San Antonio Current — November 3, 2022

THE ARTISTIC LEGACY OF LA MALINCHE | CHEFS SINGING THE FOOD FEST BLUES | THE POETIC JAZZ OF AFTER NOW

Digital

Contributors: Abe Asher, Noah Alcala Bach, Ashley Allen, Ron Bechtol, Enrique Bonilla, Danny Cervantes, Daniel Conrad, Macks Cook, Brianna Espinoza, Kiko Martinez, Mike McMahan, M. Solis, Karly Williams, Caroline Wol

Editorial Interns: Jake Fortune

Marketing and Events

Marketing and Events Director: Cassandra Yardeni

Events Manager: Chelsea Bourque

Account Manager: Nathan Sokul

Senior Account Executive: Mike Valdelamar

Events & Promotions Coordinator: Chastina De La Pena

Social Media Manager: Meradith Garcia

Creative Services

Creative Services Manager: Samantha Serna

Production Interns: Morgan Forshage, Pedro Macias, Marlene Mejia, Sydney Pujol

Circulation

Circulation Manager: Justin Giles

Euclid Media Group

Chief Executive O cer: Andrew Zelman

Chief Operating O cers: Chris Keating, Michael Wagner

VP of Digital Services: Stacy Volhein

Director of Agency Services: Mindi Overman

Agency Director: Kelsey Molina

Digital Operations Coordinator: Jaime Monzon

Vice Presidents of Marketing: Cassandra Yardeni

Regional Operations Director: Hollie Mahadeo www.euclidmediagroup.com

National Advertising: Voice Media Group (888) 278-9866, vmgadvertising.com

San Antonio Current 915 Dallas San Antonio, Texas 78215 sacurrent.com

Editorial: (210) 332-5448

Display Advertising: (210) 332-5448

(210) 227-CLAS / Fax - (210) 227-7733

in this issue

Copyright:

Subscriptions

On the Cover: Economics and variety of other factors are making it hard for San Antonio to make good on its promise to develop more affordable housing. Design: Samantha Serna.

World AIDS Day takes place onDecember 1 each year. It’s an opportunity for people worldwide to unite in the fight against HIV, to show support for people living with HIV, and to commemorate those who have died from an AIDS-related illness. Founded in 1988, World AIDS Day was the first ever global health day.

HThe organizers of next year’s Cowboy Breakfast said the Jan. 27 event is in jeopardy because it’s fallen short of fundraising goals. The free annual event, which began 44 years ago to feed riders coming into town for the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo, has become increasingly pricy to stage, backers said.

HThe women’s Final Four is returning to San Antonio for the fourth time. The NCAA last week announced the Alamodome, already slated to host the men’s Final Four in 2025, will host the women’s tournament in 2029. San Antonio previously hosted the women’s Final Four in 2002, 2010 and 2021.

HThe annual household income needed to afford a home in the San Antonio area jumped to roughly $87,000 last year, a nearly 50% increase, according to new data from online real estate firm Redfin. That exceeds the median household income for a family of four in the area, which stands at $83,500.

The University of Texas System Board of Regents last week unanimously adopted the Chicago Statement, commi ing the university to protecting free speech on its campuses amidst nationwide efforts by right-wing lawmakers to dictate what teachers and academics can discuss in the classroom. UT’s intercollegiate student government also endorsed the decision.

— Abe Asher

— Travis County Judge Maya Guerra Gamble during the court hearing at which Infowars host Alex Jones sought to reduce his defamation payout from the Sandy Hook lawsuit.

Declaring ‘invasions’ and taking them back with Gov. Greg Abbott

Assclown Alert is a column of opinion, analysis and snark.

In 2019, shortly after a gunman slaughtered 23 people in an El Paso Walmart, claiming in an online screed that he was thwarting a “Hispanic invasion,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbo issued a sort-of apology for invoking similar terms in a fundraising mailer sent out the day prior.

Abbo ’s mailer urged fellow Republicans to “DEFEND TEXAS NOW” from immigrants and “take ma ers into our own hands.”

In true Nixonian style, Abbo eventually admi ed “mistakes were made” in his fundraising le er. He also assured the media that he spoke to members of El Paso’s legislative delegation to ensure “rhetoric will not be used in a dangerous way.” Phew. Glad he cleared that up.

Fast-forward to November 2022, however, and Abbo has fully embraced the I-word with zero fucks given.

In recent weeks, he fired off le ers to the White House and county judges describing the record influx of migrants as an invasion. He even tweeted that he’d “invoked the Invasion Clause of the U.S. & Texas Constitutions,” something that theoretically allows him to defy the federal government on immigration policy.

Except that it doesn’t, experts said. At least not when mentioned offhand via social media.

“There’s a very specific, established path for invoking the Invasion Clause,” Trinity University political science professor Juan Sepúlveda explained. “You don’t just do it in a tweet.”

No shortage of racists popped boners when Abbo issued his tweet. But it didn’t take long for the rest of the world to figure out that — like many of the governor’s actions around immigration — it amounted to li le more than a political stunt.

“I don’t think it is a change in overall tactic as much as it is a reminder to all of Congress and into the members working the issue that this is serious,” Sarah Hicks, the governor’s budget director backpedaled on his behalf when the Austin American-Statesman asked her about the tweet.

The takeaway here, according to Sepúlveda and other analysts, is that Abbo is simply trying to keep up with the inflammatory rhetoric of Gov. Ron DeSantis as he weighs a 2024 presidential run — or he’s simply looking to hurl red meat to his base after winning reelection.

Let’s be clear, though. The hollowness of Abbo ’s tweet doesn’t make his “invasion” rhetoric any less toxic. We’ll see how soon the assclown is forced to issue another squirming apology following the deadly actions of a racist ideologue.

Let’s hope the answer is “never,” but the rise in far-right extremism gives li le room for optimism. — Sanford Nowlin

U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Waco, last week came under fire for comparing the legalization of marijuana to slavery. The lawmaker’s comments came during a hearing of the Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Subcommi ee, during which he said, “[Marijuana] ... is being advocated by people who are in it to make money,” adding that “slavery made money also and was a terrible circumstance.” Birmingham, Alabama Mayor Randall Woodfin, testifying before the commi ee, called Sessions’ comments “patently offensive and flagrant.”

A conservative member of the Texas House filed a bill that would let pregnant women use the HOV lane by counting their unborn fetus as a second person in their vehicle. The lawmaker behind the proposal, Rep. Briscoe Cain, R-Deer Park, is a perennial a ention-seeker whom Texas Monthly once ranked among the state’s worst legislators.

The San Antonio Spurs se led a lawsuit with former team psychologist Hillary Cauthen, who alleged former shooting guard Josh Primo exposed himself to her on multiple occasions. In her suit, the psychologist argued that the Spurs organization knew of the player’s alleged misconduct months before ultimately releasing him in October. Cauthen also se led her suit with Primo. — Abe Asher

“This person and this company have done something horrible.”

Instagram / @GovAbbott

The legal arguments against Biden’s student debt forgiveness make no sense

BY KEVIN SANCHEZ

Editor’s Note: Bad Takes is a column of opinion and analysis.

ATrump-appointed district court judge in Fort Worth earlier this month ruled that the Biden administration cynically exploited the pandemic to try to make people’s lives a li le be er.

Seems that the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act, passed in 2002 by President George W. Bush, granted the Secretary of Education authority to waive federal student loans for those who have suffered economic hardship “in connection with a war or national emergency.”

More Americans died from COVID-19 over the past 30 months than on every ba lefield since 1775. Might that qualify as a national emergency?

No, said Judge Mark Pi man of the Northern District of Texas. Because Hitler.

“This here is a statute that is about emergencies,” Deputy Assistant A orney General Brian Ne er argued before the court.

Judge Pi man was apparently unmoved. “You know, you could also make the argument that so was the authority given to Hitler after the Reichstag fire,” he retorted.

Yes, a federal judge really said forgiving $10,000 in student debt for those who earn less than $125,000 a year is comparable to the declaration of martial law in Nazi Germany. What a gloriously bad take.

Back on Earth, in December 2019, 43 million Americans held federal student loans, and about 20% of borrowers were in default. The initial COVID-relief bill, the CARES Act, temporarily paused payments on most student loans — a forbearance set to expire on Jan. 1.

So far, 26 million Americans have applied for student debt cancellation, and around 16 million have already been approved, the Associated Press reports. If borrowers must resume

payments next year, many could fall behind on their bills and default.

While all eyes were on Elon Musk se ing fire to Twi er, another billionaire spent his spare time suing to stop Biden’s modest student debt forgiveness.

Bernie Marcus, who was CEO of Home Depot for almost a quarter century, founded the Job Creators Network in 2014, a neoliberal advocacy group that makes the U.S. Chamber of Commerce sound like a bunch of Bolsheviks. Early in the pandemic, Job Creators Network recklessly touted unproven cures such as chloroquine as a convenient excuse not to prioritize preventable deaths over business-as-usual. They also took out Times Square billboards to blame U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for refusing to grovel to Amazon in the pathetic a empt to lure the tax-evading, worker-degrading corporation to build a second headquarters in New York City.

This summer, the organization’s Legal Action Fund kicked into gear, arguing Biden’s “illegal student loan bailout” is “fundamentally unfair to the tens of millions of hardworking Americans who never went to college and are now forced to shoulder loan forgiveness for the consultant class.” The group also argued the plan is “unfair to those who have scrimped and saved to repay their student loans.”

It’s telling when “job creators” choose to apply the logic of “moral hazard” and when they don’t. Certainly not when bailing out investment banks or injecting capital liquidity into Wall Street. In those financial emergencies, government assistance is welcomed.

Suggesting that “helping out some people is unfair because other people exist is so anti-solidaristic, so anti-worker, so anti-community that it’s deserving of scorn,” progressive political commentator Briahna Joy Gray

said in response to such arguments. “Should childless people pay for those with children? Should people who don’t have special needs pay for families with kids who do need more support? Should non-drivers pay for roads? Should people without homes support all the mortgage subsidies?”

Should people who opposed the Iraq War pay for returning veterans’ healthcare? Yes, to all the above — if we’re all in this together and mutually invested in one another’s wellbeing and success.

The cost of college has risen dramatically over recent decades, and thanks to high interest, we’re cumulatively charging less well-off students who had to borrow money to a end school much more than those whose families could afford to pay immediately. Is that fair, according to Marcus of the Job Creators Network?

The total outstanding student loan debt is estimated at north of $1.5 trillion, an albatross that precludes younger generations from buying homes and starting enterprises. And where do the opponents of relief think the money that wouldn’t go to debt payments is going to go, if not right back into the community, to small businesses and toward further education? In short, it would go back into the real economy, as opposed to the $2 trillion tax giveaway Trump made rain on the top 1%, which largely went to stock buybacks.

Speaking of disposable income, Marcus gave $7 million to Trump’s 2016 campaign and, more recently, $1.75 million to a political action commi ee supporting Senate candidate Herschel Walker.

And Marcus’ politics didn’t leave his old company when he did. Home Deport donated more money to the

campaigns of election deniers than any other contributor, including five U.S. House members from Texas — Pat Fallon, Pete Sessions, Jodey Arrington, Lance Gooden and August Pfluger — all of whom handily won reelection and all of whom, on the same day a violent mob stormed the Capitol, voted to block the certification of Biden’s 2020 victory as part of Trump’s a empted coup. If you were considering businesses to boyco , maybe put this big box chain at the top of the list.

Meanwhile, most other developed countries have figured out how to make higher education affordable, with dozens offering free college outright. Tuition-free college is already a reality in seven states, most recently New Mexico. Why are these more transformative solutions off the table at the national level?

“We are endlessly instructed, rich people will not work unless they are given money, and poor people will only work if they are not,” polemicist Christopher Hitchens wrote in No One Left to Lie To: The Triangulations of William Jefferson Clinton. “These are the two modern meanings of the term ‘incentive’: a tax break on the one hand and the threat of poverty on the other.”

We have not left the legacy of this Clintonism behind. Until market-romanticizing logic ceases its hold over everyday discourse, until we unlearn the knee-jerk zero-sum thinking that has us quibbling over who paid for what while the billionaire class openly purchases political favors, even milquetoast remedies will continue to be portrayed as some slippery slope to nightmarish socialism.

Whether in the form of a trolling billboard or an errant court ruling, don’t buy it.

Courtesy Photo / White House

Out of Reach

Why San Antonio can’t get a grip on its affordable housing crisis

BY RICHARD WEBNER

More than 60,000 families are waiting to get an affordable housing unit from Opportunity Home San Antonio, the local housing authority. Lisa Vogt and her three children are among them.

Like many on the list, Vogt can tell a story about how the circumstances of her life, coupled with San Antonio’s severe housing shortage, have driven her to desperation.

She put her name on the authority’s waiting list four years ago as part of an effort to build a new life after she’d finished a 38-month prison sentence on charges of aiding in the distribution of heroin. Her boyfriend had been dealing from the apartment they shared, she said.

“I made a mistake when I was younger,” she said. “I paid my consequences and learned from it. And I never repeated that mistake.”

As a single mother, she had a hard time finding an affordable home even if most landlords didn’t turn her away because of her conviction. When her mother moved to Georgia last year, she could only secure a place — an old house in Southeast San Antonio — by

paying the entire year’s rent up front: nearly $21,000. She used money from the sale of her late grandmother’s home.

Vogt liked the rental house, but it had just been remodeled in what she described as a “rush job.” The electricity would periodically cut out, and she had to lay extension cords through the hallways to keep the lights on, she said. For three months, there was no hot water.

In September, her landlords served her with an eviction notice. She believes it resulted from unpaid CPS Energy bills, which led the utility to cut her power. She tried to put the account in her name, but she couldn’t because the house didn’t pass its code inspection after the remodel, she said.

Since then, Vogt and her three kids have been living with her cousin — and her three kids — in a three-bedroom house on the North Side.

“With seven kids and two adults, it’s pre y squeezed,” she said. “She said I could stay with her as long as I needed, but you don’t want to overstay your welcome. I’m always telling her I need to find something. I need to find a place.”

Over the past decade, and especially the past five years, the City of San Antonio and other local entities — including Opportunity Home, until August known as the San Antonio Housing Authority — have focused on producing housing to fit the budgets of people like Vogt, whose incomes are below the local median wage.

Those local entities have revamped policies or created new ones, hired staff and taken on hundreds of millions of dollars in debt to create the thousands of affordable housing units San Antonio sorely needs. As of 2019, some 170,000 Bexar County households spent more than 30% of their incomes on housing, according to a city housing report. That percentage is the threshold at which experts consider housing to be unaffordable.

Yet with construction costs and interest rates soaring, developers are struggling to make the numbers work for their affordable housing projects. Those challenges come even as developers enjoy access to a wider range of local tools and deeper wells of local funding than ever before.

Two of the San Antonio Housing Trust’s key projects recently fell through due to the current price spikes, said Pete Alanis, executive director of the city-created nonprofit.

One of those proposed developments, Patriot’s Pointe on the far South Side, would have included 48 units for residents making less than 30% of the area median income (AMI) —about $25,050 annually.

San Antonio Heron / Ben Olivo

Housing units targeting that price point are rare and valuable,falling within the budgets of low-income workers such as maids, cooks and many employed in the city’s large hospitality sector.

“That’s what we’re facing right now: an increase in construction costs, due to inflation, and an increase in interest rates,” Alanis said. “That’s your double whammy. That’s why you see deals exploding. They’re just busting at the seams.”

Those difficulties come as the city falls behind on a goal it set in 2018 to spur production of 6,344 units over the next decade for residents making 31%-50% of the area median income, or between $25,885 and $41,750 yearly. Those goals arose after Mayor Ron Nirenberg was elected to his first term on promises to make housing more affordable.

As of last year, San Antonio was only 22% of the way toward reaching that goal. Only 1,411 units are either built, under construction or in the pipeline, according to city records. The city fell short on that target even though it surpassed 10-year goals on housing for other income levels.

The economic headwinds haven’t sunk any projects for NRP Group, a Cleveland-based developer with a strong presence in San Antonio. Even so, they have slowed the pace at which NRP can take on new ones, said Debra Guerrero, its senior vice president of strategic partnerships and government relations.

In 2020 and 2021, NRP built 1,757 affordable housing units spread between eight Bexar County apartment complexes, Guerrero said. This year, it expects to finish just one complex, Viento Apartments, just down the road from Texas A&M University-San Antonio.

Like most affordable housing projects these days, Viento relies on a patchwork of funding, including about $27 millionin tax credits from the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs.

A partnership with the Housing Trust will ensure the development receives a property tax exemption, and Opportunity Home is chipping in $38 million of tax-exempt bonds. Next month, city council will vote whether to award NRP money from the $150 million housing bond voters passed last year.

Just the same, Viento wasn’t an easy build. Construction costs soared from $120,000 per unit to $153,000, adding $10 million to the budget, Guerrero said. Since January, rising interest rates, driven by the Fed’s effort to curb inflation, tacked on another $7 million.

“[T]he way that the world is right now [has] prevented us from proposing new transactions,” she said. “That’s where the real harm is coming: Two years from now, we’re not going to have those units on the ground. We’re not going to be under construction for anything.”

Housing first-aid

San Antonio resident Janet Garcia only had to wait a year or so on Opportunity Home’s list before she got a phone call telling her that her name had come to the top.

The call, which she received about four years ago, was well-timed. A week earlier, she’d become home-

less, sleeping in her car with her son and daughter.

She moved into Alazán-Apache Courts on the West Side, one of San Antonio’s oldest public housing projects, built in 1941. She flourished there, becoming president of its resident council. While doing volunteer work, she made contacts that led to a job at the Charles A. Gonzalez Senior Community, where she now works as an assistant manager.

In April, she moved into a three-bedroom apartment at Legacy at Alazán, a complex built through a partnership between Opportunity Home and NRP Group. Unlike her old place, the apartment has central heating and air conditioning along with access to a washer and dryer. Before, she’d had to hang her clothes to dry inside during the winter.

The rent is $427 a month.

“Landing at the Courts has been the best thing that’s happened to me in my life,” Garcia said. “When I went there, I didn’t have a car — no nothing. I didn’t know anyone. I don’t have family here at all. My family became the community, my neighbors. In order for me to be able to work and volunteer and do the things that I wanted to do to make a change for my community, I had to rely on my neighbors.”

Until last year, Opportunity Home had planned to demolish Alazán-Apache and replace it — in partnership with private developers — with a community featuring a mixture of incomes but with fewer units priced for deep affordability. It was the same approach the agency took with two other local housing projects: East Meadows on the East Side and Victoria Courts, which replaced the old Victoria Commons near Hemisfair.

Under the leadership of President and CEO Ed Hinojosa Jr., Opportunity Home has abandoned that mixed-income redevelopment model, which had been touted as the best practice for building afford-

Top Left: The Cattleman Square Lofts development would be one of downtown’s few affordable housing projects once it’s completed.

able housing since at least the Clinton administration.

The agency is now looking to rebuild Alazán-Apache and preserve it as old-school, government-owned public housing. The plan is to carry out the development in phases, moving existing residents into newly built units before the old buildings are destroyed.

The first new structure, with 88 units, will be built on a baseball field, Hinojosa told the Current. The agency expects to fund it with $16 million from its own budget plus $8 million from the city’s housing bond.

The rationale for the old mixed-income model was that it kept people who lived in poverty from being segregated, theoretically bringing them closer to opportunity. Many housing advocates in San Antonio, Hinojosa among them, have turned away from that thinking, however.

The new approach preserves crucial units priced for deep affordability, Hinojosa said. It also prevents families from being displaced and uprooted from their social networks, including kids being pulled from their schools. What’s more, the shift in thinking comes as the city has lost 1,700 public housing units since the late ’90s.

Opportunity Home isn’t the only local housing

sacurrent.com | November 30 –December 13, 2022

Sanford Nowlin

aMAbove: Janet Garcia and her family flourished once they were able to move into affordable housing. However, other families are still on waiting lists.

Love Weld specializes in permanent, welded on jewelry. We have 14k gold, custom fitted jewelry that is welded on for a clasp free, worry free wear!

We use our special precision technology to create your custom jewelry style that is clasp free, pain free for seamless everyday wear.

We offer bracelets, anklets, necklaces and rings - so many possibilities to treat yourself or celebrate a special bond with someone special!

ere!

Hey

WE ARE LOVE WELD PERMANENT JEWELRY AND WE ARE EXCITED TO BE IN SAN ANTONIO!

entity to undergo a profound policy shift in recent years.

The two goals undergirding its new approach — to prevent displacement and create deep affordability — have guided new policies from the city, the San Antonio Housing Trust and other groups.

After voters approved updates to San Antonio’s charter last year, le ing the city issue bonds for affordable housing, $150 million for housing was tucked into the $1.2 billion 2022-2027 bond package voters approved earlier this year. The city plans to use that money to create housing for the homeless, help residents pay for home repairs and to fill budget gaps in affordable housing projects such as Viento.

Last year, the city appointed its first chief housing officer: Mark Carmona, the former president and CEO of Haven for Hope, a nonprofit that helps the homeless.

Under the leadership of Alanis, the Housing Trust has stopped inking deals offering property tax exemptions to developers for the construction of apartment complexes without affordable units. Those transactions came under fire for encouraging gentrification and draining local governments of tax revenue.

The city also allowed its downtown housing incentive program — the Center City Housing Incentive Policy, or CCHIP — to expire during the COVID-19 pandemic. As with the Housing Trust’s phased-out deals, critics considered CCHIP a harbinger of gentrification.

Among leaders in San Antonio, there’s a new mindset when it comes to housing. In broad terms, the policies are now focused on creating affordability, where they had previously placed greater emphasis on economic development.

A new housing plan

If it seems as though the city, Opportunity Home and the Housing Trust have changed their minds in coordination with each other, they largely have.

The guidepost for the policy shift has been the Strategic Housing Implementation Plan (SHIP), a 77-page report drafted last year by the city, Bexar County, Opportunity Home and the San Antonio Housing Trust. That document lays out policies intended to address the affordable housing crisis. It sets a goal of producing 10,611 affordable rental units and preserving 15,533 homes and rentals over the next decade.

SHIP sprung from the work of the Mayor’s Housing Policy Task Force, a group Nirenberg formed shortly after his election in 2017 to reshape housing policy and emphasize affordability. He’d made affordable housing a central campaign issue, blasting his opponent, then-Mayor Ivy Taylor, for applying “band-aid” policies when a “tourniquet” was needed.

By the time Nirenberg took office, the city had already begun taking on a larger role in affordable housing. At the time, the market was overheating following a long recovery from the Great Recession. Shortly before Nirenberg’s election, the city also created the Neighborhood Housing Services Department, which now oversees housing assistance programs. The 2017-2022 housing bond included $20

million for a pilot program to fund affordable housing — the first of its kind in San Antonio.

But even as Nirenberg steered the city’s policies toward affordability, prices continued to soar, especially after the pandemic.

From January 2020 to October of this year, the median cost of a home in the San Antonio-New Braunfels metro area leapt 43%, rising from $224,499 to $321,000, according to the Texas Real Estate Research Center at Texas A&M University.

Meanwhile, the average apartment rent in the San Antonio region jumped from $1,002 a month at the start of 2020 to $1,269 in the third quarter of this year, according to Austin Investor Interests, which analyzes the local multifamily market. That constitutes a 27% increase.

As those prices went up, so did the need. Opportunity Home’s waiting list grew from about 35,000 families pre-pandemic to “well over” 60,000 today, Hinojosa said.

Bridging the gap

On a recent Wednesday morning, employees of affordable-housing nonprofit Alamo Community Group gathered around their computer screens to watch a man pull numbers from an old-fashioned lottery machine, the kind that spits out plastic balls.

If he pulled a low enough number — under 30 would be good — Alamo Community Group would have a good shot at ge ing the bonds it requested fromthe state’s Texas Bond Review Board to use in building Ca leman Square Lofts, a West Side apartment complex. With all 138 of its units set to be affordable — 21 of them reserved for those making up to 30% of AMI — the project would be a major win for housing advocates.

However, over the past year, interest rates and construction costs threatened to kill Ca leman Square. Scrambling to fill a widening budget gap,

Alamo Community Group kept the project afloat by securing commitments from the city for millions of dollars from the housing bond. It also got the county to promise further millions in federal pandemic-relief funds.

If Alamo Community Group won the bonds, clearing the way to receive millions in state tax credits, the funds would probably be enough to get the project to the finish line.

As employees with the nonprofit watched the onscreen lo ery, the man pulling the numbers called them out so quickly that when he got to the Ca leman Square project, no one was sure what he’d said.

“We were like, ‘Was that 25, or was it 45?’” said Jennifer Gonzalez, Alamo Community Group’s executive director. “We’re emailing the tax credit consultant. Did anybody hear what that number was? Did they post the list yet? Is there a rewind bu on?”

The number was 25. So, after more than three years of work, Gonzalez is confident construction will begin on the complex this spring.

The nonprofit’s work to keep Ca leman Square on track shows that in today’s economy, a never-say-die resourcefulness is needed to make affordable housing projects work.

The process might be compared to patching together a quilt. Often, it requires the quilter to dive deep into a basket of cu ings to collect just the right assortment to fit into one solid whole. Sometimes, those cu ings are hard to come by.

“Every single project is at risk,” said Alanis of the city-backed Housing Trust. “There is not one project where we are like, ‘Oh, this is not going to be a problem.’ Every project has a gap. Every project has interest-rate uncertainty. It’s extremely difficult right

sacurrent.com | November 30 –December 13, 2022

San Antonio Heron / Ben Olivo

MOpportunity Home plans to rebuild the Alazan-Apache public housing project after initially seeking to demolish it.

now to figure out ways to get projects done.”

Most of today’s affordable housing projects make use of low-income housing tax credits (LIHTCs), a federal funding mechanism that’s been around since the ’80s. The TDHCA distributes the credits in a highly competitive process that prioritizes projects with deep levels of affordability. Upon receiving the credits, a developer sells them to a corporation that uses them to reduce its tax liability.

Typically, and especially with costs escalating, an affordable housing project will require sources of funding beyond tax credits and bonds. These sources are often referred to as “gap financing,” because they’re filling a gap in the budget.

One common approach to filling that hole is to partner with the San Antonio Housing Trust or another governmental nonprofit to receive a property tax exemption under state law.

The developer might apply for funding from a Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone, or TIRZ, or from federal programs such as Community Development Block Grants. Ca leman Square won incentives through CCHIP before that policy expired.

The project will nearly always require a loan from a bank, which is why the recent rise in interest rates has made things tricky. When the rates rise, it lowers the amount a developer such as Alamo Community Group can afford to borrow. Thus, the gap grows.

With a market-rate apartment project, the developer could simply raise the unit rents to offset the higher borrowing costs. But that can’t be done for an affordable project, especially after the developer has pledged to offer certain affordability levels in the application for the bonds and tax credits.

So, the developer must get creative — or make sacrifices. In the case of Ca leman Square, Alamo Community Group waived its development fee and cut costs by abandoning plans to renovate the interior of a historic building. Instead, that structure will sit empty. With one of its prior projects, Mission Reach Lofts in north downtown, the nonprofit lowered ceilings to reduce the amount of cement that was needed, Gonzalez explained.

“It’s constant heart failure. It’s constantly beating our head against the wall,” she said. “This project has probably been the hardest project we’ve ever done. We solve one problem, and then another problem comes up. And then we think we’ve solved that one, and then something changes, again. It has been this constant moving target.”

One of SHIP’s recommendations was to create what it calls a “dedicated revenue source for gap financing” — a source of funds affordable-housing developers can tap to fill holes in their budgets.

The city is doing that with its housing bond. Of the $150 million total, $75 million is devoted to producing, buying or rehabilitating affordable housing.

Next month, city council will vote whether to distribute the first round of those funds to Ca leman Square, Viento and other projects. Another round is likely to be distributed in the spring, said Mark Carmona, the city’s chief housing officer, told the Current.

After that, the funds will likely be exhausted, leaving another four years before voters consider a new

bond package.

“I’m impressed with the fact that with the bond money, they tried to get it out as quickly as they can,” NRP Group’s Guerrero said. “But sadly, it’s not going to be enough. It’s going to run out quickly, because they’re having to leverage more money than they thought they would a year ago, because of things we can’t control.”

Still, Guerrero and other housing leaders said they expect economic conditions to improve, making projects easier to complete. “My outlook is, in two years, I hope the world is be er,” she added.

Alanis with the Housing Trust said he’s starting to see construction and labor costs reach a peak.

“As we head toward what could well be a recessionary period, we anticipate those to fall,” he said. “Now are they going to fall pre y low to make up for the interest rate hikes, within the next six months? Probably not.”’

Yet residents such as Lisa Vogt have li le room for patience. The search for an affordable home is too urgent to wait the months or years it might take for the economy to turn around.

Vogt is looking for something that sounds simple: a decent place in a decent neighborhood where she and her children can live together. After completing her prison sentence, she promised that she wouldn’t leave them again.

“My kids were not even together the whole three years I was incarcerated — they were separated and moving from house to house. You know, certain things happened to my kids that I wasn’t there to protect them from,” she said. “So, it was like, this isn’t

qMAbove: ‘It’s constant heart failure,’ Jennifer Gonzalez of Alamo Community Group said of funding affordable-housing developments. Below: A rendering shows the completed Cattleman Square Lofts.

an option. I cannot leave my kids again. If I have to struggle to make ends meet, I’ll do that.”

Around the time the electricity was turned off at her house in Southeast San Antonio, Vogt received a notification from Opportunity Home that she could begin the pre-eligibility process.

She filled out the application and emailed it back. Since then, she’s called the agency several times.

“I’ve told them my situation, I’ve told them this is kind of an emergency,” she said. “They said, ‘Well, we’re backlogged. You just have to be patient with us.’”

Sanford Nowlin

THE MENU

Change can make us stronger. Healthier. Better. Especially when you start small and build from there. One choice, one meal, one day at a time. Until the day you feel better than you ever thought possible. At University Health, we believe in the power of change. Because that’s where healthier begins. Start today at UHchange.com.

What will you change today?

San Antonio Affordable Housing Timeline

2001: San Antonio Housing Authority begins demolition of the New Dealera Victoria Courts public housing complex with plans to redevelop it as a mixed-income community.

• Silver Ventures buys the Pearl and begins renovations, a milestone in the redevelopment of San Antonio’s urban core.

2010: Mayor Julian Castro declare the “Decade of Downtown.”

• e city creates the Inner City Reinvestment In ll Policy, or ICRIP, o ering fee waivers to developers to promote development in the urban core.

• NRP Group breaks ground on Cevallos Lo s in collaboration with the San Antonio Housing Trust Public Facility Corp., or SAHTPFC, a newly created city nonpro t that o ers property tax exemptions to developers for building mixed-income housing.

2012: e city launches the Center City Housing Incentive Policy, or CCHIP, o ering nancial incentives to developers with an aim toward stimulating a downtown housing market.

• With a federal grant, SAHA kicks o the redevelopment of the New Dealera Wheatley Courts public housing complex into a mixed-income community.

2017: Housing a ordability is a major sparring point in the mayoral campaign between Ivy Taylor and Ron Nirenberg. Nirenberg argues that Taylor’s policies have acted as a “band-aid” for the problem when the city needs a “tourniquet.”

• A er becoming mayor, Nirenberg puts a moratorium on CCHIP amid concerns that it has contributed to rising housing prices and gentri cation.

• Nirenberg announces the creation of the Mayor’s Housing Policy Task Force, charged with developing a comprehensive housing policy for the city.

• e city creates its Neighborhood and Housing Services Department, which will oversee many housing-affordability programs.

• Voters approve the city’s rst housing bond package, raising $20 million for a ordable housing projects.

2018: City Council adopts changes to CCHIP and ICRIP in response to gentri cation concerns, requiring a ordable units to be built in some projects receiving incentives.

2019: Pete Alanis becomes executive director of the SAHT. In coming years, he will press for deeper levels of a ordability and will step back from making deals with for-pro t developers.

2020: e city allows CCHIP to expire. During the Covid-19 pandemic, city council pumps $50.3 million into San Antonio’s emergency housing assistance program to help residents cover rent and mortgage payments.

2021: City council approves a new 10-year plan for a ordable housing, the Strategic Housing Implementation Plan, which sprung from the recommendations of the Mayor’s Housing Policy Task Force.

• Mark Carmona is appointed the city’s rst chief housing o cer.

• SAHA cancels its plans to partner with NRP Group to demolish Alazán Courts on the West Side and redevelop it as a mixed-income community. It instead presents a plan to rehabilitate the complex, preserving it as public housing.

• San Antonio voters approve changes to the city’s charter allowing the city to issue bonds for a ordable housing.

2022: SAHA rebrands itself as Opportunity Home San Antonio.

• Voters pass the $1.2 billion bond package, which includes a $150 million for housing.

qAnother rendering shows the plans for downtown’s Cattleman Square Lofts.

SUN | 12.04

THEATER

DR. SEUSS’ HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRIST MAS! THE MUSICAL!

Dr. Seuss’ classic Christmas story returns to our televisions every winter to remind both kids and adults of the importance of community and the poisons of materialism. Now, the story originally told in the 1957 children’s book by political cartoonist, poet and children’s author

THU | 12.01 -

SUN | 12.18

THEATER

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

The Classic Theatre of San Antonio will stage Greg Oliver Bodine’s adaptation of A Christmas Carol in the cozy and historic Maverick Carter House, bringing to life a one-man play that offers a twist on Charles Dickens’ beloved story. Set during Dickens’ 1867 American Reading Tour, the play sees the author — played on alternate nights by Ray Seams and Kurt Wilkinson — lose his luggage, forcing him to recount Ebeneezer Scrooge’s magical story from memory for his eager audience. Indeed, the play is based on a condensed version of the texts Dickens himself used on his historic reading tours of the United States. $24-$39, 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Sunday, Dec. 1-18, Maverick Carter House, 119 Taylor St., (210) 589-8450, classictheatre.org. — Macks Cook

COMEDY

SANDRA BERNHARD

With 45 years of trailblazing showbiz experience, Sandra Bernhard got her start as a comedian poking fun at celebrities and political heavy weights. She then became one of the first openly bisexual actresses in Hollywood when starring in Roseanne and has since continued to advocate for LGBTQ+ rights by using her platform on shows including The Queer Edge and Pose. Currently co-starring on Season 11 of American Horror Story, Bernhard will be returning to Texas for her first San

Theodor Seuss Geisel is heading to San Antonio in musical form. Touring the U.S. since 2008, the 85-minute Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas!The Musical debuted in San Diego in 1998 with Vanessa Hudgens playing the tiny Cindy Lou Who. $45 and up, 7:30 p.m. Wednes day-Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday, 11 a.m., 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. Saturday, 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 30-Dec. 4, Majestic Theatre, 224 E. Houston St., (210) 226-3333, majesticempire.com. — Karly Williams

Antonio

in a decade. She will combine cabaret, stand-up, rock ’n’ roll and social commentary in a night benefiting area LGBTQ+ organizations. Proceeds from ticket sales will go to Fiesta Youth young adult programming in addition to scholarships. A cash bar will also be available, benefi ing Woodlawn Pointe and Living Positive San Anto nio. $50-$75, 7:30 p.m., Woodlawn Pointe, 702 Donaldson Ave., (210) (210) 390-0730, fiesta-youth.org. — KW

performance

Courtesy Photo / Majestic Theatre

Courtesy Photo / The Classic Theatre of San Antonio

Courtesy Photo / Sandra Bernhard

SPURS VS. SUNS

Following last season’s disappointing playoff loss to the Dallas Mavericks in the conference semifinals, the Phoenix Suns have returned to the top of the standings in the Pacific Division, despite missing key contributors Cameron Johnson and Jae Crowder. Johnson is recovering from right meniscus surgery, and Crowder is currently holding out for a contract extension. The Spurs are no strangers to injuries, with rookie guard Blake Wesley still rehabbing from a left MCL sprain and veteran forward Zach Collins missing extended time with a left fibula fracture. Former St. Anthony Catholic High School standout Charles Bassey has been solid in Collins’ absence, posting 14 rebounds, four blocks and four assists against the Milwaukee Bucks to help snap San Antonio’s five-game losing streak in November. With Collins likely sidelined until later this month, the Lagos, Nigeria native continues to turn heads in increased playing time, particularly with his impact on the glass. $10 and up, 3 p.m., AT&T Center, One AT&T Center, (210) 444-5000, a center.com, Bally Sports SW-SA. — M. Solis

THU | 12.08SUN | 12.11

COMEDY GODFREY

One of the hottest comedians on the circuit is coming to San Antonio for a six-show run. Perhaps best known for his role in Ben Stiller’s cult classic Zoolander, Godfrey got his start performing impressions of his college football teammates. However, the Chicago-born comedian quickly realized that his locker room stand-up routine could lead to a career. Since then, Godfrey’s made appearances in comedies including Johnson Family Vacation as well as playing supporting roles alongside Queen Latifah in The Cookout, and co-starring with Snoop Dogg in Soul Plane. Godfrey currently hosts the laugh-inducing podcast In Godfrey We Trust, which is available on Spotify. $40-$120, 8 p.m. Thursday, 7:30 p.m. and 9:45 p.m. Friday, 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. Saturday, 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Laugh Out Loud Comedy Club, 618 NW Loop 410, (210) 5418805, improvtx.com/sanantonio. — Michael Karlis

THE NUTCRACKER

Featuring a cast of more than 100 San Antonio children, Ballet San Antonio’s The Nutcracker is a longstanding local holiday tradition. Commissioned by Ballet San Antonio in 2018 with choreography by Easton and Haley Smith, the production puts its own twist on Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s timeless composition. Prior to each performance, a endees can check out a market in the Tobin Center lobby to find last-minute gifts for even the pickiest recipients. This year, Ballet San Antonio also is offering a free ticketed showing

on Tuesday, Dec. 6, specifically designed for individuals with sensory sensitivities. This performance features Act II of The Nutcracker and serves as a reminder that Ballet San Antonio’s production is an inclusive holiday mainstay. Tickets for the sensory-friendly performance are available on Ballet SA’s website. $25-$132, 7:30 p.m. Friday, 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, 100 Auditorium Circle, (210) 223-8624, tobincenter.org. — MC

THU | 12.08

SPORTS SPURS VS. ROCKETS

The I-10 rivalry between the San Antonio Spurs and Houston Rockets is renewed on Thursday night, albeit with lesser stakes than past playoff showdowns. The Rockets currently lead the slog to the worst record in the league and a shot to draft Victor Wembanyama, who has been hailed as the best NBA prospect since LeBron James. After exceeding expectations to start the season, the Spurs now find themselves closer to the bo om of the bracket, following injuries to key reserves. Despite a less-than-stellar record at home, San Antonio’s young roster has shown significant potential.

Both Keldon Johnson and Devin Vassell are on track to break Danny Green’s franchise record for three-pointers in a season, Tre Jones has proven confident running the point, and rookie Jeremy Sochan has impressed with sly athleticism and versatility. Coming up for the Spurs are home contests against the Cleveland Cavaliers and Portland Trail Blazers, two small-market teams that have taken a leap this season. $10 and up, 7:30 p.m., AT&T Center, One AT&T Center Parkway, (210) 444-5000, a center.com, KENS. — M. Solis

Reminder:

Although live events have returned, the COVID-19 pandemic is still with us. Check with venues to make sure scheduled events are still happening, and please follow all health and safety guidelines.

Courtesy Photo / LOL Comedy Club

Spurs/Reginald Thomas II

Marty Sohl Photography

Spurs / Reginald Thomas II

THU | 12.08

COMEDY

BRIAN REGAN

Called “your favorite comedian’s favorite comedian” by Entertainment Weekly, Brian Regan has built an enviable reputation during his 30plus year career in stand-up. The comic got his first big break after an appearance on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson in 1991, and has been making people laugh ever since, with Vanity Fair anointing him with the title of “the funniest stand-up alive.” You can judge for yourself whether Regan truly is the world’s funniest man by tuning in to his Netflix special Brian Regan: On the Rocks, where he touches on topics including aging, backpacks on planes and ungrateful horses. In addition to his stand-up work, Regan is a co-star on Peter Farrelly’s TV series Loudermilk, now streaming on Amazon Prime. $69.50, 7:30 p.m., Charline McCombs Empire Theatre, 226 N. St. Mary’s St., (210) 226-3333, majesticempire.com. — MK

FRI | 12.09

FILM ELF

Both human and elf social norms, beliefs and traditions are turned upside down in director Jon Favreau’s 2003 comedy Elf. The star-studded film that became a holiday classic for millennials and elder Gen Zers is ready to enchant the younger generation and recapture original viewers with a showing downtown on the Tobin Center’s 32-foot LED video wall. It’s presented as part of H-E-B’s Cinema on Will’s Plaza series. Guests can bring their own lawn chairs or picnic blankets to

AGARITA + NAOMI SHIHAB NYE

San Antonio quartet Agarita will be joined by critically acclaimed poet Naomi Shihab Nye for its latest collaborative concert. The performance will feature poetry readings interspersed among a program of chamber music ranging from recognizable classics to more obscure o erings. In addition to Nye, Agarita members Daniel Anastasio (piano), Marisa Bushman (viola), Ignacio Gallego (cello) and Sarah Silver Manzke (violin) will be joined by guest musician Stanislav Chernyshev (clarinet). Nye will read selections of her poetry throughout a program that includes the first movements of Olivier Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time and Ludwig van Beethoven’s String Quartet in C Minor. Other pieces featured in the concert include Ned Rorem’s Mazurka from End of Summer, the third movement of Timo Andres’ Piano Trio and the first movement of Francis Poulenc’s Clarinet Sonata, as well as a whimsical performance of Erik Griswold’s Ambling for Toy Piano Free, 7:30 p.m., Radius Center, 106 Auditorium Circle #120, (210) 227-8111, agarita.org. — Kelly Nelson

travel worlds away from South Texas, watching Will Ferrell’s Buddy the Elf venture to the Big Apple from Santa’s Workshop in the North Pole to reconnect with his family, learn through lived experiences and spread the spirit of Christmas. Free, 7:30 p.m., Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, 100 Auditorium Circle, (210) 223-8624, tobincenter.org. — KW

FRI | 12.09SUN | 12.11

THEATER ON YOUR FEET

The Broadway jukebox musical On Your Feet! tells the story of Cuban American couple Gloria and Emilio Estefan, whose shared musical career rocketed them to superstardom. During the 1980s, the Estefans and their Miami Sound Machine created a blueprint for successful Latin pop acts and became one of the biggest crossover acts in history. Blending Afro-Caribbean rhythms with a modern pop sensibility, the couple produced timeless dance hits including “Conga,” “Get on Your Feet,” and “The Rhythm is Gonna Get You,” which feature in the show. On Your Feet! reveals how the Estefans overcame struggles including an auto accident that nearly left Gloria paralyzed. Critics have hailed On Your Feet! as an inspiring tale that blends personal and political narratives. $45 and up, 8 p.m. Friday, 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday,

Majestic Theatre, 224 E. Houston St., (210) 226-3333, majesticempire.com. — Marco Aquino

Natalia Sun

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment

Amazon Prime Video

DJ Corey

Complicated History

Groundbreaking exhibition at San Antonio Museum of Art examines legacy of La Malinche

BY MARCO AQUINO

The traveling exhibition “Traitor, Survivor, Icon: The Legacy of La Malinche” commemorates 500 years since the fall of Tenochtitlan, once the capital of the Aztec empire, and examines the complex legacy of a historical figure often called the “Mother of Mexico.

Organized by the Denver Art Museum (DAM), the exhibition is currently on view at the San Antonio Museum of Art and runs through Jan. 8. It’s co-curated by Terezita Romo and Victoria I. Lyall, the Jan and Frederick Mayer Curator of Art of the Ancient Americas at the DAM.

The Malinche of the exhibit’s title was an enslaved indigenous girl who served as interpreter and translator for Hernán Cortés. She later became his mistress. Also known by the names Malinalli, Malintzin, and Doña Marina, she is the mother of Cortés’ first-born son, which placed her in the unique position as a symbol of a modern Mexico built upon both Spanish and indigenous heritage.

While Malinche is the subject of many historical publications, li le information is known about her life. As a result, her story has become the subject of great controversy and folklore.

“La Malinche and her story have permeated Mexican and Mexican American history and popular culture for hundreds of years, for be er and for worse,” said Lucia Abramovich Sánchez, associate curator of Latin American art at SAMA. “This exhibition explores the various ways her story has been interpreted, appropriated and ultimately reclaimed, and I hope that this presentation of her legacy resonates with our community here in San Antonio.”

identity. It features roughly 70 artworks by nearly 40 artists from Mexico and the United States.

Among the highlights of the exhibition are Alfredo Ramos Martinez’s iconic 1940 painting La Malinche and Jesús Helguera’s vividly hued, large-scale painting of the same title, which he completed in 1941.

Mother of a mixed race

with the Spanish. The term “malinchista,” which is still used today, derives from her name and refers to a cultural traitor. Works of art in the section “The Traitor” examine both Malinche’s perceived spiritual and sexual betrayals. One standout with a strong local tie is a 1988 painting by San Antonio native César Martínez that nods to Picasso and depicts Malinche as the storied seductress Carmen.

Contemporary reclamations

arts

“Traitor, Survivor, Icon: La Malinche,”

$3-$20, 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Tuesday and Friday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, runs through January 8, 2023, San Antonio Museum of Art, 200 W. Jones Ave., (210) 978-8100, samuseum.org.

According to the exhibition’s curators, “Traitor, Survivor, Icon” is the first comprehensive visual exploration of Malinche’s significance and cultural impact on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border.

The exhibition, which features work created between 1500 and 2022, examines how Malinche’s image has been appropriated by artists to express their own ideas about female empowerment, race and national

“Traitor, Survivor, Icon” opens with information introducing Malinche, which puts her life story within the context of the Spanish invasion and fall of the Aztec empire. The exhibition is then divided between five thematic sections, among them “The Interpreter” and “Indigenous Woman.” The artworks in these sections examine Malinche’s linguistic abilities and explore racialized beauty standards in depictions of Malinche and other indigenous women.

The artworks in the section “Mother of a Mixed Race” examine how Malinche and Cortés were mythologized as the founding couple of a modern Mexico and their son as the first mestizo, a person of mixed European and Indigenous background.

In the 1950s, Octavio Paz’s essay “The Sons of La Malinche” popularized the idea that Malinche had betrayed her people by siding

By the 1970s, Chicana artists, writers and poets had begun to reimagine Malinche’s image as they saw themselves in her. They bestowed upon her the role of a survivor who ba led sexism, racism, trauma and abuse. In 1992, artists protesting the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus “discovering” America claimed Malinche’s son as an icon.

In the exhibition’s “Contemporary Reclamations” section, the works examine Malinche’s indigeneity and her image as a vehicle for self-empowerment. Works by Gloria Osuna Perez and Texas natives Santa Barraza and Delilah Montoya reclaim the historical figure from an empowered perspective.

The exhibition closes with Sandy Rodriguez’s somber Mapa for Malinche and Our Stolen Sisters, a new work created for the curators and dedicated to missing and murdered Indigenous women. The piece consists of a map of Mexico and the United States with red hands painted across sites where Indigenous women have gone missing this year, underscoring the colonial legacy of violence.

Find more arts coverage every day at sacurrent.com

Courtesy Image / San Antonio Museum of Art

Soaking Up Cinematic Wisdom

Former San Antonian Darren Le Gallo directs Dustin Hoffman and Sissy Spacek in debut feature Sam

& Kate

BY KIKO MARTINEZ

Some of the earliest memories filmmaker and artist Darren Le Gallo has of his time living in San Antonio include going to the cinema to watch Robert Altman’s 1980 musical comedy Popeye and Steven Spielberg’s 1981 adventure film Raiders of the Lost Ark

“I remember at a young age being completely in love with going to a theater and ge ing lost in another world,” Le Gallo, 48, told the Current during a recent interview.

In his directorial feature debut Sam & Kate, Le Gallo — the husband of six-time Academy Award-nominated actress Amy Adams (Vice) — offers viewers a glimpse into an authentic and emotionally resonant world he created. Sam & Kate stars two-time Academy Award winner Dustin Hoffman (Rain Man) and Academy Award winner Sissy Spacek (Coal Miner’s Daughter). Hoffman’s real-life son, Jake Hoffman, plays his son Sam, while Spacek’s real-life daughter, Schuyler Fisk, plays her daughter Kate. The film also features Alamo City native Henry Thomas (E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial).

“It was just a wild, serendipitous thing that happened,” Le Gallo said about the casting.

In the movie, Sam and Kate meet-cute at a bookstore. After Kate initially rebuffs Sam’s request for a date, he asks her out a few more times. Later, Sam’s father Bill (Hoffman) and Kate’s mother Tina (Spacek) begin to develop their own romance. Le Gallo said Sam & Kate was inspired by early Cameron Crowe and John Hughes films including Say Anything and The Breakfast Club.

“There’s something about their films that encapsulated that time period when they were made,” he said. “I thought, ‘What if I tried to approach it the same way, but aged everybody up?’ I wanted to take people who have real-world experiences and give them a second chance.”

Born in Landstuhl, Germany, in 1974, Le Gallo was 4 years old when his family moved to San Antonio, his father’s latest station while serving in the Air Force. Le Gallo graduated from Clark High School in 1992 and attended Abilene Christian University where he earned his bachelor’s in painting. He moved

to Los Angeles soon after to see if his art degree could land him a job in Hollywood.

Sam & Kate is currently available on VOD.

What were your plans when you moved to Los Angeles?

I knew I wanted to do art. I had a friend whose brother and sister-in-law were in the [entertainment] business, so we went to LA during spring break, and I got to visit sets and see things. That’s when I realized [making movies] was a job. I hadn’t ever considered it. After that trip, part of me was like, “Oh, maybe I could be an animator.” I got an interview at DreamWorks right when the company was forming and saw how hard it was to be an animator. So, that led me to finding my way into acting. Since then, I’ve progressively started to gain knowledge behind the camera.

Where did you find inspiration for directing?

You know, I’ve been fortunate to travel with my wife, who works with incredible directors. I’ve had the chance to shadow a lot of them on sets and watch them work. I met [filmmaker] Spike Jonze when he worked with Amy [on the 2013 film Her]. I had a conversation with him, and we just sat and spoke about his process. I became friendly with [filmmaker] Joe Wright [who directed Adams in the 2021 film The Woman in the Window]. I watched [filmmaker] Paul Thomas Anderson [on the set of The Master] and learned from him. There are all these pearls of wisdom that I’ve taken with me.

Totally. I feel like it’s all connected. I’m so grateful that I’ve been able to work with such a talented crew and cast. It’s challenged me to step up. It reminds me of when I was living in San Antonio. I used to play a lot of basketball on the playground. My goal was always to try playing with people who were way be er than me. So, I’d have kids dunking on me, and I’d get my shot blocked, but it made me a be er player through the years. In [this industry], I get to play with people who are legit and get to collaborate with them.

Now, I have to ask if you’re a Spurs fan or if you switched over to the Lakers when you moved to LA.

I’m always a Spurs fan, but I do have a lot of love for the Lakers and the Clippers. Growing up, I was a huge Chicago Bulls fan. I love Michael Jordan. It was a great time in the NBA back then when you had players like Jordan and [David] Robinson. It was such a unique period in basketball history.

Would you want to direct Amy in a film?

Well, I’ll say this: she’s going to be the first one to read this scary film [I’m writing]. She’s played some dark roles before, but I don’t know where she’ll be in her mind, or if she’ll be in a place where it’s something she’ll want to do, but she’ll read it. I think if the timing is right and if it was a character she was intrigued by, we would have a lot of fun.

screens

Is it safe to assume that since you’re a visual artist, you consider filmmaking an art form?

Vertical Entertainment

Keeping Up Appearances

As food festivals proliferate, San Antonio chefs face tough choices about whether they’re worth the effort

BY NINA RANGEL

Grilled cheese. Brunch. Mole. In recent years, it seems like a food festival has percolated up in San Antonio celebrating just about any dish — or cuisine — you can name.

Theoretically, when culinary pros participate in those events, they stand to raise their profiles with foodies, promote their latest ventures and benefit from mingling with others in the industry.

But there’s also a downside to the facetime with fans. The events can be high-pressure additions to chefs’ already busy schedules, not to mention, they can be money-losing propositions.

For each fest, restaurants are asked to prepare sample bites of signature dishes, which requires a major outlay of time and labor. Beyond prepping the food, chefs often need to bring employees along to help set up, serve and break down. In many cases, restaurant teams aren’t compensated for their materials or time.

“The asks are just beginning to be too much. Three-thousand samples is a lot of food, no ma er how you slice it,” said Terry Koval, a visiting Atlanta chef, at this year’s Austin Food & Wine Festival, which took place Nov. 4-6. “It really takes a setup like this, where the organizers make sure [my crew and I] have somewhere to stay, tickets to the whole thing, you know. It takes all of that to make it worth making the trip.”

In the end, Koval enlisted the help of San Antonio-area pros to supplement his team for the fest so he could avoid racking up major travel expenses to make the appearance.

Jorge Luis Hernández — the new executive chef for San Antonio’s Hotel Emma — also appeared at the Austin Food & Wine Festival. Even though he works for a luxury hotel with multiple culinary destinations, he was the only kitchen employee who made the trip.

“I literally could not have pulled anyone from any of my kitchens to be here today,” Hernández said. “I couldn’t have spared anyone. If these [volunteer culinary students] weren’t here, I’d have been screwed.”

Staff shortages

The strain of festival appearances has only

increased since the pandemic.

The exodus of foodservice workers during the COVID crisis has required chef-owners to take on even more responsibility for facilitating these events. At the same time, the number of festivals is growing, creating an untenable situation for many.

During the weekend of the Austin Food & Wine festival, area chefs also had to consider whether to participate in Texas Monthly’s BBQ Fest in Lockhart, Fredericksburg’s Oktoberfest, Brenham’s Butchers Ball and CultureMap Austin’s The Tailgate.

Nicola Blaque, chef-owner of San Antonio’s The Jerk Shack, a ended three offsite events that weekend. She appeared at the Butcher’s ball, won the Tastemaker Award at The Tailgate for her Caribbean ceviche, then competed against 13 other chefs at Austin Food & Wine’s Rock Your Taco event.

Blaque’s husband and two kids accompanied her on the trip to Austin. While they were ge ing ready for bed, she was preparing a Jamaican jerk-inspired Boombastic Taco filling for the taco event. Though she was still feeling the high from winning the Tastemaker Award, by the time Rock Your Taco rolled around, she was exhausted.

Rising costs

Those commitments of time and energy also come as restaurant operators grapple

with the worst inflation in 40 years. That means, they’re spending more on labor, fuel and supplies — all needed to participate in food festivals. At the same time, rising prices are cu ing into customers’ willingness to dine out, potentially making an event appearance an expensive drain on resources.

Many food festivals offer stipends and vendor credits to help offset participation costs. But for some San Antonio chefs, they’re not enough of an incentive to make a difference.

“A $300 credit to [wholesale food distributor] Sysco is nice, but what if I don’t use Sysco? I just lose out on that incentive?” asked John Russ, owner and executive chef at Clementine. “It’s just go en to the point where so many of these events make it very difficult to get a return on your investments.”

So, is there still any appeal for participating in food festivals? As the sun dipped low on the first day of Austin Food & Wine, Hotel Emma’s Hernández noted that the expenses and hassles may remain worthwhile for some chefs.

“It can be really challenging work … and very different from what we’re used to on a day-to-day basis. But there’s something to be said for working over an open flame all day alongside some of the city’s top talent,” he said. “Showing the community what we bring to the table, what we’re passionate about, it can also be an incredible opportunity to open guests’ eyes.”

Dusana Risovic

OPENINGS

New bar Summer Camp has taken over the space that formerly housed Hello Paradise, serving up burgers and all-beef coneys as well as a small menu of specialty cocktails. 520 E. Grayson St., instagram.com/summercampbar.

Magnolia Pancake Haus is whipping up plans for its fourth San Antonio location. The new Hollywood Park restaurant is expected to open next spring. 2070 N. Loop 1604, magnoliapancakehaus.com.

Local pastry chef Jenn Riesman has opened her long-awaited shop Rooster Crow Baking Co. The business is selling kolaches, focaccia and scones in Shavano Park. 4421 De Zavala Road, roostercrowbakingco.com.

New St. Paul Square basement bar Versa — from the couple behind salon Beauty Haus and coffee-and-vinyl shop Vice — is now serving up live jazz and cocktails on Friday and Saturday nights. 123 Heiman St., instagram.com/viceversa. sanantonio.

Rooftop bar 1 Watson has set a Dec. 9 opening date in downtown San Antonio. The hotel drinkery will offer beer and wine from Texas vineyards, and many of its cocktails will feature Texas-made spirits. 111 Soledad, 1watsonrooftop.com.

All-you-can-eat sushi chain Trapper’s has set a Dec. 5 opening date in San Antonio, marking the Washington State-based chain’s first foray into Texas. 415 W. Loop 1604 South, Suite 112, trappers-

sushi.com.

NEWS

Rosario’s Mexican Cafe Y Cantina in Southtown has closed. The restaurant is expected to reopen in larger digs on South St. Mary’s Street sometime in December.

Co-Op Marketplace, a new mixed-use development similar to San Antonio’s Pearl, is planned for nearby New Braunfels, repurposing agricultural buildings into restaurants, bars, coffee shops and retail shops.

San Antonio’s two-day La Gran Tamalada is returning to Market Square Dec. 10-11, offering free, family-friendly activities centered around tamales, a favorite local food during the holidays.

San Antonio’s StreetFare SA food truck park has closed permanently, ending a four-year run of hosting mobile kitchens, live music nights, themed parties and food festivals.

Lazo with Don Strange restaurant at San Antonio’s Estancia del Norte hotel has closed. The eatery was billed as an experimental collaboration between the hotel and catering outfit Don Strange of Texas.

San Antonio’s Chamoy City Limits has closed its brick-and-mortar shop after a string of thefts. The business is expected to return later this year as a mobile kitchen that will be part of The Point Park and Eats food truck park in Leon Springs.

BENEFITING

Mogas + Gonzalez Associated Architects

SPONSORED BY

Trying Times

Powerful new album After Now by South Texas-tied jazz duo looks for hope amid national turmoil

BY SANFORD NOWLIN

We wait for a time after now, a time beyond then that was, a time that now feels distant,” San Antonio Poet Laureate Andrea “Vocab” Sanderson intones over a mournful saxophone during the opening of After Now, a new digital album by Brandon Guerra and Jonathan Leal.

From Sanderson’s poetic introduction, the six-part suite dives headlong into a Monk-reminiscent section driven by angular piano passages and odd time signatures, then into gently lilting horn solos interspersed with synthetic whooshes before ski ering into free improvisation.

And that’s just the first four minutes of the 16-minute composition by the two South Texas-tied jazz artists. Before it’s over, After Now cycles through neo-soul, low-fi hip-hop, trad jazz, ambient music and more spoken word interludes. It’s an episodic journey that quests for a future beyond racial divisions, the climate crisis, political upheaval and gun violence.

While the album doesn’t offer a utopian cure for all that turmoil, it does take listeners on a complex, ambitious and compelling ride. As its dual composers, Guerra — the house drummer at San Antonio’s Jazz, TX — and Leal — an LA-based composer, author and researcher originally from the Rio Grande Valley — make able journey agents.

Leal, who performed on piano and synthesizer, and Guerra, who contributed both drums and keys, are joined on After Now not just by Sanderson but also Jason Galbraith on saxophones and flute, Adam Carrillo on alto sax and Curtis Calderon on trumpet.

The Current corralled Leal and Guerra via Zoom to discuss the album, now available for download on Bandcamp.

Guerra: Jonathan and I were part of these groups that are part of an organization called Drum Corps International ... which is kind of like marching band on steroids. There are these groups that are based out of different parts of the country, so you would fly out and audition. If you were lucky enough to get the spot, then you’d travel all summer long, and it was just really intense rehearsals and performances. We did that together. We were in the same groups in the summers of 2010

and 2011, and that’s how we met each other. It was in Illinois, I think, even though we were both from Texas.

We’ve just kind of stayed in touch. I put out my first album earlier this year, and after that came out, Jonathan reached out to me and was like, “Man, I’m listening to this. This is really cool. I think we should work on some music and try to make a recording this summer.” I was like, “Of course. Let’s do it.”

Was this a digital collaboration or were you in the same room together during the recording?

Guerra: We were in the same room together. It started remotely. Jonathan’s in California, and I’m in San Antonio. We were bouncing ideas back and forth, but then we realized that Jonathan could come in town for just a couple days. That was in August, so we recorded the bulk of the music in two days in August together at my home studio in San Antonio.

The story you’re trying to convey is complex. The darker, more outside passages convey how unsettling these times are. Then there are passages, where the music sounds more hopeful. How did you strike that balance between finding moments of accessibility and also realizing the power that a more outside approach can have to carry the theme?

Leal: When Brandon and I first started talking about wanting to make something together, one of our creative exercises was, “What are things that we care about right now? What are things that we can’t get out of our heads right now?” ... What emerged for us was a kind of mutual sense of anxiety about what’s transpiring in the present and what the shape of the future might be given the shape of the present. We’re balancing how to think about what’s going on right now with the desire for the future to be be er — and also to think about the future differently. A lot of times when folks think about future stuff, it takes one of two modes. It’s usually the straight-up utopian, “Everything

will be rosy,” or it’s the straight-up dystopian, “Everything’s going to shit, and everything’s going to be awful in the future.” We didn’t want to fall into either one of those. We wanted to find something different, so we abandoned the word “future” altogether. We said, “Well, let’s call it something different. Let’s call it the ‘After Now,’” so that’s how we got to the title of it. We were just riffing on this. We didn’t have any poetry or anything like that. Then Brandon and I were talking, and we said, “It would be great to have some spoken word on this or some poetry to anchor all of these feelings.” So, Brandon reached out to Andrea “Vocab” Sanderson, who’s the current poet laureate of San Antonio. [She’s got a] genius composer’s mind, and she’s a poet and spoken word artist and performer. She really provided the sort of language anchor for us, and then she came and recorded that with Brandon at his studio before we’d wri en any music really.

Historically, great jazz has come out of trying times, especially creative music that pushes the genre forward. Do you feel like, in some way, this album is similar?

Leal: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, that’s something that we’ve talked about together, and that came out in the improvisations and where we went musically. But you’re right, jazz and creative music, improvised music, certainly in the ’50s and the ’60s and ’70s — but even before that, in the ’20s — it’s a music that was born of struggle. It was born of strife. It was born of Black and Brown folks trying to find community together in incredibly repressive situations. ... I think that because Vocab’s voice is part of this, it really anchors all of that together, and it does put this in a long continuum of musicians and artists who have been trying to respond to social pressures using the tools that they have. Music is not going to stop bullets, or it’s not going to stop bombs from dropping, but it can create conversations and create occasions for people to come together and, hopefully, find new ways of responding to things that can be helpful for folks.

music

Reminder: Although live events have returned, the COVID-19 pandemic is still with us. Check with venues to make sure scheduled events are still happening, and please follow all health and safety guidelines.

How do you guys know each other, and how did this project come about?

Courtesy Photo / Brandon Guerra and Jonathan Leal

critics’ picks

Thursday, Dec. 1

Drugdealer, Reverend Baron, Velvet Saddles

Multi-instrumentalist Michael Collins leads Los Angeles-based psych-pop outfit Drugdealer. If his name sounds familiar, it may be because he’s also led groups including Run DMT, Salvia Plath and the R&B duo Silk Rhodes. In 2013, Collins embarked on an e ort to created more traditionally formed songs, and after three years of work, Drugdealer released The End of Comedy, which featured cameos from friends including Ariel Pink and members of Weyes Blood. The band’s latest release, Hiding in Plain Sight, continues with good-vibes grooves that would sound at home on ’70s AM radio. $18-$20, 8 p.m., Paper Tiger, 2410 N. St. Mary’s St., papertigersatx.com. — Danny Cervantes

Friday, Dec. 2

D.R.I., Metal Riser, Mortar, Unnecessary Surgery

Houston-based thrash pioneers D.R.I. emerged from the 1980s punk scene and later tempered their ultra-fast blasts of anger with enough crunch to appeal to a metal audience. There’s been speculation for years now that the band has been working on new material, but with that yet to be seen, San Antonio heshers can still rejoice in hearing their favorite rapid-fire D.R.I. screeds live ahead of the holiday season. $17-$20, 7 p.m., Paper Tiger, 2410 N. St. Mary’s St., papertigersatx.com. — Brianna Espinoza

Saturday, Dec. 3

French Police, Blood Club, Haunt Me, Lesser Care

Chicago-based trio French Police takes a modern approach to new wave music. The band bases its sound around a driving rhythm guitar reminiscent of New Order. French Police’s latest EP, 1995, leans heavily on romantic indie pop, however. Postpunk trio Blood Club — also hailing from the Windy City — are among a trio of openers. $25, 8 p.m., Paper Tiger, 2410 N. St. Mary’s St., papertigersatx.com. — DC

Saturday, Dec. 3

Ice Nine Kills, Black Veil Brides, Motionless in White, Atreyu Heavy metal and horror movies go together like cheese and fine wine, so why not combine them into one entity? Ice Nine Kills certainly has. With lyrics derived from favorite horror movies and music that sounds like something from a suspenseful film, the band delivers the whole spooky package. Ice Nine Kills also enhances its stage presence with props and outfits that mimic those of iconic horror villains. The band is on the third iteration of its Trinity of Terror Tour, which includes bands that are known for either wearing all black or all white in their music videos — those being Black Veil Brides and Motionless in White. (We’ll let you guess which band dons which hue.) $35.50-$85.50, 6:30 p.m., Tech Port Center + Arena, 3331 General Hudnell Drive, (210) 600-3699, techportcenter.com. — BE

Wednesday, Dec. 7

Turnover, Video Age, Temple of Angels

Critics have described Turnover with a laundry list of adjectives, including pop-punk, dream-pop and emo. Given that the Virginia Beach-based band once toured with New Found Glory, pop-punk seems like a decent enough fit. Even so, these guys have been doing it for more than a decade and their sound is

Donovan Melero

much more refined than that descriptor might suggest. While arguably indie rock at its core, a lush veneer hangs over the music of Turnover, giving it a more ethereal quality than one might expect. $20-$25, 7 p.m., Paper Tiger, 2410 N. St. Mary’s St., papertigersatx.com. — Mike McMahan

Friday, Dec. 9

Donovan Melero, Moondough

In addition to being a solo performer, Donovan Melero also is the drummer and vocalist for post-hardcore band Hail the Sun. Wait, you may be thinking, drummer and vocalist? Like Don Henley and Phil Collins? Well, maybe, if the Eagles and Genesis were prone to punishing math rock. For this appearance, though, Melero is strapping on a guitar and playing an acoustic set. Although his solo material is more rock-oriented, it’s easy to hear how the songs could be stripped down. And he still sings with the passion you’d expect from a post-hardcore vocalist. In other words, you won’t hear “Hotel California.” $16-$18, 7 p.m., Vibes Underground, 1223 E. Houston St., (210) 255-3833, vibeseventcenter.com. — MM

Saturday, Dec. 10

Rod Wave

After perfecting his downbeat approach to hip-hop over three albums starting with 2019’s Ghetto Gospel, Rod Wave announced this summer that Beautiful Mind would be his last “sad-ass” album. The release debuted in August as a Billboard No. 1, making it his second chart-topper after 2021’s SoulFly. The album features the successful singles “Alone” and “Stone Rolling.” On the standout “Yungen,” Rod Wave brings forth melancholy melodies over a lusciously layered track that also features trapper Jack Harlow. $49.50 and up, 8 p.m., AT&T Center, 1 AT&T Center Parkway, (210) 444-5000, attcenter.com. —Marco Aquino

Zoé

Mexico’s Zoé — including members León Larregui, Sergio Acosta, Jesus Baez, Ángel Mosqueda and Rodrigo Guardiola — has maintained its influential career for more than two decades, dropping seven studio albums and winning both a Grammy and two Latin Grammys. Zoé’s melding of Mexican sounds with indie rock, psychedelia and synthpop became so influential that in 2020, Mexican grupero act Bronco even covered the band’s

“Soñé.” Zoé is touring behind 2021’s Sonidos de Karmática Resonancia $82.50-$102.50, 9 p.m., Aztec Theatre, 104 N. St. Mary’s St., (210) 812-4355, theaztectheatre.com. — MA

Upon A Burning Body, Left to Su er, The Dialectic San Antonio’s Upon a Burning Body is making a hometown pitstop in honor of its latest album Fury. After releasing its debut album in 2010, the band blew up internationally, grabbing recognition from all corners of the metal sphere. True to its South Texas roots, the all-Latino band blends cultural themes into its body-slamming songs, which include elements of both groove and deathcore. $20-$23, 7:30 p.m., Vibes Event Center, 1223 E. Houston St., (210) 255-3833, vibeseventcenter.com. — BE

Monday, Dec. 12

Covet, The Speed of Sound in Seawater, Their/They’re/There Math rock heroine Yvette Young leads Covet, a San Jose, California-based progressive rock trio. Young’s parents, both musicians, had her playing piano at age 4 and violin at 7. She went on to earn a degree from UCLA while teaching herself how to play the guitar. Expect to year Young borrow from her classical training in her unique finger-tapped approach to the six-stringed instrument. Covet’s 2020 release Technicolor features both sonically complex structures and o -kilter musical touches. The multi-talented Young also created the album’s cover art and was featured as a spokesperson for Logitech in a 2021 Super Bowl commercial. $20-$23, 7:30 p.m., Paper Tiger, 2410 N. St. Mary’s St., papertigersatx.com. — DC

Tuesday, Dec. 13

Rick Cavender

Yes, Rick Cavender is that car dealer guy. But save your jokes — or maybe tell all your friends if you’re funny — because he’s also been a beloved San Antonio musical fixture for quite a while. For this gig, Cavender will be celebrating the release of the new album Glow of Christmas Cheer. His mix of vintage rock and classic country is so locally beloved that it makes him a popular act for numerous charity events and even earned him an opening slot with Glen Campbell. Sold out, 7 p.m., Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, 100 Auditorium Circle, (210) 2238624, tobincenter.org. — MM

Jaime Monzon

Project Engineer (San Antonio, TX)

Subdivisions planning & creation of roadway dsgn components incld’g typical sections, earthwork, geometric layouts, drainage & hydraulic analysis, erosion control plans, signing & marking plans, safety features & tra c plans. Dsgn, Hydrology & Hydraulic Analysis, Wastewater & Water Systems Dsgn, Drainage Dsgn, Site Layout & Grading, using CAD, CIVIL 3D, HEC-1, HEC-2, HECRAS, TR-55 Programs & Hydra flow. Executing Eng’g Plans, Specifications; Prepare Feasibility Reports, Progress Reports, Tra c Analysis Reports, Cost Analysis, Technical Eng’g Reports & Prjct Control Documents. Req’s a master’s in civil engineering. Please mail resumes to Hr at Seda Consulting Engineers, Inc. At 6735 IH 10 West, San Antonio, Tx, 78201.

Mobile Application Developer sought by Whataburger Restaurants LLC in San Antonio, TX to maintain existing code and build new programs in support of a large project or small enhancement/production ticket level and assist in the development of cost-e ective information technology solutions by creating new and/or modifying existing software applications.

Email resume to: kaddington@wbhq.com; Ref: 76032.6

Come for the lights, stay for the shops, art & dining

Located in the heart of downtown, La Villita o ers over 20 unique boutiques, art galleries, and dining experiences. Shop local & have a holiday shopping experience as charming as the gifts you’ll nd.

418 Villita St. LaVillitaSanAntonio.com