On the record is brought to you by Steve and Adele Dufilho San Antonio is a fast growing, fast moving city with something new happening every day.

That's why each week we go on.

The record with Randy Beamer and the newsmakers who are driving.

This change.

Then we gather at the reporters roundtable to talk about the latest news stories with the journalist behind those stories.

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As we go on the record.

With Randy Beamer.

Hi, everybody, and thank you for joining us for on the record, I'm Randy Beamer, and this week we are starting with growth on the East Side at least plans and hopes for that.

We have James Norton who is the CEO of San Antonio's for growth on the east side.

Sage has been around for a while.

Thank you for joining us.

Thanks for having me, Randy.

Good to be back.

Now, you've been around here for.

About six months, six.

Months in.

January 2024.

And we talked to you a while back when you came in and you've had some challenges.

That's right.

Right off in terms of funding as well as people understanding what you're doing and what you're trying to do.

Tell us where you are in what you want to do right now because you're expanding.

That's right, that's right.

At Sage, our mission is to promote the economic development and culture vitality of San Antonio's east side.

And so one of the things we want to do from the job is just provide clarity.

What does sage actually do?

We support our small businesses.

We knew that to do this work of economic development, you have to build trust in the community.

Our staff goes door to door meeting with business owners, having a conversation, getting a sense of how is business going?

What are you struggling with?

Maybe it's challenges with credit, perhaps the challenges with keeping their employees, or it might be anything as simple as I want to get to know my community better.

Our job as the East Side convener is to help build relationships, understand our businesses, and then support them with whatever services they need.

And you're growing the area.

That's right.

We're serving.

Why is that?

That's right.

Traditionally, we had a service area of about 22mi█ that matched the same designation that the Obama administration does.

It is the promise zone which allowed for greater federal resources.

That designation was from 2014 to 2024.

That area roughly, is what we would think of as that near.

Central east side, probably going from about on the Alamodome, probably up a little bit past to about I-35, and then on the west edge boundary, going from I-37 21 to about, 410.

Includes the, the old AT&T.

Center Alamodome.

That's exactly right.

What our community has said is now that the promise of designation is over.

We still believe that those services have to continue.

However, so many of the residents who used to live in that core East side, due to issues with gentrification or affordability, have moved further north, further east, further south.

But still, there's a demand for services.

We needed to expand because the community asked us to do it.

But as they're moving, that's where you would think residential issues.

Yes.

Not small business issues, but it's the same or they're related.

How is that?

They go hand in hand because every corner of our community wants the same thing that every other San Antonio wants a place to live and work and worship and play.

And so as folks are moving further east, they still want to know what are some good restaurants to go to?

Or am I going to go to church?

I want a venue for me, for my kids to play.

Those are all resources that we want to support, primarily by supporting our businesses.

But it's been tougher in the past year, especially because you've lost some resources for a while from the city.

There's a gap.

You're not sure what's happened to sage in that time.

And for the foreseeable future.

That's exactly right.

Historically, Sage has been funded by the city of San Antonio through the General Revenue Fund.

This year, we knew there's going to be some challenges due to the budget deficit.

We recognize the city as a partner, but we also recognize you can't just depend on one funding source.

And so we've spread the love.

We are now working to look for funds from the federal government, state government, our local banks and even some of our partners and foundations right here in the community.

We've used these funds to live from right back to Eastside Community Support businesses, who in turn are getting additional training, support and sometimes access to credit to be able to grow and expand their businesses.

But you're hoping that the budget this year and the city will include that, and it also will help your staff because you had to cut back.

I understand.

That's exactly right.

So we're crossing our fingers.

The City Council is currently discussing the budget.

We are hoping that the city will go ahead and continue its commitment to fund organizations like Sage and the other organizations as a result of the deficit.

We did have to let go of some staff, and that ultimately hurts the community we serve to have as much capacity.

That being said, we have spoken so many times to our city leaders.

They get it, but they also have a tough job to decide.

How do we keep our quality of life?

How do we keep our public services and how to continue to invest in the East side?

How do you work with people might think, well, that's the job of a chamber of commerce.

Although this grew out of it, split off from some of the three different areas that there were as part of economic development a while back.

That's right.

That's exactly right.

It's a fair question.

Usually a chamber of commerce is a 500 1C6 and membership organization advocate.

In this instance we are doing economic development.

We're serving a public purpose.

This isn't about a private group of organizations or businesses.

This is the community's best interest as a five and 1C3.

Our mission is charitable.

How do we promote economic development?

Not just for a few businesses, not just for a few members, but for everyone.

It just so happens that you're right that some of the work we do might look similar to what a chamber does.

But beyond that, our bottom line is not just how do we raise revenues for business.

We're thinking through how do we improve quality life?

It touches somewhat on issues of public safety, education, health care, but our main focus is economic development.

What about a lot of people don't get out of their bubble in San Antonio, may not go to the east side.

May see along, say 410 on the east side, industrial areas that now include.

And how do you help those businesses that are small local businesses?

Some aren't.

How do you help a whole different kind of business as you expand?

Well, that's a great question.

We see as a collective in that for those who live on the east side, East Side is home.

They've seen these businesses and it's a mix of small businesses manufacturing, industrial.

At the same time, the East Side wants to be welcoming, inclusive.

We know that there's been a history of a false perception that perhaps East Side wasn't the place to go or wasn't safe.

What we know is that the East side is just as safe as any other part of town.

But those perceptions have persisted for years, and that negative perception, unfortunately, has impacted the commercial viability of businesses.

As a nonprofit, Sage not only focuses on the East side.

Will we do go to our friends on the North, south and West side and say, come on down, but this is open, not just to shop and spend your dollars, but also to think about making investments on the East side, growing businesses on the East side.

Now, historically, when you talk about historically, I remember 30, 40 years ago talking to preachers and the black churches, saying a lot of people come here, they grew up here, they come now, they moved out to the north, other sides of town, and they come back here to go to church.

Is the aging of the East Side population, where their parents grandparents still live there.

How's that affecting the tax base as well as growth?

It's a difficult challenge because what we're seeing is although there are some with a town like downtown on the north side where revenues are going up and cost of living is going up, there is greater pressure than to think, well, the East side is cheaper than downtown and north.

I'll move to the east side at the same time as you move to the east side.

It attracts more development, then raises the cost of living, which then can create a pressure that pushes them out with their peers.

Exactly.

Our thought process is we can manage gentrification by guiding growth.

So we think through our corners like Houston Street and Commerce Street.

We already have plenty of zoning that's available for zoning.

We want to drive growth in that direction.

And what can you do when people talk about moving the Spurs out of the AT&T Frost Bank center to downtown within a few years, what does that bring up for the East Side?

And we haven't really seen much of development around that, right.

And so the thought is we always want to promote as much economic development as possible at the same time.

We view the Spurs as a partner and that they are San Antonio's team.

And so regardless if the Spurs decide to stay, whether you're on the east side or move, my philosophy and organization's philosophy is that we will support the Spurs because they have supported the East side at the same time.

We also want to have a wider conversation of what happens in their place.

How do we maintain the focus of economic development, not just for businesses, but for the entire community?

Well, it's good that you don't have too many challenges this week, and you should find out about the city and what this will continue for.

Yes, exactly.

At least in the budget plan.

Budget?

That's exactly right.

All right.

Well, thanks very much.

James Norton, who is CEO of San Antonio, owns for growth San Antonio for growth on the east side.

Thanks.

Thanks, Randy.

Wonderful to see you again.

Good to see you.

You might not realize that August is National Water Quality Month.

Last week we talked about water pollution and how it affects San Antonio and all of the country.

And this week we're going to talk about the Edwards Aquifer with the policy director of the Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance, not to be confused with the Edwards Aquifer Authority.

Rachael Haynes, thank you very much for coming in.

Thank you for having me.

Really appreciate it.

Now this August, you are launching a couple of new things.

Tell us about what you want to let people know about water quality and the Edwards Aquifer, how important it is.

Sometimes it's in the news, sometimes not.

But it always should be on our minds.

Right.

So the Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance, we're launching in August, National Water Quality Awareness Month, our Under Our Feet campaign.

It's a campaign to really try to raise awareness of what is under our feet here in San Antonio, in Bexar County, in the Hill Country.

Overall, that all of us are in some way connected to the Edwards Aquifer.

Whether we live over the contributing zone that trickles down into the recharge zone, whether we live over that or whether we're in the artesian zone, we're all connected to the aquifer.

And of course, we all use it.

So we are really trying to highlight that.

You know, we see on the news the aquifer levels every day.

We're all very aware of water conservation and levels.

But one of the greatest threats to the aquifer, specifically the Edwards, because of how easily it recharges, is water quality.

So we really want folks to be aware of what's happening in the recharge zone, and of how they themselves can help protect the water quality for the whole region.

And for years, we've heard talk about or concern about development over it and, you know, the paving over of a lot of it.

So that could affect, recharge.

But where are we in that in terms of development, affecting recharge as well as quality and things seeping into the aquifer?

Absolutely.

It's all connected.

So, in our Under Our Feet website, we have some graphs and maps that really show, the development over the last 30 years.

But also you can see the satellite image in the recharge zone, and you can see how much it's built up.

But the thing to think about is when you have development, you have this impervious cover.

Roads, buildings, roofs.

not only does it maybe block recharge feature.

So now the water can't get into the aquifer, but where it does, when that water flows over in storms and rainfall events, when it flows over the pavement, it's picking up trash, bacteria, chemicals, pollutants, oil, gasoline, all those things over these slick road surfaces off of roofs.

And that water that does make it into the recharge zone could be containing all of that.

And when that was our one and only source of water, now we get some from Central Texas as well as a storage aquifer on the southeast side.

People might think, well, I don't want to drink any of that, but it's also dispersed throughout that.

So it's still drinkable.

Water, the Edwards Aquifer water, still very high quality water.

It's it's some of the highest quality water you could get.

But it is also extremely susceptible to contamination and pollution.

That's always one of the greatest fears of Edwards Aquifer Authority of the state of all of us.

We've been doing a pretty good job, but we could do a lot better.

What can we do better?

Most of us, to make sure that our water quality is still pristine.

So on our, the Under Our Feet campaign website that people can go to, we lay out very specific items, we have this thing called Take the Pledge where we have four items we want people to think about.

We want people to conserve water, to protect cast features and cast features is a limestone that the Edwards Aquifer is made of.

It's very porous.

It's full of holes.

So there's not really any filtration.

It's just it kind of looks like honeycomb rock.

People can go through and see the the very specific actions they can take, but they're all very easy.

It's things like, limit limiting your use of herbicides or pesticides, cleaning up after your pet waste, making sure your trucks and cars aren't leaking fluid.

making sure that when you mow your lawn, you're not putting the clippings into the street.

That can then get washed into the storm system and then into the aquifer.

So they're all very easy, steps people can take.

But they're really important when we all start doing.

Them is a really important to aim at younger people.

And that's part of this as well, to get people to grow up knowing the importance of the water, I think.

So, we, we aim the take the pledge portion, of course, towards teens and adults, people who are actually doing these things, doing the yard work, doing the maintenance.

but we also have an adopt a salamander.

It's geared more for the kids, but adults are welcome to do it.

It's kind heart as well.

Yes.

So it's, the blind salamander is one of the endangered species in the aquifer.

They live very far deep in the aquifer.

not so furry friends.

They're kind of funny looking, but they're really important.

And so we have an adopt a salamander park portion of the campaign, which.

How does that work?

So we'll we'll lay it out.

We have pictures of them and people can click the button to adopt a salamander.

They'll be able to enter the name of the adoptee.

So whoever is it wants to be on their certificate.

And then we will send them a very adorable certificate with the name of whoever adopted the salamander.

Of course, we can't send them salamander.

They're very happy down in the aquifer, but we will use the adoption fund to, fund programs and projects that help protect.

Those who are in the news.

More when the recharge.

And the springs when it went down.

So far, people were concerned about some of the, species not surviving that are only in the Edwards Aquifer.

How are they doing those species right?

Are they endangered?

If the springs go low.

They're definitely endangered at the springs go low.

And so that's one of the the unique aspects of the Edwards aquifers.

We have, these court cases and the Edwards Aquifer Authority that are empowered to protect the spring from the aquifer so that we can keep those spring flows at a safe level for the endangered species in the aquifer.

Very few aquifers, if any others in the state, have those levels of protection.

but it's not just recharge levels, it's also the quality of the water that they depend on, which is another reason we focus so much on protecting the quality of the water.

Some people have said in the past, oh, the aquifer is unlimited.

This is one of the biggest.

We're not going to go dry.

It's not the Ogallala, it's not one of the southeast ones that have salt is more salty.

Is that the case?

We've seen the level drop.

It seems in the past.

You know, it's, we're much more fortunate than others in the state with other aquifers, but it's definitely not the case that it's unlimited.

It will.

It is very responsive to drought and rainfall.

So in drought it will go down.

And just depends on how long the drought is.

But it is very responsive to rainfall because of how porous it is.

so when we get a good rainfall, you'll see it go up further than, say, the Trinity Aquifer, the Ogallala Aquifer.

But it's definitely not, an unlimited source.

And we've seen it in the last 130 years since the actually in the early 1880s, I think, when, down by, the Blue Hole, when it shot up in the air and the first people using the San Antonio water system pulled it down.

So those springs are not, flowing anymore.

And that's an indication that has gone down historically.

Historically, yes.

And when you when you tell people, okay, worry about the, the quality, what should they focus on more than anything else?

I mean, you've talked about several different things throwing things away and that kind of stuff.

even even using herbicides on the yard or, Yeah, we definitely wouldn't advocate for herbicides and chemicals and pesticides in the yard, especially if you're in the recharge zone and even the contributing zones.

So wherever that runoff water could make it into the aquifer.

And, you know, individual actions are always so important.

And it's definitely something people should do.

above all, but I think the most impactful is with we get in addition to the individual actions, is talking to local government officials at the city, at the county, at the state level to implement stricter, water quality protections for the aquifer.

We have seen in the news, off and on, about, runoffs and industrial uses running off into creeks that run off in the rivers.

And some people say, well, no, it just stays down in the river, in the creek.

And it doesn't go down in the aquifer.

But that's not the case.

No, especially in the in the contributing zone and in the recharge zone, of the Edwards Aquifer, pretty much all of the creek beds and streams and rivers in those areas of, the Edwards Aquifer region are recharge features.

So if you, if you have water in a creek bed, it is either being, supplemented by the Edwards Aquifer or it is recharging the Edwards Aquifer.

All right, well, good luck with all that.

it's important, I know I jumped into the river years ago to do a public service announcement, and it can be dirty, and that's goes into the aquifer.

Okay.

Thanks very much.

Rachel Haynes, policy director of the Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance.

Not to be confused with the authority.

Thanks for coming.

In.

Thank you so much.

I appreciate it.

On reporters roundtable this week where you're talking flights out of San Antonio.

But first, we're talking schools and some controversy over education, what our kids should be learning in schools, a battle up in Austin about that right now here to tell us all about it is staff writer for the San Antonio current, Michael Carlos.

Thanks for coming.

In.

Great to be here.

First of all, you were, at a very long, contentious State Board of Education meeting about this House Bill 1605 that was passed.

What's the controversy?

Are some several controversies over what came out of that?

So the Texas legislature is back and better than ever.

Randy.

They had their first meeting Monday.

and it was the, The House committee.

A House committee meeting on public education.

And, they discussed a lot of things for, for 12 hours.

But one of the things they discussed is this, this House bill, and the bill was passed last year, and it did a lot of things, but specifically in this case, it also allowed the state to, kind of create lesson plans because some Texas teachers were complaining that they were having to create their own lesson plans.

Right.

Well, what the state did, is they went out, they purchased a lesson plan from a national publishing company, and then the TR a quote unquote, small group within the T.A., rewrote these lesson plans.

Now, in those lesson plans, for whatever reason, it talked a lot about religion, different religions, Buddhism, Judaism, Islam and Christianity.

What the T.A.

did is they really reduced or erased any mention of, of other religions and replaced those sections with Bible verses and how this works is if you accept if a school accepts these lesson plans, they get a subsidy.

but of course, teaching Bible lessons and.

This are great.

These are elementary school ones.

They're elementary school.

They're reading lessons.

it's been unclear why religion was chosen as a topic to to teach reading lessons in the first place.

But what's interesting is in this bill, because obviously there's the question, the establishment clause, the separation of church and state.

But interestingly, this bill explicitly, gives teachers a green light and, immunity, immunity from being prosecuted.

And does it say so?

The state would subsidize any prosecution of them, or they just talk about immunity from.

A how it's written is the state will not prosecute you for teaching kids Bible verses in public schools.

But obviously, this is, a major constitutional question.

And this is a lesson plan that they bought.

But it doesn't go into effect or wouldn't go into effect until next fall, the next school year.

That's great.

But there's some pushback already on this, because some of the state reps just found out about it.

Right.

So state Rep James Talarico, who represents a district in the Austin, suburbs, was the one that brought this question up.

sometimes in state government, all you have to do is read the bill and there's there's a lot of questions to be raised and some of this stuff that's being passed.

but Mike Morath, the, head of the Texas Education Administration, to be quite frank, seemed a bit caught off guard by the questions from Rep Tyler Rico and seemed a bit unprepared and didn't realize these questions would be asked.

And so this is the kind of thing that could be challenged and expected to be challenged in court.

Specifically, because of what it would require teachers to teach and what would exclude them from teaching.

Exactly.

I mean, how this will go is it will go through the courts.

It will probably go to the Fifth Circuit.

They'll make a ruling, it'll go back.

But I mean, the real question is, Texas schools are some of the most underfunded public schools in the country.

And instead of funding public schools, what's going to happen is a lot of taxpayer money is going to go towards legal fees for this, this bill and these lesson plans.

And speaking of funding, the governor wants school vouchers, to pass.

And this talked about tying that to school funding and past as well as a future.

And that came up as well.

he's house meeting.

Yes.

So we're still on school vouchers.

It's been, I think, two years, but Abbott is still trying to get it passed.

And, as you know, last year he put a lot of money into marrying people from his own party who voted against school vouchers.

Steve Allison here and others.

Yep.

Right.

but what happened during Monday's meeting is there were rural Republicans from rural districts who had previously voted in favor of vouchers, who began asking serious questions about how this program, this proposal benefits rural students or not.

Well, yeah.

So in other words, they might switch their votes against a school voucher program in the next session of the legislature, which would change the the likelihood that it would pass.

I can't predict the future, Randi, but, to me, it does not appear that Governor Abbott has his house in order to get a voucher bill passed at this time.

It's going to be interesting.

Another thing you heard about this week is flights to Boston and New York.

JetBlue pulled out or is pulling out of those non stops that they had to New York and Boston.

But Delta is jumping in and it's there's a little backstory to that I guess.

Yeah it's it's really interesting.

So Boston has long been one of JetBlue's primary hub.

I mean they they have their advertisement at Fenway Park.

It's been Boston's number one airline for a while.

so in 2019, for whatever reason, Delta, I guess, saw an opportunity to move into the Boston market, and they made it a hub.

Since then, JetBlue has not turned a profit since Delta moved in, to the Boston market since 2019.

And last quarter, JetBlue actually lost almost $1 billion.

But, yeah.

So it's looking a little rough.

So JetBlue pulled out of San Antonio.

They didn't really give a reason.

They just said they're pulling out.

And they said that their flights were 80% full, which I find that hard to believe.

Why would you pull out?

But so Delta very quickly took the opportunity to replace JetBlue's flights.

And now they're flying to San Antonio.

But I think the story here is not so much that San Antonio is a sought after destination, for people in the northeast, but it's more so a a chess move and a larger fight over the Boston market between Delta and JetBlue.

Delta smacking JetBlue where it can.

Yeah, absolutely.

Interesting.

You always find the backstory to these stories.

Michael, Carlos, thanks for coming in.

You can read his stuff in the San Antonio current.

Appreciate it.

Yep.

And thank you for joining us for this edition of On the Record.

You can see this show again.

You can see any previous shows.

You can also download the podcast.

Just go to klrn.org I'm Randy Beamer and we'll see you next time.

On the record is brought to you by Steve and Adele Dufilho