On the record is brought to you by Steve and Adele Dufilho San Antonio is a fast growing, fast moving city with something new happening every day.

That's why each week we go on the record with Randy Beamer and the newsmakers who are driving this change.

Then we gather at the Reporters Roundtable to talk about the latest news stories with the journalist behind those stories.

Joining us now as we go on the Record with Randy Beamer.

Hi, everybody, and thank you for joining us for On the Record.

I'm Randy Beamer.

And this week, we're going to be talking about everything from Fiesta in the business of Fiesta to a problem you'll want to hear about with animals here in San Antonio right now.

But first, we're going to start with some good news about money coming in to this community from the federal government for things that are needed in San Antonio.

Joining us to talk about that is Congressman Joaquin Castro, District 20.

Thank you very much for coming in.

Good to be with you.

And now these are before we get into the specifics of what you're what you announced recently that's coming to the city.

Earmarks were one of those things that Congress got rid of a while back because earmarks, what a congressperson wanted and they specified for their district on a bill.

They were, I guess, being abused.

And but they've I won't say they've come back, but with limits.

Yeah.

You know, probably the mid 2000 people may remember this story about a Bridge to nowhere and these projects that were being funded and really abused.

And so maybe for 15 years Congress got rid of earmarks altogether.

And now they've come back really under a different name, community projects, but also with a lot stricter guidelines about what kind of projects you can fund and what are those.

And so this last year, it's focused mostly on a lot of things that are construction.

So not completely that, but a lot of construction projects.

But over the last three years, there's been a lot of education things we've been able to help with small business, health care.

And even this year we got almost $1,000,000 for the UT Health Science Center that's doing research on fatty liver disease, which is a real problem in South Texas, but also got $1,000,000 for the lift fund to do work with West Side, small businesses to help West Side, small businesses grow.

And then about $765,000 for SAM Ministries.

The work that they do with homeless families, they serve about 40 homeless families a year, including, you know, about 180 200 kids that are part of those families.

How do these ideas or projects come to you and then how do you whittle them down to what you're able to get as part of your earmarks because can't give everybody everything they want?

No, you're right.

I mean, and in the last three years, we've gotten about $37 million for San Antonio projects.

The first year it was easier because there were less organizations that had heard that earmarks were coming back or community projects were coming.

And now it's gotten fairly competitive, like we'll get every year.

Now we're getting scores of requests from governmental entities in San Antonio or from non-profits in San Antonio.

And so, yeah, it's it's tough.

It's my staff and I, we vet the different projects and then have to make some some tough phone calls to say sorry we couldn't help you this year, but I hope that you'll reapply in the coming years.

But, you know, we've tried to make sure that we're covering different, different concerns in San Antonio.

Again, homelessness, small businesses, health care, construction of different things, because, as you know, there's a great need in our city.

Yes.

Let's start with and you mentioned some of these health care and there's the fatty liver disease.

The research for that, is that a place that a lot of people don't know about here in San Antonio, the Center for Innovation in Drug Design or Drug Development at UT Health?

Yeah, I was part of the UG Health Science Center and there's a lot of excellent work and research that goes on at the Health Science Center that's very impactful to people, not just in San Antonio but around the country and around the world.

And this is part of that.

And they're doing excellent research on fatty liver disease.

So we wanted to make sure to be helpful on that.

But, you know, we supported them also with some money before for the joint, the Public Health School between UTSA and the UT Health Science Center.

And so I've tried in my work also and in these earmarks to build up our educational institutions in the city.

Over the last few years, we got close to $7 million for Saint Mary's University for different buildings that they were constructing.

And I want to try to help our lay the lake and some of the other universities going forward, too.

And other things in your district for the homeless.

And you mentioned a little bit about that.

Yeah.

What are you focused on this this year with the funding?

Yeah, this year we're helping Sam Ministries.

SAM Ministries was formed in the early 1980s by about 11 different congregations, churches that were trying to combat homelessness downtown.

And so they've been around now for over four decades, really serving the people of San Antonio.

And about 70% or more of the family that stay there.

It's because usually the woman was a victim of domestic violence.

So they're fleeing domestic violence.

And Sam Ministries has been great at helping get helping get people back on their feet and really not giving up on people.

You know, that was the thing that I really loved, is that it's such a it's a compassionate program.

It believes in people that even though somebody may be recovering from drug addiction or getting out of an abusive relationship, that they have the potential to get their life going again.

And Sam Ministries is helpful when federal money comes in like this.

She said there are more restrictions on earmarks.

Does it have to say how to SAM Ministries go for a specific limited purpose?

Yeah, these these moneys are for very specific things.

And so they're not going into a general fund.

The government, in other words, wants to know exactly how you're going to spend the money and make sure that you spend it that way, because before that was another problem that they were having.

Well, before I got into Congress.

But some of the money, the organizations became loose about how they were using the money and there was no accountability.

Yeah, there was less accountable.

What about the lift fund?

People might have heard about that, but this is one of those things that they can learn more about through the earmarks, through what happens from the federal government.

Tell us about lift fund.

So the lift fund was also a decades old organization founded by J.D.

Baratta, who just recently retired and really turned it into a national organization to help small businesses with micro loans, help them grow their businesses.

And this will be $1,000,000 grant to help them do that, particularly with West Side businesses, because, you know, that's a big part of the area that I represent, the west side of San Antonio.

And so I've always been impressed by their work and how they really have been a lifeline for small businesses sometimes to survive because they need some quick capital and other times to grow and prosper even more.

As I go through some of these specifically, there's a half million dollars for the Women's Live and Learn Center, Workforce Development and Housing for women.

Yeah, there's a lot of long titles in this, but tell us about what that actually is going to.

Yeah, we were just there maybe a month ago with the YWCA.

It's it's a place again for for women who are often rebounding in their lives.

One of the things that we face of the pandemic in San Antonio and actually has been a longstanding problem in San Antonio but got worse during the pandemic, is domestic violence as bad as it was in San Antonio, unfortunately had been a leader in cases of domestic violence in Texas.

So obviously not not a statistic that we're proud of and something that many of us have been trying to combat over the last several years.

But, you know, that's why I tried to focus a lot of effort on serving folks have been domestic violence survivors.

Another item that a lot of people will be happy to hear about is that came out of the electricity problem, the power shortage we had during the the cold snap you're working on water pumps for the city is I mean, yeah, if people remember in February of 2021 when we got hit by the winter storm, you know, everybody still remembers the power that went out.

But for a lot of people in San Antonio, their water also stopped because their pipes froze.

And so we worked with Saw as myself and I think Henrik required and I want to say Tony Gonzalez as well, got saw some money for generators and for systems to try to make sure that if we face that kind of situation again, that people will not be without without their water or at least cut down on the number of people that are without water.

Again, and project building up is that separate project from some of the other things that you're doing to combat homelessness?

Yeah, that's $1,000,000 for affordable housing through Mirsad.

Mirsad is a very reputable, long standing nonprofit that does work on affordable housing.

If you've noticed, the housing prices in San Antonio have really spiked over the last few years, and there are particular areas that are where the prices are really starting to go up.

And so I wanted to make sure that we combat that by doing something some more on affordable housing, making sure that people have, you know, places they can afford to buy, but also places they can afford to rent.

And a final last question about how you're doing.

You had some health issues very concerned about, very serious how much you want to say you about what you had and where you are now and that recovery.

Well, I'm doing well.

Almost two years ago, I was in Spain and was in a car accident.

And when I went to the emergency room, they gave me an MRI with contrast, which I had never had before.

And they told me that I had neuroendocrine cancer and that they saw tumors in my small intestine that had spread into my liver.

So last year at MD Anderson, I had a major surgery to remove some of it, but I still got some tumors in my liver and I've got one on my lung and I take treatment every month.

And fortunately, the tumors have been frozen.

They haven't they haven't grown in the last two years or so.

So I just need them not grow for another 40 years and I'll be fine.

And you've joked that your brother would be a good donor for whatever if he'd be a good match.

Well, they're in my liver, so, you know, the way that this type of cancer can get you is liver failure.

So I've got to be nice to him in case I ever need half his liver.

Well, we hope you have no problems that you would need to do that.

But thank you very much for coming and explaining all that.

Congressman Joaquin Castro, district Attorney, appreciate it.

Good to be with you.

We have kind of a good news bad news story here.

Now, the good news is we've had some rain recently.

The bad news is that has caused some problems for animals with a parvo virus.

Here to talk about that as a director of Animal care services, Shannon Sims.

Thank you for having me, Randy, thanks for coming in.

Now, tell us about what the rain does to the parvovirus and how that is affecting a lot of animals here right now.

Yeah.

So parvovirus is a is a disease that we don't have a cure for.

There's not an actual physical shot.

You can give the animal anything like that.

And it's also a very resilient virus.

It can stay in your lawn, it can stay on bedding different things like that, or it can be passed directly.

And unfortunately, when we get these rains, what we see is that that virus kind of, you know, comes back to life, for lack of a better term, reemerges.

And so if an animal that hasn't been vaccinated or whatever comes into exposure was somewhere where it's reemerged, it can become infected.

You mentioned there's no cure, but as you say, there is a vaccine.

Yes, very effective.

But how many animals aren't vaccinated?

It's hard to say how many aren't vaccinated.

We know that all the animals, it's because of the insurance.

Every single animal that comes onto our campus, we vaccinate upon intake.

We also have free vaccination clinics throughout the city to make sure that we're addressing the problem in the community, because obviously any problem that arises in the community, be it parvo or distemper or whatever, is eventually going to make its way onto our campus.

So we want to address it.

And how tough is it in the shelter right now?

Is it is it worse than usual?

And then how does that affect adoptions?

Do you have to keep the animals longer?

So we've seen about a 20% uptake of uptake from where we traditionally kind of see the parvovirus, you know, coming to light and, you know, it's it's one of those things that fortunately, we hold the animals for a few days to see if they start to break with parvo.

Obviously, if an animal is identified as part of a we do testing on site as well, you know, we at that point will hold the animal, try to treat the animal to, you know, to resolution.

And unfortunately, because it's such a resilient virus, if an animal comes in on one of our trucks in one of the cages, we actually have to shut that that cage down for multiple days while we're treating it with, you know, these high detergents that we use to make sure that it doesn't spread to the next animal, it gets in there and are there are seasons for animals, more animals being out there roaming the streets is springtime one of those?

It is because of the the rain that we typically see that that fires up in the springtime.

You know, unfortunately, the springtime showers don't just bring flowers.

They also bring parvo.

It's very predominant in the south.

We've got the warm, you know, the warm culture and you've got the the rain and the heat.

So it's it's a it's a large problem across the entire south.

If somebody out there thinks their dog has this, what do you tell them?

I would say immediately, number one, take the animal to a vet because they'll be able to determine if the animal does indeed have parvo.

And then, you know, you just have to be prepared for a long ride.

It's not 100% fatal, but it does have a high fatality.

And that's because the animal will stop being able to retain food in it.

Diarrhea, vomiting, will see the desire to eat and drink.

So a lot of that kind of has to be done forcibly by the owner to try to get them through that as it runs its course.

And because of the way it spreads, if they have another animal or if they have another animal nearby in the next yard or whatever, what do you tell them then?

I mean, obviously the greatest thing that you can do is make sure that all your animals are vaccinated.

It's not something where you can see if an animal has been exposed or, you know, you can't identify that exposure point necessarily and getting rid of the virus once it's been on a tile surface or something like that is extremely difficult.

And so, you know, the vaccination is going to be the single best thing that any owner can do.

Are you worried that the adoptions will drop when people hear about this and people hear about the numbers in the shelter?

And what do you tell them about that?

Well, I would say I would refer back again to the fact that the minute that we bring the animals on to the campus, they get vaccinated for parvo, distemper, all of the the the major viruses that we see that kill animals in our community.

How bad is the problem?

Right now?

You know, stray animals in San Antonio has been a problem for decades at this point.

Where are we?

I mean, I would say, again, loose animals, most of these animals that are running the streets are loose, they're owned.

And so there's no excuse really not to vaccinate your animal and make sure that they're able to take care of hopefully, some of those animals are vaccinated that are allowed to run loose.

But at the end of the day, it's really about number one, if you keep your animal on your premises, you're less likely to have that animal exposed to parvo because he's not out and about.

Secondarily, having that vaccination is absolutely critical.

Get it done every year.

Put something on your calendar and your phone.

A reminder to get that done.

And as always, if you're looking to adopt animal care services, just one of a number of places here in San Antonio that will also help with the parvo virus.

Absolutely.

Because a lot of our big partners, Animal Defense League, San Antonio Pets Live, San Antonio Humane Society, a multitude of smaller ones.

They all have similar protocols in dealing with the disease.

We isolate an animal if it is deemed to have parvo.

And then, of course, our general cleaning procedures help keep those outbreaks down.

All right.

Well, thank you very much and appreciate you coming in and talking about it.

And good luck with that problem.

Shannon Sims, director of Animal Care Services.

Thanks.

Thank you, Randy.

On Reporters roundtable this week, we are talking Fiesta appropriately and business as well.

And the business of the Fiesta Commission.

How they're doing.

Joining us to talk about that man who just wrote a story on this with the San Antonio Business Journal.

Commercial real estate reporter and more.

James McCandless, thank you very much for coming in.

Good to be back.

Tell us about the this story which talks about I guess this is the overarching group that looks over all of fiesta.

There's so many different groups that have organizations that run their own specific event.

But the Fiesta Commission, what does it do and how is it doing?

It's the main body overseeing sort of the official sanctioned Fiesta events and they are doing like a lot of different hospitality and tourism, and they are recovering slowly from the pandemic revenue, which topped out at around 3 million in 2019, has sort of declined on a sliding scale since then.

But that's just top line revenue.

And but they they they seem to be sort of building up slowly a recovery like just like everyone else is.

And in terms of the actual monetary figures, we're talking that they have several million dollars or have coming in per year.

What does that go for and how how far down is it?

So I think when you look at the that the numbers under the top line figures, you see things like sponsorship sponsorships are things that have declined.

The executive director, Steve Rosenbauer, told me that businesses that usually sponsor Fiesta events are were wary in the past couple of years of doing so because of things like rain outs and and attendance figures.

So they it seems like it's taken a couple of years for them to give their confidence back and sponsorships are returning to pre-pandemic levels.

And that's also true for memberships which allows businesses and individuals to participate in Fiesta commissions overall program that declined to its lowest levels in a while and they recently bounced back as well in sort of a V-shape kind of kind of way.

I guess the biggest thing that people would see and notice about this is that the Fiesta Commission is building their on Broadway.

They sold.

Right.

The pandemic itself wiped out its cash reserves.

They had to dig themselves out of a hole.

They sold their building and they're renting out some space downtown right now.

And this is it a reflection, a mirror of what's going on in terms of business, tourism or whatever.

Aside from the Fiesta events and whether they're coming back specifically individually over the years?

I think so, yeah.

You know, the hotels downtown is aren't as well occupied as they used to be.

There's a group on the Riverwalk that operate there that are worried about whether or not we'll see a quote unquote Dead River walk because of because of this.

So, yeah, I think it mirrors a lot about about the state of the overall tourism and hospitality economy in general.

And I know you don't get into this in this article, but construction, I've heard already from people who have gone down to some of the Fiesta events saying, I can't go down there this year just because of the construction.

That also has to be affecting business in general, except for those people that fly in.

Maybe as someone who covers downtown a lot, I hear every day about the city is handling construction.

And it doesn't seem that this year that they've thought out as much as they should have had to get people in and out of Naias and other events like that.

So that may also play a part as well.

And looking ahead, does the Fiesta Commission, are they going to be back bigger and better than ever, you think, with sponsorships coming back with the memberships?

It'll be interesting to see.

I think, you know, 23, 20, 23, these numbers aren't public yet, but the executive director said that that they're around the same as 22.

So I think it's going to be a while before they're back to to pre-pandemic levels.

But they seem to be very optimistic about how how those underlying numbers of sponsorships and and memberships are going and the potential for even expanding the fiestas calendar in the future.

And this is Fiesta is a party with a cause.

It's all about the nonprofits putting on events like Night also for the Conservation Society.

How are those events?

I know it's kind of early for this year, but how are those events doing coming back from that pandemic?

And are they you know, they've had to struggle, at least in the past years, over the past few years, over the pandemic.

Right.

I think I think that there have it might be a little early to see.

There have been some I think that there is some optimism about this year prior to as opposed to last year.

So I think that a lot of people are feeling better about it.

It's just a matter of whether or not that it's it it's you know, like I said, like we said, easy to get in, in and out of these events.

Parking prices are a big issue that I that that we've been hearing about is as as prices rise it's it's people are calling it a very expensive fiesta and how about the Alamo restoration project Now that's going to be for a couple of more years.

We're talking actually, I think, 20, 27 until it's all done with the museum.

When they're talking about a dead area on the Riverwalk.

They also have to look long term ahead as to when the Alamo is, we should say, in bloom.

And it's connected.

A new connection down to the river walk.

Is there is there talk of that yet or is it still we're looking to in three years kind of short term and a tough time?

Yeah, I think it's a lot of it's a lot of in transition for these next couple of years.

You've got the Alamo redevelopment, you've got the San Antonio African-American Community Archive and Museum that's moving in down the street on Euston Street.

You've got a lot of different things along that corridor and spreading out that that are just that are just half baked right now.

And couple that with the construction that the city's doing on the streets in and around downtown, then it's it's just going to be a very few it's going to be a few hard years before before things settle down.

How about the people who are moving into downtown?

What is where are we in that?

From the decade of downtown trying to get more people in so I can only think about two apartment apartment buildings that are going to open this year.

Downtown you've got western urban 300 main and you've got Keller Henderson's Floodgate Apartments.

Those are about 300 or so units each.

So it's about 600 people that might move.

The city is trying to come up with an incentive program right now to incentivize tens of thousands of more people to to live downtown by providing developers with a partial break on on their their development cost to build these these things.

So that should be interesting to see when when recommendations are made later this year on what an incentive program could look like and how much how how many units that could that could spur and how much business and how many office offices are downtown to support those workers.

And that's been tough after the pandemic.

Right.

There's a lot of there's a lot of empty office space downtown right now.

And there's been a lot of talk about converting offices to apartments.

But but it's very hard to do that for buildings that are not as old as, say, the Tower Life building that that a group of developers is working on right now.

Developers just say that that a lot of more recently constructed offices aren't as suited to to that to that type of of conversion.

All right.

Well, thank you very much, James McCandless, commercial real estate reporter and more for the San Antonio Business Journal.

Thank you very much for coming in and the Fiesta and thank you for joining us for this edition of On the Record.

You can see this show again or previous shows.

You can also download the podcast, at KLRN.org Lauren dot org.

I'm Randy Beamer and we'll see you next time on the record is brought to you by Steve and Adele Dufilho