Editor’s observe: Every week, the San Antonio Report publishes a quick synopsis of the weekly bigcitysmalltown podcast hosted by Robert Rivard, co-founder of the Report.
Recorded in entrance of a dwell viewers at Texas Public Radio headquarters, the newest bigcitysmalltown podcast featured a panel of what host Robert Rivard known as 5 heavyweights in shaping the way forward for downtown.
“Our panelists at this time are on this stage as a result of they’ve already had, and can proceed to have, vital affect on the way forward for our downtown core,” Rivard mentioned.
Panelists included Veronica Salazar, UTSA chief enterprise improvement officer at UTSA; David Robinson Jr., improvement supervisor at Weston City; Trish DeBerry, president and CEO of Centro San Antonio; Erik Walsh, San Antonio metropolis supervisor, and Andres Andujar, president and CEO of Hemisfair.
“There’s quite a lot of collaboration and quite a lot of momentum from public sector entities [and] the personal sector,” Walsh mentioned. “There are only a few downtowns which have 14,000 or 15,000 resort rooms … so we’re very distinctive, and there’s quite a lot of momentum. All people needs to be a part of the profitable group.”
Robinson mentioned that wanting again over the modifications in San Antonio since returning to his hometown at age 25, he admires the folks on the panel for the work they’ve accomplished up to now and is happy for what’s to return within the metropolis.
“All people on this panel has had an enormous affect on my life,” he mentioned.
San Antonio is greater than a vacationer city now, Robinson mentioned. New housing has introduced extra residents into the city core and attracted extra lifestyle-driven companies. Weston City is targeted on bringing much more.
“If we’re going to develop by 1,000,000 folks over the following 10 years, how are we going to develop?” Robinson mentioned. “Are we going to proceed to simply stretch the suburbs and eat up farmland and actually prolong metropolis infrastructure in a method that’s not attainable, or are we going to develop right into a extra dense sample that will likely be extra sustainable in quite a lot of alternative ways?”
With a lot on the downtown drafting board, the panel lined quite a lot of floor through the San Antonio Report’s CityFest occasion on Monday — from high-rise housing and a rising college to a brand new Missions ballpark and Spurs area, an growing old Alamodome and the necessity for a bigger conference middle.
