Bad Takes: San Antonio has a DWI problem. Let's tackle it in a smart way.

Drunk man reaching for car keys at table, closeup. Plenty of San Antonio politicos and public figures have been picked up on DWI charges recently. Credit: Shutterstock / New Africa

Bad Takes is a column of opinion and analysis.

“I never trust a man who doesn’t drink.” — John Wayne

“I’ve never had a glass of alcohol.” — Donald Trump

Almost every remotely interesting person I know has been caught drinking and driving at some point in their life, and by that measure, the San Antonio City Council has been chock-full of interesting people of late.

On the Express-News’ Enside Politics podcast, reporter Molly Smith noted that three council members have been arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated in the past three years.

“I cannot think of another Texas or U.S. city where a city council has that same claim to fame,” Smith added.

First, there was former District 10 councilman Clayton Perry, who downed at least seven beers, six shots and an Old Fashioned before blowing out of the Evil Olive on Nov. 6, 2022, according to police records. He hit a car and left the scene, authorities said. Then, he treated us to surreal body-cam footage of himself shooting the bull with an investigating officer in his own backyard before trying to open a sliding glass door with a key card.

Last spring, Perry attempted a Charlie Sheen-like return to the ring but found his public image irrevocably tarnished. He placed 8th in the most recent mayoral election.

Then in December 2023, Marc Whyte, the very councilman who took Perry’s seat on the dais, picked up a DWI charge and an embarrassing video of his field sobriety test. He took a plea deal the following year for “obstruction of a highway” and served six months’ probation.

Finally, this summer, District 8 Councilwoman Ivalis Meza Gonzalez was reportedly pulled over for weaving between lanes on I-10 and arrested on suspicion of DWI. The charge was elevated to a Class A misdemeanor after a police-ordered test showed her blood-alcohol level was at or above 0.15. The legal limit for Texas drivers is 0.08, and 0.30 is likely to put someone in a comatose state.

Gonzalez was suspended from her committee assignments after barely a month on the job, and last Thursday the Council voted for her censure.

But the intemperance isn’t limited to politicians.

In 2023, Greg Simmons, a KSAT-12 sports anchor for more than four decades, resigned over a DWI charge that ultimately resulted in probation and a $500 fine.

Somewhat comically, when asked for his driver’s license, he instead handed the arresting deputy his credit card, according to the arrest’s incident report.

Needless to say, this isn’t the type of notoriety we’d chose for our city. A beloved rock star micturating on the Alamo Cenotaph is one thing, but getting behind the wheel of a two-ton death machine is no laughing matter.

More than 82% of fatal car crashes in Bexar County involved drunk drivers, the Current reported earlier this year, and almost one in five San Antonians are binge drinkers, according to one company’s data crunching. Among all U.S. cities, the Alamo City ranks fourth in the nation in DUI fatalities, with Austin and Dallas ignominiously above us. As a state, Texas’ rate of deadly booze-related crashes is double the national average.

The numbers suggest San Antonio has a drinking-and-driving problem — one worthy of brainstorming about potential solutions.

What’s worked so far is a good place to start. After Uber came to Houston roughly a decade ago, a Journal of the American Medical Association study found that car crash traumas among those under 30 dropped by nearly 40%. And after a pair of New Jersey townships offered subsidized ride shares from bars and restaurants between 9 p.m. and 2 a.m., a study in the British Medical Journal’s publication Injury Prevention found the move yielded a 38% reduction in nighttime traffic injuries. Researchers also found hundreds fewer alcohol-induced wrecks in the eight years since the program came into existence.

If San Antonio adopted a similar plan, imagine how many lives could be saved.

A coalition of Alamo City bars offers free ride shares for people who are took intoxicated to drive. However, only about 20 bars participate, according to my research.

Why not offer a rebate on property or sales taxes to encourage more establishments to join the program? Why not ask the Spurs organization to help foot the bill? We could call them Marvel Rides.

And why rely on union-busting corporate ride share services when we could offer a municipal alternative with city-owned vehicles as part of the Ready to Work initiative? And of course, I wouldn’t be a pedestrian-centric lefty if I didn’t take this opportunity to lament the unintended consequences of suburban sprawl and the lack of public transportation in our city.

In this as in so many other challenges, the punitive approach favored by the law-and-order crowd can only take us so far. Rather than heaping shame upon those — from elected leaders to everyday schmoes — who get caught, we could all chip in toward longer-lasting solutions.

If we’re sincerely interested in avoiding further tragedy, compassionate harm reduction is the more sober choice.

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Bad Takes: San Antonio has a DWI problem. Let’s tackle it in a smart way.

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