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.

Join us now as we go on the record with Randy Beamer.

Hi, everybody, and thank you for joining us for this edition of On the Record, I'm Randy Beamer.

This week we're going to talk about everything from transportation and trees to business and baseball and more.

And to start it off is a man you should recognize.

If you've been here in San Antonio ever, even for a week or two.

This is Henry Cisneros, former mayor and former HUD secretary.

Thank you very much for coming in.

Randy, thanks and thanks for all you do with this program, informing people week in and week out.

You are still a politician and well, before we move on, we're going to run out of time.

Thanks.

the Texas Innovation Invitational, you just spoke there.

It's going on this week here downtown, and it's come up with new ways of moving people, new transportation ideas, very important to this area, right.

What's going on down there and what did you tell them?

Well.

Tech Start assembled this group of their own engineers, plus affiliates in all kinds of nonprofits and municipal organizations from across the state.

To do an invitational like you would have an invitational basketball tournament.

Well, this is inviting people to come and present their best ideas of what they think needs to be done going forward.

For example.

I left a session, in which Austin was presenting what they want to do with Congress Avenue because it's so busy now.

and that's pedestrian issues and traffic flow issues and light standards and, and and the street light system and everything.

And Austin is in a massive transformation.

And so that's just one example.

But these are innovations related to mass transit related to even the high speed rail that's happening in Texas.

Innovations related to safety are very important because you have a new element in the mix now.

And that's autonomous vehicles.

And how do they mix with the traffic flow?

and then of course, the big bugaboo in Texas is congestion in every major city.

And Austin has it not only in their street system, but age 35.

That runs right through the city.

And, you know, for people who travel from Laredo to Dallas, the hardest part of the trip is getting to South Austin up to Georgetown.

And so that requires a lot of thinking about double decking and reducing congestion and burying part of it.

and so those are some of these ideas technical or.

They're all they're tech.

They're thinking, yeah, big thinking design.

construction, financing.

but the right thing to do, you know, one of the hardest things to do in government is to get large bureaucratic organizations to think creatively, because, I mean, the science of administration talks about how organizations just sort of listen to themselves, and it's all internal to open their ears and listen to possibilities and new ideas and creative ideas, is a new thing.

So I think this is a positive thing for tech stuff.

You worked on the San Antonio Austin Mega Corridor.

I mean, we did the documentary here at Keller.

And that was very good, by the way.

But you you just.

Highlighted, okay, we're going to have to cut this out.

You highlighted the parts, that we really need rail from San Antonio to Austin that's been worked on, talked about for decades.

You get a sense from this invitational that that is going to be one of the next priorities.

I think this I think everybody's coming around to the understanding that we cannot build the future of a mega region or even Texas on the spine.

One soul connection, which is age 35 now, it really isn't the soul connection anymore because more and more people are using 130 to the east and more are using 281 and coming into Austin from the west, but essentially it's 35 and 35.

Also happens to be the busiest quarter for 18 Wheeler trucks in Texas because of the volume of goods and cargo coming in from Laredo, which is now the busiest crossing point for volume in the United States.

The biggest port.

Being port by volume.

Yeah.

Right.

Right.

and and that all that traffic goes right up H 35 all the way to Dallas and beyond to Minnesota.

So, all of those things have to be thought about because, look, this region, San Antonio and Austin is now about 5.2 million people today.

Right now, from, as I like to say, Pflugerville to Floresville in the South, but it's going to be 8.3 million people.

by about 2045.

Wow.

Which is not that far from now, 2050.

Stop and think about it is 26 years from now, if you were looking backward, that would be 1998.

So between.

Yesterday.

Yeah.

What were you doing in 1998?

I have to cut that out to.

So you did you get a sense that Tex Dot is leaning one way or the other in these kind of things?

And would Tex not have anything to do with, rail or.

I think what's going to happen in Texas, just like it's happened in other states, is that what has been thought of as strictly a roads transportation agency will widen its aperture to include other forms of transportation?

And it's just the facts are going to dictate that, the answer to congestion just right here in Austin, San Antonio.

Yes, we have to widen 35 and yes, 35.

In due course, we'll get all kinds of accessorizing, like electronic guidance to reduce congestion.

That's new.

It's buried in the roadways, you know, that's happening across the country.

But we will also have to have some sort of mass transit connection.

And there are also looking at things, at this conference like, synchronized lights, which we think are happening but really don't.

Well, and you know, what's.

Changing the game is I because you just get a faster ability to recognize when is the time to change this light so that when you pass it, you're still green by the time you get to the next one, I mean, the most frustrating thing I encounter it every day is waiting at a light and seeing the light ahead of you just as you start out, turn red so now, a block later, you have another two minute wait and.

People thought that was actually being done.

But it isn't being done in most places.

Well, it's being done.

It's just the technology is so difficult because you have to wait the cross traffic, how much traffic there is on that cross street, but I can help a lot and just synchronize.

So yes, those kinds of things that make people feel like somebody is in charge here that knows what they're doing.

That's nice.

the other big project you're working on right now is the Arboretum.

Right.

And people may have heard a little bit about this on the southeast side.

Where did you get the idea and where are you now in the process?

Because when you you I think I got the idea of being in cities that have created spaces where these majestic, historic trees can be identified and recognized, and it's really something I like to call it a cathedral of trees, because you get the same effect that you, when you go into somewhere like Muir, reserve north of, San Francisco, where the redwoods create these.

Yes.

Unbelievable spaces.

we can do something similar with live oaks and pecans and cypresses and the other the native trees of our area.

And we have a lot of parks in San Antonio, and we have a beautiful a botanical center.

But what we have lacked is a large acreage where you can, feature these great trees and take children out for educational purposes.

Volunteers, senior citizens who want to spend their time helping, take, people who come to visit San Antonio and about 41 major cities in the country have an arboretum.

It's an old concept, but it builds around the trees of your region that we happen to live in, a region where many species are, are viable because of the range of weather that is here and the nature of our soils.

Trees are also part of our heritage.

When the Native Americans lived here on their own, they lived in the places where the trees and the creeks were, because that's what they used for habitation.

That's what they used for food, the roots, the nuts, etc.

then the Spaniards came.

I've read their journals and they say, we think we've come on an oasis.

It was the San Antonio River and the cypress trees along the river that they were talking about.

Clear stream.

And that's why we exist as a city.

I had the governor of New Mexico visit one day, and he flew by plane.

And when he landed, the first thing he said to me was, Henry, I've just come across the desert and the planes.

And then I saw everything green as we were landing.

So to, to to people who come here.

The tree cover here is a feature of our city.

We've never featured it, you know.

So that's what the arboretum.

And.

It's always outside.

Where are you in the process?

What's the time?

We own.

The land.

It's 180 acres now.

have added additional land to get to 180 and more to come.

so it's sufficiently large to do a good job.

It's on the southeast side, just across from Brooke City Base on Southeast Military Drive.

We are now have retained a master planning firm globally significant group called Suzuki American based.

And they are helping us rationalize what we do with different portions and how we build it out.

And we're in the process of doing a national search for an experienced arborist who can be our head of our arboretum, CEO so.

And timeline for our opening.

And you think.

I think we're a couple of years away from opening.

Although we might be able to do Arboretum 1.0 and open a portion of it so people can get a feel for what this is, the fundraising effort is significant.

We're talking to every, foundation and public interest group and high net worth individual and government in this area.

The county stepped up first and put $7.3 million into this.

Good support allowed us to make the purchases of an additional piece of land and and fund the master plan process.

So we're in the early stages, but it's going to be a jewel.

And when you think of it, San Antonio is emerging very nicely with our trails, with our creeks, with the river reach, the missions reach with the missions themselves as a place where people will come because of that, because the natural, because of the way a city has related to its natural heritage.

Big deal.

Great plans.

Yeah.

Good luck with that.

Thank you very much.

Henry Cisneros, the former, was it mayor of San Antonio as well as HUD secretary.

Appreciate you coming.

In.

Thank you sir.

A big celebration this week for a group that has been helping San Antonio businesses now for 130 years, is they're also looking ahead.

Joining us to talk about that is the head of the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce, Jeff Webster.

Thank you very much for coming in, Randy.

Thanks for having me.

I appreciate it.

People don't realize 130 years ago, 1894 is when this group started a little different then it's evolved a lot, but pretty much the mission is still the same.

Well, the mission is still the same.

It's promoting the quality of life here, the workforce, and making San Antone the place that people want to work, live and raise their families.

And it's not just for business leaders in the downtown area like ten years ago.

What's what is exciting is because we're engaged in so many things people don't realize.

There's an old phrase around the chamber that used to be, we do things that everybody else thinks just happen.

So a lot of behind the scenes work on helping businesses, helping education, helping the military, helping our workforce.

So legislatively, both the state, local and federal.

So our fingers are on a little bit of everything.

And you have a speech this week where you talked about all that kind of stuff.

Yes, sir.

And, and, interesting.

I understand you talked about what you're doing for military families.

You know, I got to tell you.

So the greater chamber has been connected to the military at the hip for the last, really the last almost 90 years.

and what's exciting is the military told us there was a need to help our military families.

And it's the quality of life, and we call it small, say, supporting military families.

San Antonio.

And it's really a cool program.

We're going to focus on military spouses, employment, transition employment.

When you come out of the military so you can find a job and stay here in San Antonio, health care, you know, in health care, 70% of the troops don't live on base.

They're out in the community.

So getting them the health care that they need to support their families is really important.

It's been difficult.

And the third thing we've added is childcare, childcare for our military spouses.

They can't just run over to the bay sometimes a little further.

it's gotten to be expensive.

But the childcare issue is not just for military families.

That's a problem and a challenge in San Antonio in general.

So we're stepping into that space.

But helping the military also helps businesses here because we've seen what Brac did.

But there's always that.

You talked about contraction and expansion in the military, and you don't want it to go away if you can now.

Well, I tell you what's really fun.

We go to DC, we have a big trip every year called say to DC.

Couple hundred people go with us.

We lobby on different issues.

Military is always one of our key issues.

I love going to the Pentagon and you walk around those halls and everybody knows when San Antonio is in the building because all you hear is welcome, Military City, USA.

And they share with us those needs and what they need for Military City, USA.

And most people don't realize that Joint Base San Antonio is the largest joint base system in the entire military.

If it was a company ready to be our largest employer in the whole city, putting $55 billion into our economy.

So and how many thousands of people.

I think 40, 45,000 people directly.

And I think indirectly, you could probably put a multiplier of 2 or 3 on that.

So it's something we value, we protect.

And of course here in San Antonio, I just love how the community treats our military.

What are some of the other trends you're looking at?

I noticed one of the projects you have this month was Stay in Town interns or.

Yeah, encouraging businesses to keep the interns in town.

Yeah.

I mean, I'm glad you saw that.

So it was an essay and it wasn't about vacations day.

An essay is about keeping our youth and that next generation of business owners, employees and energy here in our community, so many of our young people, after they graduate college, want to drift off to other places.

And what we try to demonstrate, there's jobs and opportunity and a quality of life and affordability right here in San Antonio, we had close to 250 students show up at this event, and we're encouraging all our business members to participate, and let's keep those people here.

I know one of the things I've been working on for a long time, speaking an essay to DC flights to Reagan Airport, it looks like we're going to have it.

Maybe.

How do you feel?

You know, I'm feeling very good about this.

I you know, Senator Cruz has been an absolute champion.

You can take parties aside.

Congressman Castro was right there with him.

Chip Roy was right there with him.

They've made this a bipartisan effort as a greater chamber.

We've been advocating for this for over 25, 30 years.

You know, with the Joint Base San Antonio, I mentioned, the largest command here in support.

We have those direct flights, the amount of retirees we have here.

There's a whole reason why this city needs to be connected to Reagan.

National had those direct flights.

It's more like a battle.

If you think back in the old days between Love Field and DFW, there's new airports up there they're not wanting to add.

They're trying to drive traffic to their airports.

And there's some competitive things among the airlines.

American Airlines has been a champion for us.

I've seen the paperwork they filed.

I feel very good that we're going to get this flight and make it happen.

We'll quote you on that.

Quote me on that.

All right.

Jeff Webster, Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce, and we appreciate you coming in.

Thanks and good luck with that.

Thanks, Randi.

Appreciate it.

On reporters roundtable this week we are talking baseball and more.

And whether the missions might get a new stadium on the edge of downtown.

Joining us to talk about this is Molly Smith, staff writer for the San Antonio Express-News, is written along with a Madison.

Is there a bunch of stories you've been writing about this for a while, about the possibility that the group, now that owns the missions, has been pushing for a stadium?

Because Major League Baseball says they have to have a new stadium or an upgraded stadium to still stay in league.

What's changed?

So we've learned that the city is willing to contribute money towards this new downtown stadium.

Or financing.

Financing.

Yes, the city is willing to kind of help be part of that financing plan.

And until now, we only knew that the county was willing to help fund it.

But now, Ron Nirenberg is saying that he's open to it.

He supports it, thinks it's a good idea.

The city and county are eyeing property tax revenue as the mechanism to pay for this.

Funding instead of outright cash, right.

Or general fund or something like that.

Yeah.

So sources have told us that the stadium is estimated to cost about $200 million.

It's still unclear how much of that the ownership group would be paying for, but the city and county are eyeing, tax increment Reinvestment Zone dollars, which is essentially property tax revenue collected on land inside the zone.

Increase in that would go to them.

That would go to, the developer for some of this funding, but so remains to be seen how much of that total cost the city and the county will be on the hook.

For.

And this is, a change, a new development in this process because they weren't really on the same page.

It seemed like they weren't communicating.

Randy Smith, Weston Urban was trying to get in touch with Eric Walsh and that I've for a while, and apparently that didn't happen.

Yeah, we had reported last year that, members of the ownership group were just having a really hard time getting a meeting with, City Manager Eric Walsh to even talk about this plan.

and they'd had more luck with the county.

And so in June, the county, commissioners gave county Judge Peter Sky the okay to start negotiating with, the ownership group, writing a letter of intent to Major League Baseball about the plan.

And what's the timeline on this?

Because the ownership group has been under pressure.

They have to get it done pretty soon, or at least have plans on the table for the stadium.

Yeah, we know that they, the ownership group has told us, by August 1st they needed to have this letter intent of intent sent to the MLB.

As for the, you know, construction timeline, that's unclear.

we're hoping to get a little bit more detail this month because City Council should be briefed publicly for the first time on the plan, because that letter of intent is non-binding.

So ultimately, the, Commissioners Court and City Council have to give the okay to whatever, financing plan is in place for city and county dollars.

And Ron Nurnberg really hadn't talked about it one way or the other before, but now he's, indicating the support.

So that's also a big part of this.

Yeah.

This is the first kind of public statement that he gave saying that he thinks that the whatever plan they're going to come up with is going to be, a fair deal for the community.

And he's excited to have, a stadium downtown.

And to back up a little bit, people might wonder, okay, Mission Stadium out there, they built 20, 30 years ago.

Now, it's been a lot of money to upgrade that to the standards that MLB wants.

Is that out of the question basically now as well as out of downtown where they really want it?

Yeah, I mean, I think it's it's all but assured that they're going to be building this stadium, in the western part of downtown near San Pedro Creek Culture Park.

So I think the the question now that we have is, you know, what happens to Wolf Stadium, the city owned stadium this year alone?

I think they put in about 1 million on upgrades.

They'll probably put in more upgrades next year.

and we're kind of awaiting word from the city on, on what they're thinking of doing with that property.

and my speculation here, not yours.

But would it be that they're now moving ahead with the baseball, project?

Partly because of the timing, but also because they're moving ahead on that project.

Marvel, the other sports entertainment complex.

It's on the southeast side where, Institute of Hemisphere or Institute of Texan Culture is building is.

I think that's unclear.

the baseball stadium is kind of separate from Project Marvel.

But we do know that the mayor, who is about to turn out, in May 2025, does, as part of his kind of legacy, want to have this, this improve downtown.

And so I think together the project Marvel push which we're still unclear where they are with that because they they really haven't said anything publicly about that.

But that in line with the baseball stadium, is part of this effort to transform downtown project Marvel.

Could project DC be getting the planes to DC?

I'm sorry, and we don't know where that name come came from.

No.

Unfortunately, no.

Okay.

You've been writing a whole bunch of other stories, including, the text, now changing its mind on, part of Broadway, and they're going to demolish something the city already did up north of, pig stand area on Broadway.

What's the latest on that?

Yeah.

So drivers who have been driving southbound on Broadway may have noticed some construction equipment in front of the credit human building already.

Tex Dot has kind of blocked off a lane of traffic.

And so Tech Start is essentially demolishing a sidewalk that they gave, Silver Ventures, which is the developer that owns the Pearl.

The okay to do back in 2019.

Yeah.

This is one where they had okay, there was a fight over how much to do and what can change, but that was where they gave the thumbs up.

Yeah.

So Texas gave the thumbs up.

And essentially since that 2022 decision by the Texas Transportation Commission Commission not to eventually cede control of a section of Broadway to the city, this is just more fallout where, Texas is saying, you know, we want to have three lanes of traffic.

And so this sidewalk that we said it was okay to do a couple years ago now is no longer okay.

So Texas is going to be demolishing that.

And they say by the end of this year, that third lane of traffic and just that block in front of the credit human building.

Did they say why?

Because their projections were off.

For now.

Unfortunately, none of the kind of entities involved have really been talking about it.

Shocker.

And one other story or two other stories you've been talking about is fundraising for City council.

mayor candidates.

But also then one of the city council members is actually raising more money than the mayor's candidates.

We got our first look a couple weeks ago at just the fundraising numbers for the first half of this year.

and kind of one thing that stood out was that the district ten councilman, Mark white, outraised anyone else on council.

He brought in about $88,000, and he outraised even members who are running for mayor.

And that's going to be a very costly race.

So you have Councilman Manny Policias and John Courage who have announced, they raised less than thus loss.

And Mark White and Melissa O'Hara, who's, you know, assumed to be announcing.

And I think part of that reason is Mark white is a savvy fundraiser.

He's not afraid to meet with donors, ask them for money.

And he is someone who very much has, ambitions for higher office.

If you remember, he started his career running for a Texas House seat that was unsuccessful.

He's seen as someone who might run for Texas House again.

and he's also positioning himself to be kind of a player on the council.

He's a political outsider.

He's the lone conservative.

But he's found a lot of traction and support for some of his ideas.

So wants to be a leader on council, and I think is showing that strength through money raised.

And, you mentioned this in the story, but is he trying to get out, ahead of the, focus on his DWI from last year?

He says no.

He says that the fundraising total is not, you know, an effort to dissuade maybe challengers looking to capitalize on that.

I think it's an open question.

I mean, I think he is somewhat politically vulnerable because of it.

he still has widespread support in the district, but it's always something that a challenger could, you know, play on in, in the May election.

Councilman White, like the other council members, is up for reelection in, May 2025.

So you got a lot to write about in all of that stuff.

And maybe you can find out where Project Marvel got its name just for me.

We'll keep trying.

All right.

Thanks.

Molly Smith, staff writer, San Antonio Express-News.

Appreciate it.

You can find her stuff at the Express-News and the website.

Thank you for joining us for this edition of On the Record.

You can see the show again.

You can watch any previous shows.

You can download the podcast.

Just go to KLRN.org I'm Randy Beamer, and we'll see you next time.

On the record is brought to you by Steve and Adele Dufilho