Speaker 1: On the record is brought to you by Steve and Adele do follow Speaker 2: 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 to talk about the latest news stories with the journalists behind those stories.

Join us now as we go on Speaker 1: Hi everybody.

I'm Randy Beamer.

Thank you for joining us for this edition of on the record.

And late yesterday afternoon, Greg Abbott, the governor changed some of the policy that had caused some chaos down on the border and criticism from fellow Republicans.

Now, last week, he had ordered the inspection of all commercial trucks that had come across the border after customs and border protection had already inspected them once.

And that caused some massive delays that caused some blockades, even by truckers at the border to cross both ways.

So, Dr. Daniel, Covarrubias from Texas a and M international universities school of business there, the Texas center for economic and enterprise development joins us.

Now, first of all, Dr. Covarrubias, what is the difference between what the governor says he's going to do now with this agreement or a memorandum of understanding that he signed and what he ordered last week?

Speaker 2: Well, basically what, what yesterday's a memorandum of understanding does is that it alleviates these inspections by, by Texas department of public safety at one of the bridges, which has Columbia solidarity bridge, which is a bridge that Texas shares on the border with the state of new Orleans.

So that was an old young governor signing on with him.

And now those inspections that a them or a memorandum of understanding, he says that those inspections will have to be conducted on the Mexican side of the border.

But basically the other bridges that are still seeing a hundred percent inspection points by DPS there's two main bridges still in, in Texas that are, that are being affected by this.

And it's the far little bridge, which neighbors that state of Tamaulipas.

They let a bridge and El Paso, which neighbors, the state of Chihuahua.

And there's also the Eagle pass Del Rio bridge, which neighbors, that state of, of what we learned.

So those bridges are still being affected by, by these inspections.

Speaker 1: And now the governor said that this was because he was concerned that when title 42 ends and people who are seeking asylum are allowed into this country, that there would be an influx of illegal immigrants and drugs.

So he ordered this extra inspection taken about an hour, the Mexican side, they aren't going to do another hour of inspection on that side.

They, they aren't equipped for it, are they?

Speaker 2: Well, it remains to be seen the thing here is that what we have to understand this with, with numbers, with data just here in Laredo, the port of entry of Laredo, that that is comprised of two bridges, the world trade bridge, which is the biggest one and the Balombo solidarity bridge between those two bridges, approximately 15,000 trucks, prostate lead northbound and southbound 60 507,000 of them cross through the world trade bridge.

So for 20 years or more, the, the local trade community has been working with authorities to shave off seconds of inspection of each of those trucks to make it more efficient.

So imagine adding minutes, let alone hours, like you're saying to, to inspection points, it's just gonna keep on making trade and, and supply chains, constraining them and making them less efficient.

Speaker 1: Now this was, he said it was because of illegal immigration, but we were talking before, and you said that really immigrants don't come across in trucks.

The smuggling that goes on on a people that comes, they will get in trucks after they get on this side of the border.

And he was also being criticized by Republicans as well.

Pro-business Republicans.

Do you think that had a, had a hand in this, you know, headlines are saying that basically the governor caved, Speaker 2: Well, I, I don't know what, what made him assigned this memorandum of understanding?

I think here the, again, the data states that these ports of entries in Texas are very important for supply chains all along the north American corridor, the United States and Mexico duel, more or less around $661 billion of trade, 40% of that trade process through the Laredo port of entry.

Now, if you open it up to the rest of the Texas bridges, you get 70% of crates.

So there's a lot of companies upstream, the supply chain and other parts of the United States that were suffering by this Speaker 1: Paul, how soon can that suffering slow down?

If it's only at that one bridge right now that things are going to be speeding up?

Speaker 2: Well, the thing is like I tell you the crown jewel of all these bridges is the world trade bridge here in Laredo.

That's the one that crosses the most and then was crossing between 6,500 to 7,000 northbound tracks daily.

Now it's crossing 8,000.

So the thing is the other bridges that are being affected.

They're going to start rerouting traffic go.

They're already rerouting traffic.

We have analyzed where that traffic is coming for.

If it's coming to world treatments, it's gonna put a bigger strain, even though it's crossing, it's going to take a longer time.

And we have to remember that many of these companies work under a just-in-time inventory system.

So if they start seeing delays, that's where it's going to hurt them.

And unfortunately what this leads to is higher prices and transportation, higher diesel prices.

And that that takes us to, to those costs are ultimately passed on to the, to the consumer.

Speaker 1: And ultimately it would just have to wait a little while to see how fast this situation developed is changing by the day.

Thank you very much, Dr. Daniel, Covarrubias Texas a and M international university, Donald Laredo.

Appreciate it.

On the upcoming May 7th election, you may have heard about the San Antonio city bond issue that is going to be voted on, but there is also more, in fact, one of the biggest here is the north side school districts bond issue a little different this year than in past years for north side.

Joining us to explain is Dr. Brian Woods, north side school district superintendent.

Thank you very much for coming.

Absolutely Good morning.

How is this different than bond issues?

In the past for north side, We went through a roughly 30 year, window of time where our bond capacity was pretty much eaten up by student growth.

We were growing anywhere from 2,500 to 3,500 students a year, the size of our biggest high school in one single year.

I, I recall a year that we opened five schools in, in one in the, So the huge new developments there at north Northwest side.

And so that's where bond funds went for obvious reasons.

We had to build new schools and add on to existing schools.

Well, that growth has slowed for a variety of reasons.

And now we've been able in both the last bond that we, that our voters approved.

And in this proposed one to go back to older campuses campuses that are 40, 50, 60 plus years old, and try to bring them up to a somewhat similar standard to the ones that have built in the last 20 years.

And so the biggest chunk of that 992 million that you're asking for is for renovations of older school and upgrades and infrastructure.

It's exactly right.

If, if we go back to our two bonds ago, we were right at 50, 50 brand new buildings and an existing schoolwork.

This proposal is 95% on existing schools Yet there's still a lot of growth in the distance There is.

And we do propose in this bond to build an additional elementary school that will be in our future for the longterm, frankly, but because that growth has slowed and because it's more concentrated, it's just easier to manage now than it was 15, 20 years ago.

And that enables us to, to go back and look at these older buildings that really, we just haven't had the ability to go do anything significant at and try to bring them up to standard.

How did the pandemic affect the school's north side?

I remember talking to you before that fall, when you were trying to figure out in one of the things, where are the students, you had bus drivers going out and trying to find some of the students because they weren't taking kids to school, but there weren't as many kids, even in the hybrid learning environment Online.

So obviously that's, that's all changed for the most part.

Now the vast majority of students are, are back in the building, lots of school districts, however, all across the country have experienced enrollment declines.

The pandemic was such a disruption to families that many looked at their options, including where are they living?

How are they working?

Obviously work looks very different than it did two, two and a half years ago.

And how are they schooling their children?

And that caused some to re-examine it, frankly.

And so we have seen a small enrollment decline in that period of time.

Again, helps us to change our strategy with regard to a bond proposal, obviously.

And it's not that we won't grow.

That's not just not true.

If you go out to far west bear county, you will see rooftops under construction everywhere you live.

Boom is still out.

There's no question, but it's really shifted to that far Western part of the county.

And even frankly, into Eastern Medina county is where the really fast growth Is going on.

Is that part of your district.

We do not go into Medina county in that, right at that line.

We do have a portion of Bedina county further north, but there are boundary and the Medina valley school districts boundary is an intensely growing.

So long-term when you were talking about before the charter school districts, which before had, before the pandemic had been eating into more school districts, more kids being homeschooled is that, that longer-term trend that you're going to have to figure in with that.

Boom.

And is it, is it going to trend downward over?

It's a great question.

And I don't know that any of us can predict that, frankly.

I think a lot of that is tied to, is this kind of normalcy we feel with regard to COVID a long lasting normalcy or does it come and go, frankly, I think how disrupted the, the near term is will, will be the, the greatest factor in determining that.

And some of the numbers that tell at least part of the story you had about 107,000 students before the pandemic and all the schools, and now you have a hundred, 200 That's about right.

Yeah.

A little more than 102,000.

What do you predict in terms of that?

We predict we're going to predict from a cautionary perspective, from a budgeting standpoint and a staffing standpoint, essentially, a slightly growing population going forward, not nearly the pace that it had been in the past, and then if we're wrong, better to be wrong and under predict, frankly, easier to add than it is to take away from a budgetary standpoint, if we're wrong, we'll come back and add a little bit by way of books.

There's fewer students that means less state money.

Is that money specifically tied to certain things that you get from the state?

It's not it's it's operating funds.

So it goes to pay teachers and bus drivers and turn on the lights and buildings and run the air conditioning and water and so forth.

So It's new buildings.

It does not pay for new buildings.

The only way schools build new buildings or renovate existing buildings is through bonds.

And you're basically telling people to vote for the bond and there will be no tax increase in the tax rate.

That's correct.

So what, oh, well, except I don't tell people to vote for bonds, but, but I'm telling people to vote in the bond election and that it is also true that there will not be a tax rate increase as a result of these bonds passing.

Are you hoping it passes?

Can, can you go that far out polo?

Of course I, you know, it is always been a goal of ours in our school district, very diverse school district, socioeconomically, racially, and ethnically to not have zip code, be the determinant of the quality of the building.

A child goes to school in, we we've already managed that it doesn't control the quality of the teacher, but the quality of the building is also important for children and for the teachers that teach them.

And so we'd love to help ourselves get at that goal.

All right.

Well, thank you very much.

Wish we had more time, Dr. Brian Woods, north side ISD.

Again, that is the bond issue that is going to be on the May 7th ballot.

Thanks.

You may have seen recently that the musicians of the San Antonio symphony will be back at work with some concerts coming up, but they are still on strike officially.

And joining us to explain where they are in the strike and those concerts, Brian pet Kubich, who was president of the musicians and the San Antonio symphony.

Thanks for coming in.

First of all, the strike hit its six month mark, March 27th with a big rally outside Metro veterans, Memorial auditorium outside the Tobin, I guess we call it now the, the history of this strike is over cuts to the orchestra and cuts to the pay.

Where are you in terms of you've had three meetings, I guess, with a federal arbitrator, whereas the strike right now.

Speaker 2: So with the federal mediator, I think we have another mediation session coming up.

It hasn't been scheduled yet, but we're waiting to see where that is right now.

There hasn't been a lot of motion from management side to come up, to meet our demands.

Really the strike started in the fall with management's imposition of their demands and their demands would have cut our compensation by 50% that's Speaker 1: And the orchestra, the numbers from 72 to something like 46 and the others would get part-time pay.

Correct.

Now their argument is that there's just not enough money that historically, at least over the fast few years, as well as even back into the eighties, it's been tough for this community to financially support the symphony.

Speaker 2: That's true.

I mean, there have been a, there's been a history there, but also what we've seen is a lot of investment in the arts and performing arts in bricks and mortar, and really what we need to find for both the symphony, the ballet, the is funding to really capitalize on all that investment and really make that performing arts culture in San Antonio really come alive.

Speaker 1: You say so far, it's mainly been focused on marketing on ticket sales and not say corporate sponsorships or public support.

Speaker 2: I mean, branding for the orchestra, I think would be wonderful.

Really it's, it's a cultural gym and it really needs to be recognized as that.

And really we need ownership from the entire community.

Speaker 1: Is there a sticking point that is still, I know you said there's not much motion.

Is there any motion at all?

And still the biggest sticking point is Speaker 2: I actually don't know the answer to that.

I don't know why they haven't come up and I don't know.

I don't know the issues that they have Speaker 1: In the meantime, you have a number of concerts coming up.

How did that happen?

You getting a grant.

Speaker 2: Yes.

We're getting a wonderful support from the San Antonio symphony league.

They've been involved with the symphony obviously for years and years.

And they really, Speaker 1: This is a different organization from the fifties or started in the fifties, Speaker 2: Correct?

So the symphony league gave us a hundred thousand dollars grant.

It it's wonderful.

We need to match that in order to go forward to make our, our budget, but they've really supported education elementary school education, then young people's concerts that all the kids come to the symphony, they helped facilitate that.

And they wanted to find a way to help present all these concerts, but also highlight what they've done over the years with their, especially their painting music, Speaker 1: No people wonder, is this just temporary support or could this be a rival organization or a different organization?

Long-term Speaker 2: I mean, people always want to talk about the ins and outs and gossip and rivalries.

Really.

Everyone wants to see great orchestra on stage, and that's where we need to come from Speaker 1: In 19.

You know, we were talking before in 1985 was the last strike, but there have been different work stoppages, shortened season of bankruptcy.

Then how do you tell people out there who might support the symphony to do that?

How can they do that right now during the strike?

Speaker 2: Well, right now what we're asking is to support these three concerts.

And, you know, if you're giving money to the Moses performance fund, that that is for concerts, that is to present concerts.

I would say also that, you know, all the arts should be supported, but on a bigger level, I would say that support just needs to come in without There've been a lot of different factions over time.

And I think everybody just needs to give support for what it's worth, it's worth supporting the arts.

And that's, that's the important, Speaker 1: So look, the official organization show that support, give them money, promise your support to Speaker 2: Them.

You should give money where you want to get it.

Speaker 1: And when you said Moses, that is the musicians of the San Antonio symphony that are having the concerts and work.

And you find out information about that.

Speaker 2: If you go to Mo M O S a S performance fund.org, you'll find it on our website.

Speaker 1: All right, well, thank you very much.

Brian Petco beach, president of the musicians of the San Antonio symphony.

I think we all at San Antonio hope that the strike in soon.

However, Speaker 2: Alright, thank you very much.

Speaker 1: You may have seen a great story in the San Antonio express news about a problem that has been historically across the country, but especially hits hard and still hits hard here in San Antonio.

And that's the effects of red lining.

Joining us to talk about that wrote the story, did a lot of research on this is Madeline Mendoza reporter for the San Antonio express news.

Thanks for coming in.

Thank you for having Me.

This is a very personal story to you and you set it up that way, even though I think a lot of people or some people old reporters knew about red lining, the way you set it up was so personal, right?

And it's obviously personal to you.

Tell us about that.

That was such a huge reason.

The story was one of those stories that I definitely took home with me because it is home to me.

I was warned the first home I was raised in was in 72 0 7.

We moved over to the Southwest side or right past 90.

And we always knew we had it rough, but I didn't really realize why it was set up that way.

I thought it was just a generational thing.

And you know, if we made it to college, it was a huge success for our family.

And it's very bittersweet to find out that my brother and I were the first graduates on both sides of college.

It's something that we're proud of, but it should have never been that way.

So once I got to the newsroom at my estate express news, I realized redlining was such a prevalent issue and it still affects San Antonio today.

So the story that I started with was a story that my mother would share with me when I was little.

My mom was a single mom, so she had to be, you know, mom and dad and had to make sure we were on the straight and narrow all the time in college was never an option.

We were always going to go to college and she would do this demonstration with a piece of paper.

Whenever, you know, my brother brought home a bad grade.

I never bought brought home bad grades, but whenever my brother would bring home a bad grade, she would split the paper into these little tiny pieces and it would shrink smaller and smaller.

And she said that that small, tiny little piece would be us and we would go to college and it would become something so Out of a larger San Antonio, part of a larger group, Right out of the larger San Antonio shoots, split it up into minorities, affluent people, you know, Hispanic, Latinos, minorities.

And she would just shrink it smaller and smaller.

And that always stuck with me.

So I guess that's the best way I can describe red lining or the chances that people have because of, you know, the, the socioeconomic injustices and inequalities in education, especially.

So, yeah, that's why I decided to start with that because it was something that, you know, I kind of just figured that's the way it's always been.

And people think of red lining as the homeowner loan corporation, the new deal that allowed loans, but then classified them four different ways, best, still desirable.

And then it was down to hazardous, but it actually in San Antonio started before then.

Right.

Which I think was a fascinating part of it.

So I was, that was one of the overwhelming things in my research is, I didn't know.

I wanted to explain it to somebody who like, like myself had not really heard of it before.

So I broke it down and I started with the 1921 flood to kind of bring these into a sharper focus into a hundred years.

Cause you know, roughly when I got the fellowship, it was maybe it was 2021, so 100 years ago, right.

And the 1921 flood, I've always, you know, you'd ride the river barge cruises downtown and you hear about it.

And I always thought it was just, you know, exclusive to a downtown thing That happened.

So, Right.

So I dug really deep into our archives and I found the day of news and I thought it was really sad that the days leading up to the flood, all of the newspaper clippings I found were society news.

You know, so-and-so is having a tea party.

There.

Wasn't really a big warning that this huge flood that was going to end the drought and be the heaviest rain that they had seen in months wasn't really reported on.

And the next day it's like disaster.

And all of the streets that are named in the, that are affected are the streets that I know so well.

And then the surnames that are listed are all Latino surnames.

Baby's two weeks old, 60 years old, people were just being ripped from their homes.

And this small sense of home that these people had is just ruined.

And they're forced to live in tent cities and they're pushed back even further into an economic decline and they're not really getting any assistance.

So that was really heartbreaking to read.

And then you go into the racial covenants of it all, even before the red lining existed and Mexicans and black people weren't allowed to live in any of these areas.

And so the city kind of tried to fix their issue by building the almost dam after the flood, because they had to, the crazy thing about that is Mexican and black people could not live in that area.

So they still weren't protected.

They still weren't protected.

So now they're not even getting protection from natural disasters.

So then the racial racial covenants come in and I found one developer, BG, Irish, every Cub, every, every deed in the county clerk's database under his name has explicit racial covenants that can not, you know, Mexicans or black people cannot live in.

And now you mentioned the fellowship.

This is obviously a longer story for you.

I spent how long on this and, and where, when you, when you either have the idea or you got the skull fellowship at Columbia, how did that work?

So I was awarded the fellowship in may and I, at one point felt that I had bitten off more than I could chew because I didn't know where to start.

I knew that a lot of these people that were part of the Edward walkouts were still part of the community, but I didn't know how to contact them.

So I connected with Patty who has Dimitri Rodriguez, his daughter, and she has just been a wealth of information and help.

She connected me to Diane and Richard Herrera, a man, Mario Manuel Garza, Mario Columbian.

And she is the person that submitted all of her family photos that are kind of that center And the 1968 walkouts or when students in Edgewood walked out in protest because their schools were so far substandard compared to everything.

So the, the F the main photo that we use for the story, I use that photo because it features Dimitri Rodriguez and the sons that he was fighting for.

But it also, if you look in the background, there's a window propped up with a desk.

And that's because schools didn't have AC and heat that the graduates from Edgewood were telling me that it would be so cold in their labs, that the water was freezing and beakers, and for the science experiments, and that teachers would be told to take off their jackets to make it seem like it wasn't so cold, but they, you know, they could see their breath coming out of their mouth.

It was so freezing.

I went to the Supreme court.

And then after that, though, even to this day, you talked about the effects of it.

What are the effects today?

That So very interesting and heartbreaking the T a D T E a releases, their like reports each year on each school.

So if you compare all, all of the, the number of students is different, but if you compare, let's say Alamo Heights, which is traditionally affluent to Edgewood, the dropout risk rate is completely uneven.

Still the number of teachers with five years, more of experience is completely off.

The graduation rates are off.

So it's still a prevalent issue.

And even if you look at the college graduation rates for people in San Antonio who are 25 or older, Latinos may have the second worst rate and we make up the biggest population.

I wish we had more time.

Maddie sky is how you're on Twitter, right?

Still in food, quite a difference from what you write about a lot.

Now, are you going to do more of that?

Yes.

Cause I think to love better love San Antonio.

We have to figure out where we come from and figure out the resiliency of it all.

So, you know, I love San Antonio.

I'm a huge champion, but we also have to keep people where we come from.

Fascinating history.

You can read that article tentacles of red lining continued a grip upward mobility of San Antonio, Madeline Mendoza, and the San Antonio express news right now.

Thanks for coming in and thanks for joining us for this edition to on the record, you can see the show again, or previous shows as well as the podcast.

Just go to K lrn.org and we'll see you next time.

On the record is brought to you by Steve and Adele do follow.