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 and talk about the latest news stories with the journalists behind those stories.

Join us now as we go on, Speaker 2: Buddy, thank you for joining us.

I'm Randy Beamer, and one of the biggest stories in San Antonio, as well as across the country right now, the changing face of COVID and new suggestions recommendations from the CDC and the American academy of pediatrics have allowed wearing mask with the changing numbers.

Joining us, talk about that a much more is mayor Ron.

Nurenberg just back from Washington.

We'll get to that in a minute, but first of all, this week, the CDC changed its recommendations.

And what does that mean here in San Antonio?

Speaker 1: Well, it means that, uh, as we continue to adhere to CDC guidance that, uh, our public health authority agrees, uh, that regardless of vaccine status, uh, if you were in a public location, uh, indoors, you should begin to wear masks again.

Uh, and the importance of that is that, uh, there is, uh, data that suggests that, uh, while the vaccines, uh, do protect you from severe illness, uh, and from death, very importantly, it keeps you out of the hospital.

Uh, some folks are picking up infection and are able to transmit it.

So, uh, it has become a pandemic among the unvaccinated who are primarily the ones filling up hospitals all across the country.

Uh, but the Delta variant is highly infectious and very dangerous for those are un-vaccinated.

Uh, and we need to get control of this virus.

And one of the ways we can do that is slow down the transmission, which is now high, uh, by wearing masks.

Are we Speaker 2: In terms of the numbers right now?

The CDC guidance, uh, affects high transmission areas Speaker 1: And we're one of them, uh, yeah, roughly half the United States is what would be considered a hot zone with regard to the Delta variant.

We're well, over 80% of cases now are Delta.

Uh, we've seen the transmission rate, our positivity rate among tests, uh, skyrocket, uh, since, uh, June where we were well below 2%, we are now over 17% transmission here, positivity here in San Antonio.

The very concerning part of this is that the number of folks that are showing up at the hospital with severe illness who are unvaccinated is growing daily.

And so we're at a point now where the hospitals are really starting to feel intense pressure with regard to capacity and the spike in hospital numbers of people.

Again, uh, being admitted to the hospital, people filling up the ICU's, who are unvaccinated individuals with COVID-19 severe illness is such that the acceleration is, is, um, almost to the point where we're, we, we can't handle the load.

So we have to do everything we can as a community to slow down transmission.

And that means even though transmission is much lower for folks who are vaccinated, uh, in, and again, they're largely safe from severe illness.

We've got to do everything we can to slow down transmission.

And one of the ways we do that is wearing masks, but Speaker 2: Now this doesn't seem to be translating into getting more people to get vaccinated, even though it's really showing them clearly the risks, the numbers increasing vaccinations here was by tenths of a percentage point.

Um, Speaker 1: What can you do to change that?

Yeah.

What are you?

Well, we have, um, first of all, San Antonio has done a tremendous job collaboratively.

We've exceeded the federal goal long ago, uh, in terms of getting 70 plus percent vaccinated with at least one dose we're well, over 60% now, fully vaccinated, we need 30%, right?

And so we need to continue to increase the numbers.

So we have lots of mobile, uh, vaccination clinics being hosted by community centers, churches, lots of places are now we're going where people are.

We're trying to reach those hard to reach populations.

A lot of folks don't know, we even have a homebound program.

That's continued.

If you have a home bound, um, family member, we can send nurses to them to get back vaccinated.

Uh, but also w we've got to break some of the myths.

This is a safe vaccine it's been approved for emergency use by federal, uh, the, by the FDA.

It's going through continued testing.

There have been millions of vaccines administered here in, in San Antonio and in Texas, the, the vast majority of folks have very mild symptoms, if any.

And so it's a safe, it's effective and it will slow down and stop.

Eventually this COVID-19 pandemic.

Go ahead.

Well, the last thing I want to say is that there are some people in our community, primarily kids who are about to go back to school under 12, who cannot be vaccinated, they're just not eligible.

So we have to do our part as a community to protect them.

It's not just about the vaccine, hesitant it's about folks who aren't yet eligible.

And frankly, those healthcare workers and their families that are putting, uh, who are in harm's way now, because they're having to face a lot of folks in the hospital who are unvaccinated, who are having severe illness, illness.

They are back into the trenches.

They are exposed.

They're going back home to their families.

We have to show some compassion and we have to get work within our own peer groups to find folks who have not been vaccinated, convince them now as a time do Speaker 2: It.

I know you're trying to do that.

Sending a letter to the governor, allowing people you hope to, to reinstate mask requirements, you also send a letter, uh, to members of Congress about the infrastructure projects that could bring a whole lot of money to San Antonio.

You went to Washington last week.

What did you find Speaker 1: Out there?

Well, we met with, uh, several administration officials met with the white house a couple of times.

Uh, and our message was that in order for us as a nation to have a steady, strong recovery from this pandemic, we need to make investments in our local communities, the infrastructure of our communities, and not just concrete bridges, roads, transit systems, parks, but also our human infrastructure.

So we were carrying that message in particular, though, we do have some infrastructure proposals in front of the federal government, uh, through DOD and others, uh, that we're going to advocate for as a local people.

Speaker 2: One is on the west side transit center.

Speaker 1: Well, we have a, uh, Greenway trail program that has been voter approved for the last 20 years.

It's now a ring around this entire city.

And what we're finding is that people are using that, not just for recreation and public health purposes, but it's now mobility.

One of the gaps in that, uh, Trailway system is on the west side where we connect the west side creeks, which have really blossomed over the last couple of years to the Ingram, uh, street Tran Ingram Creek transit center, which is one of the heaviest traveled, uh, parts of the via metropolitan transit system route.

So are routes.

So we are working to connect those.

We have a $25 million proposal submitted to the department of transportation.

We're going up there to advocate for it.

It's high time that the, the OT invest in San Antonio, it's been 10 years since we had it, but it's Speaker 2: Really the politics right now of getting that infrastructure bill passed.

What did you find out about that we're Speaker 1: Running out of time?

Huge, hugely important.

Uh, but it's going to require bi-partisan partnership, which has been, um, uh, rare these days.

Uh, but there is huge hope that if there is anything that Congress can agree on, on both sides of the aisle it's investments in the local communities and in the infrastructure of our country, how much could we see in terms of money from that?

Well, it's, it's not yet clear, but the size of the infrastructure bill is, uh, uh, is roughly $1.2 trillion.

And that covers a lot of different areas.

Obviously a lot of that is, is transportation and transit.

Uh, but it's a huge amount of investment that is not short of a new deal, uh, in this city.

All right.

Well, Speaker 2: Thank you very much.

So mayor Ron, Nurenberg just back from Washington, appreciate all your information, look forward to seeing you again.

Thanks.

Great.

Thanks for With the COVID situation, changing daily and with new CDC guidance about mask wearing, and those were vaccinated or not, and whether they should wear a mask and wear well, it is a big issue now for some parents, as kids are going back to school, also a very big issue for teachers and joining us right now is over the Molina, the president of the Texas state teachers association.

Thanks for joining us.

Now, first of all, you just found it yesterday about this new CDC guidance.

What do you think it means for teachers and what do you want to see in Texas schools?

This fall?

We have long, um, been asking the governor to have a plan for, uh, making sure that our students and our educators were safe as possible.

And we haven't seen that.

And so we have long been asking for local school districts to be allowed to say, uh, we are requiring masks because that's the safest thing.

We go to schools, where are there are students, and there are adults that interact all day long, and then we go home to other people.

And so when we're asking for this safety measure, we're trying to ensure the safety of our students, our educators, or families in our community.

Now the governor back in may said that the state would not allow school districts or other many other groups to require masks.

And it doesn't look like that's going to change.

How do you want to get around that?

I guess, if you will, or what, what if the governor doesn't change his mind?

We're hoping that the governor sees, uh, the, the data and the science, uh, you know, in may, it was starting to look like things were getting better and we wanted everything to get better when people started going out and, you know, living their lives and interacting with other people outside of their bubbles.

Right.

And now we have our students coming back after a summer break, where we were acting like things were okay, hoping that things were okay, but they're not.

And we're seeing cases go up.

So in this case, the governor can simply say in may, things were looking better, but now they're not.

So in order to keep our students and our staff safe and our communities, then I think I should change my mind and ensure the safety of our students and our educators, and do the right thing and allow school districts to, to be, to wear masks.

If they need to say that they are wearing masks, as they need to.

You know, there's a lot of pushback, obviously from, uh, different people for different reasons.

I heard a local radio talk show host here in San Antonio yesterday say that teachers are acting like it's a hazard for them to go to school.

And if they think the kids are a hazard, then they shouldn't be teaching.

I mean, it's, it's very, very emotional topic for some parents out there.

What do you say to them to maybe convince them to at least get their child, to wear a mask and to understand why the teacher wants to wear a mask as well.

And it's not just our teachers, it's our support professionals, our, our bus drivers, our cafeteria people, our hall monitors are administrators.

Every adult that goes into the school building is facing every single day.

Uh, the, the fear of is today, the day that I'm going to get sick at, we're asking everybody to get vaccinated.

If they can, to ensure one more level of security.

We're also hoping that, uh, the community rallies behind our safety and we're trying to get them to, to act like our students.

When we're in our classrooms, we are all working together to ensure everybody succeeds.

That's what we're asking the community to do.

That's what we're asking our parents to do, to model the behavior of safety so that more people do it.

And so that we get out of this pandemic, we as educators want to be in our schools in a somewhat normal setting where, where things are better than they were before.

COVID, but we're not going to get there.

If we continue to make, take, take risky behavior and make it okay.

We had some teachers at the beginning of the pandemic last year, and since then, uh, retire and leave the classroom.

Are you expecting more of that?

If, uh, there aren't requirements for some teachers in place or for students in place as well?

For masks, We, we are going to see, um, good educators leave the profession, uh, because the choice of putting themselves or their family members in danger is, is, is not a choice that they want to make, but it's not just, uh, our educators are going to be losing out and that we're going to be losing.

It's also our students, our students are not going to come back to classrooms because their parents are afraid of them getting sick or somebody in their family.

And so we're having people choose to not go to school or to go to school and feel safe with this anxiety.

It's not going to be the best experience for our students.

And that's what we're fighting for.

We're fighting for our students to have the best education possible in the safest way possible.

If the governor doesn't allow requirements again, what would you want school boards across the state to do?

What do you want schools and teachers to do as well as parents?

I would love to see everybody continuing because I've started to see school districts, uh, putting out statements where this is on the governor's hands.

This is the governor's, uh, mandate.

We are wanting to have safety measures that we can not have in our schools.

And so asking the community to reach out to the governor, send a letter, make a phone call, making sure that he is taking our safety into account and ensuring that our school districts who know what happens in their, in their buildings are educators who know what happens in their classrooms and in the hallways.

Uh, they're the ones they should be saying what what's going on.

Especially if we're following the science that says in order to not have more COVID cases, we should be having more safety precautions.

Yes.

All right.

Well, thank you very much.

Again, all of this is changing by the day, or I'd like to have you back, uh, down the road when we see what actually happens in across Texas.

So Vivian Molina, president of the Texas state teachers association, thanks for joining us.

San Antonio was affected by the pandemic in so many ways that we are still feeling one of them a big way is tourism.

And trying to bring that around again, we're seeing this uptick in that, but we, we can't wait till we see more.

It's Mark Anderson, who is the new CEO of visit San Antonio down from Chicago and the greater Chicago land area.

Thanks for coming in.

Welcome to San Antonio at first of all, how big a challenge is it right now to get tourists back to San Antonio?

The way it was a couple of years ago?

Speaker 1: Well, first of all, thank you for having me, Randy.

Um, it's a challenge, you know, I mean, it's a challenge, uh, domestically, but internationally as well.

Um, now there has been a huge resurgence of leisure travel.

Uh, we're seeing numbers that are record breaking, you know, not only breaking 2019 revenues, but some of our partners in San Antonio are breaking, um, lifetime records.

Uh, but there's a way to go.

I mean, we have, you know, our city is very dependent as it should be on group and conventions at our convention center.

Uh, we just had one major, um, convention, the Texas high school coaches association, which broke an all-time record of more than 14,000 attendees.

Uh, so that was very positive news for the group and convention market, but we have a ways to go.

We have 31 conventions left on the calendar for the convention center that will generate a hundred thousand attendees and more than a hundred million dollars in economic impact for San Antonio Speaker 2: Down by the hundreds of millions.

And we lost awesome, literally Speaker 1: Hundreds of millions of dollars of not only economic impact, but jobs and tax revenue for the city.

Speaker 2: You came in, you've got a 100 day plan and you're focusing really on that, what we call leisure, I guess there, what do you say?

The eight states in the area where you can drive into Texas?

We are, Speaker 1: I mean, we're lucky that there's 40 million people that can drive into San Antonio.

Um, and we're tackling those driving audiences and we're doing a really good job.

Our numbers are, um, you know, beating Orlando right now, Anaheim, um, uh, Austin.

Um, so we're pleased I'm in Houston, but we have a ways to go.

I mean, our, uh, part of our job at visit San Antonio is making a difference for our city, our community and our stakeholders and our partners.

Speaker 2: Well, now the budget for the visit San Antonio is cut last year.

People were laid off, it's, uh, partly funded by the hotel occupancy tax, the hot tax in San Antonio.

How much is that hurt?

What you're trying to do.

And do you have the resources to go out and really recruit people like you used to?

Yeah.

Speaker 1: I mean, one of the things that attracted me to San Antonio is how pro tourism and how pro-business we are.

And this community is you don't see that in many other cities in the country.

Um, and there is a belief that hospitality a difference in San Antonio.

It's a third largest industry.

So although our budget was hit, um, you know, we have been able to hit the ground running because of the support from the city and our stakeholders and our partners.

How are you doing Speaker 2: That?

I got to in Texas monthly, a lot of people did with their Texas monthly subscription.

They got a big Colorado magazine.

I mean, incredibly, it seemed like expensive.

Are we doing those kinds of things out there?

Brochures, how do you get other Speaker 1: People to come in?

We are doing some print advertising, but we're doing more direct to the consumer and digital marketing.

Uh, we're running a new C San Antonio campaign, which is focused on that drive and regional audience, but also focused on bringing local San Antonio's to downtown San Antonio, to enjoy, uh, the restaurants, the museums, the offerings, our hotels and Santa see San Antonio is, uh, there's so many different connotations to it in meetings, but it's, uh, it's a great new campaign.

150 of our members or partners are offering, you know, anything from discounts that our hotels discount discounts for our tours and attractions, complimentary appetizers, hors d'oeuvres, um, and value adds for our consumers.

And we've had nearly 2000 people download the QR code of the offerings, um, since it launched and it's going to run for the next several weeks and we're making a difference for our partners, but also adding value to our visitors to make sure that they come to San Antonio, enjoy all of our offerings.

Speaker 2: Yeah, it is a new resident, not visitor to San Antonio.

Are you getting used to breakfast tacos instead of brats from there in Chicago?

Speaker 1: Yes, I definitely am.

I prefer the breakfast tacos.

Speaker 2: Yes, you should.

And the weather at least right now.

Thank you very much for coming in.

Good luck.

We really need the tourist here in San Antonio, Mark Anderson of visit San Antonio, also Speaker 1: A fellow Drake.

I am that.

Thank you, Randy.

Thanks for covering it.

Thank you very much.

Speaker 2: Joining us now on our reporters round table, Scott Huddleston, a great reporter.

It says right here, great reporter for the San Antonio express news, a staff writer, but you write about all kinds of things, especially, uh, downtown, and you have been busy with a couple of things at the Alamo.

The Alamo exhibit hall is going to start construction, uh, it'll house, Phil Collins, uh, collection, but also the Alamos.

I don't want to say ties to slavery, but the issue of slavery and the Alamo as it's going to be presented as they're renovating the whole Plaza and the museum.

Why is that such a big controversy right now?

Oh, That is a debate that has been going on for decades, as you probably know.

And so, um, the Alamo project has a vision and guiding principles that calls for examination of slavery before, during and after the Texas revolution and, and also inclusion of all, all kinds of different perspectives of the Tejanos and the Mexican side of the battle and all those kinds of things.

So, um, that's what we're headed toward in any case, but there was that recent book that came out, um, in June, forget the Alamo, which is kind of, um, added a lot of robustness to that debate and, and reinvigorated It.

And now the title is maybe more controversial than the history that it presents.

And it's not just about the Alamo.

It's about slavery and the Texas revolution and, and settlers coming to Texas, and really what led to the revolution as well as to the Alamo.

But do you think this could be the big controversy, like we've had over the Woolworth building over the cenotaph over how to present Alamos history?

It's a good time to, re-examine a do a cultural reset on what we think about what the Alamo is and how it fits in with the Texas revolution.

So, um, uh, the book mace mostly argues that the Alamo is the focal point of shame as it relates to slavery.

You know, I personally didn't feel that the authors connected the right dots to make that argument.

Um, if you look at what happened at Washington on the brasses, uh, during the siege in battle, um, there was, uh, the passage of the declaration of independence, which, you know, lists a number of things like, um, religious freedom, uh, local representation, uh, due process, those kinds of things.

Um, but didn't include slavery.

And then that Republic of Texas constitution did include slavery.

So you couldn't even free your own slaves, right?

The constitution, which was written, uh, about two weeks later and passed, you know, uh, I believe mid, mid March, um, after the battle had occurred, did include the most onerous institutionalization of slavery ever in north America.

And now with the 1836 project, uh, passed by the state and Dan Patrick wanting to present us, he's called it the heroic story of what's going on at the Alamo.

It seems like, and also canceling that those authors, uh, appearance at the museum up in Austin, is that, is that going to come to blows soon?

You think?

Well, That's part of the, the political polarization of the whole issue.

Um, you know, the Lieutenant governor did cancel that event, but in the process of doing that, he gave that book a lot of publicity that it didn't have before.

Um, and, uh, commissioner Tommy Calvert, um, who's a Democrat will be hosting a forum for those authors of this week in the bear county courthouse.

So, um, you know, people are, are, are discussing it, but I think that the most important thing that's occurring is the work of the Alamo citizen advisory committee, which is a diverse 30 member group.

That's committed to talking and having mutual, mutually respectful dialogue about these issues.

And at the same time, they're getting ready to start construction.

Another story you've covered on the Alamo exhibit hall, exhibit hall and collections building different that's on the, what we think of now is Alamo grounds separate from the museum, that'll be across the street.

What will be in that exhibit hall, In the Alamo gardens in the back in the back corner.

Um, so it will be replacing some of the existing buildings and taking up a little bit of, of the footprint of the Alamo gardens.

Um, it'll be a 24,000 square foot facility with 10,000 square foot of, uh, of exhibit space.

And it will house the Phil Collins collection, um, in accordance with that deed, the deed of gift that he had signed, He wanted it started building by Tobar.

He Wanted a significant, um, stage of design in place by October of 2021.

That was, uh, an agreement that he made seven years ago.

And it's taken this long to get this far.

Right.

I remember when he came here.

Now, when you talk about design, it's gotten some, uh, mixed reviews.

So far the design right now, there were a couple Of members of the Texas historical commission that felt that the building was too plain, but I think that they could easily rectify that on the exterior, just by placing, let's say for example, some terracotta colored stars or, um, outlines of the Alamo facade or something like that, to just give it a little bit more ornamentation, Spruce it up with a right couple of cannons.

Yeah.

They were basically saying for a building that big it's too plain, which Yeah.

In the, at the Alamo that's, uh, that's not gonna work.

And, And, you know, uh, there are a lot of people that are concerned about the loss of the gardens that, that green space and, and landscaping, but in the overall scheme of the plan, there will be more green space in the, in the Plaza and other areas around there because they've closed the streets and they plan to beautify that area.

Yeah.

It's interesting.

If you have a chance to get downtown, because it is in flux right now, it's not the Alamo with you.

And I remember Alamo Plaza, but hopefully it'll have a whole different look soon and you'll be covering it for years.

Thanks very much.

Scott Huddleston, a great reporter from the San Antonio express news.

And thank you for joining us for this edition of on the record.

You can see this show again, or previous shows as well as our podcast At dot org.

We'll see, on the record is brought to you by Steve and Adele duke.

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