UNFINISHED BUSINESS
MAYOR RON NIRENBERG PROMISED A NEW VISION FOR SAN ANTONIO. DID HE DELIVER?
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in this issue
Issue 25-09 /// April 30 - May 13, 2025
16
Unfinished Business
Mayor Ron Nirenberg promised a new vision for San Antonio. Did he deliver?
07 News
The Opener News in Brief
Texas Trip
Cuts to the VA renews urgency for state lawmakers to back study of psychedelics for treating PTSD
‘Chosen and Richly Funded’
Bexar Democrats target San Antonio mayoral candidate Rolando Pablos over ties to Greg Abbott
Bad Takes
No, John Courage, homelessness isn’t ‘very easy’
City Scrapes
When running for mayor, Nirenberg promised an end to boondoggles. Isn’t that what Project Marvel amounts to?
From Compassion to Camp Sweeps
Here’s what the top-polling candidates in San Antonio’s mayoral race have to say about homelessness
24 Calendar
Our picks of things to do
29 Arts
Kylix and Krater
Exploring the nuances of ancient Greek wine at the San Antonio Museum of Art
31 Screens
Ball’s in Their Court
Dreambreaker: A Pickleball
Story documents rare birth of professional sport
33 Food
Trust the Chef
Jimoto Omakase pop-up offers a rewarding and highly interactive dining experience
Tasty Time
San Antonio Flavor returns this May at the San Antonio Museum of Art for 10th anniversary
36 Music
Digging Deep
Country-rock experimentalists Wilco promise surprises with upcoming San Antonio show
Critics’ Picks
On the Cover: Mayor Ron Nirenberg’s tenure is coming to an end. How much did he accomplish during his 8 years in office? Cover design: David Loyola
Sanford Nowlin
That Rocks/That Sucks
HA state appeals court last Thursday struck down an Austin ordinance that decriminalized small amounts of cannabis. Voters there passed the ordinance banning police from citing or arresting people for possession of four ounces or less of marijuana in 2022. That prompted a lawsuit from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, whose office argues the ordinance obstructs the state’s ability to enforce drug laws. A similar ordinance in San Marcos was also struck down.
The Uvalde City Council last week approved a $2 million settlement with families of the victims of the 2022 shooting at Robb Elementary School. The city, which was sued multiple times over its handling of the shooting, will pay out the money through its insurance policy. According to settlement terms, the city also will implement a new fitness of duty standard for police officers, build a memorial to the victims of the shooting and more.
San Antonio-based businesses and nonprofits have lost $375 million in federal contracts due to cuts made by the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The cuts have included contracts to support facilities for migrants at the border, help the Centers for Disease Control combat birth defects and help the VA avoid issues with its water supply. The state of Texas as a whole has lost $583 million in contracts since the Trump administration took office.
A bill aimed at clarifying Texas’ abortion law passed out of a state Senate committee last week and will go to the floor for a vote by the entire body. The bill is aimed at clarifying when doctors can legally intervene in a pregnancy and includes an amendment stating that a pregnant person’s life need not be in imminent danger for a doctor to intervene. To date, at least three pregnant women have died because they were unable to access needed abortion care since the state outlawed the procedure. — Abe Asher
YOU SAID IT!
“What
every Texan needs to know is that your vote really matters, and we need to be voting for people who fight for safe pregnancies in Texas. No matter
what someone believes personally, we have to fight for abortion access because it is essential healthcare.”
Melanie Rummel, aTexaswomanforced to seek an out-of-state abortion due to pregnancycomplications.
Peddling Bibles amended with Christian nationalist propaganda with David Barton
Assclown Alert is a column of opinion, analysis and snark.
As if Christian nationalist David Barton hadn’t shoveled enough steaming manure to last a lifetime, Right Wing Watch reports the Texas-based pseudo-historian is now promoting his “Founder’s Bible” as an unforgettable Mother’s Day gift.
In case you’re unfamiliar with the “Founder’s Bible” published by Barton’s WallBuilders organization, it’s a New American Standard translation augmented by essays claiming the Founding Fathers established the U.S. to be a Christian theocracy.
Among the baseless claims Barton and others lay out in the essays are that the book of Exodus provides the foundations for the Second Amendment and Independence Day is somehow based
The school vouchers bill Gov. Greg Abbott has been itching to sign for two legislative sessions is finally heading to his desk. The Texas Senate last week voted 19-12 to approve voucher legislation passed in the Texas House, with only one Republican, state Sen. Robert Nichols, opposing it. The bill will allow some Texas families to spend up to $10,000 in taxpayer money on private school tuition and school-related expenses. It will go into effect during the 2026-27 academic year.
A San Antonio judge last week said he needs more time to decide whether to throw out part of the indictment against Brad Simpson, an Olmos Park resident accused of killing his wife last year. Simpson’s court-appointed at -
on Biblical precedent, according to a Right Wing Watch analysis. The watchdog group further describes the texts as “full of the sorts of absurd claims we have come to expect from Barton.”
And, boy howdy, has Barton — a vice chair of the Republican Party of Texas from 1997 to 2006 — propagated a metric shit-ton of absurd claims.
Beyond his grand whopper that the U.S. Constitution doesn’t call for separation of church and state, Barty Boy’s claimed Jesus opposed the minimum wage, that the Founding Fathers opposed teaching the theory of evolution and that intolerance against LGBTQIA+ people is a sign of a nation embarking on a spiritual revival.
Despite Barton’s claims that he knows more about history and constitutional law than the myriad scholars whose work he contradicts, he has no formal credentials in either field. Indeed, his only non-ceremonial degree appears to be a bachelor’s in Christian education from Oral Roberts University.
Gosh, it’s a solid bet moms everywhere just can’t wait to receive Bibles tricked out with far-right indoctrination sessions. And with a price tag as high as $124.99 for a signed heirloom edition, who wouldn’t want to shell out big bucks for the best in Christian nationalist propaganda from an assclown of Barton’s pedigree? — Sanford Nowlin
torney argued that the indictment should be dismissed because the state hasn’t produced the body of Simpson’s wife, Suzanne . The judge, Joel Perez, said he will make his ruling April 29.
Political consultant Kelton Morgan foresees low voter turnout in the upcoming mayoral election, with voter fatigue, Fiesta and a lack of high-profile charter amendments all potentially contributing to a general lack of enthusiasm. The race is likely to be decided in a June 7 runoff, which Morgan believes will be contested by Gina Ortiz Jones and either Beto Altamirano or Rolando Pablos. Morgan is currently consulting for Altamirano’s campaign. — Abe Asher
ASSCLOWN ALERT
Courtesy Photo Wallbuilders
Texas Trip
Cuts to the VA renews urgency for state lawmakers to back study of psychedelics for treating PTSD
BY MICHAEL KARLIS
This story was first published in Reporting Texas, a student newsroom of the University of Texas at Austin
On April 7, 53-year-old Navy veteran Mark Miller hailed a taxi to Audie L. Murphy Memorial Veterans Hospital in San Antonio.
Once there, at 12:34 p.m., he pulled out his phone and sent a final text message to his father.
“Papa, I love you very much and I always will,” he wrote.
He then pulled out a gun and shot himself in the hospital parking lot.
Eight days earlier, Miller had visited that same hospital seeking help for mental health issues. In an interview with KSAT, Miller’s father said his son struggled with depression and anxiety since retiring from the service in 2007. He’d previously made plans to commit suicide in Costa Rica before being talked out of it by loved ones, according to the report.
Despite that medical history, the best the doctor could do during Miller’s April 1 appointment was to prescribe Seroquel — an antipsychotic medication used to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder — according to a lengthy Facebook post written by his father that’s since gone viral.
“Why would Mark do such a hideous thing? I know exactly why,” Miller’s father wrote in the social media post. “He is making a powerful statement to the VA and to the world on behalf of thousands of veterans. Veterans that have been neglected and pushed to the brink of disaster. Veteran’s, who’s [sic] voices have been silenced and whose plights have been ignored.”
Miller’s father continued, writing in the post that the VA should emphasize psychotherapy and other alternatives instead antidepressants, which some studies say could increase the risk of suicide.
Miller’s story isn’t unique. Twenty-nine-percent of Operation Iraqi Free-
dom and Enduring Freedom veterans, and 21% of Gulf War veterans report suffering post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) at some point in their lives. In 2022, 17.6 veterans took their lives daily, according to data from the VA.
However, there is hope.
The staggering number of veteran suicides, combined with Texas’ large population of former service members, has led the state to become what some experts are calling the center of the “psychedelic revolution.”
A slew of bills filed in the Texas Legislature this session aim to expand the use of psychedelic drugs to treat veterans, and some of those have garnered broad, bipartisan support. That includes House Bill 3137, which if passed, would earmark the largest appropriation of public funds for psychedelic research in U.S. history.
What’s more, research already being conducted on psychedelics as a treatment for PTSD at the University of Texas at Austin and Baylor College of Medicine appear to be promising.
Although psychedelic research has garnered support among Texas lawmakers, hurdles remain, including getting FDA approval to bring the treatments to the public.
Psychedelic Legislation
Surprisingly, deep-red Texas has become one of the leading innovators in what some researchers and experts are
calling the “psychedelic revolution.”
The University of Texas at Austin’s Dell Medical School is home to the Charmaine & Gordon McGill Center for Psychedelic Research and Therapy, which, upon its 2021 launch, was the nation’s first such research center at a public university.
Meanwhile, ongoing studies and clinical trials at Baylor College of Medicine into whether those with PTSD can be treated with psychedelics are the first state-funded psychedelic research since the Controlled Substance Act of 1971.
“It’s good to see that these institutions have begun to shift their thinking and recognize that psychedelics are not these dangerous gateway demon drugs that will make you go crazy and jump out of a window — which was the predominant propaganda in the ’60s — but really that these compounds have a very promising therapeutic potential,” said Dr. Greg Fonzo, co-director of UT Austin’s psychedelic research center.
This groundbreaking, publicly funded research at UT Austin and Baylor were made possible because of House Bill 1802, enacted in 2021 with bipartisan support. Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, allowed the legislation to become law without signing it.
Under HB 1802, the state allowed the Texas Department of State Health Services, in collaboration with the Texas Medical Board, to conduct studies into the use of psychoplastogens such as
MDMA, ketamine and psilocybin to treat conditions including depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, chronic pain, migraines and PTSD.
“It’s a really amazing thing, especially in the state of Texas, given the sort of classical view of conservative politics that is mired in the state,” Fonzo said.
Even though two-dozen other states have legalized recreational cannabis, movement to relax rules on that substance appear to be stalled in the Texas Lege. Yet Lone Star State lawmakers voted across the aisle to use taxpayer money to study magic mushrooms.
“The approach we took with HB 1802 was to find a group of humans that everybody would support politically: veterans,” said former House Rep. Alex Dominguez, D-Brownsville, who authored the legislation. “By really leaning into House members’ willingness not just to support veterans, but being afraid of being called out for not supporting veterans, really put a lot of political pressure on people to not just be supportive but be receptive to the idea of this bill.”
That same political tactic is still effective. At a time when Texas lawmakers are considering bills that would ban the sale of THC-containing hemp products, House Bill 3717, if passed, would be the largest appropriation of public funds for psychedelic research in U.S. history. And it’s managed to garner broad bipartisan support.
Authored by Rep. Cody Harris, R-Tyler,
HB 3717, dubbed the “Texas Ibogaine Initiative,” would allocate $100 million for research on the medical benefits of ibogaine, a traditional African psychedelic plant that, in low doses, has been proven to treat addiction and depression in mice.
Of that sum, half would be public money, with the remaining coming from the private sector.
“It shows that [lawmakers] can distinguish some things and people get it,” Dominguez said. “I think this allows other public policy makers the permission to begin the discussion and say, ‘Well, maybe the taboo regarding this type of substance is not what it was 20 or 30 years ago.’”
Adding urgency among advocates and supporters in the House is the Trump administration’s reported plan to axe 80,000 employees at the VA.
Although initial research appears promising, Fonzo warned the hundreds of attendees of the Third Annual Texas Mushroom Conference earlier this month in Austin that psychoplastogens aren’t a panacea.
“They do not cure mental illness, they do not work for everybody, but for a certain subset of people, they will be a valuable therapeutic,” he said.
Psychedelics and PTSD
The biggest benefit that psychoplastogens have over other treatments such as talk therapy, anti-depressants, ant-psychotics and other FDA-approved drugs, is the speed with which PTSD patients experience results, said Dr. Lynette Averill, an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences neuropsychiatry at Baylor Medical School.
“I certainly do not intend to minimize the slow-acting things,” said Averill, Baylor’s lead researcher into psychedelic therapy. “[Anti-depression drugs] and talk therapy are crucial interventions that do work very well for some people. The challenge is, for many people, even in the best scenarios, is that it’s weeks to months to actually see significant benefits.”
Averill also noted the negative side effects that some patients experience with SSRI use, including weight gain, low sex drive and emotional numbing.
On the other hand, Averill’s research at Baylor — which received $2 million in funding through HB 1802 — has shown that psychoplastogens have a “rapid-acting and robust effect on neuroplasticity.” Neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to
adapt and change by reorganizing synaptic connections.
“It’s happening in a number of hours to days, rather than weeks to months, which I think is quite literally life-saving,” Averill said. “That’s the case even with significantly trauma-exposed individuals with very chronic, severe histories. We are seeing people with significant changes in five hours.”
According to Averill’s research, psychoplastogens allow those suffering from PTSD to reexamine past trauma and view it in a different light.
She compared PTSD to going down a ski slope. Once those memories and guilt are ingrained in a veteran’s mind, their thoughts and past trauma always end up racing downhill toward the same conclusion.
However, psychoplatogens lay down a fresh coat of snow on that ski slope, as Averill put it, allowing PTSD patients to take new paths when navigating past trauma.
“A couple of weeks ago, one of our veterans said he felt like the dose gave him a
tactical advantage from which he could really reevaluate everything and relearn those memories in a more accurate and less painful way, and select the pieces he wanted to keep,” Averill said.
Some researchers have taken it a step further.
David Nichols, a professor emeritus at Purdue University, has previously claimed that psychedelics can excite and stimulate neurons in the brain, allowing patients to access and relive memories in explicit detail.
“The things that are not normally processed, the unconscious materials. Those are normally below our level of conscious awareness,” Nichols said during a presentation at SXSW 2023. “But, that material can be accessed by these neuronal cells when they’re more excitable.”
However, Manoj Doss, a research fellow at UT Austin’s Dell Medical School Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science who studies psychedelics’ effects on memory, disputes Nichols’ claims that psychedelics can allow patients to recall exact details of memories.
“There’s actually not a lot of evidence to the idea that if you have repressed memories that the drug might be able to help you unlock them,” Doss said. “The evidence is not there for that yet, and if anything, it seems to be, if you try to retrieve memories under the effects of psychedelics, it might actually distort your memory and produce false memories.”
Mushroom Boutique
While Averill’s research at Baylor focuses on PTSD treatment, Fonzo’s ongoing clinical trials at UT Austin are examining whether psychoplastogens can treat chronic and treatment-resistant depression. He’s also looking into how to prescribe the most effective dosage to meet patients’ needs.
“It just illustrates another thing we really don’t know,” Fonzo said. “What is the right rate of dosing? How frequently are people going to need to take psychedelics in order to really capitalize on that therapeutic effect? Does that diminish
Michael Karlis
Vendors sell mushrooms, artwork and other novelties at UT Austin’s Etter-Harbin Alumni Center during the Third Annual Texas Mushroom Conference on April 12.
over time? We know, for example, that’s a common issue with ketamine. There’s just a ton of work to be done in this area.”
Once Fonzo and other researchers at Dell Medical School figure out what dose to describe patients depending on their symptoms, UT Austin’s and Baylor’s next steps — potentially with the help of HB 3717’s funding — is to collaborate with state government agencies to figure out how this type of therapy could be rolled out to the public on a mass scale.
That’s easier said than done, according to Fonzo.
Psychedelic therapies that use psilocybin can last 6-8 hours, meaning at least two licensed practitioners would have to “trip sit” their patient. Fonzo said two would be the minimum in case one had to step out to use the restroom or grab lunch.
Other costs include an EKG, blood pressure monitoring, lab work and physical exams to ensure that the patient is fit enough to undergo the trip.
“My sense is — if and when it gets approved — [this therapy] will first come out in very small, sort of boutique-like settings,” Fonzo said.
Initially, the treatments would most likely not be part of most basic healthcare plans, Fonzo also warned. What’s more, patients would need to demonstrate that every other treatment had failed before insurance companies would even consider covering such an endeavor.
Group administration is being explored as a more cost-effective solution. However, Fonzo said that may not be a
viable option.
“If anyone has done group therapy in the past, you may have had somebody in your group that you wish wasn’t here,” he said. “The other problem with that is it’s a little bit harder to control the dynamic in a group setting.”
Using faster-acting psychoplastogens with shorter trips, including DMT, which only lasts about 90 minutes, could also be another alternative. Indeed, some drug companies are spending millions of dollars engineering synthetic compounds that have the same positive effects as psychedelics with shorter trips, or no trips at all.
“If those drugs can produce a therapeutic benefit on par with the psychedelic experience in the absence of inducing a shift in one’s state of consciousness, then that is really useful because then you don’t need to take it in a specialized setting,” Fonzo said.
Canadian pharmaceutical company Cybin’s drug CYB003 — a synthetic psychedelic with similar effects as psilocybin except with a shorter trip duration — was granted “breakthrough therapy” designation by the FDA last year.
The sought-after status, which has also been awarded to LSD and MDMA in recent years, means the FDA accepts that these therapies are as good, if not better, in terms of outcomes than what’s conventionally available.
Even so, the federal government is still a long way off from approving psilocybin for medical treatment, Fonzo warns.
FDA Approval
If passed this session by the Texas Legislature, Senate Bill 3005, introduced by State Sen. Cesar Blanco, R-El Paso, and companion House Bill 4014, filed by Rep. John Bucy, D-Austin, would permit psychedelic therapies to be administered to non-clinical trial patients pending FDA approval. That means researchers at UT Austin and Baylor wouldn’t need to wait for the DEA to reschedule to begin treating the masses.
Although that seems promising, the FDA’s decision last year to reject public use of MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD created a major setback for researchers and patients, according to experts.
Even so, the reasoning behind the FDA’s rejection was more complex than mere skepticism about the merits of psychoplastogens.
The Institute for Clinical and Economic Review, an independent nonprofit that analyzes the evidence for clinical and cost effective treatments, determined that the MDMA study submitted by Lykos Therapeutics found that “therapists encouraged favorable reports by patients.” Further, the agency maintained that the publicly available evidence didn’t effectively weigh the benefits of therapy against potential harms.
Further complicating matters, one of the patients in the study was sexually abused, and the study’s authors failed to disclose their affiliation with the Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies, creating a conflict of interest.
For a drug-induced therapy to gain FDA approval, researchers must conduct a double-blind study to prove the positive effects of the treatment — creating yet another hurdle for approval. The problem, of course, is that it would be obvious which trial subjects got a placebo and which received a psychoplastogen such as MDMA or psilocybin.
However, there could be a workaround, Fonzo said.
In the case of MDMA, researchers are trying to use comparators, including methamphetamines and amphetamines, in the double-blind study so that patients will have a more difficult time determining whether they were given a placebo.
Although patients given a comparative stimulant might believe they received MDMA, those comparative substances may be different enough to lack the drug’s therapeutic effects. That difference could create a valid study, according to Fonzo.
“I think if there was a good faith effort put forth to the FDA showing that we did everything we could in order to try and get around this issue, I don’t think it will be as much of a problem the next time around,” he added.
What’s next
Time is ticking down on Texas’ current legislative session, which ends June 2. Although the $100 million Texas Ibogaine Initiative passed the House Public Health Committee without amendments last week, no date has been set for its hearing on the House floor.
However, with the publicity surrounding the death of San Antonio veteran Miller and building bipartisan support for psychedelic treatments for veterans, former House member Dominguez remains optimistic.
“We’re not talking about dropping acid and going on a trip. We’re really talking about very specific dosing to save someone’s life,” he said. “I think being able to bring in the emotion, along with the science, really is a one-two combo that makes it really hard for somebody to say no. Because you’re either saying no to the science, which says it can work, or you’re saying no to a veteran who just fought for you.”
Meanwhile, Baylor researcher Averill worries more veterans like Miller will suffer preventable deaths if meaningful legislation and FDA approval don’t come soon.
“We are at a point in our society where we are in a severe mental health crisis, where we have to be considering these sorts of things,” she said. “Because so many people can’t wait for full FDA approval and scalability.”
Although that might be true, Fonzo cautioned attendees of the Texas Mushroom Conference that using psychedelics under the table, both medically and recreationally, could jeopardize support for and ultimate approval of the therapy.
“One of the things that can definitely derail a movement like this is a negative news story about somebody who decided to take too many mushrooms at [the ACL Music Festival], thought they were Jesus Christ and decided to jump off stage and have a traumatic brain injury.”
The Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is available 24 hours a day by dialing 988.
Veterans suffering from PTSD are invited to apply as trial participants in Dr. Lynette Averill’s clinical trials at Baylor College of Medicine by emailing emerging@bcm.edu.
Michael Karlis
Michael Hart, left, of Armadillo Myco-Supply tries to sell a potential buyer Lion’s Mane extract during the Third Annual Texas Mushroom Conference.
‘Chosen and Richly Funded’
Bexar Democrats target San Antonio mayoral candidate Rolando Pablos over ties to Greg Abbott
BY SANFORD NOWLIN
For the first time in recent memory, the Bexar County Democratic Party his weighed in on a San Antonio mayoral race, officially a nonpartisan political contest.
Local Democrats on Tuesday shared a 30-second YouTube attack ad blasting mayoral candidate Rolando Pablos, who served as Texas Secretary of State from 2017 to 2018 under Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, for what the ominously narrated clip calls his attempts to suppress voters.
The video also highlights Pablos’ financial backing from a conservative political action committee, or PAC, linked to Abbott, which has pledged $2 million to put candidates friendly to the governor in local leadership roles.
“Makes you wonder who Pablos would be working for if elected, Greg Abbott or Abbott’s rich friends?” the voiceover in the 30-second clip says as an image of the governor and billionaire Elon Musk appear onscreen. “We need a mayor who will work for us, and it’s not Rolando Pablos.”
In a statement emailed to the Current, Pablos said the video amounts to “pure fear-mongering.” He accused “entrenched political insiders who have mismanaged our city for years” of attempting to misinform voters about his record.
“This flailing attack makes clear that the San Antonio political class is panicking and using the Bexar County Democratic party to try to undermine my candidacy, as they are terrified that I will finally bring accountability and sanity to City Hall as mayor,” Pablos said. “This race must not be about ideology and protecting power. It must be
about the good people of San Antonio deserving more than what they have gotten for decades.”
The Bexar County Democrats are circulating the video via social media but don’t have funding to back a TV ad buy, party Communication Director Martha Spinks said. The clip marks the first time in at least 10 years — likely longer — that the party has waded into a San Antonio mayoral race, she added.
However, Spinks said the Republican-aligned Texas Economic Fund (TEF) PAC, which was created to promote right-wing candidates at the local level — from school board races to county judgeships — fired the first partisan shot in the election.
This cycle, the TEF targeted citywide races in San Antonio and McAllen in an effort to elect mayors who will get in line behind Abbott, who’s frequently tussled with outgoing Mayor Ron Nirenberg and other big-city leaders. The PAC has a $2 million fundraising goal across “critical” local elections, based on an internal memo obtained by the San Antonio Report.
“That is an obvious partisan goal, and it would be remiss of Democrats
not to point that out and to respond to it,” Spinks told the Current via email. “Our response is that Rolando Pablos has been chosen and richly funded by TEF to accomplish that goal, and if anyone wants evidence that his election will not serve San Antonio well, they need only to look at the way that Pablos has followed the direction of Greg Abbott and the Texas Republican Party so far when he was willing to help suppress elections.”
Beyond Pablos’ ties to Abbott, the video points to two times voting-rights groups sued him while he headed the Texas Secretary of State’s Office, which oversees voting and elections.
A 2017 suit filed by the NAACP and League of Women Voters halted Texas from turning over sensitive voter data as part of a voter-fraud investigation ordered by then-President Donald Trump to back up his unsubstantiated allegation that fraudsters cast “millions” of illegal ballots in the 2016 election.
In a separate legal challenge from 2020, Democrats sued the secretary of state in federal court for rejecting 2,400 voter-registration applications submitted through the site Vote.org. On Oct.
4, 2018 — five days before the state’s deadline for new voter registrations — Pablos declared the digital applications bogus because they “lacked an original, wet signature,” according to the suit.
Despite the legal fights, Pablos said he stands behind his record overseeing elections for the state.
“I’m proud of my record as Texas Secretary of State, particularly my work to help more young Texans register to vote when they turn 18, during which I recruited hundreds of educators across the state to promote voting and civic engagement among the next generation of Texas voters,” he said in the emailed statement.
However, the Bexar Democrats’ Spinks said the lawsuits suggest what may be in store for San Antonio should Pablos be elected mayor.
“If [Pablos] was willing to comply with this well-documented assault on democracy while in an official office, why should we assume he will act in the interests of our community?”
Spinks told the Current. “We do not support the position he has taken on elections and voter privacy, and we do not want those values to energize our city hall.”
Courtesy Photo Texas Secretary of State
No, John Courage, homelessness isn’t ‘very easy’
BY KEVIN SANCHEZ
Bad Takes is a column of opinion and analysis.
Being homeless is a full-time job.
Imagine having to struggle daily without the amenities most of us take for granted: a toilet and shower, a stove and fridge, a car and air conditioning, much less a roof to keep out the sun and rain.
Everything the unsheltered do is public, and police can ticket or arrest them almost at will. Or as one San Antonio panhandler at a gas station discovered four years ago, they can be fatally shot with impunity. Meanwhile, the cop fired from SAPD for offering a homeless man a sandwich filled with dog feces has since been hired by another South Texas police department.
Too few of those fed shit-sandwiches in this life are afforded such second chances.
Yet to hear mayoral candidate and District 9 Councilman John Courage tell it, being homeless is “very easy.” During a March 26 council session, Courage floated an ordinance to outlaw shopping carts more than 1,000 feet away from grocery stores, arguing that failing to do so would “allow it to continue to be easy for people to be homeless.”
“What’s easy about homelessness?” another member of council interjected.
“No, it’s very easy. You don’t have to do anything, you just sleep out on the streets,” Courage fired back, adding, “Giving people the opportunity to collect trash from wherever they can find it — and bring it to live with it — is just allowing them to continue to live as easily as they choose to live.”
I’d pay good money to watch a reality show where those who bloviate from the air-conditioned comfort of City Hall are forced to survive on the streets for a month.
Lest anyone think Courage is alone in villainizing the unhoused, Councilman Manny Pelaez — also a mayoral candidate — put up banners in his District 8 telling people, “It’s okay to say no to panhandling.”
In a fit of scaremongering, Manny the Compassionate also warned downtowns could become “war zones” if cities don’t dismantle encampments. Authorities undertook 1,200 such sweeps in Bexar County last year, costing taxpayers $3.6 million.
With election day on May 3, Courage tried to clarify his bad take on Texas Public Radio’s The Source
“I’m not trying to say being homeless is an easy life,” Courage backpedaled, “but they can sustain themselves, and part of the discussion was, should we ... make it more challenging for people to live on their own and hopefully accept the services that we have available to help them lift themselves up.”
First, he did explicitly state that being homeless isn’t just an easy life but a “very easy” one. There’s nothing courageous about refusing to correct such a boneheaded statement.
But, secondly, and more substantively, do we actually have enough services available to the city’s unsheltered population? The answer’s no. And Courage knows it.
During the same council session where Courage fired off his gaffe, he asked Department of Human Services Director Melody Woosley whether the city needs more mental health professionals, drug and alcohol treatment beds, psychiatric treatment beds and financial resources to combat homelessness. The city needs all of them, she affirmed.
It just goes on behind closed doors, so we’re not forced to witness it firsthand. And when the incomes of those in the bottom bracket improve, lo and behold, so does their anxiety and depression and mental health.
Studies of direct cash transfers also demonstrate a subsequent decrease in spending on temptation goods, like tobacco and illicit drugs. Poverty is not a lack of virtue, it’s purely and simply a lack of money.
Courage’s remark ranks up there with former Mayor Ivy Taylor’s 2017 diagnosis that generational poverty in San Antonio is mainly the result of “people not being in relationship with their Creator.” Memories of my Christian past may be fading, but I seem to recall the Godhead himself was a bit of a homeless drifter. Who’s prepared to say Yeshua Ben Joseph was living on easy street?
The mayoral race need not be an excuse to shun understanding and decency.
District 6 Councilwoman Melissa Cabello Havrda, who’s also seeking the city’s highest elected office, told the Express-News that homelessness is her top issue.
After hearing her response, how can Courage claim this preventable tragedy has less to do with a lack of mental health resources and affordable housing than it does his caricature of unhoused people as free-living forest hermits?
As Councilwoman Teri Castillo’s questioning revealed during that same session, San Antonio has zero low-barrier homeless shelters — or those that provide 24/7 easy access with minimal hurdles to entry.
When Castillo asked Woosley if such shelters exist here, the staffer responded that SAMMinistries is the closest, “but not completely.” To enter that shelter requires both a current eviction notice and proof of a stable income, according to its website.
For many sleeping on the streets, those are impossibly high bars.
San Antonio’s first-ever Homeless Response Annual Performance and Spending Report noted that homelessness per 1,000 Bexar County residents was 14.5 in 2022, 15.1 in 2023 and 16 in 2024. That last figure is the highest since official point-intime counts began.
Hard to believe we can reverse that trend if our leaders still treat poverty like a character flaw instead of a predictable outcome of systemic wealth hoarding.
The stereotypes unravel when you consider what any fan of movies about bourgeois decadence should know: alcohol consumption and substance abuse tends to be higher among the upper class.
Further, during an interview with the Big City Small Town podcast, she pointed to the East Side’s Towne Twin Village to show that humane solutions are possible.
Developed by the Housing First Community Coalition, Towne Twin Village focuses on senior citizens and received just $9.9 million of the $150 million affordable housing bond, approved in 2022. Of that total, a mere $25 million has gone to permanent supportive housing.
Havrda supports expediting another larger bond by the end of this year, Manny the Compassionate doesn’t.
“We have to duplicate [Towne Twin Village] as much as we can all over the city, because it’s low-to-no barrier,” Havrda said. “And yes, people have substance abuse issues, they have mental health impairments, sometimes they have dogs, and so some places won’t take them. And we don’t want to separate them from their companions. I’m sorry that it took so long to get there, but that’s rapid re-housing. That’s literally getting them in a place where they’re safe, where they’re going to have sustenance, and they’re going to have access to care.”
San Antonio needs leaders who act out of a heartfelt sense of communitarian principle, not unapologetic corporate stooges like Pelaez. Voting him or Courage into higher office would only further enable politicians to run their mouths and clog sorely needed policy conversations with trash.
To that, it’s “okay to say no.”
Facebook John Courage for SA
Unfinished Business
Mayor Ron Nirenberg promised a new vision for San Antonio. Did he deliver?
BY SANFORD NOWLIN
For many San Antonians, Mayor Ron Nirenberg was a calming force during the uncertainty of the pandemic. To be sure, some political observers argue his performance during the global health crisis may go down as his political peak.
The mayor appeared nightly on TV with County Judge Nelson Wolff, speaking openly and transparently about hospitalizations and deaths. In measured tones, the pair urged residents to mask up and get vaccinated, offering a sharp contrast to the rancor and contradictory messaging coming from the first Trump White House.
It was a career-making moment for the former District 8 councilman — a stoic, wonkish leader who spent much of his first mayoral term fending off accusations that he was too eager to go it alone and didn’t work to build consensus on the dais.
Hurt by low turnout among his base, Nirenberg only earned a second term after a punishing runoff against populist candidate Greg Brockhouse. However, bolstered by his steady showing during COVID, Nirenberg racked up easy victories to secure his third and fourth trips to the mayor’s office.
“I think we all knew — including a lot of naysayers — that [Nirenberg] couldn’t really be challenged after how he handled things during the pandemic,” said District 6 Councilwoman and current mayoral candidate Melissa Cabello Havrda. “He was a great leader in a crisis.”
With the mayor term-limited out and a May 3 election set to decide who will succeed him, many look back on his legacy as generally favorable. Even so, some political observers question whether he was ever able to rise to the same level of leadership he displayed during the pandemic.
Indeed, both critics and allies agree Nirenberg’s legacy feels unfinished — or at least undecided.
“He’s been a relatively successful mayor, overall, but I think there are pressing issues like affordable housing where a whole lot more needed to be done,” University of Texas at San Antonio political scientist Jon Taylor said. “He had great intentions, but there wasn’t always followthrough with the reforms this city needs, especially on the scale they require.”
When he ran for office, Nirenberg trumpeted a desire for more transparency in government and better equity in the distribution of city services. He also pushed for better jobs, more affordable housing and long-term transportation solutions.
Unlike some prior mayors, he also didn’t flinch from acknowledging the Alamo City’s problem with generational poverty — or that the system that it created was no accident. Further, he avoided scandal and did an admirable job publicly upholding San Antonio as a compassionate city.
Still, the verdict is out on Nirenberg’s key policy wins, many argue.
First, there’s the San Antonio Ready
to Work job-training program, which has struggled to meet its ambitious goals of placing 80% of participants in jobs paying at least $15 an hour within six months of wrapping up training.
Then there’s the $150 million affordable-housing bond voters passed in 2022. Although it seemed like a major investment at the time, there’s building consensus the bond money simply isn’t enough to fix the problem.
Critics also argue Nirenberg’s fourthterm push for the secrecy-shrouded Project Marvel — a pricy and sweeping plan to build a “sports district” downtown — represents a betrayal of his call for more city transparency. And with a cost likely to run in the billions, it’s also questionable whether voters will even support the proposal.
What’s more, naysayers argue, the mayor’s willingness to let downtown’s low-price Soap Factory apartments be razed to make way for a new minor-league baseball stadium shows a shaky commitment to affordable housing.
For some observers, those contradictory stances highlight Nirenberg’s attempt to appeal to progressive voters while staying cozy with San Antonio’s
business leaders and the entrenched bureaucracy of city government.
“I remember when we were discussing whether to support [Nirenberg] in 2017, one of our members said, ‘He’ll do more for the business community than he’ll ever do for us,’” said Michelle Tremillo, executive director of the grassroots Texas Organizing Project. “I’d say that sentiment has held true. We’ll never be his first priority.”
To understand that, let’s look back at the 2017 election that put Nirenberg in the mayor’s office. His win came as a result of disheartened liberals and moderates looking for a candidate who could be a local antidote to the recently elected Trump. Others sought an alternative to increasingly conservative-leaning incumbent Mayor Ivy Taylor.
Although San Antonio elections are nonpartisan, many interpreted Nirenberg’s focus on equity and his success as a councilman in protecting the Bracken Bat Cave from development as signs of his progressive bonafides.
The luster dimmed during his first term as Nirenberg offered only tepid support for an ordinance that would guarantee paid sick leave for workers.
Sanford Nowlin
He also frequently filled city panels with a familiar slate of business leaders rather than fresh faces likely to shake things up, critics charge.
Two years later, the result was a languid turnout from his progressive base and a runoff with Brockhouse some political observers said never should have happened.
Ahead of the 2019 runoff, Nirenberg met with representatives of nearly 30 progressive groups in hope of rallying enough support to beat back the challenge, according to people familiar with the meeting. The mayor pledged to offer a full endorsement of paid sick leave, and made good on his promise.
However, that marked the end of his earnest outreach to progressive organizations, said Graciela Sanchez, director of the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center.
“Once he got reelected, he just kind of disappeared,” Sanchez said. “We weren’t surprised, just disappointed. … I can’t hate him for it. It just showed he’s not any different from the elected leaders who came before him.”
While some progressives feel let down by Nirenberg’s record, LGBTQIA+ community organizer Julian Tovar said the mayor was at least consistent in his support of San Antonio’s queer community.
“He’s been an ally for a while, and it
certainly wasn’t to score political points,” Tovar said. “From my perspective, he was always acting to ensure that a portion of the community felt protected.”
During his first term on council, Nirenberg voted for the adoption of San Antonio’s non-discrimination ordinance, which offered protections for LGBTQIA+ people. Last year, he led council to codify
striking photos of massive food drives showed the vulnerability of the city’s working class.
Backers also point to other wins along the way, such as the ironing out of longstanding feuds with San Antonio’s powerful police and fire unions, the expansion of the city’s meager airport facilities and the growth of its sustainability programs.
Even so, political experts said it may take a few more years to gain a full understanding of what Nirenberg accomplished, much of that depending on how well the city continues to iron out the kinks in Ready to Work.
“The idea of Ready to Work and the need for it were merited,” said longtime political consultant Laura Barberena, who’s working for District 8 Councilman and mayoral candidate Manny Pelaez in the current election. “The execution has continued to have issues, and pivoting to address those issues was necessary to make the program a future success.”
Despite the unfinished business, St. Mary’s University political scientist Arturo Vega said he sees Nirenberg’s tenure as an overall success. Even though the mayor didn’t shake the foundations of City Hall, he balanced commitments to backers with varied interests. As a result, he edged the city forward — just not at the pace some hoped.
“Mayors aren’t superheroes. They have to build a working coalition if they want to get anything done,” Vega said. “His approach was always fairly pragmatic.”
Still, those who hoped Nirenberg would come down more decisively on the side of the poor, the marginalized and the environment maintain the legacy is a letdown. After all, Nirenberg’s much-vaunted Climate Action and Adaptation Plan only passed City Council after the rollback of many of its emission-cutting goals.
“I think he’ll leave us as a nice guy, a guy with a nice smile, but not someone who was courageous enough to do the right things for the working people of San Antonio,” Esperanza’s Sanchez added.
the city’s LGBTQ+ Advisory Board so the community would continue to have a seat at the decision-making table after his departure.
Nirenberg’s defenders also argue the his late start on key initiatives such as Ready to Work and the housing bond was a result of the pandemic. The COVID crisis hit especially hard in San Antonio, where
UTSA’s Taylor said Nirenberg could have aimed higher when it came to San Antonio’s most-pressing issues, namely generational poverty, affordable housing and worsening traffic. Still, the political reality is he might have been a shorter-tenured mayor had he mounted too much of a challenge to the status quo.
“For lack of a better term, you could say Nirenberg took an incremental approach,” Taylor said. “But the thing about incrementalism is that while you may move things forward a bit, it really doesn’t get noticed.”
Gobierno de la Ciudad de México
Wikimedia Commons Eric Dietrich
CITYSCRAPES
When running for mayor, Nirenberg promised an end to boondoggles. Isn’t that what Project Marvel amounts to?
BY HEYWOOD SANDERS
Cityscrapes is a column of opinion and analysis.
When Ron Nirenberg, then a San Antonio councilman, announced his run against incumbent Mayor Ivy Taylor on a cold December in 2016, he castigated his opponent for a lack of leadership and vision.
“They say that city leadership is no longer creating solutions, it’s just coasting,” Nirenberg said. “In fact, present government is the problem. Under Mayor Ivy Taylor, our city has stopped rising.”
Nirenberg specifically criticized Taylor for the city’s loss of “stature and jobs to Austin, Dallas and Houston” along with her failure to build a new minor-league ballpark downtown. He promised a “new vision” and “bold action,” contending that he would usher in a city government that spends the public’s dollars “judiciously and efficiently — not on boondoggle projects or behind closed doors without the bright light of public scrutiny.”
Further Nirenberg pledged to create a “new standard of government transparency, accountability, responsibility and accessibility.” And he also promised real action, including a “big picture transportation reform agenda,” “multimodal connectivity,” “facilitating smart development,”“long-term water security,” and a “comprehensive housing policy that is equitable and respects all residents.”
Above all, “all citizens will have a seat at the table of city boards, commissions and the workforce,” Nirenberg added. It sounded great at the time. But as Ron Nirenberg prepares to leave office after eight years, we have to ask — just as
the Express-News did immediately following his election — how well he actually delivered on that bold vision.
Frankly, that delivery is open to question.
We did get a tax increase passed for VIA. But we’re a long way from solving San Antonio’s worsening traffic congestion. And there’s still no real “multimodal connectivity” to speak of in our town.
As for the comprehensive housing policy? We did have the opportunity to vote on and pass an affordable housing bond issue in 2022 that’s beginning to yield some results. Yet the “respects all residents” part promised by the mayor rings remarkably hollow in the wake of the treatment of residents of the Soap Factory Apartments, who are being displaced by that new ballpark being built for the San Antonio Missions minor league team.
aged to outdo himself in running over those promises with Project Marvel, the grand downtown redevelopment project that would include a new Spurs arena along with a convention center hotel, a land bridge, a reimagined Alamodome and more.
Totally wrapped in nondisclosure agreements, Project Marvel’s financing still hasn’t been revealed to the public, and — as best as we can tell — the deal is structured to avoid any public vote on its central elements other than the arena. It’s fair to say Marvel has set an entirely new standard for an absence of “unimpeachable integrity and public trust.”
Clearly intended to be pushed through before the end of Nirenberg’s term, the deal has been so obscured and poorly defined, so absent the kind of financial commitment from the Spurs organization and private investors that might make it work, so lacking the kind of accountability that Nirenberg once upon a time appeared to stand for, as to make the soon-to-be-former mayor’s final year in office a slap in the face to San Antonio’s citizens and taxpayers.
And the fact that most of our current crop of council members appear to find this a perfectly reasonable and appropriate way to do the public’s business should effectively disqualify each and every one of them from being a plausible candidate to succeed Nirenberg.
And then there’s the Nirenberg promise of a city government that spends tax dollars “judiciously and efficiently — not on boondoggle projects or behind closed doors without the bright light of public scrutiny.” “Judiciously and efficiently” aren’t the words I would use to describe the deal to benefit real-estate developer Graham Weston with a new downtown ballpark surrounded by properties he owns and controls. Indeed, it qualifies as a boondoggle of an insider deal, neatly cooked up behind closed doors without even the tiniest glimmer of public scrutiny — all in the waning months of the lame-duck mayor’s term. Further, the deal is managed with the wonder of tax increment dollars that neatly avoid any public vote or input.
While the ballpark deal didn’t match Nirenberg’s promise of no more boondoggles or closed door deals, he man-
If anyone needs an index of how well things are working with San Antonio’s current city government, I would invite them to take a short drive on South Alamo Street downtown, from Market Street to César E. Chávez Boulevard. Approved as part of the 2017 bond program in the same election that put Ron Nirenberg in the mayor’s seat, the street upgrade was budgeted at $9 million for reconstruction and “amenities and enhancements as appropriate and within available funding.” The city’s website now puts the total cost at $48.76 million — $29 million from the city — with an estimated completion date of April 2026.
Nine years to redo a street sure meets my definition of a boondoggle, not to mention a city government that isn’t working. Yet somehow, we are considering spending up to $4 billion in tax dollars and decades of construction on the wonders of Project Marvel.
This city election offers the opportunity to support real leadership and accountability, not empty rhetoric and ever grander boondoggles.
Heywood Sanders is a professor emeritus of public administration at the University of Texas at San Antonio.
Eric Dietrich
From Compassion to Camp Sweeps
Here’s what the toppolling candidates in San Antonio’s mayoral race have to say about homelessness
BY STEPHANIE KOITHAN
Homelessness is one of the three most pressing concerns on the minds of Bexar County voters, according to a recent poll by the UTSA Center for Public Opinion Research.
The inaugural Bexar County Voter Panel Study identified homelessness as the second biggest concern for local voters at 9%. It was followed affordable housing, another point on the housing continuum, also at 9%.
Only crime beat these as an individual issue, pulling in 15% in the poll. But for those who believe that homelessness and affordable housing go hand-in-hand, it appears to be the single biggest issue to San Antonio voters in the May 3 election at a combined 18%.
Homelessness also happens to be one of the biggest points of differentiation among the 27 candidates running for mayor in current cycle.
Given its importance to San Antonio voters, we asked the top-polling mayoral candidates how they plan to address homelessness. We included statements from those who responded by press time. For others, we gleaned their stance from media reports and their official campaign website.
Rolando Pablos
Rolando Pablos, one of the most conservative candidates for mayor, served as the Texas Secretary of State under Governor Greg Abbott.
In his response, Pablos seems to support encampment sweeps while also addressing housing shortages. Here’s part of the statement Pablos provided to the Current:
“First, through aggressive economic development, we can help provide oppor-
tunities for San Antonians to break the cycle of generational poverty. Second, we have to provide quality education that will help the next generation of San Antonians overcome systemic barriers that keep families and individuals in poverty. And third, we have to exercise fiscal responsibility at City Hall.
“We need solutions that increase housing supply by reducing regulatory barriers and ensure that public housing programs operate with full transparency and accountability. The City’s next bond in 2027 should focus on the development of affordable housing projects to address homelessness and housing shortages.
“I also strongly support the City making necessary investments in homelessness prevention services, supporting nonprofits like Haven for Hope, and funding for much-needed mental healthcare facilities that serve unhoused San Antonians, particularly since we have lost so much capacity for mental health treatment due to hospital closures downtown.
“It’s important to remember that not all homeless individuals are criminals. At the same time, I believe it’s inhumane to allow encampments to continue, as it is unsafe for both unhoused individuals and the broader community.”
Manny
Pelaez
District 8 Councilman Manny Pelaez is known for hanging banners in his dis-
trict to discourage people from giving money to panhandlers. He’s also drawn criticism for referring to homeless people as drug addicts. Palaez didn’t respond to our request for comment. However, here’s the position on homelessness laid out on his website:
“Homelessness is both a human and public safety crisis that I have actively addressed over the past seven years by bolstering homeless service organizations, removing encampments, and creating anti-panhandling initiatives. Personally joining efforts to clear dangerous camps, I’ve led our district in maintaining neighborhood safety. As mayor, I will ensure continued investment in shelters, compassionate care, and law enforcement to prioritize your neighborhood’s safety.”
Melissa Cabello Havrda
District 6 Councilwoman Melissa Cabello Havrda is a disability lawyer who’s represented her far West Side district for 6 years. The councilwoman sent us the most detailed response, laying out her ideas for addressing the myriad dimensions of homelessness with a five-page plan.
Cabello Havrda said that during her time on council, she led the largest investment in foster youth in Texas history, to the tune of $7 million. Now, she plans to expand that work by addressing other
vulnerable communities with low-barrier-to-entry programs modeled after the East Side’s groundbreaking Towne Twin Village. Here’s part of the statement she supplied the Current:
“According to the most recent Point-inTime Count, over 3,000 of our neighbors are unhoused. That number reflects real people — many of them youth, seniors, and veterans — living in tents, shelters, cars, or not at all. If we’re serious about public safety, health equity, and economic opportunity, then we have to be serious about housing.
“This plan expands on our earlier work with foster youth and proposes a citywide strategy to build more low-barrier transitional housing, expand wraparound services, and scale up permanent supportive housing options like [Towne Twin] Village — not just downtown, but throughout every district in our city.
“We don’t just need a few shelters — we need a shift in how we respond to homelessness, how we value people, and how we invest in no-barrier, long-term solutions. This plan is rooted in coordinated care, strategic property reuse, and inclusive development—and it recognizes that we don’t just house people, we invest in them.”
Beto Altamirano
Political novice Beto Altamirano, a tech entrepreneur and small business owner,
Shutterstock / Kokoulina
may not have experience addressing homelessness during time on council. However, he supplied the Current with a statement laying out his stance on the issue and how he would tackle it as mayor:
“San Antonio’s lack of affordable housing is a core issue in my policy platform, along with the urgent need for increased funding and action to address houselessness.
“Last year, I had the opportunity to shadow Nikisha Baker of SAMM Ministries and saw firsthand how they are leading efforts to provide shelter, housing, and services to thousands of unhoused San Antonians.
“As mayor, I will prioritize rapid rehousing and advocate for increased funding for permanent supportive and low-barrier housing.
“One thing I won’t do is criminalize homelessness. These are our family, friends, and neighbors — and the city must lead with compassion while addressing root causes like limited economic opportunity and the rising cost of housing.”
Gina Ortiz Jones
Gina Ortiz Jones — a veteran, two-time Democratic congressional candidate and the former Under Secretary of the Air Force under President Biden — doesn’t mention homelessness on her website, nor did she respond to the Current’s request for information.
However, here’s what she had to say about homelessness in an interview with the San Antonio Report:
“Regarding homelessness, I recently met with Opportunity Home (OH) to understand how city resources could better support the organization’s goal of recipients being self-sustaining within 5 years to free up resources for our unhoused. The data does not yet exist to the granularity I requested (i.e., is it help with GED attainment, childcare, public transportation), but I look forward to working with OH in the first 100 days to understand what is in the realm of possible to ensure our approach is data-driven and effective. Addressing our challenges with the unhoused will also require stronger coordination with Bexar County Behavioral Health and incentivizing affordable housing development.”
John Courage
District 9 Councilman John Courage didn’t respond to the Current’s request for comment, nor did he address homelessness on his website.
In an interview with the San Antonio Report, Courage responded to a question about homelessness by emphasizing the
importance of prioritizing public safety and hiring more police officers. This is what it says about affordable housing in that interview:
“I will prioritize more affordable housing options within targeted areas of redevelopment and around employment centers making sure that every resident, regardless of income, can find a safe and comfortable place to call home.
The affordable housing crisis will be the greatest challenge of the next administration, and I am committed to removing barriers, especially to create home-ownership.”
Clayton Perry
Councilman Clayton Perry didn’t respond to the Current’s request for comment, nor does his website mention homelessness. Further, he didn’t directly answer the San Antonio Report when the news outlet asked about homelessness.
However, Perry does support affordable housing, so long as it “preserves the character of the neighborhood,” according to his website. Per the candidate’s site, he is dedicated to:
“Supporting initiatives that promote affordable housing while maintaining neighborhood character.
• Continue to encourage developers to build affordable housing.
• Work with nonprofits to rehabilitate vacant properties for low-income families.
• Encourage the financial industry to expand home ownership programs for first-time home buyers.”
Adriana Rocha Garcia
District 4 Councilwoman Adriana Rocha Garcia didn’t respond to our request for comment on the issue, nor does she have a position on homelessness listed on her website. However, she had this to say when asked by the San Antonio Report about homelessness:
“We need more affordable housing. This means that people, regardless of income level, can afford to live and age in their home. Older residents shouldn’t be priced out of their homes, nor should young families have to move out of the city to afford a home. We want to welcome anyone who moves here, but not at the risk of displacement. Investing in a larger housing bond will give us the opportunity to produce more housing at every level and invest in our current housing stock through rehabilitation.”
FRI | 04.25 - SAT | 05.10
VISUAL ART SPRING 2025 MFA EXHIBITION
Students in the Master of Fine Arts (MFA) program at UTSA fully immerse themselves in their craft, be it ceramics, painting and drawing, photography, printmaking, sculpture or new media — the degree’s six concentrations. As those students’ time on campus draws to a close, the thesis work they produced as the culmination of their efforts is on display at locations all over town. This term’s MFA candidates number five in all: Samantha Altamirano, Bri McDonald, Claribel Olivas, Isaac Grigar and Marcus Clarke. Altamirano specializes in sculpture, whereas McDonald showcases her images of watery breakdown, Olivas exhibits surreal drawings of insects and found objects and Grigar blends expressionistic painting and sculptures that combine the sacred and profane. Feast Day, Clarke’s offsite faith-rooted exhibit features a short film, immersive installation and kinetic sculptures. With multiple venues holding events, openings and gallery hours independently of one another, it’s best to contact UTSA’s Main Campus Art Office for individual venue schedules and appointments. Free, (210) 458-4352, colfa.utsa.edu/art. — Dean Zach
MUSIC
SHIMMERS OF BYZANTIUM
The world premiere of composer Ethan Wickman’s Shimmers of Byzantium, will conclude the 2024-2025 season of the Agarita chamber ensemble’s Caritas Concerts at the Chapel of the Incarnate Word. Organist Andrew Lloyd, mezzo soprano Tynan Davis, soprano Megan Pachecano and composer Ethan Wickman playing the Turkish oud, a Middle Eastern lute, will be accompanied by Agarita company members Marisa Bushman (viola), Daniel Anastasio (piano), Sarah Silver Manzke (violin) and Ignacio Gallego (cello). Agarita received a highly competitive Barlow Commission in order for Wickman to create the work while studying the oud and Turkish and Ottoman music in Turkey last year. Naming the composition after a long-vanquished power with regal traditions that live on today isn’t happenstance. Wickman tends to perceive place as metaphor — as spiritual reminders of an illusory past that endures in the Jungian echo chambers of our collective imagination. Free, 7:30 p.m., Chapel of the Incarnate Word, 4503 Broadway, (210) 857-0822, agarita. org. — Anjali Gupta
FEELING TONE: AN IMMERSIVE SOUND & TECHNOLOGY EXHIBITION
Sound installations can be revelatory, even therapeutic. Audium, San Francisco’s long-running theater of sound, presents music and sound in total darkness, offering a potent example of experiential capabilities of sound. Although a staple of postmodernism, sound art remains on the fringes of contemporary art practice locally, with a few exceptions: educator, multi-instrumentalist and composer Pamela Martinez (aka Teletextile) has carved a niche for herself in San Antonio and beyond over the past decade. She’s been busy creating and presenting sound projects, organizing concerts, sonic baths and sound therapies as well as performing violin at Carnegie Hall and singing at San Francisco’s iconic Fillmore Theater. For Feeling Tone at Mercury Project, Martinez curated an exhibition of seven artists from around the country with the common thread of sonic connection. Feeling Tone, which contains visual and audio works, should be a welcome aural respite during these rough and uncertain times. Free, 11 a.m.-8 p.m. daily, Mercury Project Contemporary Art Space, 538 Roosevelt Ave., (210) 395-6605, mercuryproject.net. —
Courtesy Photo Agarita
Neil Fauerso
Courtesy Image Isaac Grigar
Courtesy Image Susan Snipes
SUN | 05.04
SPECIAL EVENT
THE ART OF FORTUNE TELLING: INTRO TO SCRYING
As part of an ongoing series on divination practices, this one-day workshop is dedicated to the ritual of scrying: the ancient, pancultural art of peering beyond the physical realm using reflective opaque objects such as obsidian or translucent surfaces such as water and glass. It is a form of divination performed with the intention of receiving knowledge hidden within one’s mind, rooted in the belief that the visions seen within the surface medium can offer individual guidance. This isn’t straight-up fortune telling but an attempt to amplify one’s consciousness. So how exactly does one scry? San Antonio spiritual healing place The Stinking Rose is offering this workshop to help get those interested on the path to understanding. So put your Ouija board back under the bed and proceed with caution: this is spiritual window shopping taken to the next level. $35, 4-6 p.m., The Stinking Rose, 15033 Nacogdoches Road, (210) 460-0879, thestinkingrosesa.com. — AG
It’s not just prints! On the weekend after First Friday at the Blue Star, Leeper Auditorium at the McNay Art Museum will fill with gallerists from across the country selling collections of drawings, watercolors and photographs — not to mention classically inked prints. Now in its 29th year, the Print Fair has grown to be the region’s premier gathering of its kind, connecting art dealers with collectors, casual patrons or anyone with a passing curiosity about art in general and printmaking in particular. Participating institutions range from New York-based galleries Kim Schmidt, Mary Ryan and Susan Teller to Austin’s Coronado Print Room and SA mainstay Ruiz-Healy Art. Admission Saturday is free for McNay members — who are also invited to the preview cocktail reception on Friday — and included with general admission to the McNay for non-members. Admission on Sunday is free for all thanks to the Dickson Allen Foundation. $10-$20 Saturday, free Sunday; 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday, noon-5 p.m. Sunday, Leeper Auditorium at the McNay Art Museum, 6000 N. New Braunfels Ave., (210) 824-5368, mcnayart.org. — DZ
Reminder:
Although live events have returned, the COVID-19 pandemic is still with us. Check with venues to make sure scheduled events are still happening, and please follow all health and safety guidelines.
Justin Parr
Courtesy Image Ruiz-Healy Art
COMBAT LEAGUE
Friday, May 02
Thursday, May 08
Friday, August 01
Saturday, July 12
Thursday, August 07
FRI | 05.09
FILM
MAY BLACK HISTORY FILM SERIES: HIGH RISK
HIGH RISK explores natural methods, life-saving strategies and best practices proven to help Black mothers advocate for themselves and protect their health — from prenatal to postpartum care — against medical racism in the United States. The maternal mortality rate of Black women in the U.S. is more than three times higher than that of other racial and ethnic groups — and worse, it continues to rise: 50.3 deaths per 100,000 live births, compared to 14.5 for white women, 12.4 for Hispanic women and 10.7 for Asian women, according to the Centers for Disease Control. The film’s producer and writer, Nicole Carr, is a reproductive-justice advocate and professor of African American literature at Texas A&M University-San Antonio. In her 10-plus years of educational service, Carr has provided diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) consultations for educational agencies across Texas and helped redesign curricula focused on African American literature and history. After the film, stick around for a live panel discussion including Carr, executive producer and director Born Logic Allah and Zita Powell, co-chair of African American Health Disparities. Admission is free, but registration is required. Presented by the San Antonio African American Community Archive and Museum. Free, 5:30 p.m., Little Carver Civic Center, 226 N. Hackberry St., (210) 724-3350, saaacam.org. — Becky Hardin
THU | 05.08
SPECIAL EVENT
ALTON BROWN LIVE: LAST BITE
Despite having never owned a restaurant, famed television personality Alton Brown cemented himself as the king of foodies thanks to the overwhelming success of his breakout series, Good Eats, on the Food Network. Following the show’s 16-season run, during which Brown took viewers on a journey exploring the science behind their favorite foods, he hosted multiple other programs, even serving as a commentator on Iron Chef America. Brown has also written multiple bestselling cookbooks. In Alton Brown: Last Bite, the multi-hyphenate food personality resumes his role as scientist and guide, taking audiences on a tour through his favorite culinary hacks, impactful memories from his time on television and more. As suggested in the show’s title, will this be the final tour for this unforgettable food dignitary? Fans will just have to wait and see. $49.50-$200, 7:30 p.m., Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, 100 Auditorium Circle, (210)-223-8624, tobincenter.org. — Kat Stinson
SUN
| 05.11
FILM
ENTER THE DRAGON
Martial-arts master and film hero Bruce Lee has become a cultural saint much like James Dean, Bob Marley or Selena — a beloved idol who died tragically young. His skill, intensity and onscreen presence were unlike anything seen before in action movies and spawned global interest in the martial arts. Lee’s most famous film, Enter the Dragon — largely considered the most iconic kung fu film of all time — retains its charge 50 years later due, in no small part, to the complexity of the film’s fight choreography, solid acting performances and its blend of kung fu action, spy movie intrigue and Blaxploitation style. Despite a flimsy plot line, the film is elevated by Lee’s dazzling charisma and astonishing physical feats. The array of dastardly villains includes Jim Kelly, Sammo Hung and a very young Jackie Chan in multiple uncredited roles. The film is rated R for violence. Free, 2 p.m., Collins Garden Branch Library, 200 N. Park Blvd., (210) 207-9120, mysapl.org. — Neil Fauerso
Stanley Bielecki Movie Collection
Melaneyes Media
Courtesy Image Tobin Center for the Performing Arts
Kylix and Krater
Exploring the nuances of ancient Greek wine at the San Antonio Museum of Art
BY RON BECHTOL
Here’s a phrase to test your Latin prowess: In vino veritas.
If you guessed “in wine there is truth,” you’d be halfway there. The original, Roman meaning is said to be more like “after a few glasses of wine, the truth will out.” But the saying has held sway since the days of the ancient Greeks.
A look back might be in order in an era when wine — future tariffs notwithstanding — is presently in good supply, but truth might be harder to come by.
Vino has been produced and consumed since at least 6000 B.C. That’s quite a track record. It might have taken a few thousand years, but by the first millennium B.C., in Greece and its surrounding islands, wine had evolved into an important part of cultural identity.
But you don’t have to read Homer to put early Greek wine culture in context. A quick trip to the San Antonio Museum of Art should suffice. Here, I recently viewed the permanent collection of Ancient Greek pottery through a new, wine-focused lens. Turn left at the main lobby.
Much of the collection is the result of a bequest from the late Gilbert Denman, who clearly had an eye for its graceful forms, dramatic colors, and stylized decorations.
And speaking of eyes, why not start with a particular piece. Eyes are a prominent feature on the underside of a black-figure eye-cup dating from around 520 B.C.
But let’s back up just a bit to acknowledge the
importance of the Greek god Dionysus. This mercurial figure held dominion over multiple realms — not just wine but also grape cultivation, harvest, festivity, pleasure, fertility and even theater. Google the painting by Caravaggio for an especially decadent interpretation that acknowledges the god’s androgynous attributes and reinforces his ultimate role as a symbol of transformation of all kinds. With so much to worship, many cults arose.
One aspect of those cults was surely the symposium, the cultivated gathering, primarily of men, that often followed a banquet and centered on such activities as consumption of wine, civilized discourse, and recitation of poetry — all appreciated while reclining on low couches or platforms. Seems inordinately uncomfortable, but perhaps the discomfort kept the mind alert — until the very end, at which time a ritual slinging of the dregs might occur. Decorum is often the first mask to be shed.
Which brings us back to SAMA’s eyed cup, which is a kylix, or drinking vessel. With its wide, shallow form, it too, seems somewhat awkward from a purely functional point of view. Think martini glass but bigger and heavier. But moderation in drinking was expected — at least at the outset of an evening — so this two-handled, footed bowl was meant to be passed around from one recumbent partaker to the next.
With its lustrous, red and black embellishments, it was also meant to remind the drinker of cultural context. Decorations might depict charioteers, lissome youths in conversation or Dionysus himself. Adorning this kylix, he’s flanked by grape vines, possibly paired with his consort, Ariadne, and bracketed by those eyes. In the bottom of the bowl, a fearsome face may also remind one not to overdo it.
Before wine hit cup, it was stored in tall, clay amphorae, often lined with pitch or resin as a barrier to porosity. Though they tend to be less decorative than the drinking cups, SAMA has several versions of these in varying sizes, some meant for shipping wine, since
the Greeks traded widely.
Between amphora and kylix, though, was yet another container, the krater. On these, the ancient Greeks spared no decoration.
The krater was meant for mixing wine with water prior to serving and, often with the inclusion of snow, for cooling it. For good example, seek out SAMA’s Red Column Krater. Both sides depict “the drunken procession, or komos, that followed the symposium,” according to the museum’s label. Unencumbered by bothersome tunics, the men hold a kylix, a wineskin and another, deeper drinking cup called a skyphos.
But what of the wine that led to such an apparently unfettered aftermath? Historians tell us the Greeks added water to promote sobriety. Indeed, those who drank their wine uncut were considered uncouth.
However, that was only part of the equation. Wine was also consumed for reasons of nutrition and because it was frequently safer than straight water.
Taste may have had something to do with dilution as well. Knowing nothing else, the ancient Greeks likely thought highly of many of their wines, especially those coming from the Aegean islands. Some were even considered suitable for a modest period of aging in amphorae capped with clay stoppers sealed with more resin. A taste for resin, which survived until recently, may well have been cultivated out of necessity.
Imagine the reds, then, dauntingly dark and rife with sediment — they were often passed through a strainer prior to serving — and the whites likely amber, often sticky-sweet or scented with herbs, and occasionally even adulterated with seawater. Few of the indigenous grapes that produced them are cultivated today, at least in commercial quantities.
Free (members, children under 12 and Bexar County residents who visit 4-7 p.m. Tuesday or 10 a.m.-noon Sunday), $12 (students) or $22 (general admission), 10 a.m-7 p.m. Tuesday and Friday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, San Antonio Museum of Art, 200 W. Jones St., (210) 978-8100, samuseum.org.
Courtesy of SAMA
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Ball’s in Their Court
Dreambreaker: A Pickleball Story documents rare birth of professional sport
BY KIKO MARTINEZ
Talk about an overnight sensation. More than 18,000 new pickleball courts were added across the country last year, bringing the grand total to 68,458, according to USA Pickleball, the sport’s national governing body.
Currently, San Antonio’s Parks and Recreation Department lists eight publicly available pickleball courts in parks across the city, and multiple commercial ones dot the landscape. The city’s most recent court opened April 23 at the Walker Ranch Senior Center off Wurzbach Parkway and West Ave.
It’s easy to see why the sport — something like tennis but played with smooth-faced paddles and a hollow, perforated ball — is gaining momentum. It’s easy to learn and is accessible for people of all skill levels.
“Pickleball continues to grow in popularity in San Antonio, and we’re adding more courts in response to public feedback,” said Connie Swann, marketing manager at San Antonio Parks and Rec. “We’ve recently added courts at Walker Ranch Senior Center, Heritage Neighborhood Park and Piazza Italia Park.”
The 2022-2027 Bond Project has allocated $1.5 million for pickleball recreational improvements. The funds will allow for new pickleball courts at Tejeda Park, New Territories Park and Pickwell Park.
Overall, it seems like pickleball has blown up overnight. Nonetheless, the sport had to start from somewhere, which is where the documentary Dreambreaker: A Pickleball Story begins. Directed by Ashley Underwood and written by Craig Coyne, Dreambreaker tells the origin story of pickleball and how it evolved so quickly.
During an interview with the Current, Coyne, who’s the son-in-law of George W. Bush, and Underwood, who’s the wife of Curb Your Enthusiasm star Larry David, talked about the cultural differences between tennis and pickleball, the financial investment in the sport and its potential as an Olympic event.
Dreambreaker: A Pickleball Story is currently streaming on Max.
I’ve never played pickleball before. What am I missing?
Craig Coyne: You’re missing fun! Unlike with most sports, you can have fun with anyone. You can have a child and a grandparent on the court at the same time and still have a compet-
itive game. It’s unique in that respect.
Pickleball courts have been popping up across San Antonio. We even have a San Antonio Pickleball Association. Is that the kind of growth you’ve seen across the country?
CC: It’s growing immensely. Going back to 2019, it was still fairly underground. It hadn’t really transcended the public consciousness. People wanted to play pickleball, so they were going to their local municipal parks and local governments and converting these underutilized spaces. People are evangelical about this sport. They’re not going to take no for an answer.
You mentioned “underutilized” tennis courts, but the ones that are utilized are probably where the tennis players are not happy that their courts have been overtaken by pickleball players.
CC: It’s brought communities together and torn communities apart at the same time. I think it’s a complicated relationship between tennis [players] and pickleball [players].
Ashley Underwood: [The sports] are culturally very different. Pickleball is all-inclusive, and tennis has a bit more of an air of elitism to it.
Why do you think now is the perfect time to tell the origin story of pickleball?
AU: We actually started filming this back in November 2021 … so, I think we were a bit ahead of the curve. But I think this documentary follows the birth of a professional sport. That’s a unique moment in time that can’t happen again. If you wanted to [make] a film about the phenomenon or how it’s changed people’s lives, those themes could always be made, but we chose to go this angle [and] to focus on the professional sport of pickleball and how it materialized in a
very short amount of time.
Imagine if documentary films existed 130 years ago when James Naismith invented basketball.
CC: Yeah, [inventing a new sport] isn’t something that happens very often — the birth of a pro sport. We were trying to tell a story in real-time, which presented a host of challenges. We didn’t know what was going to happen, but we expected it was going to get a little wild. It became this earnest, quixotic quest to bring this thing to life and to give it a bigger stage. And then it became this Shakespearean tragedy [with] rivals and revenge and ego and all sorts of themes at play.
AU: We likened it to the Gold Rush. You get all these characters who come out of the woodwork. You have your legitimate entrepreneurs and ambitious people who are going to be successful, [and] you have your con men.
Do you think people look at pickleball and think, “How is this a sport?” I know I’ve done that with things like curling and slap fighting.
AU: One of the league owners in our film had this great line where he just said, “As a former hedge fund person, I look for things that are undervalued.” Now, you have billionaires and celebrities investing. Tom Brady and LeBron [James] are buying teams. Marc Lasry, who is a former owner of the Milwaukee Bucks, was one of the first to come in and buy a major league pickleball team. He bought his team for around $100,000 and two years later, it was worth $10 million. It’s an investment strategy.
Do you think pickleball will become an Olympic sport?
CC: If I had to bet right now, I would bet that it’ll be in the Olympics.
Find more film stories at sacurrent.com
Film 45
Trust the Chef
Jimoto Omakase pop-up offers a rewarding and highly interactive dining experience
BY RON BECHTOL
The form of Japanese dining known as omakase is an act of trust. In its purest form, diners put themselves in the hands of the chef to determine not only the content but also the flow of a dinner. The trajectory of an evening may change spontaneously midstream depending on the chef’s interaction with guests.
Outside of Japan, purity in omakase dining may be hard to come by, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
At San Antonio’s Jimoto Omakase, a “speakeasy” cloistered behind heavy wooden doors above ramen-redoubt Kimura, the flexibility to change course is retained, but it’s exercised prior to the guests’ arrival. Jimoto requires advance purchase of a “ticket” to dine. The ticketing process includes a survey of aversions and allergies, and this information helps inform that night’s menu — for everyone at the six-seat counter. Spontaneity may be sacrificed, but intimacy is not.
And intimacy sets the experience apart as much as does the menu. It’s not often that, with a few exceptions, every aspect of meal preparation takes place right in front of you. Diners are almost automatically led into interactions with the chef as well as co-congregants to either side. Discussions may veer off into dissertations on the use and care of different kinds of Japanese knives, all while a parade of tightly choreographed dishes appears at a measured pace.
The flag bearer in the parade during my visit was a surprisingly crisp and delicate oyster from the Texas Gulf Coast, its pristine quality amplified by accents of minced green apple, ginger and fennel. Following close behind came the first of many variations on a theme of nigiri sushi. The blushing slice of red snapper draped atop a lozenge of vinegared suishi rice had been lightly seared and topped with finely shredded mint. It arrived accompanied not with ginger but with pearly laminations of lightly pickled chayote.
That this was not your everyday omakase became even clearer with the appearance of presentation No. 3 — there were eleven more to follow. This nigiri featured sea bream topped with sweet miso that the chef torched as we watched. There was just enough fire to warm the nutty miso and activate aromas.
Around this time, the topic of kaiseki came up.
Kaiseki resembles omakase mostly in that it is a traditional, multi-course dinner. However, it touches on many aspects of Japanese cuisine and may involve cooking techniques such as grilling and simmering. The dishes are frequently paired with sake, and they also may be seasonal and locavore in nature.
That noted, the torching of the sea bream became understandable, as did the substitution of chayote for ginger.
The next dish to appear evoked springtime. At least symbolically. White salmon is a rare, genetic variation of the King variety. Jimoto sources most of its seafood from a popular market in Tokyo where such esoterica are available. The chef symbolically evoked spring by smoking the fish under a glass dome with sakura (cherry) wood shavings. You first smell the smoke, then you taste its delicate kiss, not unlike cherry blossoms.
Regarding sake, you may want some. Jimoto doesn’t have a liquor license, but you can easily source it, along with wine and Japanese beer, from Kimura downstairs. Consider doing so before you ascend the stairs. The Tozai Snow Maiden jinmai nigari was especially good with some of the courses to follow.
JIMOTO OMAKASE
Obviously, your omakase experience will vary, but these are some highlights of what we had: lean tuna with black garlic, soy and crunchy chile pepper; fatty tuna belly with red jalapeño marmalade; and a version of leche de tigre with sea bream, chive, shallot, habanero and basil. Had there not been a pescatarian in the group we might have been treated to wagyu beef in one minimally manipulated form or another. Just the same, it wasn’t missed.
But wait, there’s more. In time, we graduated to cooked and assembled dishes, which included a fragrant “risotto” scented with shiitake and seaweed dashi; a savory and lush oyster-mushroom miso soup; and, at about 90 minutes from go, a variation on a theme of tiramisu with matcha-inflected lady fingers, mousse and more — all served in a wooden sake-drinking box.
The guiding light behind this dinner and a show is Chef Ruben Pantaleon, bearer of coveted culinary recognition from the Japanese government and currently pursuing a degree from San Antonio’s Culinary Institute of America. On this night, the experience was expertly hosted by Chef Taylor Manosca and Adrian Ramos, both of whom helped Pantaleon open 19 Hyaku in 2023.
Presently operating as a pop-up on a month-tomonth-basis, look for even greater things from the trio when they find firmer footing.
1017 N. Flores St. (above Kimura), jimotosatx.com.
Hours: Friday-Sunday, see website for times
Price: Nine-course casual omakase runs $65, while 15-course omakase runs $100
The lowdown: Jimoto is a Japanese omakase pop-up operating above ramen spot Kimura on North Flores Street. The experience, either nine-course or 15-course, is ticketed and limited to six counter seats. Courses will be prepared or assembled in front of diners, and the interaction with the chef is almost inevitable — and rewarding. The frequently changing menu primarily features fish-based nigiri, but wagyu beef, soups, tartares and custards may follow. Go with the flow.
Find more food & drink news at sacurrent.com
Ron Bechtol
food
Tasty Time
San Antonio Flavor returns this May at the San Antonio Museum of Art for 10th anniversary
BY KAT STINSON
Back for another year and bigger than ever, locally organized food festival San Antonio Flavor will take place Thursday, May 15, at the San Antonio Museum of Art.
More than 30 San Antonio-area food and drink vendors are set to participate in the 10th anniversary iteration of the premier culinary event, offering guests a selection of bites and beverages all included in the admission price. The San Antonio Current is one of the organizers.
As with previous installments, this year’s Flavor also will feature the return of the fan-favorite culinary showdown, in which four participating chefs working with four local celebrities duke it out in front of a live audience for separate Judge’s Choice and Fan Favorite titles.
One of this year’s Flavor participants, Chef Jason Dady, plans to showcase his latest restaurant and bar project, Mexico Ceaty, set to open later this year.
“It’s always been one of my favorite events,” Dady said. “Being able to showcase Tre Trattoria at the San Antonio Museum of Art has always been something I’ve treasured. I really cannot wait to showcase our newest venture, Mexico Ceaty, for its first event and show our excitement for this new project.”
Other participants this year include Panfila Cantina, Elsewhere, Tu Asador, Full Goods Diner, The Jerk Shack, Cosmic Cakery, Ida Claire and many more. In addition to chef-prepared bites, diners will have access to craft beer, wine and other drinks and signature cocktails to sample.
In addition to the wide assortment of food and drink opportunities, the event will feature live music, DJs, local vendors with items for sale, and art installations courtesy of San Antonio Contemporary Art Month.
“It’s always amazing to see the community show up with such energy
and appetite for Flavor,” chef Mary Lou Davis of Ida Claire San Antonio said.
“Events like this remind us why we love what we do — sharing food, connecting with people and celebrating the creativity that makes this city so special.”
Beyond its culinary-minded event for a good cause, proceeds from the event go towards Culinaria. The local nonprofit organization is dedicated to supporting local food programs, culinary education and more.
“With summer travel, the heat and busy schedules, Restaurant Weeks is what everyone looks forward to participating in as both a restaurant and an attendee,” Culinaria CEO Suzanne Taranto-Etheredge said in a statement. “It’s an annual tradition and the perfect way to try out new restaurants, visit your favorites and to schedule time for dining out.”
Tickets are selling out fast, so advance purchases are highly recommended, according to organizers. In addition to $65 general-admission tickets, Flavor offers a $100 VIP package that includes early admission, a commemorative gift, a swag bag and a signature cocktail served during VIP hour.
$65-$100, 6-10 p.m. Thursday, May 15, San Antonio Museum of Art, 200 W. Jones Ave., sacurrentflavor.com.
MAKE A GOOD IMPRESSION
Jaime Monzon.
Digging Deep
Country-rock experimentalists Wilco promise surprises with upcoming San Antonio show
BY STEPHANIE KOITHAN
Expect detours into uncharted territory during Wilco’s upcoming San Antonio concert.
The critically acclaimed band, whose sound blends alt-country and experimental rock, will play The Espee on Tuesday, May 6, as part of its Sweet and Sour North American tour. Alabama indie act Waxahatchee will open. During a recent phone call with the Current, Wilco keyboardist Mikael Jorgensen explained that the Chicago-born group will devote time in its tour setlists to songs that haven’t often appeared in its live performances.
Jorgensen is loathe to use the term “music for the common man,” but the moniker seems to apply to Wil-
co, which continues the testifying tradition of folk forebears including Woodie Guthrie thanks to founding singer-songwriter Jeff Tweedy. The act’s nebulous-yet-comforting sound also owes to country-rock crossover pioneers, including The Band.
Along with plenty of praise from critics, Wilco has bagged both Grammy Awards and nominations. NPR even called the act “the best live band in America.”
But don’t think it’s gone to their heads now. They’re just here to explore — or so Jorgensen said. The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What can people expect from the show?
Lately, we have been kind of digging
into the catalog and finding some roads that have not been well-traveled, songs that haven’t made it on to the set list over the years. Songs that are still very viable and exciting. I think it certainly keeps us on our toes. I think that it’s going to be fun for the fans too.
Sounds like you’re digging into deeper cuts from throughout your catalogue.
Sort of. Last year, we played Solid Sound [Festival] and we did a deepcuts-only set, and it was an experience that we learned from. There’s all these songs that we just hadn’t gotten around to in a while, and so that’s been kind of a fresh infusion, in addition to songs from Cousin, of course, and some of the old faves.
How much of the setlist is going to be drawn from your 2023 LP Cousin and your 2024 EP Hot Sun Cool Shroud?
There will definitely be some from the new releases, but we’re all gathering later this week to go do some rehears-
als and then play our show in Fairhope, Alabama.
And where are you based right now? Are you in Chicago?
No, I live in Ojai, California, north of LA — about an hour and a half or so.
And is the band scattered throughout the country?
The base of operations is still Chicago, but Patrick is in Nashville, Nelson up near Albany, Glen and Jeff are in Chicago, of course, and John is in Maine.
So, how does that work with rehearsals? How do you how do you find time to get together and stay tight as a collective?
For the one reason that we’ve been doing this a long time together, and we have the benefit of hundreds if not thousands of shows and performances. And in advance of a tour, we just all sort of dust off the cobwebs and play through a bunch at home on our own time, and then when we get to rehearsal, it’s like putting on a pair of really great jeans.
Courtesy Photo WIlco
Wilco has been called one of the greatest live bands in the world. Why do you think that is?
I mean that’s quite the statement to have to live up to over and over again. I think there’s a lot of reasons why people really love what it is that we do. I think, first and foremost, Jeff’s great at writing music and lyrics, [which is] the kind of fundamental core of it all. But all of us have big musical appetites and are influenced by so many different kinds of music, not just country or rock or pop or folk music. There’s a lot of different colors and approaches to it, and I think we use all of that together in a way that people really seem to enjoy quite a bit. It’s exciting, it makes me proud, it’s also very humbling.
And so for you, in particular, what would those influences be?
Garth Hudson from The Band is right off the bat. The late and absolutely wonderful Richard Manuel, also from The Band. But also I don’t claim to be these people. My hero is Booker T. from Booker T. and the MGs. Of course, Billy Preston and then maybe it’s not super-obvious but there is certainly a bit of Kraftwerk, Can’s Irmin Schmidt, ? and the Mysterians. [Even] “Heroes Fall,” the theme from Beverly Hills Cop
When you came on, your first album with the band, A Ghost Is Born, won Grammys for Best Alternative Music Album and Best Recording Package. You had just joined on and already there’s this crazy recognition. What did that feel like?
Well, I grew up in the ‘90s and all of the punk rock and major-label stereotypes were swimming around in my mind, and I was always on the side of the underdog, it felt like, and so suddenly being recognized for the work that we did on that record, it was kind of disorienting in a way. I was like, “This is this isn’t why I do this.” We do it because we’re kind of pathologically programmed to make music and to all of a sudden have to answer questions like these ... . But as I’ve gotten older, it’s really great. I’m so proud of that record and the fact that a wider audience was connecting with it. That has felt really good over the years. But again, it wasn’t on the punch list of things to do, you know, like, “Alright, we’re going to make this record to win a Grammy.” Instead it was like, “Let’s just go do this,” so the fact that it was sort of organic to a degree. And we were all placing a lot of expectation when we were nominated. We were playing in — I think — Birmingham, Alabama, the night of the Grammy Awards, and we found out that we won before the show, and that was pretty amazing, I have to say. But, you know, it’s not a popularity contest, it’s not record sales, it’s not an audience choice or critics choice — it’s some measure of something to do with the music industry. But I guess that’s the long way of saying that I’m very grateful for the recognition.
Right. If a little ambivalent.
I think at the time, I was ambivalent about it. Also, I think possibly part of that came from the pressure that didn’t exist before, and so, I don’t know, maybe that’s my way to say if I don’t give this a lot of value in that moment, then I don’t have to think about like, “OK, well then, do we have to keep doing this to win Grammys?” There’s the threat of it changing the intention. Not that it did, but that was sort of the conversation I was having in my mind at the time but wasn’t able to fully articulate. $54-$72.95, 6:45 p.m., The Espee, 1174 E. Commerce St., (888) 246-3185, theespee.com.
critics’ picks
Thursday, May 1
Fredstock featuring Powdered Wig Machine, The Wizard, Grupo Metal Free music festival Fredstock celebrates the legacy of Fred Weiss, the professor who helmed San Antonio College’s music business and radio-television-film programs for more than 20 years. The Fiesta event will include plenty of food and drink, which benefit the college’s music business program. As per usual, the locally focused lineup is solid, featuring local favorites Powdered Wig Machine, The Wizard and Los #3 Dinners along with Grupo Metal and Jason Kane and the Jive. Free, 2:30p.m.-10 p.m., San Antonio College, 1819 N. Main Ave., fredstockmusicfest.org. — Bill Baird
Thursday, May 1-Friday, May 2
La Semana Alegre
For those of a certain vintage, La Semana Alegre was the ultimate San Antonio music festival, drawing an impressive array of out-of-town headliners along with local favorites. While the current incarnation’s two-day run doesn’t live up to the “Semana” part of the name, its lineup is certainly stacked. Eighties-vintage Tex-Mex rocker Joe King, hometown heroes Girl in a Coma, rootsy oddball Garrett T. Capps, West Side Sound icon Sunny Ozuna and hard rockers Legs Diamond are among the treats. Check the festival’s website for a full list of performers and their stage times. Free, Hemisfair Park, 600 Hemisfair Plaza Way, lasemanaalegre.com. — BB
Friday, May 2
Gang of Four
Foundational British post-punk group Gang of Four is saying goodbye after this final tour. Guitarist Andy Gill died several years ago, and bassist Dave Allen passed earlier this month. For its final run, the band, which still includes original vocalist Jon King and drummer Hugo Burnham, will perform its iconic Entertainment! album in full. Essential for post-punk fans, plain old punk fans or, well, anybody with a pulse. $30, 8 p.m., Paper Tiger, 2410 N. St. Mary’s St., papertigersatx.com. — BB
Saturday, May 3
American Aquarium
American Aquarium, led by North Carolina singer-songwriter B.J. Barham, has earned plaudits from the Americana community for its ambitious releases and shaped-shifting sound. The group has released work on the prestigious New West label and collaborated with noted producers Shooter Jennings and Jason Isbell. The group is named after a Wilco song, which should give a sense of its vibe. $25, 8 p.m., Stable Hall, 307 Pearl Parkway, stablehall.com. — BB
Sunday, May 4
Julien Baker & Torres
Two talented young female songwriters have joined forces for a new project and the world has taken note. Matador Records artist Julien Baker is one of indie rock’s best new songwriters, with a sardonic
confessional style that has made her a critical darling and led to her joining the supergroup Boygenius alongside Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus, both also excellent. A fresh voice for a new generation. Torres, meanwhile, is the moniker of McKenzie Scott. Together, they fuse indie-rock smarts with a cosmic country sensibility. $35, 8:00 p.m., Stable Hall, 307 Pearl Parkway, stablehall.com. – BB
Monday, May 5
Mat Kearney, Augustana
Mat Kearney’s journey as a singer-songwriter can be traced back to his days as a high school soccer star in Eugene, Oregon. A soccer scholarship led him to California’s Chico State, where he began playing music with a buddy in coffee shops. When his friend decided to move to Nashville, Kearney did too and never left. Over the years, he’s used a fusion of indie-rock, country, hip-hop and folk to drive five songs into the Adult Top 20, most notably the 2011 single “Ships In The Night.”
$35-$95, 8 p.m., Stable Hall, 307 Pearl Parkway, stablehall.com. — Danny Cervantes
Thursday, May 8
Morrissey
Mercurial crooner Morrissey is scheduled to bring his melancholy ballads to a receptive San Antonio audience. The operative word here is “scheduled,” because as fans and foes around the world know, Morrissey is notorious for his frequent cancellations. Despite his rep — and his recent anti-immigrant rhetoric — plenty of folks still love Morrissey for his legendary vocals with The Smiths and his solid solo work. Fans will be looping “Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want” between now and showtime as both a plea and a prayer. Sold out, 8 p.m., Boeing Center at Tech Port, 3331 General Hudnell Drive, (210) 6003699, boeingcentertechport.com. — DC
Tuesday, May 13
Pentagram
Pioneering U.S. metal act Pentagram has persisted through decades of bad luck, indifference and self-inflicted wounds with lead singer Bobby Liebling remaining as the sole founding member.
Thanks to its compelling proto-metal riffage and Liebling’s harrowing vocals, the band is now recognized as one of the foundational purveyors of doom-metal. Liebling’s battled plenty of demons over the years, and he channels them to great effect on the band’s latest album, Lightning in a Bottle, which also boasts a viper’s nest of fuzzedout guitars and a delightfully acid-drenched aesthetic. $25, 8 p.m., Paper Tiger, 2410 N. St. Mary’s St., papertigersatx.com. — BB
Hermanos Gutiérrez, Adrian Quesada Sibling guitar duo Hermanos Gutiérrez may be entirely instrumental, but that doesn’t stop the act from entrancing audiences with hypnotic melodies. The brothers handling six-string duties conjure up desert landscapes that are somehow both desolate and warm — lonely and peaceful. The music belongs in a spaghetti Western that ends with introspection rather than bloodshed. But above all, it’s sexy as hell. $30-$158, 7 p.m., Aztec Theatre, 104 N. St. Mary’s St., (210) 8124355, theaztectheatre.com. — Stephanie Koithan
Courtesy Photo Pentagram
Pentagram
EMPLOYMENT
Dentist (San Antonio, TX) Examine, diagnose & treating teeth & gum diseases, injuries & malformations of teeth, gums & related periodontics for adults & children; Reqs DDS or DMD & rltd exp. CV, Attn: K. Malhotra, Mysa Dental, 13762 Potranco Rd, Ste 105, San Antonio, TX 78253.
Land development Engineer (San Antonio, Tx) Req’d to dvlp & dsgn land dvlpmnt prjcts to incld plans, specs, & cost estimates. Use comp assisted eng’g & dsgn sftwr & equipment to prepare eng’g & dsgn documents for each land dvlpmnt prjct. Prepare written technical reports & eng’g studies using approved company format. Help Identify & analyze the principal dsgn features & major dsgn alternatives that satisfy the prjct’s purpose. Req’d to compare the significant parameters of each prjct & analyze dsgn alternatives to fit each prjct’s needs. Req’s a bach’s degree in civil eng’g. Positions available in both Houston & Plano Tx. Please mail resumes to HR at Pape-Dawson Consulting Engineers, LLC. 2000 NW Loop 410, San Antonio, Tx, 78213.
Cost Estimator (San Antonio, Texas) Analyze blueprints and other documentation to prepare time, cost, materials, and labor estimates. Confer with engineers, owners, contractors, and subcontractors on changes and adjustments to cost estimates. Collect historical cost data to estimate costs for current or future products. Assess cost effectiveness of products, projects or services, tracking actual costs relative to bids as the project develops. Consult with clients, vendors to discuss and formulate estimates and resolve issues. Prepare estimates for use in selecting vendors or subcontractors. Prepare estimates used by management for purposes such as planning, organizing, and scheduling work. Mail resume to Emrah Aramaci, Manager at kurmanc llc at 11843 BRAESVIEW, APT 1216, San Antonio, TX 78213. Attn: HK. Job in San Antonio, TX or email to kurmancllc@gmail.com.
Fujikura Automotive Services, Inc. in San Antonio, TX seeks a Quality Engineering Manager to oversee quality complaint management and manage product continuous improvements related to quality and design. Telecommuting permitted. Info for applicants: Applications submitted via online recruiting system only; only applicants selected for interviews will be contacted. TO APPLY: Go to careers.aflglobal.com and type requisition number QUALI007440 in the search box
WE HAVE A JOB FOR YOU AT THE CITY OF SAN ANTONIO! Alamodome Senior Audio Visual Technician APPLY TODAY! sa.gov/careers
“Ee-Aw”--some donkey noises, completed. by Matt Jones
© 2025 Matt Jones
Across 1. Low-lying region
5. Building girder
10. Petition
13. The big screen?
14. “A Confederacy of ___” (John Kennedy Toole book)
16. St. crosser
17. Property purchased with Qatari currency?
19. Pickleball divider
20. Hit the buffet
21. “Boo-___!”
22. Regretted
24. Words to a song
26. Shared billing for Etta and Celine?
31. “___ & Greg” (late ‘90s sitcom)
33. Extremely successful, in Variety
34. Singer Lily
36. Military packaged meal, for short
38. Granola grain
39. Performed in front of a pharaoh?
43. Pretty great
44. It may be original
45. “C’mon, please?”
46. Defunct channel that aired “Felicity”
49. Elegant detail
51. A pleased 500e, maybe?
53. Paul of “Breaking Bad”
57. “The Wire” character
58. Tajikistan, for short, once 60. Wondrous feeling
61. Mellow like cheese
63. Food served up for some rock Kings?
67. Tattletale
68. Of the lower back
69. Like some sporting equipment
70. “The Amazing Race” network
71. Photographer Arbus
72. Extremely
Down
1. All over the web
2. “Jaws” town
3. Cake component
4. Prefix that follows giga, tera, and peta
5. Notion
6. Another nickname for Dubya
7. Sinus doc
8. 2010 health legislation, in brief
9. London length
10. Crash, for one
11. The night before 12. Understand
15. “Yertle the Turtle” author
18. Chinese fruit
23. Tokyo’s former name
25. Without doing anything
27. Household cleaning chemical
28. Johnny of The Smiths and Modest Mouse
29. Giraffe’s relative
30. Forget-me-___ (certain flowers)
32. “No ifs, ___ , or buts”
34. Waimea Bay greeting
35. Group including Wordsworth and Coleridge, based on their location in England
37. “Behold!” to Caesar
39. Hiking trail
40. Word at the end of a French film
41. 1962 John Wayne film set in Africa
42. New Age Irish singer
47. Typing speed acronym
48. “___ means!”
50. Diagnostic image, for short
52. Psychoanalyst Sigmund
54. Increase
55. Deed holder
56. Requiring attention
59. “Yeah, whatever”
61. Part of a circle
62. Talk a lot
64. “Cheerleader” singer of 2015
65. Pelicans’ org.
66. Bronco or Equinox, e.g.
Answers on page
