As a lifelong Bexar County resident and an alum of both Trinity University and the Trinitonian, I feel honored that my former colleagues think highly enough of me to ask me to write in as a guest. I want to focus most of my attention on the Bexar County ballot propositions, but I will also briefly comment on the state ballot measures and denote how I voted on each one at the end.
Of all the organizations that had a hand in shaping my life so far, I would say the most significant — outside of maybe the U.S. government and the Catholic Church — was the San Antonio Spurs. That is why it upsets me to say that the push for Bexar County Propositions A and B seems to be nothing more than greed on the part of the Spurs’ ownership.
Growing up as a suburbanite, the lack of parks and walkable infrastructure on the North Side of San Antonio made it difficult to form community connections. Nonetheless, when I was at the AT&T Center — now the Frost Bank Center — I felt like a part of my city.
Later on, as an adult, I became the sports section editor at the Trinitonian and — through a stroke of luck — attained media credentials to report on Spurs home games. Nothing makes me feel like a hotshot in this city like saying that I personally asked Gregg Popovich a question during one of his last press conferences as head coach.
The point of my indulgent story is that I owe a debt of gratitude to the Spurs, as I imagine many people in Bexar County do. With that said, my values are more important to me than a basketball team could ever be, and it is because of that I have found myself an active part of the campaign against Proposition B.
Shortly after I graduated from Trinity in May, I found my way to the COPS/Metro Alliance grassroots organization. They have been campaigning hard against Proposition B, which seeks to permit the construction of a new stadium downtown and to allow private development of a significant portion of the downtown area. COPS/Metro is actually neutral on Proposition A, which seeks to renovate the existing stadiums and turn them into a permanent stock show and rodeo district, but I have found myself opposing it anyway.
The institutions forming COPS/Metro — the merging of Communities Organized for Public Service and the Metro Alliance — have been advocating for the Bexar County working class for decades. They are responsible for countless public works including improved flooding infrastructure in underserved areas, the creation of the first higher education institution on the South Side (Palo Alto College) and the Project QUEST job training program, which served as a model for San Antonio’s Ready to Work Program.
Suffice it to say, I trust the word of the community organizers from COPS/Metro far more than I do the corporate-backed campaign for Propositions A and B. Further, while COPS/Metro and other grassroots organizers make great points regarding the specific economic concerns about the proposals, particularly regarding the fact that the Spurs are contributing less than half of the total cost and the possibility of Bexar County taxpayers being on the hook if arena revenue falls short. With that said, the root of my opposition is deeper.
The Spurs seem to have arbitrarily decided, by some obscure metric, that it is “time” for them to have a new arena. However, as I see it, there is no problem with Frost Bank Center. The desire to build yet another stadium in addition to the three massive stadiums the city already has is rooted firmly in consumerism and greed. Why play with the toys they already have? The bottom lines of the Spurs — and for that matter, the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo — say they need a shiny new one.
Many personal friends of mine within COPS/Metro have said that they are not fundamentally opposed to a new arena for the Spurs, but that the Spurs should pay for it themselves. Certainly, if the Spurs want yet another arena, they absolutely should pay for it themselves. However, I see no reason why we should sacrifice or gentrify any percentage of our amazing downtown area to satiate the selfish desires of the Spurs’ billionaire owner. I will not ever support a new arena when we have three perfectly good ones that are still being funded by public money to this day.
If the city is looking to burn public money, though, I have a few suggestions regarding what to address with the limited space on the ballot. Off the top of my head: our infrastructure is crumbling, we are the most economically segregated city in the country, we are the only U.S. city of comparable size to have no rail network, our bus system is underfunded, we don’t have enough parks, half our residential streets don’t have street lights, the South Side doesn’t even have a hospital and we’re all about to be cooked alive by climate change every August. If our local government could come down off their high horse to address a few of these issues instead of building a fourth stadium, I and many others would really appreciate it.
As for the state ballot measures, there are some concerning signs that Texas Republicans are seeking to consolidate power and give more power to law enforcement and border patrol. Proposition 3 seeks to expand the justice system’s ability to deny bail, Proposition 12 seeks to expand the power of the Texas Supreme Court over state judges and Proposition 17 seeks to institute tax exemptions for counties with border patrol infrastructure.
Some of the state ballot measures are standard ploys to make the rich richer and the poor poorer. Proposition 2 seeks to ban capital gains tax, Proposition 6 seeks to ban additional taxes on stock trading and Proposition 8 seeks to ban inheritance tax. Some measures are also the product of conservative culture wars. Proposition 15 seeks to give parents more power to prevent their children from transitioning to another gender, and Proposition 16 seeks to ban people from voting who were already banned from voting.
With that said, not every state ballot measure is bad by any means. Proposition 14 seeks to fund dementia research, and some propositions seek to give tax exemptions to vulnerable people, such as elderly or disabled homeowners, and to homes destroyed by fire. After having verified after the fact, I found that my votes on every ballot measure aligned with the recommendations of the San Antonio Democratic Socialists of America chapter. I call on all readers to make an informed and personal decision regarding how to vote, and to make it a top priority to get to the polls by Nov. 4.
