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Tuesday night marked the beginning of a series of community workshops about Project Marvel being held in all ten city council districts over the next two weeks.
Residents primarily from District 2 gathered at Wheatley Heights Sports Complex to voice their opinions on the multibillion-dollar development plan that would transform downtown.
Plans for the project include a new Spurs arena, upgrading the Alamodome, expanding the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center, constructing a land bridge over Interstate 37, renovating the former John H. Wood Jr. Federal Courthouse into a live events venue and constructing a new convention center hotel.
Attendees raised concerns over traffic congestion, funding, city management and community involvement, among other issues.
Assistant City Manager Lori Houston said the purpose of the two-day workshops is to listen to the community, understand their concerns and possible ideas for the proposed district and relay information about project details.
“We’re not here just to check a box,” Houston said. “We’re here to get that input, present it in a report to Council, and let them make the decision if they feel like the input was adequate enough for them to make the decision to move forward.”
She added that the city will present the feedback from the workshops to the City Council, which will then vote to place a bond proposal to fund infrastructure improvements for the district on the November ballot.
District 2 Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez acknowledged some of the concerns residents have raised, but he also stressed that Project Marvel began as a vision to improve public facilities and reimagine the downtown area.
“Whatever happens with Project Marvel, we have to be in a position of strength and power,” McKee-Rodriguez said. “The community is obviously fed up. Fed up of being last to come to the table for their opinions and thoughts on projects before they’re already implemented and decided upon.”
He said while the future of the project is uncertain, the city is starting to look at community benefits agreements that are happening in other parts of the country and taking the most effective parts of them.
“I think we’ve gotten a little smarter and more strategic in how we actually secure guarantees,” McKee-Rodriguez said. “What those individual guarantees look like I think will largely be driven by discussions like these.”
One workshop attendee, Jennifer Knoulton, is a six-year resident of Denver Heights on the East Side. She said she wants to be realistic about the project, and she accepts that it’s moving quickly, but she hopes the city puts the people who live in the area before developers’ interests.
“San Antonio has a history of broken promises and displacement, starting with the Hemisfair and the displacement with all of the people to create that venue, to the broken promises of the Frost Bank Center,” Knoulton said. “There is an opportunity here for the city to do things properly.”
Knoulton said she recognizes San Antonio’s unique culture and cozy atmosphere makes the city a tourist destination, but the city’s development efforts are continuously completed at the cost of vulnerable residents.
“This development needs to be a good neighbor,” Knoulton said during the workshop. “How are we going to be guaranteed that [private developers] are going to work with residents? We want residents to be involved in every aspect of the planning of this project.”
Some attendees like Jesus Mancha acknowledged others’ concerns associated with Project Marvel but remained in support of the proposed district.
“I was very eager to see what new ideas will be brought to the table and what we could do once we all talk about those ideas,” Mancha said. “The part of the project that’s most exciting to me is seeing a lot of new development that’s centralized in the area.”
Mancha said he’s glad the city is holding the workshops to ease community concern over the funding of the project. Still, he said his biggest concern was how the city planned to manage infrastructure improvements in the district.
“I think we’ve seen a long history of both failed infrastructure projects or infrastructure projects that take too long, so seeing how the city manages that would be very interesting to see and discuss,” Mancha said.
The next community workshops will take place next week on June 30 and July 1 in Districts 3 and 10. Anyone is welcome to attend regardless of which district they live in.
The full schedule of upcoming workshops can be found here.
