Ron Nirenberg is serving his second term as San Antonio's mayor. During his second term, he is leading the city through the COVID-19 pandemic and related damage. Ron joins us to discuss the state of the city, moving forward, and some of the things he loves about San Antonio. He also discusses how he had a short affair with electronica music.

Transcript:

Justin Hill: Hello and bienvenidos, San Antonio. Welcome to The Alamo Hour, discussing the people, places, and passion that make our city. My name is Justin Hill, a local attorney, a proud San Antonian, and keeper of chickens and bees. On The Alamo Hour, you'll get to hear from the people that make San Antonio great and unique and the best-kept secret in Texas. We're glad that you're here.

All right. Welcome to this episode of The Alamo Hour. Today's guest needs little introduction Mayor Nirenberg joins us. He was District 8 city councilman. He's been elected to two terms in office as our mayor. He's currently guiding our city through what has to be unprecedented strain economically and just generally for all the citizenry. I met Ron in 2015 when he was a city councilman, his mutual friend introduced us, I asked him to come on to the show whenever we started then the pandemic happened. I've pestered him for a while to come on so, Ron, thank you so much for coming on and doing this.

Ron Nirenberg: Thanks for having me, Justin, I'm excited to be here.

Justin: The goal of our show is to give a little bit of color to the people that are making decisions and doing fun things and have passions about our city. I don't think you can be much more passionate about the city than being serving as the mayor. Everybody has to go through a top 10 I'm going to go through that with you just some general questions about who you are, bounce around when and why did you end up moving to San Antonio?

Ron: Yes, sure. Well, so thank you for having me, it's been a while since I saw you so-

Justin: I know,

Ron: -this will have to suffice for now. Now I grew up just north of here in Austin, Texas. I was actually born on the East Coast in Boston. We moved to Austin, Texas in 1980, my dad's job moved us down there. I loved Austin in the '80s growing up there a residential neighborhood-friendly type of community. I was about to go back to the East Coast for school and my dad convinced me to come down to San Antonio to check out some schools and I went down to Trinity and I fell in love with it. I decided to enroll at Trinity and after four years at Trinity, I fell in love with San Antonio. It was in the mid-90s.

San Antonio was coming into its own at that point. I remember that Mayor Peak was in office towards the end, and he had a great vision for the city, embracing green spaces, building an urban environment, and embracing all the cultural assets of the city. That's the San Antonio that I grew up with, for lack of a better phrase and I went away for graduate school and met my wife and we decided we're going to plant our roots in San Antonio we've been here ever since.

Justin: We're happy to have you. I'm happy to have you.

Ron: Thanks.

Justin: You're very prominent on social media so I follow everything you're doing and this is a tough time to have a light-hearted conversation, but I want to ask about some things you're not covering. In our house, we are trying to support a bunch of our local restaurants and do things that probably is not the most economical thing to do at this time, but we know our friends need it. Any places you're frequenting eating out are you trying to spread the love or ya'll cooking at home? What are y'all doing?

Ron: All of the above. Erika, my wife bears the brunt of the burden. When it comes to my son during the days at school, he's at home in school, he's in sixth grade. We try to eat together. It's amazing this pandemic has brought us closer together in many ways, the community. Certainly, we have regular meal times now which is strange but we try to pick up food from as many different local restaurants as we can. Every Friday, Erika goes and gets a ton of dishes from Clementine which is really close to Northwest military.

For Mother's Day, I picked up a meal kit that Southerleigh was doing so we're really trying to support local as much as we can. Of course, all the other meals were home cooking.

Justin: Yes, I was just looking at Clementine's thing yesterday but I-

Ron: Great place.

Justin: -prefer burgers so I'll do Clementine later. You always hear the phrase that sometimes people are thrust into leadership roles or these things are thrust upon you. You're in a leadership role in our city and you're in a guiding tire guiding our city through a very tough time. Are there any sort of leadership styles or figures you've looked upon and you thought that's the type of leader I want to be, that's who I want to emulate when I lead people in a tough time?

Ron: It's not anyone single person, I think everyone I've ever come in contact with and had the pleasure of being mentored by. I try to take something from them but I think the person I've gotten to know the most as a leader and emulate styles and someone who I admire very much is Mayor Hardberger. It's strange because he and I have become very good friends. He's been a mentor of mine since my political life began. It is strange because Mayor Hardberger of course, had a full legal career before he came into public office but he became known as our mayor through a time of fairly significant crisis, particularly with Hurricane Katrina and the aftermath, and how we rebuilt or helped our neighbors rebuild.

You're right and I agree with that 100% that you don't pick moments, moments pick you and if I could have the choice of things that would happen externally during my time as mayor, I certainly wouldn't have picked a pandemic but yes, you deal with that. Certainly, the lessons I've learned from Phil have helped in this time for sure.

Justin: I like you calling out Phil because Phil did the type of law that I do so he's a legend in our world as well. I ask everybody what are some of your hidden gems in our city? I've heard everything from generally the pearl to I mean very specific little restaurants or churches so what are some of your favorite little off the beaten path spots in San Antonio?

Ron: There's a lot. I had the pleasure of being a council member in District 8 for two terms. There's a place I don't think many people know very well but is an extraordinary estate and park and that's Denman Estate Park, there's a beautiful pond there. It doesn't have a natural water source it just stays full and every once in a while we have to go in as a city and fill it but it's got a Korean pavilion that was a gift to the city. Actually, when Mayor Hardberger was mayor, he established a sister city relationship with Gwangju, South Korea and part of that relationship was the gift of this Korean pavilion.

It's amazing, it's beautiful, ornate, doesn't have a single screw, It's all wood. We had the pleasure of reciprocating that gift just this past fall. It took 10 years for us to really find the perfect thing and have a local artist create a monument for them and we took it over there. That's one place--

Justin: What was it? What was the monument?

Ron: It was a monument to friendship and it was a local artist that had to be assembled it was lighted sculpture. I'll send you a photo, it's pretty amazing.

Justin: Yes, please.

Ron: Unfortunately, I had to come back early, so Councilman Kearns had to stand in the actual ceremony for me, but we finally made a trip out to South Korea and so that's one. There are so many amazing places in San Antonio because we have such a massive footprint and I find myself increasingly spending a lot of time on the south side particularly some of the ecological systems that have been restored by the river south projects, and that's amazing. Of course, we love Norteños to go and have lunch there the drive-in awesome. Yes, there's too many to list.

Justin: Sure. You've been highlight some I've never heard of, is it, Denman Park?

Ron: Denman Estate Park.

Justin: Yes, I've never heard of that so we're going to put-

Ron: You need to go, it's beautiful.

Justin: -some stuff up about that. Yes, I will of course. Other than weightlifting, what other hobbies do you have?

Ron: I love music.

Justin: Do you play it?

Ron: I used to be in a couple of bands.

Justin: What instrument?

Ron: I was not great. Out front.

Justin: [laughs] You were the singer or-

Ron: Yes, I just sang a little bit.

Justin: -did you play rhythm guitar as well or just sing?

Ron: What's that?

Justin: Did you play rhythm guitar too or did you just sing?

Ron: Yes, just vocals.

Justin: What kind of bands? Metal?

Ron: No, it was mostly classic rock and cover.

Ron: Okay.

Ron: Not great but we had fun.

Justin: All right.

Ron: I did have a band that played originals and we did our own stuff in Philly when I was there for grad school, so that's fine. I love all kinds of music and one of the things that I do every day, just to unwind is when everybody goes to sleep, I get to go out on the back porch and just put on some earphones and even if it's just 5, 10 minutes, I just kind of zone out, listen to some good music, all kinds of genres. I have a beer on occasion and just let the day escape me before we get back into it.

Justin: Anything you're listening to on repeat right now?

Ron: On the drive-in, we just noticed that, I guess because of furloughs that Siri or something, the truck we drive-in has a subscription. Because of the furloughs, they couldn't put a lot of automated DJs on. There's a Led Zeppelin station. I've strangely enough been listening to a lot of Led Zeppelin in the last couple of days.

Justin: Not strange at all. They're incredible.

Ron: You get into a phase. It's been a while since I really listened to Led Zeppelin.

Justin: I'm in a Pink Floyd phase right now.

Ron: Are you?

Justin: Yes. It's just for whatever reason.

Ron: My favorite band of all time is The Doors. I always go back to that. I've been reading that there is a strange nostalgia for old time rock and roll right now, the '50s, late '50s rock and roll, do up.

Justin: Like Elvis.

Ron: Elvis, you remember that song, Sleep Walk by Santo & Johnny?

Justin: Yes.

Ron: It was featured in La Bamba. Anyway, I found that song and I just-- You know you listen to a song you hadn't heard in a long time, but it's so familiar to you so you just end up listening to that one song for about an hour on repeat. That was one of those things. My favorite song of all time is Crimson & Clover, Tommy James, and the Shondells. That was my wedding song too, believe it or not.

Justin: All right. Well, my mom made me listen to all of that growing up, so I probably am more well versed than I should. You should listen to Orville Peck if you have not.

Ron: Orville Beck?

Justin: Orville Peck. He sounds like a mix between Elvis and old swing Western almost. It's this weird super cool sound. He's been on repeat for me lately. It's got a familiar sound even though it's new music.

Ron: You should be able to do work and read on a plane because it's a good, quiet time. Usually, I can do some reading but I'm always listening to music. It's a good relaxation time on a plane. I always discover new old things or old new things when I'm on a plane. In the fall, actually, the trip to Asia, I was starting to listen to a lot of electronica

from Canada and from Europe. There's a band called Grimes that I got into for a little while. I never thought I'd like electronica.

Justin: Yes, I know.

Ron: That had ended up getting on repeat for a while. All kinds.

Justin: You check out Orville Peck, I'll check out Grimes.

Ron: Yes, do it and let me know.

Justin: All right, no favorite Fiesta Event?

Ron: There's a few. We love PACfest at Palo Alto College.

Justin: Never been.

Ron: You got to go. Good bands, good food, good people. Also, love Taste of New Orleans, obviously. NIOSA, classic. They're all good, man.

Justin: King William Fair seems to be the runaway favorite of the show so far.

Ron: Yes. The parades are fantastic.

Justin: Fiesta Arts Fair is my favorite.

Ron: King William Fair is in a different league.

Justin: No, it's its own thing. I put up on our social that you were coming on the show and I asked people to give me questions. One of them, it was a great question is, in this very stressful time you're seeing the best come out of people, are there any stories that maybe people haven't been told of some of the best of humanity coming out the silver linings to what our city is doing right now that you can share with us? Like the guys at Folklore Coffee are doing some incredible stuff, feeding elderly people. You never even hear about that. Somebody put me on to that and I looked it up. That's a fantastic story that nobody's telling. Anything else like that?

Ron: Every day, all day every day. Something that doesn't really get told so much, when you see the iconic photos of the food bank lines. That has become one of the pictures of this pandemic is the lines of cars. What was extraordinary to me, the last couple of times I went out there, is the lines of cars are exceeded by the number of volunteers that are there. It never fails San Antonio that whenever there's a crisis, that people just come out in droves to help, whether it's our own community or it's someone else. That's pretty remarkable.

I keep seeing photos of friends children on social media, where people who work in the health care field and they have used sidewalk chalk to welcome their parents home and they're calling their parents heroes and redefining what that term means for kids growing up. My hat's off to all the teachers that are dealing with the extreme pivot that we've had to do and in school. There's just a constant source of compassion and examples of solidarity that we draw from to get us through. I think San Antonio continues to exemplify the very best of people when it comes to getting through this pandemic.

Justin: I couldn't agree more with you. The last question, then we're going to get into what's going on with the city. How many tattoos do you have?

[laughter]

Justin: Hey, the public wants to know these things.

Ron: Though it's two. One on either forearm.

Justin: The ones that have been highlighted.

Ron: It's the only ones, I promise you.

Justin: Okay. Ron, you're the mayor of the seventh-largest city in the United States. You recently were named a new deal leader. You've done great things. I love the stuff you've done with the AlamoPROMISE and transportation and addressing housing issues. How much money did you raise for the food bank on your birthday give? It kept going up and up and up and up.

Ron: I was amazed by that because I started with $1,000. I thought, "Okay, I got to get this. I can put my own end just to make sure we get there." $65,000.

Justin: I think it was 58 the last time I looked and you kept moving the goal.

Ron: I got egged on by friends who helped do that. It was pretty awesome. Another great display of support and compassion in our community.

Justin: I think it's important that people ask. There's this funny thing where you see when people ask for help, they get it in this town, but when they don't, maybe they don't, but you asked for people to support and people came out in droves, small amounts, big amounts.

Ron: That's a huge amount of food for people.

Justin: Yes, because it's what? $1 or seven meals or something like that.

Ron: That's right.

Justin: San Antonio so far, I was looking at the numbers two days ago, I don't think they've changed much. San Antonio, in terms of sickness per thousand, we have been doing better than Harris, Dallas, Terran, Travis, El Paso. Really, we've been doing a great job as a city. What are the big metrics that you're looking at as a leader of the city because you hear all kinds of stuff? They're saying, "Well, doesn't look at sickness, because that doesn't account for testing. Don't look at death, because that doesn't account for these types of injuries that are happening." What are the main metrics you guys are looking at when you're making decisions?

Ron: Well, that's a really important point to make that it's not just one [unintelligible 00:17:49] of data because I think it's a mistake to just zero in on one data point. It's all part of the picture that you have to put together. It's a bit of a puzzle. We look at obviously, the infection rate, but not just the raw number. In fact, the raw number is almost meaningless. You have to look at how fast that raw number is doubling, the doubling rate. When we started, we're at doubling the number of infections every three days. We're now at 28 days. It slowed down the doubling rate of infection.

You also look at the level of testing that you're doing per capita. I don't know what our number is, but generally, based on our peers in Texas, we are doing very, very well in terms of testing. Also, you look at your- what we've been looking at is your positivity rate. When your infection starts to slow down in terms of the doubling, you want to make sure that you're not missing things. As you increase testing, you see your doubling rate slow down. You also want to see your positivity rate go down. We started roughly around 10%, 11%. Last time we talked about it, last week, we were at about...