Speaker 1: On the record is brought to you by Steve and Adele duke.

Hello, San Antonio is a fast growing fast moving community with something new happening every day.

And that's why each week we go on the record with the Newsmakers who are driving this change.

Then we gather at the reporters round table to talk about the latest news stories with the journalists behind those stories.

Join us now as we go on.

Speaker 2: Hi everybody.

Thank you for joining us for on the record this weekend.

Right now, there is a growing concern here in San Antonio, as there is across the country about the growing number of COVID cases, especially Delta, the variant cases here in San Antonio, largely if not exclusively, because of people who have not been vaccinated yet.

And joining us is the chief medical officer at university health.

Dr. Brian, also, thank you for talking with us, first of all, how bad is the problem here and across the country right now?

Speaker 1: Well, Randy, it's getting worse.

Um, you know, we've seen areas of the country see increases in hospitalizations and cases of COVID primarily driven by Delta for some time now.

And we're seeing the results of that here in San Antonio.

Our hospitalizations have gone up significantly over the past few weeks.

And, um, we're certainly seeing, uh, in the community, uh, an increase in the positivity rate as well.

Speaker 2: We're seeing a lot more people wearing masks, at least anecdotally you go to the store and you're seeing more people again.

Um, are you recommending that at this point?

Well, Speaker 1: We think it's a good, uh, thing to do if you're going to be endorsed and particularly around people, you don't know, uh, the good news, uh, for the Delta variants so far is that the vaccines that are currently available are very effective at reducing the likelihood of hospitalization, severe disease and certainly death.

Um, but, um, you know, there, none of these vaccines are perfect at a hundred percent.

And so there are some cases of individuals who are fully vaccinated can still get infected.

The benefit there is that they tend to be mild disease.

And so one of the ways to enhance your protection beyond the vaccine would be to continue to wear.

Speaker 2: Okay.

And how bad is this Delta variant?

It's more, uh, contagious, but is it, is it worse in terms of symptoms generally for those who haven't been vaccinated?

Speaker 1: Well, it's hard to say specifically if it's worse clinically, um, you know, a lot of the sequencing data that we, we, uh, have usually it's done after the fact, the retrospectively.

Um, but we do know that, um, studies have shown that the, uh, Delta Varian is more infectious.

That may be because they were replicates more quickly and, uh, uh, humans, respiratory tract, and therefore can develop more copies of the virus more quickly.

And therefore it can probably make someone more contagious earlier after being infected.

And all of those things make it more transmissible Speaker 2: Is our vaccination rate doing and how I obviously, across the country, as well as here, it's slowed as the last people who are to be convinced.

Um, you know, it's tougher to do that.

Are we close to what you'd hope?

The 70% of plus Speaker 1: I think as a community, we're still short of that for those that are fully vaccinated.

I think we've topped that for those have had at least one dose of the vaccine, uh, at least the, those who've had out of the Pfizer maternal Tito series, but as we've seen with the Delta variant, um, really you're, you're best protected with a full series on two doses of either of those vaccines.

Uh, the J and J is a one dose.

So it makes it a little easier.

And so we still have a significant percentage of the population that has either not been immunized at all, or is not fully vaccinated.

And they're at higher risk for the Delta day.

Speaker 2: And now we've seen stories across the country, as well as here in San Antonio of people who had resisted getting the vaccine and then regretting it when they get the vaccine, there was a story of a woman and her husband, uh, she was pregnant, lost the baby.

Is it taking those kinds of stories to convince people to get the vaccine?

Speaker 1: Well, we hope it doesn't always get to that point.

Um, you know, we really try to emphasize it's really about a conversation it's, uh, listening to people's concerns.

It's trying to provide them with, uh, really appropriate information to answer questions they might have, sadly, those unfortunately cases do occur.

Yeah.

And you know, certainly what we're seeing in the hospitals locally is a predominance of unvaccinated individuals.

And so those are the ones that are getting the real serious Speaker 2: When kids are going back to school this fall, what are you going to tell them?

We're going to have masks again in, in schools and our parents, you know, some of them are going to chase at that.

Speaker 1: Yeah.

I mean, um, I think the, at least in our states, uh, I think there are limitations, uh, out what the school districts can require or mandate.

Um, but, uh, as you know, recently the Americana pediatrics, I think it was on Monday of this week and said that they encourage in-person learning with masks for all ages.

And so even though it may not be a mandates or requirements, uh, it's certainly an option.

I think the parents should consider.

Speaker 2: Now you meant, uh, you mentioned the hospitals, uh, getting more cases in some places like Memphis, they're actually having to add more beds again to their COVID units.

Are we a ways away from that?

And do you expect that to happen?

Speaker 1: Well, we don't know.

We certainly hope not.

Um, but we're following it very closely as we have for over a year and a half each hospital, uh, has experienced both increases and reductions.

And I think whether it's a good thing, uh, that's come out of the pandemic.

We certainly have become more flexible in our ability to adapt.

Um, I think most of the hospitals are busy in general because there's a lot of pent up demand for health care.

As we saw coming out of the early stages of the pandemic, that's made us busy.

And then you add on top of that, some of these more recent cases of pivot positive patients now that adds to some of the capacity.

Speaker 2: Well, thank you very much for talking to us and we hope more people get vaccinated out there.

And Dr. Brian, the chief medical officer, officer of university health.

Thanks for coming in.

Biggest stories of the summer is the Democrats of the state house going to Washington right now and staying there to prevent the quorum.

So, eh, the special session of the legislature, they can't vote on the voting rights bill that Republicans want joining us from Washington right now via zoom is state rep Diego Bernal.

Thanks for joining us.

I see you had the Texas flag, the outpost in Washington.

Tell us about where you are right now in terms of thinking about coming back, how long do you think you'll stay there?

Are you getting your message across that you're reaching your goal?

Well, we certainly are getting our message across.

I think we've drawn attention to not only the bill in Texas, but voting rights in general, there are set, there are more than two dozen states that are proposing bills, like the one in Texas.

And we have to push back because what these bills do is under the guise of election integrity, they're adding more restrictions, more procedures and finding ways to discount votes, which are the hallmarks of any voter suppression bill.

So we're here for the duration of the special session, which ends on August 7th.

We have no intention of leaving.

That is the only way to kill this bill is by not allowing quorum to form, which by the way is use of the, of the rule that we have.

But governor Abbott says that he will call another special session, basically special session after special session.

So, uh, how long can you drag it out?

I guess We have no illusions about there being a shelf life to all of this, but remember that at the end of the regular session, we broke for them because they brought a really bad built with two provisions that were so bad that the Republican said, we don't know how that got there.

We disavowed these two sections.

The new bill came back without those two sections, but then with several more that were also bad.

So of course we're hoping to moderate the bill, but on top of that, we recognize that the real answer to this is to get something from Congress, from Senate.

We want to give them a chance To act, but that is also a problem now because, uh, basically leaders in Congress have said that you need to focus on infrastructure right now.

And as important as voting rights is they have to put that at least on the second burner, not the back burner.

Well, I don't know that they've said quite that I know that they're doing more than one thing at one time, but every government entity does that.

We have seen some significant movement from congressional and Senate leaders, and we want to give them enough runway to act or at least to start.

So that's another part.

That's why we're in DC as opposed to New Mexico or Colorado or somewhere else.

We're in DC to say, look, we've done all that we can.

We've bought ourselves a little time.

We bought you a little time.

Here's the Baton, pick it up and keep going.

And, um, you have to try it, right?

My mom says, all you could do is all you can do.

And as long as there's hope, there's hope.

And so that's what we're trying to Help.

What do you expect to happen when you come back?

I mean, there's always the possibility that angry Republicans could say, okay, this is what we're going to give you and that's it.

And they could also do the arrest or, you know, try to detain you somehow, Right?

Well for the arrest to happen.

And it's a civil arrest.

It's not a criminal arrest.

Um, that has to be after a call of the house has been made during the special session.

At the end of the special session, we'll see what governor Abbott does and what sort of make our, our mind up, make our decisions then, but really what this is, is trying to buy time, getting our message out, trying to get Congress and the Senate to act.

And we have gotten some indication that there are possibilities that the window was not completely closed.

And again, as long as that's an option, we're going to be here pushing as hard As we can.

There's some concern about if you stay there too long, there won't be that funding that is set to lapse for the staff of the legislature.

So what's going to happen with that.

You could jeopardize that, theoretically, if you stay there too long.

First of all, I actually disagree with that.

Remember that the governor didn't get what he wanted.

And he said he was going to go after us, but he vetoed article 10 where it doesn't really touch the legislators at all.

He defunded the salaries, health insurance of over 2000 state employees and their kids, the dependents that's tantrum and making people pay the price for something that he didn't get.

Remember if they wanted the funding, just like the 13th check for retired teachers, they could do that without us.

So they're making it seem like a ransom, but it's not real.

They could do it now If they want.

Now, some of the delegation has met with Senator Joe mansion, the moderate Democrat, who could, I guess, help, uh, kill the filibuster rule, uh, to, to further what you want there.

What came out of that meeting.

And also, I guess you met with a representative Jim Clark, Right?

We've actually met with a number of people.

What came from that meeting?

That's significant is this the details of the bill matter?

And what he learned was that I mentioned learn where things that he took for granted in his home state didn't exist in Texas.

And we're trying to take even more away than that.

And so it got him thinking, well, here's what I'd like to do.

Long-term, here's the filibuster challenge we've got, what can we do now?

Right.

And I think that that is sort of the new way of looking at this.

The new way of looking at Texas in DC is there might be a longer fight, but what can we do now?

Because not only are things bad, but the bill and the details of the will make things significantly worse.

And they recognize That would be looking at something else other than the, uh, the John Lewis bill and maybe a paired down version of their voting rights bill, how soon, how soon could they do that?

You know that there, there are discussions of something happening within the next six to 10 days.

I can't guarantee that I can only cross my fingers and hope for it.

Um, as you know, all these bills have a tremendous number of elements, but there are two or three that we will, you make a difference, not only in Texas, but nationwide.

And so what those discussions are and how they're figuring it out, isn't necessarily for us to know, but they are telling us they're moving.

And so we're just going to have to see what happens Now.

Explain there is something that's gone a little bit viral anyway, that you mentioned, uh, involving chunk Liz in the last couple of days, that relates to some of the specifics of the bill in Texas, that you're debating, Right?

So where that came from was, there's a, there's a new parts of the bill that add criminal penalties to something we've been doing in our community in many communities for generations.

And that's going with someone to help them vote, whether it's because they have a stability because it need help with language it's called a voter assist.

And so what there's a, the bill says one, you have to fill out a new form that says, you, your name, your address, your relationship to the voter.

Then there's a new oath that says that you ha you have to swear that, you know, that the only way that you're helping this person vote is because they cannot see read or write, which is new, and it takes away your ability to answer questions.

And then there's another part of the oath that says that you did not persuade, encourage or coerce the person to choose you as the voter assistant.

And the point I was making was, if I say, Hey, Randy, remember, I know you need help voting it's Wednesday.

When I promise you, we would do it.

Let's go grab your track class.

We're going to go vote.

That's what I said.

When I get to the part where I'm filling out the oath, and it says, did you coerce or persuade this person to choose you as a voter assistant?

If that's the conversation that we had, which people have in their families all the time that I violated, and the penalty now is criminal, right?

And so what happened?

It scares people that the assistance is, I'm not sure if I did it or not.

I don't want to get in trouble.

The voter to themselves says, I don't want to get the egg in trouble.

This is not what I thought was going to happen.

And the safest thing for both of us to do legally is to walk away and not vote.

So it, it creates all of these trip wires and trap doors for something that there's no evidence of voter fraud for whatsoever.

And so aside from getting voting rights, bill on the national agenda, you're also bringing, uh, some national attention to what chocolates are and how they relate to Texas.

We're out of time.

We appreciate your time.

And thanks for joining us from Washington, San Antonio state rep Diego Brunel.

After more than a year of being on hold construction is about to start up again on the latest phase of the San Pedro Creek culture park that is after they finally decided what to do with the foundation of a historic church there.

And joining us to talk about that is Deborah Jarman, the president and CEO of the San Antonio, African American community archive and museum, or say, cam, appreciate you coming in.

Tell us what this means now, in terms of the black community here in San Antonio, this is a big piece of history, and it's kind of been debated for awhile, what to do with it.

Speaker 1: So we are so excited.

Uh, the St James Church is the second oldest church African-American church here in San Antonio.

They actually had the first school for African-Americans here in San Antonio, uh, housed at their church.

There was a tuition that was charged, but still it was the first school in the city.

So we're super excited.

And when you think of culture and San Antonio's culture, often it is a very narrow vision of the, um, natives that were here, the Mexicans, and also the Germans, but our culture is so much more than that.

So we're excited, incredible Speaker 2: Black history, a lot of it we're still just finding out.

Speaker 1: Absolutely.

And because it wasn't written down, that's one of the fun things about what we do at say, cam is being able to dig and find out this rich history from descendants and from newspaper articles and census records, and just piecing it together.

Speaker 2: This is going to be a great showplace, really in a way, because it's right on the San Pedro Creek that is being redeveloped beautifully.

And this was going to be an amphitheater still is this area where the foundation is, what are the changes that have been agreed upon now?

Speaker 1: So about 73% of the foundation will remain intact.

There will be a rendering of the footprint of the church.

So you'll eat with the foundation there and the footprint there you'll be able to see, oh, there was something here.

It is our hope through the interpretive art process that we can have some type of, um, mixture of history and art where the amphitheater, that performance space will still render a church.

Like, Speaker 2: And you said the, the seats would be kind of like pews in Speaker 1: A way.

That's what we're suggesting.

Oh, okay.

Speaker 2: So it's still not literally set in stone, but the foundation is going to be above that.

I understand.

And the cornerstone is still there going to be a featured part of it.

Yes.

And now you also, we were talking before about say, cam, some people are still finding out about that.

And that, uh, is right in the heart of San Antonio as well on Lavita.

Speaker 1: Yes.

So we were, we're a new organization founded in 2017 by, uh, Everett fly, who was a national, uh, humanity awards winner.

And he also great architect.

And he worked on the research for St. James with, uh, others from say camp and also George Frederick.

So as a new organization, we're excited to be downtown, right in Lavita on the corner of Presa and new waiver.

It does not cost anything to come into the exhibit space.

We have three different galleries and people think, wow, how did you do that in that small space?

Think about what we could do if we've had a big space, right, Randy, okay.

That's a plug.

It is.

And we have our black history film series.

That's free to the public.

Then we also have a black history riverboat tour Speaker 2: And on the website as well.

I was on it last night.

And, and it, you can do go down incredible historic rabbit holes and find out, like we said, Robert Johnson, the great musician of the twenties and how he came to San Antonio and recorded some great music.

People don't know that they don't Speaker 1: Know that.

And they don't know that prior to Robert Johnson coming, there were over 200 recordings of African-American musicians and that's going to be our next exhibit.

So you have to come back.

If you've been already, you've got to come back Speaker 2: And it's going to take a while before the San Pedro Creek project is done.

And it, it took a little while to get here.

There was a lot of input from the community and this in effect is a, is a big compromise with what is finally been decided on, but it's getting it done, Speaker 1: Is getting it done.

And it is going to be on the national register of historic places.

So the army Corps of engineers in the San Antonio river authority, they, they worked hard with the community to make sure it's preserved.

And we're thankful to the army Corps of engineers who said, no, wait, we can't go any further.

This is a piece of history and we're not demolishing it Speaker 2: Well, it's great to see it preserved.

And also great to see a little bit of say, cam making the news.

And that is the San Antonio African-American community archive and museum Deborah Jarman.

Good luck with that.

And I have to have you back when that project is further down the road.

Thank you.

I would love to be back, right.

You know, and reporters round table this week, we're talking about what had been a controversial decision or at least waiting for what some thought was a very controversial decision on who would be the new president and CEO of the San Antonio housing authority or Saha.

They made their choice.

And joining us with all the information on that is the man called the eye of downtown, the editor of the San Antonio here and all about downtown Benton.

Leibow thanks for coming in.

Thank you, Randy.

First of all, tell us about what had been controversial leading up to this choice of the new president Of Saha.

So the, the major project that, that struck the most controversy was the Alexon courts.

Um, there, they were built in 1940 they're aging.

That is the largest, um, public housing community in San Antonio, 501 units.

And the, the previous, uh, president of, uh, saw, uh, David, his plan was to demolish the courts and then rebuild the community as a mixed income community.

And that angered a lot of housing advocates who said, basically, you're going to displace all these folks.

Sure.

Some of them may come back, but, um, and some of them may not, you know, so, um, basically what happened was he left to go, uh, be in charge of the Denver housing authority, um, in Colorado and his replacement was ed Jr.

He wanted to maintain public housing at the, on property.

Now he, he contends that the, the, the buildings need to be demolished and rebuilt, but he has committed to maintaining the 501 units of public housing to actually, he may actually want to increase that Amount there, putting mixed use there.

What had been the plan it's Shirley Gonzales was up for the spot and that's what a lot of people they Balked at that idea.

Well, so, so as council, woman, she advocated for, um, new development on the west side, her, her argument was these poor neighborhoods need private investment.

Um, the reason they're not, uh, flourishing is because, you know, private investment does not want to go there.

So she really advocated for that.

And now her replacement Terica steel as district five council, woman.

Um, she is more in line with the housing advocates.

And so this is kind of a shift in thinking over the past 20 years or so from housing, uh, maybe bringing in mixed income and bringing in an investment to housing stability, or all the people being in the same place that that is what they need.

Yes.

Because they're going to be gone and the neighborhood may stay the same and improve, but it's not great for the people who live there.

Right.

Th th that basically, um, it started in the early nineties with, with president Clinton and when Henry Cisneros was HUD secretary, um, they called it hope six.

It was basically the concept that we need to deconcentrate poverty and, and replace it with mixed income households.

And the idea was that that that's how you sort of uplift, um, folks in poverty and, and Obama actually, he doubled down on that saying that that is still what we need to do, but we also need to, um, help those folks during those transitions, because when you're poor and you go through a transition like that, it can be traumatic.

And so there are examples here in San Antonio and the east side, we weekly Cortes was replaced by east Meadows.

And so that's one example.

So now that Biden's here, he know has a junior as head of Soho.

And now the, the, the idea is completely changed now is we need to preserve public housing.

And that concentration of poverty is not necessarily a bad thing.

We just need to help them.

And how About the Ellis on courts?

What's going to happen with them in terms of the demolishing right now, and then it's gonna stay there, or it's still, the Last we heard was that, um, intends to demolish because they, they feel like the, the, the buildings are just too old and they're too derelict, but they have plans to perhaps build on other properties, like right next to the courts so that when they do demolish, those folks can stay on the site as they, as they want.

And now Another big story or, uh, following downtown Western urban, another project now, uh, behind the old continental hotel, which has also MetroHealth for awhile.

Yes.

Right there on San Pedro Creek.

What are they going to do With that?

Um, so they struck a deal with, with bear county bear county is going to provide them with a full property tax exemption.

And in return, Western urban has committed to building a 15 story apartment tower right next to the continence hotel, which is also right next to San Pedro Creek.

And they're committed to, um, refurbishing the old continents con continental hotel, as well as a smaller building that faces Dolorosa called the, um, around a building right Now, this also brings up public housing, or at least a, you know, mixed use or mixed income what's going to happen In terms of that.

So bear county has, they created a, an entity called the public facility corporation, which, which we've talked about before, but, but those are the entities that, um, the city has one, um, saw has one.

And basically they partner with developers and they provide full property tax exemptions for like seventy-five years in return.

The developers committed to providing what some would call affordable housing, what we like to call mixed income housing, because everyone's definition of affordability is different, but basically they're going to provide a small percentage of apartments for people making up to 60% of the area, median income, and then 40 more Right.

Making 80%.

So that's Great kind of tiered.

Right.

Right.

And then, and then this, and then the so half is for, for people making less than the area median income and the other half will be market rate so they can charge whatever, you know, Everything about your, the eye of downtown.

And if you want to know anything more about downtown, again, the San Antonio here, and a great website and Bentleyville is the private PI of downtown.

Thanks very much for coming in.

Thank you.

Thank you for joining us for on the record this week.

And remember, you can see a repeat of this show, or you can find a podcast at dot org.

We'll see you next Time.

on the record is brought to you by Steve and Adele duke.

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