff ectiveness of vaccines. — Abe Asher
Find more news coverage every day at sacurrent.com
we buy games
we pay cash for your cds,dvds,
blu-rays, games & game hardware
803 sw military | 928-3471 13486 us 281 | 545-3472
6997 bandera rd | 509-3472 5253 walzem | 650-3472
9861 ih-10 west | 641-1600 6900 san pedro | 826-2662
6 SAN ANTONIO LOCATIONS | CDEXCHANGE-SA.COM
Find your unwanted movies, music + games
MAKING MONEY IS AS EASY AS 1. 2. 3.
Find your unwanted movies, Get music + games CASH! We buy blu-rays, 4k blu-rays, dvds, cds, vinyl records, video games, game hardware and accessories!
CDS DVDS BLU-RAYS 4K VIDEO GAMES HARDWARE ACCESSORIES VINYL RECORDS CDS DVDS BLURAYS 4K VIDEO GAMES HARDWARE ACCESSORIES VINYL RECORDS CDS DVDS BLU-RAYS 4K VIDEO GAMES HARDWARE ACCESSORIES VINYL RECORDS CDS DVDS BLU-RAYS 4K VIDEO GAMES HARDWARE ACCESSORIES VINYL RECORDS CDS DVDS BLU-RAYS 4K VIDEO GAMES HARDWARE 2. 3.1. ACCESSORIES VINYL RECORDS CDS DVDS BLU-RAYS 4K VIDEO GAMES HARDWARE ACCESSORIES VINYL RECORDS CDS DVDS BLU-RAYS 4K VIDEO GAMES HARDWARE ACCESSORIES VINYL RECORDS CDS DVDS BLU-RAYS 4K VIDEO GAMES HARDWARE ACCESSORIES VINYL RECORDS CDS DVDS BLURAYS 4K VIDEO GAMES HARDWARE ACCESSORIES VINYL RECORDS CDS DVDS BLU-RAYS 4K VIDEO GAMES HARDWARE ACCESSORIES VINYL RECORDS CDS DVDS BLU-RAYS 4K VIDEO GAMES HARDWARE ACCESSORIES VINYL RECORDS CDS DVDS BLU-RAYS 4K VIDEO GAMES HARDWARE ACCESSORIES VINYL RECORDS CDS DVDS BLU-RAYS 4K VIDEO GAMES HARDWARE ACCESSORIES VINYL RECORDS Get CDS DVDS BLU-RAYS 4K VIDEO GAMES HARDWARE ACCESSORIES VINYL RECORDS CDS DVDS BLURAYS 4K VIDEO GAMES HARDWARE ACCESSORIES VINYL RECORDS CDS DVDS BLU-RAYS 4K VIDEO CASH! GAMES HARDWARE ACCESSORIES VINYL RECORDS CDS DVDS BLU-RAYS 4K VIDEO GAMES HARDWARE ACCESSORIES VINYL RECORDS CDS DVDS BLU-RAYS 4K VIDEO GAMES HARDWARE ACCESSORIES VINYL RECORDS CDS DVDS BLU-RAYS 4K VIDEO GAMES HARDWARE ACCESSORIES VINYL RECORDS CDS DVDS BLU-RAYS 4K VIDEO GAMES HARDWARE ACCESSORIES VINYL RECORDS CDS DVDS BLUWe buy blu-rays, 4k blu-rays, dvds, cds, vinyl records, RAYS 4K VIDEO GAMES HARDWARE ACCESSORIES VINYL RECORDS CDS DVDS BLU-RAYS 4K VIDEO video games, game hardware and accessories! GAMES HARDWARE ACCESSORIES VINYL RECORDS CDS DVDS BLU-RAYS 4K VIDEO GAMES HARDWARE VISIT OUR 6 SAN ANTONIO LOCATIONS | CDEXCHANGE-SA.COM ACCESSORIES VINYL RECORDS CDS DVDS BLU-RAYS 4K VIDEO GAMES HARDWARE ACCESSORIES VIDEO GAMES | HARDWARE | ACCESSORIES | VINYL RECORDS | CDS | DVDS VINYL RECORDS CDS DVDS BLU-RAYS 4K VIDEO GAMES HARDWARE ACCESSORIES VINYL RECORDS CDS DVDS 6 SAN ANTONIO LOCATIONS | CDEXCHANGE-SA.COM BLU-RAYS 4K VIDEO GAMES HARDWARE ACCESSORIES VINYL RECORDS CDS DVDS BLU-RAYS 4K
Facebook / Six Flags Fiesta Texas
CITYSCRAPES
An Open Welcome Letter to Brenda Hicks-Sorensen, San Antonio’s New Economic Development Director
BY HEYWOOD SANDERS
Editor’s Note: The following is CityScrapes, a column of opinion and analysis.
Welcome to San Antonio, Brenda Hicks-Sorensen.
Congratulations on your new job as head of the city’s Economic Development Department. You obviously face a great many challenges. But I’m sure the senior city staff have already told you of the enormous opportunities here. You have no doubt heard the forecast that we’ll have a million new residents by 2040. And about the great hordes of international visitors who will be coming since the Missions are now designated a World Heritage Site.
But you should know a li le of our history — since the founding of the Missions, I mean — which will bear on your job.
San Antonio’s contemporary eff orts at “economic development” can really be traced to the election of Henry Cisneros as mayor in 1981. In September 1982, Cisneros unveiled his so-called “orange book,” formally titled “San Antonio’s Place in the Technology Economy.” The next few years saw the mayor fl ying off to Silicon Valley and ultimately Japan in search of new tech fi rms and new jobs. His eff orts were greatly aided by the state’s creation of property tax abatement incentives in the late 1980s.
One of Cisneros’ great successes was persuading William Jovanovich, CEO of HBJ Corp., to build a new Sea World park here. Jovanovich promised our version of Sea World and Shamu would boost the city as a tourist destination, luring more than 3 million annual visitors at the start and creating 1,500 new jobs. Cisneros boasted it could be the “largest single economic generator for the city since the HemisFair era.” The buzz in San Antonio town was that Disney was eyeing our city — that we would be the “next Orlando.”
But those job numbers assumed a full-time, year-round park. That didn’t work in San Antonio. We ended up with a seasonal theme park, with some 200 full-time jobs. And on the Themed Entertainment Association’s 2019 listing of the top 20 North American parks in a endance, our Sea World didn’t even make the list.
And if Disney decided not to make a home in San Antonio, the city was able to accommodate USAA’s vision of a music-oriented theme park developed in cooperation with the Opryland folks, Fiesta Texas, which got its own abatement deal. Not only did that venture fail to make us Orlando, it ended up effectively competing with Sea World to cannibalize local theme park demand.
With the ability to dole out tax abatements in the name of “economic development,” we subsidized Bausch & Lomb to make Ray-Ban sunglasses on Castroville Road — at least until it moved that work out of the country. And all those trips to Japan — and another tax abatement — got us Colin Medical devices, which also disappeared. Then there was Golden Aluminum, later Alcoa, recycling aluminum cans, until the plant was shu ered. The same way lo ery ticket printer BABN, later renamed Oberthur Gaming, closed up and left town.
All of Henry Cisneros’ courting of high tech got us the Sony Microelectronics plant. Until Sony decided not to make chips here, and the empty building acquired a new use: housing the National Security Agency’s cryptology center. And let’s not forget one of the grandest tax abatement deals of all — accommodating the move of AT&T, then Southwestern Bell, from St. Louis to the former Republic Bank building on Houston Street. That lasted until AT&T got a new CEO who decided that the Dallas area was a be er address — with be er air service — for a corporate headquarters.
So, the local track record for “economic development” hasn’t necessarily been stellar. All too often, the city has doled out subsidies in the name of “job creation” and development with a grand set of promises. The PGA/TPC deal that built the JW Marrio was supposed to put us on the map as a golf resort destination, “the next Phoenix,” according to one San Antonio Chamber of Commerce leader. Instead, we just got a big hotel with a 20-plus-year non-annexation agreement to avoid city taxes.
What we end up with all too often is a lot of hot air and empty buildings.
So, a couple of suggestions. You might want to try educating senior city staff and city council about a diff erent, broader vision of economic development. At the very least, we shouldn’t be doling out abatements to move a credit union from Interstate 10 to Broadway. You also might want to provide for a li le more transparency about the economic development deals we do. A quick look at the “active incentive agreements” on the department’s website shows the latest information is from December 2019. We shouldn’t have to wait years to see if something like the city’s investment in InCube is actually delivering.
Heywood Sanders is a professor of public policy at the University of Texas at San Antonio.
