San Antonio is a greater place in the present day than it was practically a decade in the past, Mayor Ron Nirenberg stated at his closing State of the Metropolis handle on Tuesday.
That reflection comes within the closing weeks of his eight years main town.
Talking earlier than a ballroom of enterprise leaders and different officers over a luncheon sponsored by the Larger San Antonio Chamber, Nirenberg stated town is now the form of place the place individuals need to elevate a household and construct a life.
“I’m pleased with that,” he stated.
In considered one of his final public engagements as mayor, Nirenberg stated crime is down and town has launched an bold and long-term workforce improvement program.
It has handed a housing bond to extend affordability and began main airport growth. Strides in financial improvement have been made, he stated.
Nirenberg leaves workplace with a brand new downtown baseball stadium coming quickly and his imaginative and prescient for a venture that might create an city sports activities and leisure district is nicely underway.
Nirenberg has led town since 2017 and is term-limited from searching for reelection this yr, organising San Antonio’s first mayoral race with out an incumbent on the poll in 16 years. A race that has drawn 27 candidates and can certainly go to a runoff after the Could 3 election.
Tuesday’s occasion is probably going considered one of quite a few swan songs within the coming weeks and one which presenters and lunch-goers used as a possibility to point out their appreciation to the baseball-loving mayor.
After the Missions baseball mascot Ballapeño greeted arriving friends, this system kicked off with a video that includes native enterprise leaders thanking Nirenberg for his management, adopted by a standing ovation.
“I’ve loved this chance to serve San Antonio — it’s been the privilege of my life,” he stated. “I didn’t count on to do it for my profession … I loved combating for working class individuals, and strengthening everybody in San Antonio’s alternative.
“I don’t assume I’ll cease doing that.”
The mayor stated he’s not able to share what comes subsequent in his profession.
However he believes town is best off in the present day for 2 causes. First is the financial alternative created throughout his time in workplace.
“Do our younger individuals discover financial alternative right here? Is that this a spot the place our youthful youngsters might be raised, get an excellent schooling and discover a job?” he stated. “More and more now that’s the case. We see diversification of our industries. We have now recruited and grown companies right here in industries that we by no means would have considered earlier than.”
As well as, town has made strategic investments in high quality of life by means of public security and decreased crime, Nirenberg stated.
The COVID-19 pandemic, nevertheless, uncovered some truths about San Antonio that should nonetheless be confronted.
Whereas town acquired along with the county and different organizations to work out options to a few of the biggest challenges of the pandemic, he stated, the disaster additionally was a reckoning for the nation by way of “fiscal fragility.”
For San Antonio, that financial actuality was placed on full show, he stated, as nationwide media reviews confirmed individuals lined up outdoors the meals financial institution by the hundreds for emergency meals help throughout that point.
Nirenberg touted town’s Able to Work program, accredited by voters in 2020 as a approach to deal with tenacious poverty points, as the biggest native funding in workforce improvement within the nation’s historical past. However he additionally cautioned that transformational applications take time.
“I do know this can evolve,” he stated. “However let’s cease speaking about poverty if we’re not prepared to do one thing about it.”
Nirenberg views his response to the reasonably priced housing disaster equally, that the options for people going through housing shortages and rising costs, are rooted in bettering the financial standing of town.
“We’re by no means going to resolve the housing affordability problems with town if we’re solely specializing in price evaluation,” he stated. “We’ve additionally acquired to guarantee that we raise individuals’s wages and financial outcomes to allow them to afford the market that’s being generated.”
On the subject of high quality of life investments made by town, he counts amongst them Mission Marvel, a plan revealed final yr that requires remodeling one quadrant of downtown right into a mecca for sports activities and leisure, particularly the San Antonio Spurs. Funding for the event would come from each private and non-private sectors.
“We have now one of the vital distinctive downtowns in America,” he stated. “We have now a possibility now to develop all these landmarks in a method that enables extra locals to take pleasure in it, and has what might be the way forward for the Spurs right here.”
However Nirenberg additionally acknowledged at the least one of many challenges forward — fulfilling unkept guarantees the final time a brand new Spurs area was constructed.
“It’s additionally a possibility for us to deal with the expectations that have been made on the East Aspect about that chance,” he stated. “So I’m an enormous supporter of Mission Marvel.”
