![\"Assistant](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/BonnieArbittier_YMCA_new_south_southside_opening_harvey_najim_ribbon_cutting_9-15-2017-1.jpg\")
Assistant City Manager Lori Houston welcomes the public to the Harvey E. Najim Family YMCA in 2017. Credit: Bonnie Arbittier \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\nSan Antonio\u2019s Assistant City Manager Lori Houston, a driving force behind many of the city\u2019s largest projects, is exiting her role at City Hall.<\/p>\n
Houston started at the city as an intern 23 years ago. <\/p>\n
When Mayor Phil Hardberger was elected in 2005, she was tapped to execute the Museum Reach and Mission Reach River Walk extensions.<\/p>\n
Houston quickly gained the respect of city leaders and was given some of the city\u2019s most challenging issues to tackle, from affordable housing to downtown redevelopment.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom the Alamo to the River Walk to Hemisfair, she\u2019s helped transform downtown in a way that benefits us all,\u201d City Manager Erik Walsh said of Houston. \u201cHer retirement is well earned, and I wish her the best as she embarks on her next chapter.\u201d<\/p>\n
In recent years, Houston has become known for her work spearheading the proposed sports and entertainment district known as Project Marvel \u2014 a roughly $4 billion downtown redevelopment project that\u2019s expected to be the home of a new Spurs arena.<\/p>\n
The project\u2019s handling has drawn criticism from the public and new Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones for getting so far along its development before members of the public knew about it. <\/p>\n
Assistant City Manager Lori Houston welcomes the public to the Harvey E. Najim Family YMCA in 2017. Credit: Bonnie Arbittier \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n
Houston\u2019s departure comes just days after the City Council approved a term sheet signaling support for the plan. Her last day with the city will be Sept. 26.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been the honor of my career to help shape projects that have moved our city forward,\u201d Houston said in a statement. \u201cI\u2019m incredibly proud of what we\u2019ve built together, and I\u2019m deeply grateful for the opportunities the City has given me to grow as a leader, a collaborator, and a public servant.\u201d<\/p>\n
Houston said she plans to do some \u201clight consulting\u201d and support her aging parents while spending more time with family. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Antonio\u2019s Assistant City Manager Lori Houston, a driving force behind many of the city\u2019s largest projects, is…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":185687,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5130],"tags":[4345,72357,104210,104211,104212,13123,48211,3138,358,7453,3187,7815,11887],"class_list":{"0":"post-185686","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston","8":"tag-houston","9":"tag-lori-houston","10":"tag-mission-reach","11":"tag-museum-reach","12":"tag-phil-hardberger","13":"tag-project-marvel","14":"tag-san-antonio-river-walk","15":"tag-san-antonio-spurs","16":"tag-texas","17":"tag-top-story","18":"tag-tx","19":"tag-typedaily","20":"tag-wc-less-than-500"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115114381596689177","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}