{"id":12638,"date":"2025-06-25T05:01:08","date_gmt":"2025-06-25T05:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/12638\/"},"modified":"2025-06-25T05:01:08","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T05:01:08","slug":"east-side-concern-over-project-marvel-is-clear-as-san-antonio-begins-public-input-meetings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/12638\/","title":{"rendered":"East Side concern over Project Marvel is clear as San Antonio begins public input meetings"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN ANTONIO<\/strong> \u2013 Seven months after the City of San Antonio unveiled its vision<\/a> for a multi-billion-dollar sports and entertainment district, residents are being asked for their feedback.<\/p>\n

Not all of it is good. <\/p>\n

The city is hosting a series of two-day community planning workshops in each of the 10 city council districts over the next two weeks to gather public input on the proposed district, which the city dubbed \u201cProject Marvel,\u201d and how it should be implemented.<\/p>\n

Skepticism and apprehension filled early discussions at one of the first workshops on the East Side. City officials and the architectural and planning firm hired to run the meetings say public feedback, positive or negative, won\u2019t be ignored.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not here just to check a box,\u201d Assistant City Manager Lori Houston told reporters. \u201cWe\u2019re 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.”<\/p>\n

Houston framed a possible bond vote as the first test of the council\u2019s support. City staff have said<\/a> a $220 million to $250 million bond is needed to improve infrastructure around Hemisfair to make the vision of a larger district possible.<\/p>\n

The new city council would need to act by Aug. 18 to put the issue in front of voters on the November ballot.<\/p>\n

A new Spurs arena is the centerpiece of the proposed district, which also includes expanding the Henry B. Gonz\u00e1lez Convention Center, building a new convention center hotel, renovating the John H. Wood Jr. Federal Courthouse into an events venue, upgrading the Alamodome, constructing a land bridge over Interstate 37 and facilitating private development.<\/p>\n

The city has hired architectural and planning firm Able City to run the workshops, though city staff are also involved. The workshops are a combination of presentations, focus group discussions on specific issues such as transportation and local business and exercises where residents can draw their ideas directly onto maps of the area.<\/p>\n

At one of the first meetings on Tuesday in District 2 \u2014 a focus group on housing issues \u2014 general skepticism and pushback dominated the discussion.<\/p>\n

The roughly two dozen participants expressed frustration with how the community engagement process was set up and organized, fear of further gentrification and displacement in their neighborhoods and an overarching question of whether the new arena or district was necessary.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy should all of the people put forward their energy behind a multi-billion-dollar project that\u2019s not gonna benefit them at all? Period. Never,\u201d asked CJ Gaylord.<\/p>\n

The specter of other unfulfilled expectations, such as the growth that failed to materialize around the Spurs\u2019 current home, the Frost Bank Center, also hung over the discussion, as did the problems the district already faces.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll give as much time as you need and we\u2019ll work hard to make sure this is a great project,\u201c Beverly Watts said. \u201dBut, you guys, we can\u2019t ignore what\u2019s already in existence here now that hasn\u2019t been fixed, that will only be exacerbated when you put all these other things on it.”<\/p>\n

Pegy Brimhall, a partner with Able City Communities and leader of the focus group discussions, said she was not surprised by all the negative reactions. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere have been decades worth of understandings that have not come to fruition,\u201d Brimhall said. Is this going to be one that will have the same sort of output? I don\u2019t think anyone is intending that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brimhall said the conversations \u201chappening now and over the next few weeks and few months\u201d would help form a \u201cguiding principles\u201d document to determine how Project Marvel moves forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything is open, which is why this is the time to form it and to make it what it is that the community needs and wants to see and wants to enjoy,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

A larger meeting of approximately 40 people on Tuesday night, during which Houston presented an overview of Project Marvel and community members worked in groups on proposals, was much less combative than the earlier forums; however, similar concerns still arose.<\/p>\n

\u201cFifty-six years, I\u2019ve seen the Alamodome. I\u2019ve seen the AT&T Center. And now we want to move again,\u201d said longtime East Side resident Debra Seward. \u201cIt has to be something that\u2019s done for this East Side community before we, you know, have another broken promise to this community.”<\/p>\n

HOW TO PARTICIPATE<\/b><\/p>\n

The two-day community planning workshops are happening in each of the 10 city council districts over the next two weeks, and all follow the same format.<\/p>\n

DAY 1<\/b><\/p>\n