TEXAS — With San Antonio voters electing to move forward with a new Spurs arena, there’s been some concerns from residents who live near the arena the team will eventually vacate.
“The train will go through and sometimes it will just stop, for sometimes 30-45 minutes,” James Nortey said. “That becomes a barrier. These are all challenges that make it hard to do business on the Eastside.”
St. Paul’s Square — the gateway to San Antonio’s Eastside — was once thriving with Black-owned businesses.
“In the 1920s and ‘30s, St. Paul’s Square is where we had the greatest concentration of the Black community, whether it be doctors, lawyers, businessmen, restauranteurs.” Nortey said.
Nortey runs the nonprofit SAGE, which stands for San Antonio for Growth on the Eastside. In pushing for more economic development in this area, he says it has been historically neglected.
“Our job is to work with the city, the county and other nonprofits and businesses to do our best to overcome these barriers,” Nortey said.
For SAGE, that looks like giving $10,000 storefront grants to businesses in the community.
“People want to know when they go shop or when they go eat, if the exterior looks good, hopefully the interior is good,” Nortey said. “It’s not just an investment in the business owner, but it beautifies the community.”
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recently awarded SAGE an $800,000 grant to support small businesses. Nortey says they’ll use those funds to assist entrepreneurs expanding, creating jobs in the community.
“For 76% of our businesses, capital is their number one block to take their business to the next level,” Nortey said.
In November, Proposition A proposed a multimillion-dollar investment to reimagine the Freeman Coliseum for year-round rodeo events. And Proposition B cleared the path for a new Spurs arena downtown. Voters approved both items, while SAGE stayed neutral.
“The rodeo is an Eastside business that’s been around over 50 years,” Nortey said. “We certainly want to see them grow. At the same time, the candid reality is that not everyone that’s from here feels like the rodeo is for them.”
But Nortey says the Spurs eventually vacating the Frost Bank Center could present a challenge for Eastside businesses.
“We love and support the San Antonio Spurs,” Nortey said. “The business community is excited about the potential. But they’re worried about will my customers be able to even get to my restaurant, get to my business. These are valid concerns.”
With more than 5,800 businesses on the greater Eastside, SAGE hopes to push back against negative perceptions, getting folks to visit these local businesses, despite future development moving downtown.
“For the residents here, this is our home,” Nortey said. “They want to know that as the new business develops and is torn up, it does have negative impacts on their community and it also preserves their cultural assets.”
