Castro: State of the City Video. Hemisfair spectacular, 24-7 downtown, street cars.
 

This is my kind of mayor!!!!

http://vimeo.com/9076366

Instead of starting a new thread, I thought we'd keep this for things involving the Mayor.

So... next Saturday, Mayor Castro and Ed Whitacre will be at the the Tri-Point Y(MCA) to discuss planning for sa2020. Its been getting alot of run lately, here are a few articles from mysa.com:

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/col...103222234.html

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/loc...103227574.html

and theres even a website... http://sa2020.org/

anyone plan on going?

I'll be there I think.

I wish I could. Class at 9:00am. :(

I will definitely be there. Anything anyone would like for me to bring up/add?

Guess it'll be a full house tomorrow...
got this email...

Will I be at it alone???
If so, I'll take notes.

Definitely take notes for us Miah, let us know what's happening.

Curse you work schedule!

Here is some local commentary on the event, more is posted on other sites.

Here's what I can say about the event;

the tone was similar with about 95% of the people present, and they all mostly asked for the same things:
better transportation options
better infrastructure
control sprawl
create walkable communities
better educational opportunities
maintain cultural heritage
do something about health issues
continue to nurture IT and Medical
focus better on the arts
improve the airport
revitalize DT
revitalize DT
revitalize inside loop 410.

There were more specific things said but that is what was mostly thrown out there. I'm sure that things will get more specific at each upcoming meeting. The final meeting is in March. It was pretty well attended by a great mix of people, from CEO of local grocery chain, president of a local university to college kids and seniors. Everyone got a chance to speak out and everyone was pretty engaged with their table workgroups. It felt good knowing that alot more people (than our forum group) have similar takes on what we would like to see happen here in SA.

I had RSVP'd to go and I planned on going but I went out last night and well, yeah. Bad hangover this morning. :haha:

When;s the next meeting?

I wasn't able to attend but I did watch the live feed and participate in the online debate (which seemed more argumentative than the actual event, haha). Miaht82, you could have been in a different room, but the one I was watching focused mainly on higher standards of education (from pre-K to college) and how that effects our work force (do we want a primarily service economy or creative economy?) People were split on these issues.

You can watch videos from today at NowCastSA

I think its great to be having these conversations as a community, but as things go on we are bound to have some real arguments, ones that we the anonymous chat-room San Antonians were not afraid to have---how to getter educated our population (should the school districts be consolidated to help the lack of funds in poorer neighborhoods), sex education & teen pregnancy (I heard one woman at the meeting say she believed sex ed should start at 5th grade, while another woman said that was the responsibility of the parents, not teachers). Overall, it was a great beginning, but I can't wait for the real productive fights!

Not sure when, I'll check and post the date on here. I think Oct. 22nd.?.

I was in the main room, and alot of the comments weren't supposed to be debate-style or argumentative... it was an open forum and the consultant from JCCI explained the "rules" in the beginning of the forum to keep it from becoming an uncontrollable environment. I don't think that this is supposed to cause any arguments although I'm sure people will disagree with the level of importance of some of the issues. We'll have to wait and see what these discussions produce as far as how to achieve these goals of what we want SA to become.
I guess this means I'll have some company at the next one.

I understand that; I know you can't start these things off with negativity or "the worst" of our city. But, as much as we'd like to call San Antonio a community, and a "big city with a small-town feel," we are still like any other place with a huge population in that we will have diametrically opposing ideas on some issues (schooling, curriculum--like the standards for history recently passed for Texas, sex education, teen pregnancy, etc..). Anyway, just saying I think these arguments can be really productive. And I would love to be the seemingly off-the-wall fringe guy who brings up community-based anarchism and socialism.

I think you fail to understand that this really isn't all that political. The outcome of this was that it did expose 2 different groups of people; those that care (alot) and those that don't. Those that want our city to prosper showed up. Nobody showed up and said we need kids to drop out, focus less on education and job creation, encourage sprawl, let DT decay and erase our cultural heritage and diversity.
The fact of the matter is that while (using your example) those two women disagreed on how to fix the teen pregnancy problem, they did agree that it was was a problem. History (and some important people in important places) will dictate what the solution will be. If the status quo was that it was the parents responsibility, and the results haven't changed, then I'm sure a different method will be used or at least "encouraged."
SA2020 is supposed to be similar to Target90.
Things that came out of Target 90?:
from mysa.com
http://media.mysanantonio.com/images/Target90.jpg
Now.... politics aside, what are the GOALS that SA should strive for?

Haha, that sounds scary. So--SA2020 is really just to understand what the public thinks are the problems? I thought it was community-based solutions as well, but I might be wrong.

It isn't up to the community to come up with solutions, the solutions exist. It isn't rocket science. It is up to the community to say what they want SA to look like in 2020. For example: we think there are too many strays - the solution exists.... spay and neuter, pick up animals, fine irresponsible pet owners, etc. Now that the community identifies that they don't like this and would like clean streets and would like to be "no kill" by 2020, then the city (and others) make this a priority, seeing as how the community has identified this as something they would like addressed.

Not everything has to be a problem in order for us to put it on the "wish list."
Is lack of free public wireless internet a "problem?" Not really, but if that is what the community wants and if it was good for business, then the city would address that. Is the lack of an NFL team a problem? No, but if you would like one by 2020, then write it down and hope that a majority of other people that filled out questionaires put it down too.

October 28 from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at McCollum High School, 500 W. Formosa.

From the rumblings it sounds like he can do it. A lot of shakeups in Downtown-adjacent neighborhood associations have thrown them close into the planning process so I get to hear enough about where this is all going. Essentially, the 2020 plan won't face the obstruction previous plans saw.