San Antonio mayor joins Valley leaders to talk alliance
Published: Wed, 07/26/23
San Antonio mayor joins Valley leaders to talk alliance
ValleyCentral
by: Frank McCaffrey
Posted:
Updated:
MISSION, Texas (ValleyCentral) — The South Texas Alliance of Cities met in Mission to discuss handling the growth of this part of the state.
The Mayor of San Antonio joined various Valley mayors or business leaders to discuss what they can do as a team.
It’s no secret the Valley is growing and so is San Antonio. According to U.S. Census Data, San Antonio grew by 8.4 percent from 2010 to 2020 and it keeps growing.
With this growth, South Texas is in a boom period.
There are some business experts who say there are sectors we need to start pushing more.
Daniel Silva, the president and CEO of the RGV Partnership, says the Valley needs to reach out and attract other business sectors.
”I think we need to focus on high-tech employers, I think we need to focus on the aerospace industry and automotive,” Silva told us.
The alliance opens more employment opportunities in the Alamo city for Valley workers.
“Being recruited to San Antonio, because there is a larger employer base right now. But I think that there’s also opportunities where we can work together. As was mentioned in the meeting, they’re making the ready to work initiative that they have, I think that we can adopt. Make funding available, so that way individuals here can have money for education,” Silva added.
But as good as things may sound, the Mayor of San Antonio tells us it also means new and expensive challenges.
“Things like infrastructure investment and the fact that there’s incredibly important infrastructure investment that needs to take place in the valley, that needs to take place in San Antonio,” Mayor Ron Nirenberg of San Antonio said.
Nirenberg noted that the Valley and San Antonio are like family.
Now, the alliance has to work together to fight for the needs of the region.
“When we’re united together, using our voices at the table, whether we’re advocated for federal funds or state funds or leveraging our political voice, we can have more strength when we combine forces,” the mayor noted.
Nirenberg notes there is now a lot of strength in south Texas. He scheduled a Zoom meeting within the next two weeks with Valley mayors and business leaders to further discuss what the alliance can accomplish.