In this episode of the Voice of San Antonio Podcast, Editor-in-Chief Ellie Morrison sits down with Dan Menelly, CEO of The DoSeum, for a conversation about the power of experiential learning—and why a great children’s museum matters to a great city. From immersive exhibits that invite children to discover their own solutions, to community outreach that reaches beyond the museum’s walls, Dan shares how The DoSeum is expanding access to joyful learning while bringing San Antonio’s creativity into a global conversation.

Together, they explore what it means to keep children at the center of education in a changing world—and how wonder, collaboration, and creative thinking can help them face that world with optimism.

Watch or listen now and discover how a place built for play is helping shape San Antonio’s future.

Topics in this episode:

• Why play, curiosity, and wonder are essential to lifelong learning
• How art, science, and design come together in The DoSeum’s exhibits
• Expanding access through assisted admission and community outreach
• Bringing San Antonio’s exhibit design and creativity to museums around the world
• The DoSeum’s next chapter, from a new campus plan to early-learning research

Learn more about The DoSeum: thedoseum.org

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Website: voiceofsanantonio.com

San Antonio is preparing to spend nearly $18 million on a project that would fundamentally change how people move through the heart of downtown.

Yet most San Antonians have never heard of it.

The proposed Market Street Cycle Track would create a separated, two-way bicycle route along Dolorosa and Market Street, turning onto South Alamo and continuing along Commerce. The project is currently in pre-design, with construction expected to begin in 2027.

Let me be clear: I am not against bicycle infrastructure.

Every great city should give people safe ways to travel by bicycle. San Antonio should, too. But good urban planning must respond to the place being planned—and Market and Commerce are not ordinary streets.

They are two of downtown’s primary east-west thoroughfares. They carry vehicle commuters, buses, police vehicles, delivery trucks, convention attendees, hotel guests, employees and thousands of people arriving for our city’s largest events.

They are not simply lines on a planning map. They are active commercial corridors and the workhouses of downtown —not empty space waiting to be redesigned.

Spend one weekday morning on Market Street and you will understand. Police vehicles need access in front of the station. Trolleys wait between routes. Employees are being dropped off because downtown parking is often too expensive for the people who work here. Restaurants and River Walk businesses receive food, beverages, linens and supplies.

When our delivery bay is full, vendors sometimes park on Market Street and take the expected parking violation ticket. That is how little room exists for the ordinary ebb and flow of operating a downtown business. The street is not functioning inefficiently; it is absorbing the daily realities that keep downtown functioning at all.

Market Street currently has four lanes in key sections. One is dedicated to buses, while another is regularly needed for police access, deliveries and drop-offs. Add a separated bicycle track, and we could effectively be reduced to one consistently moving lane of general traffic.

Anyone who has been downtown during a parade, major convention or Spurs playoff night knows those lanes are already at capacity. Now imagine funneling that traffic into a single lane while San Antonio is simultaneously discussing major new downtown development and an entertainment district expected to attract even larger crowds.

That is not multimodal planning. It is solving for one form of transportation while pretending the others do not exist.

The City estimates the project at $17.74 million, including approximately $15.85 million from TxDOT and $1.89 million from the City. Some will argue that walking away from outside funding means losing an opportunity.

But free money is not free when the project creates permanent problems.

A grant should not make the decision for us. San Antonio is not weaker if it determines that a plan no longer fits the realities of its downtown. We are stronger when we are willing to examine the consequences and dictate the terms of our own future.

Rejecting this design would not mean rejecting bicycles. It would mean finding a route that creates a safe, meaningful connection without disabling the streets that keep downtown alive. Other corridors, configurations and less obstructive treatments should be considered with the people who use these streets every day—not after the concrete has already been poured.

There is also a much broader opportunity here.

Imagine directing that ambition toward wider and better-maintained sidewalks, shade trees, lighting, landscaping, safer crossings, seating, wayfinding and accessible pedestrian connections along Market and Commerce. Those improvements would benefit nearly everyone moving between our hotels, restaurants, the Convention Center, Hemisfair, the Alamo and the River Walk.

Downtown desperately needs investment. It needs beauty, shade, safety and a more welcoming pedestrian experience. What it does not need is another expensive project that looks elegant on paper but ignores how the district actually operates.

Downtown business owners are not resisting change. We have invested continuously through construction, street closures, and declining tourism periods because we believe in downtown San Antonio.

Yes, San Antonio should build strong bicycle infrastructure. But we should build it intelligently, in the right places, and with an honest understanding of what our streets are being asked to do.

I realize this may not be a popular opinion, particularly among readers who rightly see bicycle infrastructure as a marker of a modern, forward-thinking city. I expect some disagreement, and I welcome it. But “pro-bike” and “good planning” are not automatically the same thing. We should be able to look beyond what sounds progressive and ask whether a particular plan will actually work. My conviction comes not from resisting change, but from logic, firsthand experience and an unwillingness to confuse good intentions with good execution.

We have one chance to get this right. Nearly $18 million should make downtown work better for everyone—not create new obstacles in the heart of our city. San Antonio can afford to reconsider this plan. What we cannot afford is to spend millions solving the wrong problem.

THE VOICE:

Elizabeth Lyons Houston

Elizabeth Lyons Houston is Vice President and co-owner of Los Leones, a fourth-generation family business in San Antonio, Texas focused on hospitality and real estate. Working alongside her father, Bill Lyons, she leads growth efforts through expansion, marketing, and community partnerships. The company’s roots date to 1946 with Casa Rio, the first restaurant on the San Antonio Riverwalk, founded by her great-grandfather. Under her leadership, Los Leones honors its legacy—including restaurants and ventures like Broadway News and Schilo’s—while evolving to meet the needs of today’s patrons and the next generation.

A former teammate of mine and I used to have a little Texas fantasy.

We were both urban nerds, the kind of people who could spend way too much time talking about downtowns, sidewalks, transportation and why cities work the way they do. Every once in a while, we would wish out loud for the same thing: Wouldn’t it be nice if, before we retire, we could wake up in San Antonio, get on a train to Austin, have lunch, take a meeting or two, and be back home that evening?

That’s it. Not a bullet train across Texas. Not some European transportation utopia. Just San Antonio to Austin. For years, it has felt less like an infrastructure project and more like a wistful little fantasy between two urban nerds.

Then my good friend Beto Altamirano literally got on the train.

Beto, CEO of Tech Bloc, recently produced a terrific three-part Instagram series about passenger rail between San Antonio and Austin. You should watch all three. What I loved about the series is that he didn’t stand in front of a map and tell us why trains are great. He got on and rode it.

You can board Amtrak’s Texas Eagle in San Antonio early in the morning and ride it to Austin. Beto’s ticket cost $17. The seat is big. You can work. You can watch the country go by. Most importantly, you don’t have to spend your morning staring at brake lights and 18-wheelers on I-35.

It sounds great, except for one fairly important problem: You can’t really use it for a normal day in Austin. There is one train a day in each direction, and it arrives on schedule 56 percent of the time. One daily train that shows up late almost half the time isn’t a commute. It’s an adventure.

Think about that. We have a train between San Antonio and Austin. We just don’t have one that functions like transportation for most people.

Texas has tried versions of this idea for decades, most recently by studying whether passenger trains could share Union Pacific’s existing freight corridor. Union Pacific says the corridor is not sufficient to handle both freight and passenger demand, so Travis County studied another option: build a separate route.

The $13.5 billion number

The alternative would create roughly 90 miles of new passenger rail between Austin and San Antonio, much of it following SH 130 and I-10.

Estimated cost: $13.5 billion.

When I first saw that number, I had roughly the same reaction I imagine most people did. Well, there goes the train. Thirteen and a half billion dollars is an absurd amount of money. That’s fantasy money.

Then I started wondering about something: What does a highway cost?

Right now, TxDOT is expanding approximately 20 miles of I-35 on the northeast side of San Antonio. TxDOT now puts the total program at about $3.5 billion. Do the math and that’s roughly $175 million per mile.

Now apply that same cost to 90 miles.

$15.75 billion.

The proposed 90-mile train?

$13.5 billion.

Suddenly, the fantasy doesn’t sound quite so fantastical.

This isn’t an apples-to-apples engineering comparison. The I-35 expansion is a complicated project, and highway costs vary enormously. I’m not suggesting a new 90-mile freeway would cost $15.75 billion. The point is simpler: Texas already spends transportation money at this scale.

And if $175 million per mile sounds shocking, look 80 miles north. TxDOT is reconstructing approximately eight miles of I-35 through central Austin at an anticipated construction cost of about $4.5 billion.

Eight miles. $4.5 billion.

We hear numbers like that around highways and somehow they have become normal. We debate the design, complain about construction and wonder how many years it will take. But very few people look at a multibillion-dollar highway expansion and declare that the entire concept of highways is financially impossible.

What counts as normal?

Tell Texans we’re going to spend billions expanding an interstate and the conversation usually starts with when construction begins. Tell Texans we’re going to spend billions on passenger rail and suddenly everybody becomes an accountant.

We should ask hard questions about rail: How many people will ride it? How often will it run? What will it cost to operate? Where will the money come from? Rail should answer every one of them. So should highways. They are staggeringly expensive pieces of public infrastructure, and we almost never make them prove it.

For me, this stopped being an argument about transportation a long time ago.

The ASA Region

The older I get, the more I realize this train isn’t really about my friend and me getting lunch in Austin.

It’s about opportunity.

I first started thinking this way years ago when I read Richard Florida’s Who’s Your City? Florida wrote about the rise of megaregions, including a Texas megaregion connecting Dallas, Austin and San Antonio. The idea stuck with me.

More recently, Henry Cisneros, Bob Rivard and David Hendricks brought the concept directly home in their book The Austin-San Antonio Megaregion: Opportunity and Challenge in the Lone Star State. Their premise is essentially that this region is already emerging, and our challenge is whether the infrastructure, housing, workforce and leadership can keep up with it.

I’ve started thinking of it simply as the ASA Region: Austin-San Antonio.

And here’s why that matters to me.

Austin has something San Antonio desperately needs more of: high-wage jobs. The latest federal wage data show the average hourly wage in the Austin metro is roughly 22 percent higher than in San Antonio. Austin also has deep concentrations of technology and professional jobs that San Antonio has spent years trying to attract.

San Antonio has something Austin increasingly needs: affordability. Recent housing data put Austin’s median home sale price at about $562,000 against San Antonio’s $268,000.

Think about the economic opportunity sitting between those two facts.

A San Antonian shouldn’t necessarily have to move to Austin to gain access to an Austin paycheck. An Austin worker shouldn’t necessarily have to leave an Austin career to find a place they can afford. A student at Texas State in San Marcos, sitting right between the two, should be able to reach an internship in either city. A company choosing where to locate should be able to think about the talent of an entire corridor instead of one isolated labor market.

No train solves all of that on its own. Stations matter. Local transit matters. Schedules matter. Not every job suddenly becomes commutable. But real passenger rail changes the possibilities. It connects workers to jobs, companies to talent, and students to both. It gives people living between our two cities more choices without forcing every one of those choices onto I-35.

That’s not a train fantasy. That’s economic development.

The ASA Region is going to continue growing whether we build the train or not. San Antonio, New Braunfels, San Marcos, Kyle and Austin aren’t moving farther apart. They’re growing toward one another. The question is whether we build the infrastructure that allows that growth to become an economic advantage, or whether our vision of a megaregion is simply millions more people sitting in traffic together.

For years, civic leaders have talked about the Austin-San Antonio corridor as one of the great economic opportunities in Texas. At some point our infrastructure has to catch up with the rhetoric.

I don’t know which rail proposal ultimately wins. Maybe we find a way to work with Union Pacific. Maybe we have to build around them and start smaller than anything on the table right now.

What I’m increasingly convinced of is this: the reason we don’t have a train is not that the numbers are unimaginable. We imagine numbers like this all the time. We just usually imagine them with concrete, frontage roads and another lane of traffic.

Maybe my old teammate and I weren’t fantasizing about something impossible. Maybe we were just seeing a little early what this region was going to become.

I’d still like to do it before we retire.

San Antonio in the morning. Lunch in Austin. Home for dinner.

Let’s build the train.

Citations

1. KUT 90.5, Nathan Bernier, “Studies say Austin-San Antonio passenger rail requires $13 billion or a route Union Pacific resists,” August 20, 2026. Source for the roughly 90-mile alternative route, the $13.5 billion cost estimate, the current Amtrak schedule and its on-time performance, TxDOT’s passenger rail study, Union Pacific’s position and the alternatives under consideration.

2. Texas Department of Transportation, I-35 Northeast Expansion Program. TxDOT describes the I-35 NEX program as an approximately 20-mile expansion through Bexar, Comal and Guadalupe counties.

3. Texas Department of Transportation, San Antonio District Profile, revised March 19, 2026. TxDOT describes the I-35 Northeast Expansion as a $3.5 billion investment to improve I-35 from N. Walters Street to FM 1103. The $15.75 billion figure in this article is a simple extrapolation of that cost across 90 miles, not a TxDOT estimate for a 90-mile highway.

4. Texas Department of Transportation, I-35 Capital Express FAQs. TxDOT states that construction of the Central project is anticipated to cost approximately $4.5 billion. The project’s length, an 8-mile stretch of I-35 from U.S. 290 East to Ben White Boulevard, is reported by KUT 90.5, Nathan Bernier, “Your ultimate guide to the I-35 expansion through Central Austin,” February 21, 2024.

5. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wages in Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, released August 13, 2026. BLS reports an average hourly wage of $35.85 across all occupations in the Austin metropolitan area, reference period May 2025.

6. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wages in San Antonio-New Braunfels, released August 13, 2026. BLS reports an average hourly wage of $29.39 across all occupations in the San Antonio metropolitan area, reference period May 2025. Compared with Austin’s $35.85 figure, Austin’s average hourly wage is approximately 22 percent higher.

7. Redfin housing market data for Austin and San Antonio. Figures are for the three months ending July 2026: Austin’s median home sale price about $562,000 and San Antonio’s about $268,000, a ratio of roughly 2.1 to 1. City figures, not metro. Redfin updates these pages continuously, so the live numbers will have moved since publication. As of the August 2026 update they were $549,636 and $264,825, a ratio of 2.08 to 1.

8. Richard Florida, Who’s Your City?, megaregion analysis. Florida identified a Texas megaregion, which he calls Dal-Austin, encompassing Dallas, Austin and San Antonio, as part of his broader argument that interconnected metropolitan areas increasingly function as larger economic units. List summarized in CBS News, “Who’s Your City: Top 10 Megaregions.”

9. Henry Cisneros, Robert Rivard and David Hendricks, The Austin-San Antonio Megaregion: Opportunity and Challenge in the Lone Star State, Texas A&M University Press, 2025. The book examines the growing economic integration of Austin and San Antonio and the infrastructure, workforce, housing and planning challenges of the emerging megaregion.

10. Beto Altamirano, three-part Instagram series on Austin-San Antonio passenger rail, 2026. Source for the opening train journey and the inspiration for this article. Part 1.

THE VOICE:

Lorenzo Gomez III

is a community builder, author, and public speaker who draws from his personal and professional experiences to inspire others. A former director at Rackspace Technology, Gomez is a key player in the development of San Antonio’s downtown entrepreneurial ecosystem. During Gomez’s four years as chairman and CEO of Geekdom, San Antonio’s premier collaborative startup community, Geekdom companies raised more than $422M in funding and its startups have created 2,489 jobs. A trusted advisor to Graham Weston, co-founder of Rackspace Technology, Gomez helped shape Weston’s 80|20 Foundation, which invests in San Antonio’s future by issuing grants to public charities that attract, grow, and retain San Antonio’s future workforce and job-creating entrepreneurs. Gomez has authored four books: Cilantro Diaries, Tafolla Toro, The Rack We Built, and The Bully in Your Pocket. All four are Amazon best sellers and two are winners of the 2021 International Latino Book Awards. Lorenzo’s driving passion is his love for his hometown, San Antonio, Texas. His goal is to recreate for every San Antonian the opportunities the startup world has provided him in this city on the rise.

Editor-in-Chief Ellie Morrison sits down inside Marian Koogler McNay’s former home with Matthew McLendon, Director & CEO of the McNay Art Museum, to explore how a century-old gateway to the city still leads the way. McLendon traces his path from the performing arts to curatorial work in London and UVA, to finding a perfect professional home at the McNay—where the Tobin Collection of Theatre Arts, modernist foundations, and contemporary practice unite his “three lives under one roof.” He unpacks the museum’s guiding idea of “local roots, global impact,” explaining why curating for San Antonians (while welcoming voices from around the world) elevates local and regional artists alongside internationally recognized names.

The conversation dives into museums as trusted civic spaces, how design and programming reduce “threshold anxiety,” and why fun, joy, and discovery are serious business for cultural institutions. McLendon previews exhibitions (including immersive installations by Sandy Skoglund and a 20-year survey of collecting under retiring Curatorial lead René Paul Barilleaux), and makes a simple ask to the city he now calls home: become a member—and bring a friend. Whether you’re an artist, a cultural connector, or just museum-curious, this episode reveals how San Antonio’s authentic kindness powers a museum that belongs to everyone.

It’s an early October morning on the grounds of the newly renovated Ranch Motel. The live oak trees cast generous shade, the birds are chirping, and a cool breeze is blowing in. Meanwhile, thirty white tables are being set up and banners are being hung. The delightful crunch of nicely compacted crushed granite is heard amidst a peaceful flurry of activity.

The grounds are getting ready for the Puro Salsa Cook-Off, a relatively new tradition in San Antonio. It’s a party and a competition that celebrates our local culture and contributes to a good cause.

San Antonio has some of the best Mexican food in the world. We know how to use chiles, tomatoes, and tomatillos. Chips and salsa are a staple at every Mexican restaurant. We expect it and we probably eat too much of it. I definitely do. Who cares? We love it.

Puro Salsa Cook-Off celebrates it. We bring in some of San Antonio’s best Mexican restaurants, salsa makers who have made it to the shelves of HEB, and abuelas who protect some of the best recipes that have been keeping their families warm and happy for generations.

The festival is exciting. The grounds are lively. There is cumbia music that makes you want to dance, margaritas and Lone Stars that make you want to socialize, and world-class salsas that make you want to go out and get some enchiladas. It’s family friendly and kids are whirling around chasing each other while Mom and Dad are sampling salsa.

It’s a great time.

The competition is divided into two segments: the “Judges’ Competition” and the “People’s Choice.”

Last year, the judges were some of the best in the business of salsa. Tio Pelon founder Oscar Perez, Cuishe and Toro founder Gerardo De Anda, and Alex Paredes, the James Beard semifinalist behind Carnitas Lonjas and Tacopolis, volunteered for this most important task. They took their time. They savored each salsa. They let the flavors soak in. They reflected on them.

After this near-religious experience, at least transcendental in some regards, they arrived at their conclusion. First place went to Herd on the Street, a family farm in Somerset, TX. Second place went to La Lonchera, a popular San Pedro lunch spot. Third place went to Tomatillos, the famous restaurant formerly located on Broadway but with a new location on SE Military.

Congratulations to the well-deserved winners of arguably one of the most prestigious awards in the Western Hemisphere.

The People’s Choice took a little longer to announce its winner. For the duration of the event, hundreds of participants circled around the 30 tables with their white and red trays of chips, plunging a chip or two into each salsa. Between sampling salsas and guzzling down water to mitigate the spice, the people had time to experience the salsas in all the fervor, spirit, and excitement of a crowd. The people ranked their best salsas, put their papers into a ballot box, and the votes were counted.

The winner of the People’s Choice was Que Mala Todo, a group of two friends that just had an awesome salsa to share. Some say that the wisdom of crowds makes this the most coveted award of all.

The event itself is a blast, but it’s about more than just salsa.

In 2008, Puro Salsa’s founder Mark Valadez found himself very sick. What he thought might just be a flu turned out to be much more serious. Mark was just 19 years old, but he was diagnosed with leukemia. After several grueling years of treatment, Mark’s leukemia subsided into a state of remission in 2011.

If you ever meet Mark, you’ll know he’s one of the happiest guys in San Antonio. He is always around helping friends and anyone he can. Because of his experience as a cancer survivor, over the years he has held Light The Night walk fundraisers for friends and family to help give money for cancer research. These events have brought people together, celebrating with their friend, and fighting for a cure.

In 2024, after moving back to San Antonio from Houston, Mark decided he wanted to do something that could combine his love for the city’s culture and his passion for helping fight cancer. He gathered a group of friends together to begin the San Antonio Latino Sauce Assembly (S.A.L.S.A.), the organization that hosts Puro Salsa Cook-Off.

After many breakfast meetings at Mama’s Café and a soft launch in 2024, the San Antonio Latino Sauce Assembly put together the 2nd Annual Puro Salsa Cook-Off in 2025. The event raised $10,000 in donations that benefitted Blood Cancer United, formerly the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

For a fun event that lasts about two hours, a $10,000 donation towards cancer research is a win. It’s a great way to make a small contribution and to be a part of a bigger cause.

The 3rd Annual Puro Salsa Cook-Off is scheduled for October 17, 2026 at the Ranch Motel. You can purchase tickets at www.purosalsa.org. If you can make it, we’d love to have you. We’ll throw a party, taste some great salsa, celebrate San Antonio, and contribute to a great cause.

THE VOICE:

David Morin

David is a Partner with MNO Partners, a real estate development firm focused on developing walkable and community-oriented projects throughout the San Antonio-Austin corridor. David is also the founder and (again) owner of Mission Kayak, San Antonio’s first kayak rental company on the San Antonio riverwalk. David also serves on the City of San Antonio Housing Commission’s Breaking Barriers to Affordable Housing Subcommittee and is the Co-Chair for the Urban Land Institute’s Neighborhood Development Local Member Council. In his spare time, David loves to walk through and explore San Antonio, envision its future, and hang out with his wife and two kids (both under two). David and his family are active parishioners of Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church and live in a historic neighborhood near downtown San Antonio.

Hispanic Heritage Month and Fiestas Patrias have officially arrived in San Antonio, and the city is settling into a season it knows better than almost anywhere else in the country.

San Antonio’s partnership with Mexico runs four generations deep, and this year’s kickoff leaned into that history directly. Speakers described a lineup of signature celebrations honoring Mexico’s independence, and Dr. Rubén Minutti Zanatta, Consul General of Mexico in San Antonio, stood before the crowd to recognize the deep and existing bonds between Mexico and San Antonio, a relationship he made clear is lived, not ceremonial. “Mexico is present wherever Mexican immigrants are,” Minutti said.

William McManus, the city’s former police chief and this year’s Grand Marshal for the Dieciséis Parade, spoke to what the day ahead means for the city. “This parade is about families, neighbors, coming out and celebrating the city’s heritage and culture,” McManus said. The Dieciséis Parade steps off September 12.

The program closed with the Guadalupe Dance Company, a swirl of vibrant skirts, percussive footwork and gritos that filled the room with color and sound. It was less a performance than a pulse, movement and heritage folded into a single, breathing expression of the season ahead.

City and community leaders gathered to mark the occasion, a reminder that Fiestas Patrias in San Antonio is never just ceremonial. It runs through neighborhoods, families and institutions that have carried these traditions for generations.

The season now stretches forward with a full calendar of programming. From Diez y Seis festivities to the Dieciséis Parade, the coming weeks will bring San Antonio’s West Side and beyond into a shared celebration of heritage, history and culture, the kind of layered storytelling that defines the city more than any single event can.

A full calendar of Hispanic Heritage Month and Fiestas Patrias events is available at SA.gov, with ongoing updates from the Department of Arts & Culture at @getcreativesa.

This story is presented in partnership with the City of San Antonio’s Department of Arts and Culture.

THE VOICE:

Eleanora Morrison

is a fifth-generation San Antonian and the founding Editor-in-Chief and Creative Director of Voice of San Antonio. With a background spanning arts, culture, media, and design, she is passionate about telling stories that capture the city’s distinct creative spirit. Her work celebrates the people shaping San Antonio today while honoring the cultural legacy that makes it unlike anywhere else. Beyond her editorial role, Ellie is a multidisciplinary creative who leads projects that shape spaces, spark conversation, and strengthen community in San Antonio and beyond.

Many years ago, I got to work with an awesome organization called Venture for America. Its founder was a guy named Andrew Yang, who I got to know pretty well and who would later run for president and get famous for an idea called Universal Basic Income.

Although I still have mixed feelings about UBI, there is one number from those years that has never left me.

$400.

I’m not an economist. I’ve never played one on TV. But I know how to read a number that won’t leave me alone.

Back when Yang was running, the Federal Reserve found that roughly four in ten American adults couldn’t easily absorb a surprise $400 bill. They’d have to borrow it, float it on a credit card, sell something or just not pay it.

The number has gotten better since then, but not nearly enough. The Fed’s latest survey says 63 percent of American adults could cover a $400 emergency straight out of cash, savings or a card they could pay off that month. Which means 37 percent couldn’t.

There’s another number in that data, and it’s the one that stopped me. In an earlier Fed survey, only 46 percent of Hispanic adults could cover it the same way.

That means 54 percent could not.

San Antonio is roughly two-thirds Hispanic. Now let me be careful about what that number is and isn’t. The Fed surveyed the country, not our city. Nobody knocked on a door on the West Side to get it. But when you live in a city that looks like ours, a national number like that one isn’t background noise.

Think about what $400 actually is. It’s a car repair. It’s a trip to the emergency room. It’s the air conditioner deciding to die in the middle of a San Antonio August.

Four hundred dollars isn’t the line between fine and bankrupt. It’s a measure of something simpler than that. It’s breathing room. It’s the cushion, and I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what happens when everybody in town reaches into it at once.

The pileup

Everywhere I look in San Antonio, somebody official is asking us for a little more money.

City staff has proposed a property tax increase to help close a projected $158 million budget gap over the next two years. At 3.9 percent it is the largest increase allowed without sending the question to voters, and it would be the City’s first property tax rate increase in more than 30 years. On an average homestead, which is the government’s way of saying a house somebody actually lives in rather than one somebody owns to rent out, it works out to about another $49 a year.

Alamo Colleges is looking at its first tax rate increase since 2013. The San Antonio River Authority is looking at one too, its second in two years, most of it to pay for a new flood warning system. And SAWS is proposing a multiyear string of rate increases to pay for billions of dollars of water and sewer pipe.

Then there’s CPS Energy. Earlier this year, CPS discussed the possibility of an increase of up to 4 percent as it confronted a roughly $50 million budget shortfall. CPS ultimately did not request that increase, so it is important to be clear: it isn’t currently on the table.

But I want to put these numbers next to each other for a reason.

Before someone reaches for their calculator to write me an angry email, let me be clear about what this chart does and doesn’t say. These increases aren’t all happening tomorrow. Some haven’t been approved. CPS backed away from its contemplated increase. SAWS would phase in its increases over several years, and its figure here is the fully phased-in one while everything else is a first-year number. Each agency also calculates its impact against a slightly different home value. I’ve put the methodology and caveats in the Citations / Appendix below.

But that’s exactly why I wanted to put them on one page. Each agency gets to look at its own spreadsheet. A family doesn’t. A family has one checking account.

My question to you is this: Go look at your own account and figure out where another $356 a year comes from. That’s the whole argument. There isn’t a second one.

And we’re still not counting the City’s more than 140 proposed increases to fees, permits and other charges. We’re not counting school district tax elections. We’re not counting insurance, groceries, gasoline or everything else that has gotten more expensive.

Look again at the bottom of the chart: $356 versus $400. That leaves $44.

The Fed isn’t telling us that a $400 bill bankrupts the average American. It’s telling us that more than one in three American adults don’t have the financial breathing room to absorb that expense from readily available money. Among Hispanic adults, it’s more than half.

That’s the cushion. And every additional recurring expense makes it a little thinner.

Before you ask for another dollar

Let me be clear about something else: I am not against raising taxes. Cities cost money. Police officers, firefighters, streets, parks, libraries and drainage cost money. SAWS has aging infrastructure that has to be replaced. The River Authority’s flood warning system is the kind of thing you only regret not building. Sometimes the math simply requires more revenue.

But before our city leadership asks San Antonians for another dollar, I believe they owe us two things.

The first is stewardship.

Show us that you’ve squeezed every possible value out of the dollars we’ve already given you. Show us the efficiencies. Show us what isn’t working anymore. Show us where programs overlap. Show us where technology can reduce costs. And show us what you’re willing to cut.

Because here’s the problem with government spending: everything is critical. Every department believes its programs are essential. Every nonprofit receiving city funding can make a passionate argument about why its mission matters. Every constituency can explain why its particular program cannot possibly be touched. Many of them are doing wonderful work.

But if everything is critical, nothing is critical.

We already have a picture of what this looks like, and it happened this summer. When SAWS came to City Council asking for a multiyear rate increase, District 7 Councilwoman Marina Alderete Gavito didn’t say the utility was wrong about needing the money. She acknowledged the pressures SAWS was facing. But she wanted an audit completed before asking residents to pay more.

“Let’s wait after an audit comes back and then we can have a conversation about a rate increase,” she said.

Council ultimately delayed the increase. SAWS went back to its capital plan and cut $594 million in planned infrastructure projects, including $223 million previously earmarked for water-main replacements.

I’m not saying those projects were wasteful. Some may eventually have to be built, and delaying them could make them more expensive later. But I think Gavito’s instinct was exactly right: show us the work.

If you don’t get another dollar, show us what doesn’t get done. Show us the tradeoffs. Show us that you’ve looked everywhere else first. Then let our elected leaders and the public decide whether we’re willing to pay for it. That’s what stewardship looks like.

Then show me the wages

The second thing our city leadership owes us is a relentless strategy for increasing what San Antonians earn.

I know people are tired of hearing me talk about Rackspace. But working there permanently changed the way I think about economic development. I was one of a lot of Rackers who got a front-row seat to helping build that company and watching what happened when one company created thousands of good-paying jobs in San Antonio.

Those salaries bought houses. They filled restaurants. They funded nonprofits, started other companies and changed the direction of families who’d never had a shot at that kind of money.

Recently I sat down with Jim Perschbach, the President and CEO of Port San Antonio. The average total annual compensation for a worker on the Port campus is approximately $111,000.

That number should consume us.

The Port supports roughly 18,000 jobs across aerospace, cybersecurity, defense, manufacturing and advanced technology. Every person working in economic development in San Antonio should be asking: How did they do it? What industries produce those wages? What skills do those workers need? What do we need to teach? What companies do we need to recruit? Most importantly, how do we do it again?

Because there are ultimately two ways to give San Antonio families more financial breathing room: be incredibly careful about what we ask them to pay, and help them earn more. I want our city leadership obsessed with both.

If you’ve cut what can responsibly be cut, if you’ve shown us you’re treating every taxpayer dollar like it matters, and if you’re relentlessly working to create jobs that move San Antonio families into higher incomes, then come back and make the case for more revenue. I’ll listen.

The goal shouldn’t be to never raise taxes. The goal should be to build a city where another tax doesn’t push a family over the edge.

We owe that most of all to the San Antonians with the least room for error. So before we take another $5 here and another $10 there, remember where this started. For a whole lot of our neighbors, the cushion we keep reaching into is thinner than we think.

Four hundred dollars isn’t a lot of room. Before we ask families for another dollar, we’d better be sure we’ve earned the right to ask.

Disclosure: Councilwoman Marina Alderete Gavito is a client of the author’s storytelling consulting business. She had no involvement in the writing or editing of this article.

Citations / Appendix

1. Federal Reserve: The $400 cushion

Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2025, Executive Summary
Federal Reserve: Unexpected Expenses Data by Race and Ethnicity
Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2025: Fact Sheet (PDF)

Federal Reserve research found that 63 percent of American adults could cover an unexpected $400 expense entirely using cash or its equivalent, meaning 37 percent could not. The Fed’s demographic data shows that only 46 percent of Hispanic adults could cover the expense this way, meaning 54 percent could not. The report was released May 13, 2026, from a survey fielded in October 2025.

The Federal Reserve’s earlier surveys also provide the historical context for the statistic Andrew Yang frequently discussed during his presidential campaign: roughly four in ten adults at the time would have needed to borrow, sell something or otherwise could not readily cover a $400 emergency expense.

2. U.S. Census Bureau: San Antonio demographics

QuickFacts: San Antonio city, Texas

Provides San Antonio demographic data, including the city’s roughly two-thirds Hispanic or Latino population.

3. KSAT: City of San Antonio property tax proposal

Cutting deep: San Antonio City Council fights over tax increase and budget cuts

Documents the City’s proposed FY2027 property tax increase of 3.9 percent, a new rate of 56.288 cents per $100 of valuation, an estimated impact of approximately $49 annually on the average homestead, and the projected $158 million two-year budget gap.

4. Spectrum News: the first increase in more than 30 years

San Antonio City Council proposes property tax increase for first time in over 30 years

Source for the claim that this would be the City’s first property tax rate increase in more than three decades, and that 3.9 percent is the largest increase allowed without sending the question to voters.

5. KSAT: More than 140 City fee changes

San Antonio considers host of fee increases in new budget

Documents more than 140 proposed increases or changes to City fees, permits and other charges, projected to generate nearly $99 million over two years.

6. San Antonio Report: Alamo Colleges

Alamo Colleges District eyes first tax rate increase in a decade
How San Antonio’s property taxes, utilities and fees all add up

Documents Alamo Colleges’ proposed increase of $0.0125 per $100 of valuation, the district’s first since 2013, and the per-household calculation of its impact.

Chart note, Alamo Colleges*: The $34 figure is $2.82 per month, or $33.84 annually, on a median homestead valued at $271,000, rounded to $34. Each agency in this chart calculates its impact against its own stated home value, and those values are not identical.

7. San Antonio Report: Revised SAWS proposal

After City Council delays vote on water rate increase, SAWS cuts capital plan by $594M

Documents SAWS’ revised multiyear rate proposal following City Council’s June delay. The proposal begins with an average $3.91 monthly increase in January 2027, runs through 2030, and could eventually increase the average residential bill by $14.80 to $16.93 or more per month. It also documents SAWS’ decision to remove $594 million in planned capital projects, including $223 million in water-main replacements. The revised plan returns to City Council on October 8, 2026.

Chart note, SAWS*: The $178 figure represents the lower end of SAWS’ proposed fully phased-in increase: $14.80 per month multiplied by 12 months, or $177.60 annually, rounded to $178. It does not represent the first-year increase, which is approximately $47.

8. Marina Alderete Gavito and SAWS stewardship

Texas Public Radio: San Antonio City Council to vote next week on SAWS rate increases totaling 29% through 2029
Spectrum News: Water bills could soon increase in San Antonio

Documents District 7 Councilwoman Marina Alderete Gavito’s call for an audit before approving higher SAWS rates and her acknowledgment of the pressures facing the utility. The Spectrum News report is the source for her statement: “Let’s wait after an audit comes back and then we can have a conversation about a rate increase.”

9. San Antonio Report: CPS Energy

Taxes and fees going up in San Antonio: How much?

Documents CPS Energy’s discussion of a potential rate increase of up to 4 percent, estimated at $7.67 monthly or approximately $92 annually for the average residential customer.

Chart note, CPS Energy*: CPS ultimately did not formally propose the 4 percent increase. The $92 figure is included as a benchmark for the increase that was seriously contemplated earlier in 2026, not as a currently pending rate increase.

10. San Antonio Report: San Antonio River Authority

As the San Antonio River Authority plans 2027 budget, a tax rate hike is likely for second year in a row

Documents the River Authority’s proposed increase from $0.0183 to $0.01930 per $100 of taxable value, a 5.46 percent rise and its second consecutive increase, following a 2025 increase from $0.01787. The board voted unanimously to advance the proposal on August 21, 2026, with a public hearing and adoption vote scheduled for September 16, 2026. The majority of the revenue is designated for the NextGen flood warning system, which costs roughly $20 million in Bexar County.

Chart note, River Authority*: The approximately $3 annual figure is an illustrative calculation based on a roughly $270,000 property value. Actual impact depends on taxable value and applicable exemptions.

11. Port San Antonio: Jobs, wages and economic impact

Port San Antonio Economic Impact

Documents the Port’s employment and economic impact, including roughly 18,000 jobs and average total annual compensation of approximately $111,000 for workers on the Port campus. Port San Antonio identifies Jim Perschbach as its President and CEO.

12. Related coverage

Texas Public Radio: Counting the costs, we added up every tax or rate increase San Antonians are facing this tight budget year

Texas Public Radio compiled its own tally of the increases facing San Antonio households in June 2026.

THE VOICE:

Lorenzo Gomez III

Lorenzo Gomez III is a community builder, author, and public speaker who draws from his personal and professional experiences to inspire others. A former director at Rackspace Technology, Gomez is a key player in the development of San Antonio’s downtown entrepreneurial ecosystem. During Gomez’s four years as chairman and CEO of Geekdom, San Antonio’s premier collaborative startup community, Geekdom companies raised more than $422M in funding and its startups have created 2,489 jobs. A trusted advisor to Graham Weston, co-founder of Rackspace Technology, Gomez helped shape Weston’s 80|20 Foundation, which invests in San Antonio’s future by issuing grants to public charities that attract, grow, and retain San Antonio’s future workforce and job-creating entrepreneurs. Gomez has authored four books: Cilantro Diaries, Tafolla Toro, The Rack We Built, and The Bully in Your Pocket. All four are Amazon best sellers and two are winners of the 2021 International Latino Book Awards. Lorenzo’s driving passion is his love for his hometown, San Antonio, Texas. His goal is to recreate for every San Antonian the opportunities the startup world has provided him in this city on the rise.

Growing up, I didn’t think big.

I think a lot of us in San Antonio carry that, whether we realize it or not. I grew up in an inner-city neighborhood where most of my world existed within about a five-block radius. I didn’t get on a plane until I was 18. My life felt small, and if I’m being honest, I thought the city did too.

It felt like the bold, ambitious ideas you’d hear about in other cities weren’t something we did here.

My view of the city started changing in moments.

At Rackspace, I remember thinking how wild it was that a company would buy a struggling mall and turn it into its headquarters. That was bold. Then I watched Mayor Julián Castro launch the Decade of Downtown, reframing how the city thought about its urban core. Then Nelson Wolff and the Mission Reach, turning something overlooked into something transformative.

Those moments forced me to reconsider something I had believed for a long time.

San Antonio has always had people willing to think big. The River Walk was a big idea. Hemisfair was a big idea. The Pearl was a big idea. These weren’t incremental decisions, they were bets on a different version of the city. What I had mistaken for a lack of ambition was really a lack of continuity. Big ideas existed here, but they often felt isolated instead of part of a larger pattern.

Once you start connecting those moments, you realize San Antonio has been capable of big thinking for a long time. We just haven’t always seen those moments as part of the same story.

Which is why, when I sat down recently with Taylor Eighmy and Beto Altamirano for a conversation on Cilantro Diaries, I couldn’t help but feel like we might be stepping into another one of those moments.

The Scale of What’s Happening

There’s a moment early in our conversation that stuck with me. Taylor talked about a past conversation around potentially selling the downtown campus. The logic was simple: it wasn’t fully activated, it felt disconnected, maybe even unnecessary. Taylor’s response was direct. No. He believed downtown wasn’t something to retreat from, it was something to double down on.

That decision tells you everything about what’s happening right now. Because instead of shrinking, UT San Antonio is expanding in ways that would have felt unthinkable a decade ago.

Today, the university represents roughly 44,000 students, 17,000 employees, and a $2.8 billion enterprise footprint. It generates an $8 billion annual economic impact, conducts over half a billion dollars in research each year, and supports nearly 3 million patient visits annually through its health system.

And then there’s the merger.

The combination with the Health Science Center isn’t just another administrative move, it’s the largest academic merger in the history of higher education in the United States. In a city that often questions whether it can take on bold ideas, one of the boldest institutional decisions in the country just happened here.

What stood out most to me was how boldly Taylor framed it. “One plus one equals ten” wasn’t just about growth, it was about building what he called a “wildly audacious, world-class university.”

That ambition is backed by credibility. UT San Antonio now holds three major Carnegie designations: R1 research status, Opportunity University, and Community Engaged University. Only a small number of universities in the country hold all three.

Where Big Takes Shape

If the merger represents the intellectual shift, downtown is where people will begin to feel it.

UT San Antonio has invested nearly 400 million dollars into the urban core, acquiring land, repurposing buildings, and building new colleges with a clear goal: bring 10,000 students downtown.

That number matters because of what it produces. Ten thousand students means crowded coffee shops, more housing demand, more transit demand, and energy spilling into the streets around them. It creates a downtown that feels lived in, not just visited.

For years, we’ve talked about activating downtown and making it feel like a true urban core. Students are one of the most reliable ways to do that, and we’re about to see that happen at scale.

But here’s what really reframed it for me.

San Antonio already has roughly 160,000 students across its colleges and universities, more than Boston, yet you wouldn’t know it walking through downtown.

The issue has never been talent or capacity, it’s been concentration and visibility.

What’s happening now is the result of those pieces finally coming together in a way people can see, recognize, and respond to.

The Shift and the Stakes

This is where San Antonio has historically hesitated. We hear the word big and associate it with risk, cost, and the possibility of failure. But underneath that, there’s another tension.

For a long time, we’ve been a little afraid that getting big means trying to be something we’re not. That it means becoming Austin or New York or some version of a city that doesn’t quite fit who we are.

But that’s not what big means.

Big doesn’t mean becoming someone else. It means becoming a more complete, more scaled version of who we already are. And I’ll be honest, that’s something I didn’t fully believe earlier in my career. I thought there were limits to how far San Antonio could stretch without losing itself.

I’ve started to realize that isn’t true.

What I heard in this conversation wasn’t recklessness, it was discipline. A 10-year plan, targeted industry focus, alignment with workforce needs, and coordination across government, private sector, and philanthropy. This isn’t about chasing a moment, it’s about building an ecosystem.

Historically, San Antonio’s big ideas felt like exceptions. Now they’re starting to feel connected. The university’s growth, downtown development, emerging industries, and talent pipelines are beginning to move in the same direction.

And maybe that’s the real shift happening here.

Some of the most influential economies in the world were built around major institutions that helped shape the identity and trajectory of their cities. Stanford helped form the foundation of Silicon Valley. Not because anyone could predict exactly what it would become, but because talent, research, ambition, and investment started concentrating in the same place over time.

I’m not saying San Antonio becomes Silicon Valley. I think that misses the point entirely.

What I am saying is that UT San Antonio increasingly feels like the foundation of something bigger than itself. I don’t know exactly what that becomes yet. But for the first time in a long time, it feels like this city is building toward something at scale instead of reacting to growth around it.

Maybe the biggest shift is that San Antonio is finally starting to believe it can grow without losing itself.

Citations

UT San Antonio merger, institutional scale, and economic impact:
UT San Antonio Newsroom

Carnegie classifications and Opportunity University designation:
Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education

Downtown campus investments and strategic growth initiatives:
UT San Antonio Downtown Campus

THE VOICE:

Lorenzo Gomez III

Lorenzo Gomez III is a community builder, author, and public speaker who draws from his personal and professional experiences to inspire others. A former director at Rackspace Technology, Gomez is a key player in the development of San Antonio’s downtown entrepreneurial ecosystem. During Gomez’s four years as chairman and CEO of Geekdom, San Antonio’s premier collaborative startup community, Geekdom companies raised more than $422M in funding and its startups have created 2,489 jobs. A trusted advisor to Graham Weston, co-founder of Rackspace Technology, Gomez helped shape Weston’s 80|20 Foundation, which invests in San Antonio’s future by issuing grants to public charities that attract, grow, and retain San Antonio’s future workforce and job-creating entrepreneurs. Gomez has authored four books: Cilantro Diaries, Tafolla Toro, The Rack We Built, and The Bully in Your Pocket. All four are Amazon best sellers and two are winners of the 2021 International Latino Book Awards. Lorenzo’s driving passion is his love for his hometown, San Antonio, Texas. His goal is to recreate for every San Antonian the opportunities the startup world has provided him in this city on the rise.

From The Monarch and Frost Tower to the Historic Westside, Texas Fashion Week showcased the creativity, community, and cultural momentum driving a new era of fashion in San Antonio and across Texas.

Texas Fashion Week 2026 showcased a new generation of designers turning ambitious ideas into reality. Across the week’s presentations, collections ranged from bold and voluminous to restrained and deeply personal, united by a shared commitment to originality and creative risk-taking.

More than a series of runway shows, Texas Fashion Week served as a platform for designers, artists, and creative entrepreneurs working to shape the future of fashion in Texas. Under the leadership of President Saige Thomas and the Texas Fashion Industry Initiative, the event has grown into a statewide platform connecting emerging and established talent while elevating Texas as a destination for creativity, innovation, and design.

For San Antonio, hosting and producing Texas Fashion Week represents something larger than fashion alone. Long known for its rich cultural heritage, the city is increasingly establishing itself as a place where designers, artists, entrepreneurs, and creative businesses can build sustainable careers and communities. Supported by partners including the City of San Antonio’s Department of Arts & Culture, Texas Fashion Week reflects a broader investment in the creative economy as a driver of cultural vitality, tourism, entrepreneurship, and economic growth.

The week itself offered a glimpse into that vision. Events unfolded across some of San Antonio’s most notable destinations, from the opening celebrations at Hemisfair’s new Monarch Hotel to runway presentations atop Frost Tower overlooking the city skyline. The week concluded with Runway Rasquachic on San Antonio’s Historic Westside, transforming a neighborhood street into a stage for local designers, artists, and cultural voices. Together, the venues highlighted the many layers of San Antonio’s identity—historic and emerging, neighborhood-rooted and globally connected—and demonstrated how fashion can activate public spaces, support local businesses, and showcase the city as a destination for culture and creativity.

From deeply personal explorations of transformation and identity to conversations around craftsmanship, sustainability, and technology, the week’s presentations demonstrated the breadth of talent emerging across the state. What connected each collection was a willingness to create from a place of authenticity rather than convention.

From the community-centered vision of Runway Rasquachic to collections exploring emotional vulnerability, craftsmanship, innovation, sustainability and self-expression, one thing became clear: the future of fashion belongs to designers building worlds of their own. These are the designers, collections, and ideas that stayed with us long after the final runway walk.

Texas Fashion Week Runway Presentations

Jesus Del Real: Softness Meets Structure

Among the week’s most compelling collections was the return of Texas designer Jesus Del Real, whose work explored the tension between vulnerability and strength.

“This collection sits in the tension between softness and structure—delicate movement against more controlled silhouettes,” Del Real said. “It’s about emotional armor and expression at the same time.”

His silhouettes balanced fluidity with precision, creating garments that felt both intimate and commanding. The collection reflected a designer confident in his vision while continuing to evolve his creative language.

Returning to Texas Fashion Week carried special significance.

“Texas is where a lot of my perspective on fashion and identity first started forming,” Del Real shared. “Returning to show here feels like both a homecoming and a reminder of how far things have evolved.”

The result was a collection that demonstrated how restraint can be just as powerful as spectacle.

Jennifer Flores Reyes: Finding Beauty in Transformation

In a separate Texas Fashion Week presentation earlier in the week, Jennifer Flores Reyes delivered one of the event’s standout collections. Her collection, Blooming Shadows, explored themes of change, resilience, and rebirth through a deeply personal lens.

Inspired by flowers and the cycles of growth they embody, the collection challenged traditional associations of darkness and loss.

“Blooming Shadows is inspired by flowers, their beauty in every stage of life, and the idea that endings and beginnings often exist together,” Flores Reyes said.

The collection also served as a tribute to her mother.

“It is a love letter to my mother, who taught me to embrace change rather than fear it,” she shared.

The result was a collection that felt both intimate and universal, offering a hopeful reflection on transformation, growth, and renewal.

Johnathan Hayden: Where Technology Meets Craft

Like Jennifer Flores Reyes, Johnathan Hayden’s work was featured in a separate Texas Fashion Week presentation earlier in the week. A Texas native who built his career in New York fashion, Hayden brought a perspective shaped by both innovation and tradition, exploring the intersection of technology, sustainability, and human craftsmanship.

The central theme of Hayden’s presentation, “Brain Before Body,” reflects the women he designs for—individuals whose purpose, intellect, and contributions to the world take precedence over appearances.

“I love being friends with women and understanding how they navigate the world,” Hayden said. “Many of them work in male-dominated professions, and their work, their purpose, and what they care about are more important than anything else.”

While Hayden openly embraces emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence, he believes fashion must remain rooted in human creativity and craftsmanship.

“We have to push back and assert human craft and artisanship,” he said. “These things matter, and they have real-world consequences that ripple outward.”

For Hayden, technology’s greatest potential lies not in replacing designers and makers, but in helping fashion become more thoughtful, precise, and sustainable. He envisions a future where technology expands the ways audiences engage with fashion brands without contributing to unnecessary production and waste.

After spending a decade in New York, Hayden sees Texas as an increasingly important place for fashion’s future. While his decision to show in San Antonio was strategic, it was also rooted in a belief that the region’s audiences are receptive to the kind of work he creates.

“Texas has made its own stock exchange. It’s building data centers and tech,” Hayden said. “I think it’s a state with a bigger future than a lot of other states.”

When asked whether fashion is art, Hayden’s answer reflected the balance that has defined his career.

“It really is a business,” he said. “But that’s not to say that luxury and fashion don’t have an artisanal, artistic side. It really is an industry that balances commerce and art.”

Mysterious by NPN: Wearable Art in Bloom

Few presentations captured the intersection of fashion and fantasy quite like Mysterious by NPN. Founded by Nicholas Phat Nguyen, the label transformed the runway into a world of botanical beauty, intricate craftsmanship, and fearless self-expression.

Delicate floral embellishments, sculptural headpieces, and richly detailed garments created a collection that felt both ethereal and commanding. Models appeared adorned with blossoms suspended in motion, while embroidered florals, dramatic silhouettes, and vibrant color stories reinforced the collection’s themes of transformation, resilience, and individuality. Rooted in storytelling and wearable art, Mysterious by NPN demonstrated how fashion can transcend clothing to become an immersive creative experience. In a week defined by designers building worlds of their own, the collection stood out for its ability to create one that felt entirely transportive.

Taryor Gabriels: Tailoring as Power

Taryor Gabriels brought a sophisticated perspective to Texas Fashion Week, presenting a collection that blended sharp tailoring, cultural influences, and elevated craftsmanship. From impeccably constructed suiting to richly textured garments adorned with intricate detailing, the collection balanced tradition with modernity while maintaining a strong sense of identity.

Particularly striking were the designer’s interpretations of formalwear, where classic silhouettes were reimagined through unexpected proportions, embellishments, and styling choices. Military-inspired jackets, ceremonial references, and globally influenced textiles created a visual language that felt both timeless and contemporary. While many collections throughout the week explored transformation and self-expression, Taryor Gabriels focused on confidence, presence, and personal power, demonstrating how thoughtful design can transform clothing into a statement of character

.Black Swan Designs: Balance and Harmony

For Shawn Allen, known professionally as Black Swan Designs, showing at Frost Tower represented the realization of a lifelong dream.

“It was very surreal,” Allen said. “My models were a literal manifestation of my dreams.”

Drawing inspiration from balance and harmony, the collection used celestial motifs, dark denim, and carefully considered color stories to explore the spectrum of human emotion.

“There are so many emotions like the stars in the sky, but somehow it all works together to create the universal picture,” he explained.

The collection encouraged audiences to embrace complexity while celebrating the possibility of becoming the most elevated version of themselves.

Runway Rasquachic / Haus of Augustine Closing Event

While many of the week’s presentations took place in formal runway settings, Texas Fashion Week concluded with a distinctly San Antonio expression of fashion and community: Runway Rasquachic. Produced by Haus of Augustine and led by Agosto Cuellar and Dr. Puente Para La Gente, the Historic Westside showcase brought together local designers, artists, and cultural voices in a celebration of creativity, collaboration, and self-expression.

Courtney Davis: Whimsy, Rodeo, and Reinvention

For Courtney Davis, showing at Runway Rasquachic represented a full-circle moment.

Having modeled in Runway En La Calle at sixteen years old, Davis returned years later as a featured designer carrying forward a family tradition of fashion and tailoring.

Her collection blended 1990s rodeo wear, 1970s western paper dolls, vintage polyester fabrics, and streetwear influences into a world entirely its own.

“When presented with this opportunity, I really had to streamline all my thoughts and inspiration,” Davis explained. “What I ended up with was an anime with a traveling rodeo clown troupe who make their own clothes with found materials.”

The collection’s playful pattern mixing, vibrant color stories, and unexpected silhouettes delivered some of the most joyful moments of Runway Rasquachic.

“I hope the joy and whimsy stays with them,” Davis said. “Being loud when everyone else is being cautious with their style.”

ESGEO: Beauty in Repair

Designer George Mendoza of ESGEO transformed traditional concepts of repair into contemporary fashion through meticulous patchwork construction inspired by Japanese Boro and Sashiko techniques.

His distressed denim, reconstructed textiles, and handcrafted accessories felt both modern and timeless.

“My work is a deep study of Japanese Boro and Sashiko—traditions that find beauty in repair and strength in every stitch,” Mendoza said.

Beyond the garments, Mendoza spoke about the spirit of community that surrounded Runway Rasquachic.

“All day, I watched people come together and display that spirit in the streets of the Westside,” he said. “Participating was an absolute honor and privilege I will never forget.”

The collection demonstrated how craftsmanship and storytelling can transform everyday materials into something extraordinary.

Agosto Cuellar: Fashion as Celebration

As the founder of Haus of Augustine and creator of Runway Rasquachic, Agosto Cuellar helped shape one of Texas Fashion Week’s most memorable presentations.

Conceived as an annual gathering of local designers, artists, creators, and cultural voices, Runway Rasquachic transformed a Westside street corner into a celebration of fashion, creativity, and community.

Known for dramatic silhouettes, vibrant color, and theatrical presentations, Cuellar’s own designs brought a sense of joy and exuberance to the runway. His sculptural volumes of tulle transformed the presentation into a visual celebration, creating some of the evening’s most striking moments.

But the impact of Runway Rasquachic extended beyond the garments themselves. The showcase brought together designers, artists, and creators with distinct perspectives and aesthetics, united by a shared appreciation for creativity, culture, and self-expression. The result was a presentation that felt both deeply personal and collectively meaningful.

Throughout the evening, fashion served as a vehicle for storytelling, community, and artistic exploration—values that have long defined Cuellar’s work. While each designer presented a unique vision, the showcase reflected a larger commitment to uplifting creative voices and celebrating the richness of San Antonio’s cultural landscape.

As one of the designers featured in the inaugural issue of Voice of San Antonio magazine, Cuellar has spent decades shaping San Antonio’s creative landscape, using fashion as a vehicle for artistic expression, community-building, and cultural storytelling.

The Future Looks Local

More than a series of runway presentations, Texas Fashion Week 2026 highlighted a growing community of designers creating work that feels deeply personal, culturally rooted, and unapologetically original.

From sculptural volumes of vibrant tulle to painstakingly crafted patchwork denim, the collections that resonated most were those that embraced individuality while remaining connected to community. Whether exploring themes of transformation, emotional vulnerability, craftsmanship, technology, or self-expression, each designer offered a distinct perspective on what fashion can communicate.

If this year’s presentations proved anything, it’s that the future of fashion in Texas will be shaped not by imitation, but by originality. The designers who stood out most were those building worlds of their own—drawing from personal history, cultural identity, artistic vision, and community to create something entirely new.

TXFW Coverage Contributor Team

Eleanora Morrison, Editor-in-Chief & Creative Director

Eleanora (Ellie) Morrison is a fifth-generation San Antonian and the Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief & Creative Director of Voice of San Antonio. She leads both editorial and creative direction, shaping the platform’s voice, visual identity, and storytelling approach between Voice of San Antonio‘s digital content and print magazine. With a background in arts, culture, and media, Ellie has always had a passion for telling stories that reflect the diverse, vibrant spirit of San Antonio. Her work strives to elevate local voices, showcasing the city’s rich cultural heritage and supporting its future growth. In addition to her editorial role, Ellie is a multi-disciplinary creative leading projects that shape spaces, conversations, and community in San Antonio and beyond. Connect with her on social media

Maddie Davila, Associate Editor & Lead Photographer

Maddie Davila is a student at Trinity University where she is currently pursuing a degree in communication and English having a passion for visual design and storytelling. Maddie is currently an editorial intern with Voice of San Antonio after discovering her love for editorial design and magazines through her assisted student production of Skyline Magazine for Trinity’s Communication department. She also works for Trinity University’s Football team, capturing the fast paced sport through photography and graphic design that is ultimately featured on their social media. Having a love for fashion, literature, photography, and design, Maddie hopes to continue to work in the magazine industry as a creative or art director with the desire to bring visions and concepts into existence.

Patrick J. Martinez, Fashion Editor

Patrick J. Martinez is a San Antonio–based stylist and creative collaborator who styled all three inaugural fashion shoots for Voice of San Antonio magazine. A 2017 graduate of the Fashion Design program at the University of the Incarnate Word, they approach style as an act of freedom, blending tailoring, texture, and unexpected contrasts to challenge convention. Known for breaking traditional fashion rules and expressing gender fluidity through dress, Patrick brings a bold, intuitive perspective to storytelling. They serve as Assistant Manager at Niche at Pearl and work as a freelance stylist.

Camilla Martinez, Fashion Editor

Camilla Martinez is a San Antonio–based stylist and creative whose work bridges fashion, community, and sustainable style. Co-stylist of the inaugural Voice of San Antonio cover shoot and founder of YLEM, she offers personal styling and wardrobe services rooted in cyclical fashion and intentional expression. A founding team member of MOSS and current Assistant Manager at Rancho Diaz at Pearl, Camilla champions local creative partnerships and secondhand culture that keeps fashion in motion.

Eve Slemp, Photography Contributor

Eve Slemp is a marketing and communication student at Trinity University, where she blends creativity with storytelling across multiple platforms. Originally from Connecticut, she moved to San Antonio for college and quickly embedded herself in the city’s cultural and media scene. Eve is currently an editorial intern with Voice of San Antonio and serves as Editor-in-Chief for The Trinitonian, Trinity’s student-run newspaper. She works as a creative producer intern for Trinity’s marketing department, capturing campus life through photography and videography. She also interns with CPS Energy, and has previously interned with Giant Noise PR firm and The Orchestra San Antonio. With a deep love for writing, film, and literature, Eve hopes to one day write a novel and break into the film industry as a screenwriter or creative producer. She’s especially drawn to stories that explore identity, memory, and the strange beauty in the everyday.

Article 3 of a four-part Urban Nerd series exploring the three distinct personalities of the San Antonio River Walk.

In 2017 I bought a house in Tobin Hill that I probably had no business buying.

It was rough, the kind of house where even the listing photos seemed to be warning you about the foundation. It needed work, a lot of work, and I remember my realtor trying to talk me out of it as he walked me through all the reasons why it might not be the smartest decision.

I told him something very clearly. The fact that I could walk to the Pearl Brewery from this house was worth $100,000 of quality of life to me. The fact that I could walk there for dinner, or lunch, or coffee, and walk back home, that was worth another $100,000.

Once I said that, the conversation changed because he understood what I was actually buying. I wasn’t just buying a house; I was buying proximity, and that decision changed how I experience the city and how I understand the river.

At the time, I thought I was buying a house near the Pearl, but what I was really buying was access to a different version of San Antonio.

That is why I call this stretch the Local’s River.

For this article, I am defining the Local’s River as the stretch that runs from the southern edge of Brackenridge Park, through the Pearl and River North, and toward the Thompson San Antonio Riverwalk, before the river fully becomes the Visitor’s River downtown.

I call it the Local’s River for two reasons: more people live along it, and more of daily life is possible on it.

That is the part I think matters most because this is not just a stretch of river with cool places nearby; it is the part of the River Walk where San Antonio is building the strongest argument for urban living.

Walk from the Pearl toward River North and you can feel it before anyone shows you a spreadsheet. There are apartments, balconies, dogs, strollers, joggers, lunch crowds, people taking calls, people carrying coffee, people walking home from dinner, and people using the river as part of their ordinary routine.

That does not happen by accident because it happens when enough people live close to enough places that support daily life.

The Pearl helped create that pattern. It is more than a destination; it is an anchor, one of the most intentional urban developments in the country, built around food, culture, education, hospitality, and public space. The Culinary Institute of America campus trains the next generation of chefs right on the river. Hotel Emma, recognized with Michelin Keys and the first property in San Antonio to receive that distinction, helped set a new standard for hospitality in the city.

For this article, the most important thing about the Pearl is not only what it contains, but what it set in motion.

People wanted to be near it, so the neighborhood around it began to change. Apartments rose, shops opened, sidewalks filled, Tobin Hill became more tied into the river, and River North started to fill in. The river stopped feeling like something you visited occasionally and started becoming something people organized their daily lives around.

That residential wave is still building. Oxbow Development Group, the real estate arm connected to the Pearl, has added projects like the 262-unit Coopers Row and the 75-unit Coopers Row North, and is planning more apartments nearby. Headwall Investments has received approval for a Tobin Hill project that could bring 575 apartments, along with retail and office space, to land bordered by North St. Mary’s Street, East Euclid Avenue and East Park Avenue. Near the San Antonio Museum of Art, the McCombs family’s Museum Reach development could add 390 housing units as part of a larger mixed-use project. The Flats at River North already brought 283 rental units to Broadway.

That is why the phrase Local’s River matters. Visitors still come here, and the rest of the river still belongs to locals, but there is no other stretch of the River Walk where this much residential life is clustering this close to this many things to do.

Once people live there, the second part of the story begins because a neighborhood has to support daily life, and that is what this stretch does better than anywhere else on the river.

You can feel it in the rhythm of an ordinary day: coffee in the morning, lunch at Make Ready Market, a walk past the San Antonio Museum of Art, a dog beside you on the river path, dinner at the Pearl, a drink at Elsewhere, and a show at the Tobin. None of those things alone make a district, but together they create a way to live.

For a long time, San Antonio was a city that excelled at building destinations but struggled to connect them. We had incredible places, but they often stood alone because you drove to them, experienced them, and drove away.

That is not what is happening here because here, you can walk from coffee to a meeting to lunch to a museum to dinner to a drink without thinking about it. You run into people, build familiarity, and over time begin to feel something that is difficult to manufacture: you feel part of something.

Looking back, the clue was there before I even bought the house. When I toured it for the first time, there was a large framed photo hanging in the living room from a quinceañera, and I remember looking at it and immediately recognizing the backdrop because it had been taken at the Pearl Brewery.

You see that same pattern show up all along this stretch of the river if you are paying attention: graduation photos, engagement photos, quinceañera portraits, announcements, and wedding moments on the bridge. That is not tourism, but ownership, and it is what it looks like when a place becomes part of people’s lives instead of merely something they visit.

That is what makes this stretch so important because it is not just a great place to live; it is a bridge between what San Antonio has been and what it is becoming.

The Visitor’s River introduced the city to the world, and the Local’s River is teaching the city how to live in it.

And we are just getting started.

Citations

Pearl-area residential growth and Oxbow apartment projects:
San Antonio Express-News reporting on Oxbow projects around Pearl, including Coopers Row, Coopers Row North, The Mira, and other nearby residential projects.

Headwall Investments Tobin Hill residential project:
Connect CRE reporting on Headwall Investments’ approved 575-unit Tobin Hill project near North St. Mary’s Street, East Euclid Avenue, and East Park Avenue.

McCombs Museum Reach development near San Antonio Museum of Art:
San Antonio Report reporting on City Council approval for zoning that could allow 390 housing units near Jones Avenue and Camden Street.

McCombs demolition near San Antonio Museum of Art:
San Antonio Express-News reporting on McCombs Family Partners demolishing buildings near SAMA to make way for apartments, offices, shops, restaurants, and parking.

Flats at River North apartment count:
San Antonio Housing Trust project profile for the 283-unit Flats at River North at 1011 Broadway.

Pearl district planning and development recognition:
American Planning Association recognition of Pearl as one of its Great Neighborhoods.

THE VOICE:

Lorenzo Gomez III

Lorenzo Gomez III is a community builder, author, and public speaker who draws from his personal and professional experiences to inspire others. A former director at Rackspace Technology, Gomez is a key player in the development of San Antonio’s downtown entrepreneurial ecosystem. During Gomez’s four years as chairman and CEO of Geekdom, San Antonio’s premier collaborative startup community, Geekdom companies raised more than $422M in funding and its startups have created 2,489 jobs. A trusted advisor to Graham Weston, co-founder of Rackspace Technology, Gomez helped shape Weston’s 80|20 Foundation, which invests in San Antonio’s future by issuing grants to public charities that attract, grow, and retain San Antonio’s future workforce and job-creating entrepreneurs. Gomez has authored four books: Cilantro Diaries, Tafolla Toro, The Rack We Built, and The Bully in Your Pocket. All four are Amazon best sellers and two are winners of the 2021 International Latino Book Awards. Lorenzo’s driving passion is his love for his hometown, San Antonio, Texas. His goal is to recreate for every San Antonian the opportunities the startup world has provided him in this city on the rise.

There’s a certain warmth to San Antonio that reveals itself slowly.

It lives in long dinners that stretch late into the evening. In the way food becomes the ultimate unifier. In the feeling that the best gatherings are multi-generational, where extra chairs get pulled up so everyone can sit at the table together.

After years spent working in some of the most respected culinary environments in the world, that feeling became impossible for me to ignore.

Early in my career, I intentionally sought out a variety of kitchens and environments because I wanted to see what was possible. Not just in terms of food, but to discover the kind of culture I wanted to be a part of and eventually the kind of culture I wanted to foster myself.

At the Emmer & Rye Hospitality Group, I fell in love with local and seasonal cooking. We relied on diverse preservation methods to carry ingredients into the next season, practiced whole-animal butchery to utilize every part of the harvest, and prioritized fresh-milled grains for their superior flavor and health benefits. Watching Kevin and Ali Fink build something from the ground up, and seeing the raw willpower it takes to keep the lights on while still showing immense care for both employees and guests, was a foundational experience I will never forget.

In Sydney, working with Dan Pepperell taught me the art of complexity through simplicity and how to layer deep umami profiles into straightforward preparations. Then came Alinea in Chicago, which was all about technique, precision, drive, and those big moments of awe. Restaurants at that level are not for the faint of heart. It was one of the most profound experiences of my career and shaped both the standards I apply today and the pitfalls I consciously try to avoid.

My time at Lula Cafe ultimately brought me back to what matters most. Incredible food sourced from dedicated farmers and ranchers, genuine hospitality, and creating spaces where people feel truly connected.

Over time, I realized I wasn’t simply chasing the next city or the next restaurant anymore. I was looking for a place where creativity, hospitality, and life itself could exist in conversation with one another.

That ultimately led me to San Antonio.

The initial draw was the opportunity to help build Pullman Market. But what made me stay was the city itself.

San Antonio is a place where the community shows immense support and passion for everything that makes it unique, from its deep-rooted culture and incredible food scene to its active sense of community engagement. There’s an emotional generosity to the city that feels increasingly rare.

Outsiders sometimes look at food scenes through the lens of trends or exclusivity, but San Antonio understands something much deeper. Here, food is tied to family, memory, and gathering. It’s about creating spaces where everyone feels welcome.

I think you can absolutely understand a city through its food because food acts as a living history. It tells you who the people are, where they came from, and why they rooted themselves there. Every plate reflects generations of culture, tradition, and shared identity.

That philosophy shapes everything we try to create at Pullman Market.

Whether someone walks into Isidore, Mezquite, Nicosi, Fife, or the Bakery, the goal is always the same: to create an immediate sense of place. I want guests to walk through the doors and feel an instant, comforting familiarity, like they’ve arrived exactly where they are supposed to be.

Everything we do is driven by a desire to spark joy, deliciousness, and quiet moments of culinary awe. But beyond what’s on the plate, it’s about wrapping people in genuine, warm hospitality. Creating an atmosphere where you can drop your shoulders, feel completely at home, and experience the absolute best our city has to offer.

Hospitality has always felt deeply connected to art for me because both disciplines are ultimately trying to tell a story and evoke emotion.

A painter begins with a blank canvas. A chef begins with an empty plate.

Both rely on balance, contrast, texture, and technique to create an experience that stays with people. But culinary art is uniquely ephemeral. A dish is designed to be consumed. It exists only in the moment, engaging all five senses simultaneously, before transitioning entirely into memory.

That emotional quality of food is something I think about constantly.

Nostalgia is one of the most powerful feelings we have. The faintest sight, a passing scent, or a familiar taste can instantly transport someone back to a feeling or a moment they thought was long forgotten. That emotional connection forms the foundation of so much of what we create.

That’s also why it was important for Isidore to feel deeply personal rather than purely conceptual.

My wife, Clair Aleece, is a ceramic artist, and her work lives throughout the restaurant. We also incorporated my grandmother’s china into the dining experience. Those pieces create warmth and intimacy within the space. They remind guests there are real stories and real people behind what they’re experiencing.

When guests walk through the doors, I want them to feel like they’re being welcomed into our home rather than simply sitting inside a beautifully decorated room.

That feeling mirrors the kind of life my family and I have found here in San Antonio.

At this point in my life, living well means aligning my daily life with my core values. It means quality food, movement, family, meaningful work, and maintaining strong relationships with the people around me. The hospitality industry demands a lot from you, and work-life balance is always evolving, but I’ve learned how important it is to stay connected to the simple things that bring genuine joy.

For me, an ideal day in San Antonio is actually very simple.

It starts with quiet morning coffee and a neighborhood walk with my family before the city fully wakes up. From there, maybe a workout at ISI or The Yard, then lunch at Pullman Market and picking up fresh groceries for the evening.

As the afternoon cools down, I’d take my daughter through one of the city’s parks before ending the night outside with close friends, grilling food, opening great wine, and letting the evening stretch out slowly beneath the trees.

It’s active, unpretentious, and completely centered around food, fresh air, and the people I love.

I could live anywhere. But San Antonio feels like a city where gathering still matters, where creativity still feels collaborative, and where hospitality remains deeply human.

THE VOICE:

Danny Parada

Chef Danny Parada, Director of Restaurants for Pullman Market, brings 15 years of remarkable drive and artistry to his work. He first joined Emmer & Rye Hospitality Group in 2015 at the opening of Emmer & Rye in Austin. Eager to refine his craft, he spent a year cooking in Sydney, Australia, followed by time in Chicago’s acclaimed Alinea and Lula Cafe, before returning to Emmer & Rye Hospitality Group. Today, he leads the culinary vision for Isidore, Nicosi, Mezquite, and Fife & Farro. Under his leadership, these concepts have garnered significant recognition from the MICHELIN Guide. In the 2025 Texas Guide, Isidore earned both a MICHELIN Star and a MICHELIN Green Star, Nicosi was awarded a MICHELIN Star, and Mezquite received a Bib Gourmand distinction.

Part Three of a four-part Urban Nerd series on The Quiet Giant – how Active Capital is pulling off the most unlikely venture story in Texas.

One of the things I love about the Rackspace network is that it never really goes away.

Rackers are scattered across the tech industry. Some have started companies. Some became executives. Some became investors. But wherever you go, eventually you run into someone who once walked the halls of Rackspace.

Every now and then, that network reconnects in ways that produce something remarkable. ProsperOps is one of those stories.

Three former Rackspace veterans, Chris Cochran, Erik Carlin, and Chris Kuehl, came together after leaving the company to build something new. They were not twenty-two-year-old founders chasing a Silicon Valley dream. They were seasoned operators in their thirties and forties, first-time entrepreneurs with deep experience in the cloud infrastructure world.

Pat Matthews knew them all from Rackspace.

“The one I knew the best was Chris Cochran,” he told me. “For much of my time there we were peers.”

Cochran had a reputation inside the company for being relentlessly detail oriented. Pat still laughs about it.

“I used to make fun of him because he would walk around with his laptop open to Excel spreadsheets all day,” Pat said. “But he is a great business leader. Extremely detail oriented. And that turned out to be very relevant to the ProsperOps story.”

The founding team had the kind of balance venture investors dream about. Carlin was the product visionary. Kuehl was the deeply respected engineer. Cochran was the operator who could sell and execute.

“For a three-person team, it was the exact right configuration,” Pat said. “Two technical founders and a great business leader who is in the details.”

Even with decades of experience building businesses inside of Rackspace, the three of them had never started a company before. So they called Pat. The four men met halfway between San Antonio and Austin for dinner at a restaurant in New Braunfels.

They talked about everything related to starting a business.

Should they raise venture capital? How much money did they actually need? What did the earliest stages look like?

“They had a lot of questions,” Pat said.

A few months later, Pat led their pre-seed round. He committed $500,000. The founders raised roughly $800,000 total.

And that was it. The company never raised another venture round.

The ProsperOps Bet

At the earliest stages of venture investing, there are no revenue charts or growth curves to analyze. Those come later. Instead, Pat looks for something else.

“What I’m searching for is founder-market fit,” he said.

Product-market fit happens when demand for a product accelerates so quickly a company struggles to keep up. Founder-market fit comes first. It means the founders are uniquely suited to solve the problem they are pursuing.

In the case of ProsperOps, that conviction came from experience. All three founders had spent years inside the cloud infrastructure world. They had lived the complexity of large-scale cloud environments and understood the inefficiencies better than most.

“If there is anybody with the expertise to solve cloud cost optimization,” Pat said, “it is these guys.”

Modern companies spend enormous amounts of money on cloud computing. Thousands of companies now spend hundreds of thousands, and sometimes millions, of dollars each month running infrastructure on platforms like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud.

Managing those environments is incredibly complex. A company might have thousands of servers, services, and instances running at once, all changing as the business grows. Cloud providers offer financial incentives that reduce costs, such as discounts for long-term commitments, but managing those financial instruments manually across thousands of moving parts is almost impossible.

ProsperOps built software that automates the process.

“They were the first company in the world to create a software platform that automatically optimizes those savings,” Pat said.

Earlier solutions produced enormous reports that engineers then had to interpret and implement themselves. ProsperOps simply does it for you. The software operates at the financial optimization layer, not the infrastructure layer itself, which eliminates risk.

“They are not turning off servers,” Pat said. “They are optimizing the financial constructs around them.”

The result is simple. Companies save money. A lot of it.

The Chess Moves

Two years after launching, ProsperOps was doing about $2 million in annual revenue when a strategic acquirer offered to buy the company for $20 million.

For founders who had raised only $800,000, it was a real decision. As Pat put it, it would have been a pretty good outcome for two years of work. But he believed the company was just getting started.

“I told them, I really do not think you should sell the company.”

Instead, he proposed a different idea. If the founders could take some personal money off the table, they might feel comfortable continuing to build. So Pat went to work structuring a deal that allowed a subset of the founders to take some liquidity while keeping the company independent.

“That de-risked things for them,” Pat said. “They could keep building.”

It also dramatically increased Active Capital’s ownership.

“We essentially 10x’d our investment.”

Over the next eighteen months, ProsperOps continued to grow. Revenue climbed from $2 million to $12 million annually. Another acquisition offer arrived. This time the number was over $100 million.

Once again, the company chose to keep building.

Instead of selling, the team repeated the earlier strategy on a much larger scale. Private investment firms H.I.G. Growth and Snowhawk purchased a large stake in the company for $72 million. This allowed founders, employees, and early angel investors to take additional liquidity.

The company itself still had not raised operational venture capital. ProsperOps continued operating with the same disciplined structure it had from the beginning.

Over the next three years, ProsperOps grew from $12 million to roughly $75 million in annual recurring revenue.

“It is one of the best run companies I have ever been part of,” Pat said.

He compared it to the early days of Rackspace.

“Rackspace was chaos and fires every day, but that environment provided a lot of learnings,” he said. “These guys were incredibly buttoned up.”

By 2025, the company had become the clear leader in its category. Eventually, the market came calling again. ProsperOps was acquired by Flexera, a large enterprise software company backed by the private equity firm Thoma Bravo.

The exact terms were not disclosed, but Pat believes the outcome ranks among the largest venture-backed software exits connected to Austin. It also carries unmistakable San Antonio fingerprints.

Why It Matters to San Antonio

“All three founders are products of Rackspace,” Pat said.

One founder lives in San Antonio. Pat himself was the venture capitalist backing the company. And roughly 80 percent of the capital behind Active Capital came from San Antonio investors.

“This thing has San Antonio fingerprints all over it,” he said.

For Pat, the ProsperOps story is a lesson in discipline. The team raised a small amount of money, stayed lean, wrote the code themselves, sold the first customers themselves, and resisted the temptation to scale before demand became undeniable.

That discipline gave them something many venture-backed companies never achieve.

Optionality.

“They had choices,” Pat said. “They could raise venture capital. They could sell. Or they could keep building.”

ProsperOps chose to keep building long enough to become something much larger than the company that first sat down with Pat in New Braunfels.

And for San Antonio, that may be the bigger story.

ProsperOps is not a simple hometown startup tale. It is part San Antonio, part Austin, part remote, and deeply rooted in the Rackspace network. But maybe that is exactly why it matters.

In the final part of this series, I want to ask what this kind of story says about San Antonio’s next chapter, and whether enough stories like this can eventually produce the company that grows here, stays here, and helps define the next version of our tech ecosystem.

THE VOICE:

Lorenzo Gomez III

Lorenzo Gomez III is a community builder, author, and public speaker who draws from his personal and professional experiences to inspire others. A former director at Rackspace Technology, Gomez is a key player in the development of San Antonio’s downtown entrepreneurial ecosystem. During Gomez’s four years as chairman and CEO of Geekdom, San Antonio’s premier collaborative startup community, Geekdom companies raised more than $422M in funding and its startups have created 2,489 jobs. A trusted advisor to Graham Weston, co-founder of Rackspace Technology, Gomez helped shape Weston’s 80|20 Foundation, which invests in San Antonio’s future by issuing grants to public charities that attract, grow, and retain San Antonio’s future workforce and job-creating entrepreneurs. Gomez has authored four books: Cilantro Diaries, Tafolla Toro, The Rack We Built, and The Bully in Your Pocket. All four are Amazon best sellers and two are winners of the 2021 International Latino Book Awards. Lorenzo’s driving passion is his love for his hometown, San Antonio, Texas. His goal is to recreate for every San Antonian the opportunities the startup world has provided him in this city on the rise.

As the Urban Nerd, I normally spend most of my time talking about downtown, walkability, urban districts, and the city core. But I wanted to break from that a little for this article because one of the things I love most about the Spurs is that they are one of the rare things in San Antonio that temporarily erase geography.

For a few hours, downtown, the West Side, Southtown, the North Side, the East Side, and the suburbs all end up participating in the same experience.

And honestly, part of the chaos right now is simply figuring out where the game is actually on.

Is it cable? Peacock? ESPN? NBA TV? Does somebody have the login? Do you just give up and go somewhere with giant televisions and queso?

My brother recently told me he showed up somewhere to watch a Spurs playoff game only to discover they were already taking reservations. That’s when it hit me that Spurs playoff mania is officially back in San Antonio.

The truth is, one of the things that makes Spurs basketball special in San Antonio is that it temporarily turns the city into one giant neighborhood. Most of the year, we all experience the city differently.

During a Spurs playoff run, though, everybody is reminded that we’re all ultimately on the same team.

This is not an exhaustive list. It’s simply a quick guide to some of the places around the city where people are gathering to watch Spurs basketball together right now.

Central City / Urban Core

For people near downtown, River North, Pearl, Southtown, and adjacent districts.

Downtown Proper

Double Standard

A downtown hangout with Spurs specials, game audio, and a less traditional sports-bar feel.
Address: 114 E. Houston St., San Antonio, TX 78205
Website: doublesatx.com

Slackers Sports Bar

A classic sports-bar option for fans who want big reactions, drinks, and a louder game-day crowd.
Website: instagram.com/slackersbarsa

St. Paul Square

Atlee’s Rally

A new St. Paul Square sports bar with a massive video wall and strong playoff-watch atmosphere.
Address: 122 Heiman St., San Antonio, TX 78205
Website: instagram.com/atleesrally

River North

Merci Jones

A polished River North patio-style option with a strong neighborhood-bar feel.
Address: 1101 Broadway, San Antonio, TX 78215
Website: instagram.com/mercijonessa

River North Icehouse

A River North neighborhood spot with indoor-outdoor seating, large TVs, and strong game-day energy in the heart of the district.
Address: 317 W. Jones Ave., San Antonio, TX 78215
Website: rivernorthicehouse.com

Pearl Area

Otto’s Ice House

house with patio energy, River Walk adjacency, and a distinctly San Antonio atmosphere.
Address: 111 Newell Ave., San Antonio, TX 78212
Website: ottosicehouse.com

Southtown

The Friendly Spot Ice House

One of San Antonio’s most communal outdoor Spurs-watching spots with giant screens and family-friendly energy.
Address: 943 S. Alamo St., San Antonio, TX 78205
Website: thefriendlyspot.com

McIntyre’s Southtown

My loyalty will almost always lean local-first, but credit where it’s due: McIntyre’s has built one of the stronger watch-party setups in the city.
Address: 1035 S. Presa St., San Antonio, TX 78210
Website: mcintyresusa.com

Gimme Gimme

A Southtown favorite blending Japanese-inspired comfort food, strong cocktails, and neighborhood energy with a lively Spurs game-night atmosphere.

St. Mary’s Strip

High Horse

ption with big screens, big sound, and rotating food and drink specials.
Address: 358 E. Craig Place, San Antonio, TX 78212
Website: highhorsesatx.com

West Side

For people closer to the city’s west and northwest neighborhoods.

West Commerce Corridor

Jaime’s Place

A true neighborhood gathering spot on the West Side that leans fully into Spurs playoff energy.
Address: 1514 W. Commerce St., San Antonio, TX 78207
Website: jaimesplace.pub

Monticello Park / Woodlawn Area

Jefferson Market Icehouse

A neighborhood ice house helping round out the citywide map of Spurs watch parties.
Address: 1005 Donaldson Ave., San Antonio, TX 78228
Website: instagram.com/jeffersonmarketicehouse

North Side / 1604 Corridor

For northside and suburban watch parties.

Elsewhere Too

o spot hosting Spurs watch parties near the 1604 corridor.
Address: 4513 N. Loop 1604 W., San Antonio, TX 78249
Website: elsewheretexas.com/elsewhere-too

The Rock at La Cantera

The official large-scale Spurs watch-party experience with giant screens, DJs, food trucks, and playoff crowds.
Address: 1 Spurs Way, San Antonio, TX 78256
Website: therockatlacantera.com

East Side

For arena-style playoff energy.

Frost Bank Center

The official arena watch-party option for away games, giving fans a near-game atmosphere without the team on the court.
Address: 1 Frost Bank Center Drive, San Antonio, TX 78219
Website: frostbankcenter.com

South / Southeast Side

For southside and southeast viewers.

City Base Cinema

A unique theater-style option for watching Spurs games on a giant screen with recliners and concessions.
Address: 2623 SE Military Drive, San Antonio, TX 78223
Website: citybasecinema.com

Know a great Spurs watch party we missed? Send it our way.

THE VOICE:

Lorenzo Gomez III

Lorenzo Gomez III is a community builder, author, and public speaker who draws from his personal and professional experiences to inspire others. A former director at Rackspace Technology, Gomez is a key player in the development of San Antonio’s downtown entrepreneurial ecosystem. During Gomez’s four years as chairman and CEO of Geekdom, San Antonio’s premier collaborative startup community, Geekdom companies raised more than $422M in funding and its startups have created 2,489 jobs. A trusted advisor to Graham Weston, co-founder of Rackspace Technology, Gomez helped shape Weston’s 80|20 Foundation, which invests in San Antonio’s future by issuing grants to public charities that attract, grow, and retain San Antonio’s future workforce and job-creating entrepreneurs. Gomez has authored four books: Cilantro Diaries, Tafolla Toro, The Rack We Built, and The Bully in Your Pocket. All four are Amazon best sellers and two are winners of the 2021 International Latino Book Awards. Lorenzo’s driving passion is his love for his hometown, San Antonio, Texas. His goal is to recreate for every San Antonian the opportunities the startup world has provided him in this city on the rise.

Part 2 of a four-part Urban Nerd series exploring the three distinct personalities of the San Antonio River Walk.

I’m embarrassed to admit this now, but for a long time, I had a terrible attitude about the River Walk.

Not the whole thing. Just the part I thought didn’t belong to me.

I saw the downtown stretch, the boats, the umbrellas, the restaurants packed with visitors, and I dismissed it. I told myself it was for tourists. It was where you took people from out of town, not where you spent your own time. It felt performative. Busy. A little too polished. I didn’t see myself in it, so I wrote it off.

And for years, I was completely wrong. Part of that realization came over time.

I started my career downtown at Rackspace in 2001, moved out of downtown in 2004, and didn’t return until 2011. When I came back, I didn’t just work downtown. I lived there. I spent two years in the Majestic Theater apartments and more than a decade building companies, walking those streets, and experiencing the city at ground level.

That changed how I saw everything.

Because when you live and work downtown, you start to understand something most people miss. The version of San Antonio that the world recognizes begins here. For better or worse, downtown is the brand.

And the Visitor’s River sits at the center of it.

It wasn’t until I started spending real time there that my perspective shifted. You notice patterns. You see where people gather, where money flows, where energy concentrates. What looks like surface level activity starts to reveal something much deeper.

The Visitor’s River is not just a place. It is an engine.

It is the foundation of one of San Antonio’s most important industries, hospitality, which supports more than 130,000 jobs across the region, many of them concentrated in and around the urban core. Hotels, restaurants, events, conventions, cultural institutions. Entire careers are built on the flow of people moving through this part of the city.

What I once dismissed as “for tourists” is in fact one of the primary ways our city creates jobs, generates revenue, and sustains families.

That realization alone forces you to rethink everything.

Because once you see it as an engine, you stop asking whether it’s for you and start asking what it does for everyone.

The Visitor’s River is where San Antonio introduces itself to the world.

It is where people come to understand who we are. They walk from the The Alamo to the river, often within minutes, and experience something that is difficult to replicate anywhere else. A historic site with global recognition paired with a public space that feels completely unique.

And it does more than entertain. It educates.

Visitors come to learn about the Alamo, about the Missions, about the story of Texas. They attend conventions at the Henry B. González Convention Center, wander through La Villita Historic Arts Village, explore Market Square, and spend time in Hemisfair. All of it is connected, physically and culturally, by the river itself.

That connectivity is not accidental. It is the result of a city choosing to invest in a shared space and then continuing to build around it.

For a long time, though, that is where the story stopped.

We built something extraordinary in the Visitor’s River. Then we paused.

For years, if someone came to town and asked a simple question, “Where do the locals go?” the answer was unclear. We had created a world class front door, but not enough rooms behind it. The experience was memorable, but it wasn’t complete.

That gap is what the rest of this series explores.

Because today, that question has a much better answer.

Now, when visitors ask where the locals are, we can point them north to the Local’s River, where daily life unfolds along the water. We can send them south to the Active River, where the city stretches out into miles of trails, parks, and history.

But none of that works without the foundation.

The Visitor’s River is still the front door. It is still the introduction. It is still the place where first impressions are formed and where the city tells its story most clearly.

And it is about to change.

In the coming years, the line between visitor and local will begin to blur in ways we have not seen before. New investments are converging around this part of downtown. A new ballpark to the northwest. Project Marvel and the Spurs moving into Hemisfair. The continued growth of downtown west. And the commitment from UT San Antonio to bring 10,000 students into the urban core.

For the first time in a long time, we are not just welcoming people to the Visitor’s River. We are surrounding it with everyday life.

My hope is that one day soon, you will not be able to tell the difference. That the same place once defined by visitors becomes just as defined by locals. That the energy flows both ways.

Because if we get that right, the Visitor’s River will not just be where San Antonio introduces itself to the world.

It will be where the city finally comes together.

Citations

Hospitality employment data (San Antonio metro):
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
https://www.bls.gov/regions/southwest/tx_sanantonio_msa.htm

Visitor destinations and downtown assets:
City of San Antonio / Visit San Antonio

https://www.visitsanantonio.com

https://www.sanantonio.gov

THE VOICE:

Lorenzo Gomez III

Lorenzo Gomez III is a community builder, author, and public speaker who draws from his personal and professional experiences to inspire others. A former director at Rackspace Technology, Gomez is a key player in the development of San Antonio’s downtown entrepreneurial ecosystem. During Gomez’s four years as chairman and CEO of Geekdom, San Antonio’s premier collaborative startup community, Geekdom companies raised more than $422M in funding and its startups have created 2,489 jobs. A trusted advisor to Graham Weston, co-founder of Rackspace Technology, Gomez helped shape Weston’s 80|20 Foundation, which invests in San Antonio’s future by issuing grants to public charities that attract, grow, and retain San Antonio’s future workforce and job-creating entrepreneurs. Gomez has authored four books: Cilantro Diaries, Tafolla Toro, The Rack We Built, and The Bully in Your Pocket. All four are Amazon best sellers and two are winners of the 2021 International Latino Book Awards. Lorenzo’s driving passion is his love for his hometown, San Antonio, Texas. His goal is to recreate for every San Antonian the opportunities the startup world has provided him in this city on the rise.

Contemporary art takes on movement, texture, color, and form inside the McNay’s “Untitled: 20 Years of Collecting Contemporary Art.” Featuring more than 100 works from the museum’s collection, the exhibition celebrates the legacy of former Head of Curatorial Affairs René Paul Barilleaux and the vision that shaped the McNay’s contemporary holdings over two decades. Rather than following a traditional chronological format, the exhibit invites visitors to experience contemporary art through the visual language that defines it.

From the pairing of Letitia Huckaby’s Koinonia, featuring three silhouettes of young girls on an embroidery hoop, to Sandy Skoglund’s installation The Cocktail Party, comprised of bright orange Cheetos shaped into figures gathered together, the exhibition explores the elements and principles of art through a cohesive yet unexpected viewing experience.

Over the course of his career at the McNay, Barilleaux assisted in acquiring more than 200 works of art for the museum, helping expand its contemporary collection through diverse media, perspectives, and artists from around the world. Serving as a reflection of that work, “Untitled: 20 Years of Collecting Contemporary Art” highlights not only the evolution of the museum, but also the lasting impact of Barilleaux’s curatorial leadership before retiring in September 2025

Line

The path of a moving point. An exploration of time and space.

The exhibition opens with Barilleaux’s first acquisition for the McNay, Susie Rosmarin’s Blue (#267). The work acts as both the exhibit’s starting point and the beginning of Barilleaux’s time with the museum. Vibrant lines run up and down the piece, presenting a modern work of geometric abstraction. Similarly, Barilleaux guided the direction of the McNay’s contemporary collection throughout his career, leading the acquisition of more than 200 works of art.

Shape

The foundation of a structure, defined by enclosed lines and boundaries.

Shapes are fundamental to the structure of a piece. The exhibit experiments with shape through works such as Henni Alftan’s The Curtain II and Sean Scully’s Doric Yellow Crimson. Barilleaux helped shape the McNay itself, transforming the collection and ensuring the museum remained a “vibrant hub for contemporary art dialogue,” as stated by Dr. Matthew McLendon, Director and CEO of the McNay.

Color

The visual sensation when light reflects back from an object to create hue, saturation, and value.

Color expresses a range of emotions and feelings, as seen in Kelly O’Connor’s Magnetic Fields. The work bursts with color and recognizable figures, including Alice from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Maria von Trapp from The Sound of Music. The emphasis on color ultimately reflects what Barilleaux brought to the McNay itself: works saturated and desaturated, each illuminating the museum’s white walls with vibrancy and life.

Form

Three-dimensional objects — or the illusion of them. A work that physically moves beyond the frame.

At the center of the form section stands a dress crafted from ribbons, plaster, tea, and oil on muslin. The work, created by Lesley Dill, represents art that extends beyond the traditional canvas. Barilleaux brought similar depth to the collection he helped build, reaching beyond the frame of San Antonio to celebrate artists from around the world. In Barilleaux’s own words, he worked toward “embracing a broader international and diverse scope of acquisitions that intentionally convey diversity in both media and perspective.”

Texture

A perceived surface quality, one that can be felt and described.

Displaying works such as Vanessa German’s BLACK GIRL WITH SNAKES, the exhibit explores texture through pieces meant to be experienced visually. Glitter sparkles beneath the museum lights while colorful flowers bloom from the girls dress, crafting an experience of visual touch. Barilleaux’s efforts as curator extended beyond creating visual aesthetics. He acquired works that encourage viewers to feel beyond physicality. Texture invites guests to imagine the sensation of a piece against their fingertips and palms, moving beyond visual appreciation and into emotional experience.

Value

The lightness or darkness of a color.

Through works such as Grayson Perry’s The Celtic Tradition and Jane Hammond’s Yard Sale, the exhibit emphasizes the importance of light — or the absence of it — in shaping a work of art. Throughout his time at the McNay, McLendon explains that Barilleaux “committed [himself] to elevating established and emerging artists,” providing a sense of illumination so their works could shine within San Antonio.

Space

The area around, between, or within components of a piece.

Space is explored through works such as True Believer by Deborah Roberts and Strange Fruit by Amalia Mesa-Bains. Through his curatorial work, Barilleaux reinforced a space where art could be honored, admired, and deeply analyzed by visitors.

Pattern

The repetition of elements.

The McNay features works that highlight pattern, including Lance Letscher’s Funny Hat, where pops of color and shape weave together to create a unified image. In much the same way, Barilleaux arrived at the McNay each day committed to ensuring the museum acquired art that reflected curiosity, passion, and life.

The exhibit is “a fitting tribute to René Paul Barilleaux’s legacy,” McLendon says. It is also an experience that represents the McNay’s evolution through a format separated from traditional chronological and thematic frameworks. The McNay serves as an artistic gateway for San Antonio, one shaped in part through the passionate work and enduring vision of René Paul Barilleaux.

Learn more about and experience the exhibit, on view through September 6, 2026, at McNayArt.org.

THE VOICE:

Maddie Davila

Maddie Davila is a student at Trinity University where she is currently pursuing a degree in communication and English having a passion for visual design and storytelling. Maddie is currently an editorial intern with Voice of San Antonio after discovering her love for editorial design and magazines through her assisted student production of Skyline Magazine for Trinity’s Communication department. She also works for Trinity University’s Football team, capturing the fast paced sport through photography and graphic design that is ultimately featured on their social media. Having a love for fashion, literature, photography, and design, Maddie hopes to continue to work in the magazine industry as a creative or art director with the desire to bring visions and concepts into existence.

Part Two of a four-part Urban Nerd series on The Quiet Giant – how Active Capital is pulling off the most unlikely venture story in Texas.

When I was CEO of Geekdom, one of the most common frustrations I heard from founders was simple: there wasn’t enough capital in San Antonio.

That complaint came from every corner of the ecosystem. First-time founders. Experienced operators. Engineers with a prototype and nowhere to turn. Getting a startup funded here has never been easy. In many ways, it still isn’t. We’ve made progress, but we haven’t reached critical mass.

I watched the toll that took. I also watched what often came next: people leaving.

San Antonio loses talent not because people want to leave, but because opportunity pulls them elsewhere. Capital is part of that gravity. It’s one reason so many startups eventually relocate or never start here at all.

That’s why I’ve been so interested in Pat Matthews’ story. Not just because he built a venture firm, but because he did it while staying in San Antonio. At one point, even Rackspace was being courted to leave the city. Pat saw that tension up close and still chose to build here.

To understand Active Capital, you have to understand what came after Rackspace.

But first, it helps to understand what Rackspace was for Pat.

Rackspace had acquired his company, Webmail, in 2007. What followed was less an exit than a second act. Pat stayed on to run the email business, growing it from roughly $10 million to $25 million in annual revenue during his first eighteen months at the company.

Soon after, Rackspace asked him to move to San Antonio and help lead its emerging cloud computing division.

At the time, cloud infrastructure was still new. Amazon Web Services had only recently begun reshaping how software companies were built, and thousands of startups were launching on hosted infrastructure instead of running their own servers. Inside Rackspace, Pat found himself at the center of that shift.

Over the next several years, the cloud business scaled rapidly, eventually reaching roughly $500 million in annual revenue. Just as important, Pat stayed deeply connected to the startup ecosystem forming around the technology. Rackspace hosted thousands of young companies experimenting with new software models, and he spent much of his time working with the founders building them.

That vantage point mattered. It gave him a front-row seat to how startups were being built, funded, and scaled during the early cloud era.

It also planted a seed. By the time Pat left Rackspace in late 2013, he had spent years watching startups form around him. It was only a matter of time before he moved from supporting founders to backing them.

Pat left Rackspace in late 2013 with no clear plan.

“I didn’t have anywhere to go. I just knew it was my time to leave,” he said.

What he did have was a pull back toward entrepreneurship. In some ways, he had never fully left it. Even at Rackspace, he operated entrepreneurially, helping scale its emerging cloud business, leading M&A, and staying close to the startup ecosystem.

When he finally stepped away, Pat didn’t retreat. He began investing in startups, quickly becoming one of the most active angel investors in Texas, backing more than 100 companies across the state, the Bay Area, and beyond. It was early days, and there was no manual for how to do it, so he learned by doing, by winning, and by losing.

Angel investing gave him exposure, but it did not give him influence. He didn’t feel like he was building.

“When you’re an angel investor, you have very little influence,” he has said. “You’re putting capital in and hoping the company can raise institutional dollars. But once they do that, they don’t communicate with angels very much.”

He wanted to be closer to founders and the early decisions that shape a company’s trajectory.

Pat found himself in a strange place. After years as an entrepreneur and CEO, then an executive at a major tech company, his identity felt unmoored. It was a rough couple of years. He had lost his sense of where he fit.

He explored options. Joining another venture firm. Becoming a CEO again. Starting something new. He even briefly ran a company acquired by a private equity firm.

“I realized I did not enjoy being inside the private equity world,” he said. “I’m much more about hopes and dreams. Private equity is about crunching numbers and lowering costs.”

Pat knew he wanted to be in venture capital, but he was intimidated by the idea of raising capital. He had only raised a small amount for his startup, and Rackspace was fully capitalized by the time he got there. So before committing to a formal fund, he decided to test himself.

He created what he calls a concept fund, investing $1 million of his own money and inviting ten trusted friends to invest $100,000 each. The result was a $2 million proving ground that allowed him to practice managing capital for others.

“It gave me confidence,” he said. “I could say, I’ve been managing money for other people, and it’s working.”

That mattered, especially outside Silicon Valley.

“People read headlines and think you have to raise a $100 million or billion-dollar fund,” Pat said. “A lot of people get stuck.”

Around that same period, life added clarity.

His mother died in 2017 while he was still soul-searching for his next big thing. His father had died a few years earlier. Each loss carried weight and reinforced a growing conviction that time was not unlimited.

“Life is short,” he has said. “I had to go find my path again.”

Shortly after his mother’s passing in 2017, he stopped circling the idea and committed fully. In 2018, Active Capital launched its first institutional fund of $21 million. Today, the firm manages roughly $125 million across three core funds and several special purpose vehicles, a rare achievement given that fewer than 20 percent of first-time fund managers ever raise a third fund.

Pat is one of them.

Still, the numbers do not fully explain what makes Active Capital different.

Pat describes the firm as “high-conviction pre-seed,” which in practical terms means writing large checks early, typically $500,000 to $1 million, into very young companies, often before there is product or revenue.

“We’re looking for founder-market fit, not product-market fit,” he says.

Pat wants Active Capital to be the first real believer.

“You always remember who bet on you first,” he said.

The firm’s structure reinforces that philosophy. Active Capital is intentionally small. The firm operates with a solo general partner model. Pat is the founder and general partner, effectively the CEO.

“I don’t believe in a multi-GP committee model at our stage,” he said. “It is very difficult to get multiple people to see the same thing at the earliest stages. Committee models create politics and resentment. They ultimately lead to breakups.”

Instead, the firm is strengths-based. One partner runs deal flow. Another runs operations. Pat spends nearly all his time with founders after investing.

Pat doesn’t describe himself as “founder-friendly.”

“Too many people bullshit and coddle founders,” he said.

“I want nothing more than to help founders achieve their maximum potential. Sometimes that requires coaching or tough conversations. Sometimes it just means getting out of their way.”

That focus includes monthly touchpoints and being available when founders need him.

“My goal is to earn the trust of the founders I’m working with. I want them to call me with good or bad news. Once trust is established, this almost always happens.”

Geography is another differentiator.

“I raised about 80% of our capital from San Antonio investors,” Pat said.

That’s almost unheard of in venture capital. San Antonio became home during his Rackspace years. His personal life is rooted here. His professional network grew here. Over time, that community became his investor base.

“San Antonio put me in business,” he said.

Active Capital invests nationally, often in underdog cities, but Pat spends significant time in San Francisco as well. He believes San Francisco remains the epicenter of emerging technology.

“Every tech company needs to be plugged into San Francisco. Many founders should move there, but those that don’t should at least visit often,” he said.

One of Active Capital’s next missions is to act as a bridge, helping founders from cities like San Antonio and Austin connect to that ecosystem.

That perspective came from experience.

“At Rackspace, we had too much Texas bravado,” Pat said. “We didn’t spend enough time in San Francisco. We missed trends.”

Active Capital is built to avoid that mistake.

By the time Active Capital reached its third fund, the firm had become one of the most active pre-seed investors in the country, writing roughly one high-conviction check per month.

And then came ProsperOps.

A company that reflected nearly every belief Pat had been refining for years: early conviction, founder-market fit, disciplined capital, and doubling down when the timing was right.

That story is next.

Next: The story of ProsperOps and how one early bet turned Active Capital’s philosophy into one of its most defining wins.

THE VOICE:

Lorenzo Gomez III

Lorenzo Gomez III is a community builder, author, and public speaker who draws from his personal and professional experiences to inspire others. A former director at Rackspace Technology, Gomez is a key player in the development of San Antonio’s downtown entrepreneurial ecosystem. During Gomez’s four years as chairman and CEO of Geekdom, San Antonio’s premier collaborative startup community, Geekdom companies raised more than $422M in funding and its startups have created 2,489 jobs. A trusted advisor to Graham Weston, co-founder of Rackspace Technology, Gomez helped shape Weston’s 80|20 Foundation, which invests in San Antonio’s future by issuing grants to public charities that attract, grow, and retain San Antonio’s future workforce and job-creating entrepreneurs. Gomez has authored four books: Cilantro Diaries, Tafolla Toro, The Rack We Built, and The Bully in Your Pocket. All four are Amazon best sellers and two are winners of the 2021 International Latino Book Awards. Lorenzo’s driving passion is his love for his hometown, San Antonio, Texas. His goal is to recreate for every San Antonian the opportunities the startup world has provided him in this city on the rise.

Part 1 of a four-part Urban Nerd series exploring the three distinct personalities of the San Antonio River Walk.

When I was a kid, I went on a school field trip to see the Alamo. Like most San Antonio students, that was my first real trip downtown. But what actually stuck with me wasn’t the Alamo. It was the River Walk.

I remember walking down from street level and feeling like I had entered a completely different world. I had never experienced the difference between the busy streets above and the calm water below. The boats were the coolest thing I had ever seen, and the fact that the river ran straight into Rivercenter Mall blew my mind. For a kid, that was peak San Antonio magic.

As I got older, though, I told myself the River Walk wasn’t really for me. It was for visitors. People coming to see the Alamo, attend conventions, or visit family. It was where you took out of towners for dinner, not where locals spent time.

But that’s all changed. The river has grown, both literally and culturally.

Over the last two decades, the San Antonio River Walk has expanded into something bigger, more dynamic, and far more importantly, local. The water that once defined downtown has become a thread stitching together three distinct personalities. Three San Antonios that coexist along the same current.

And that’s what this series is about. How one river can represent three different versions of who we are as a city.

What is it?

The San Antonio River Walk was born from a vision that almost never happened. In 1921, a devastating flood killed 50 people and left the city searching for a way to control the river. Some leaders wanted to pave it over entirely.

Enter Robert H. H. Hugman, a young architect who imagined something radical: a linear park that would celebrate the river instead of hiding it. “Let us make this river a thing of beauty, unique in all the world,” he urged.

His idea took decades to fully bloom. The first walkways opened in 1941, establishing the downtown River Walk as the city’s signature attraction. But the story didn’t end there.

In 2001, the city launched the San Antonio River Improvements Project, a $384 million collaboration between the City, Bexar County, and the San Antonio River Authority. Its goal was to restore the river’s ecosystem, expand its reach, and reconnect it to neighborhoods north and south of downtown.

The project produced two major expansions: the Museum Reach in 2009 and the Mission Reach in 2013. Together they transformed the River Walk into a 13 mile network of trails, parks, and gathering places. An unbroken line of water and walkways that redefined the way the city moves.

Where is it?

If you think of the San Antonio River Walk as one place, you’re missing the best parts of it.

The first river is the one everyone knows. The downtown stretch is lined with umbrellas, mariachi music, and riverboats. It loops around the Alamo, connects to Rivercenter Mall, and draws millions of visitors each year. It’s the beating heart of our hospitality economy, home to conventions, family trips, and celebrations of every kind.

The second river lies north of downtown. The stretch locals call River North. It runs from the edge of Brackenridge Park to the Thompson Hotel and is filled with apartments, restaurants, and everyday city life. Here you’ll find the San Antonio Museum of Art, Elsewhere Beer Garden, Make Ready Market, and the Pearl anchoring both ends. It’s the most walkable, lived in part of the river, the place where the city’s modern energy gathers.

The third river begins south of downtown at Blue Star Arts Complex and flows past Confluence Park toward Espada and the Missions. Known as the Mission Reach, it’s where San Antonians get active. Cycling, kayaking, and running along the water. It connects the modern city to our UNESCO World Heritage Missions, turning history and recreation into one continuous experience.

So yes, it’s one river. But it’s also three personalities: the Visitor’s River, the Local’s River, and the Active River.

Why it matters

I still remember the first time someone told me the River Walk was a linear park. I had never heard that term before, and it completely changed the way I saw it. The River Walk isn’t just an attraction. It’s a park. And like any great park, it belongs to everyone.

That’s what makes it so special. San Antonio was forward thinking enough to preserve its history while creating something new. Because it’s a park, everyone can enjoy it, and everyone does. The expansion has only made that more true.

Today, you’ll see people taking engagement photos near the Pearl, celebrating graduations on the bridges, and kayaking near the Missions. It’s become one of the most imaginative public spaces in Texas. A place that captures the spirit of San Antonio.

People from around the world now study how we did it. Cities from Oklahoma City to Houston have borrowed ideas from our river, inspired by how San Antonio turned infrastructure into identity.

The River Walk began as flood control. It became a cultural landmark. And in the process, it reminded us that the best public spaces are the ones built for everyone.

Citations

Urban development and regional planning: “Exploring the Mission Reach: A Remarkable Restoration Project”, Society for Ecological Restoration

Historical origins and design: “Robert H. H. Hugman: Architect of San Antonio’s Iconic River Walk (1902–1980)”, Texas State Historical Association

River Improvements Project and expansion details: “San Antonio River Walk – A Short History of Preservation and Urban Renewal”, The Cultural Landscape Foundation

Visitor data and economic impact: “San Antonio River Walk Museum Reach”, San Antonio River Authority

THE VOICE:

Lorenzo Gomez III

Lorenzo Gomez III is a community builder, author, and public speaker who draws from his personal and professional experiences to inspire others. A former director at Rackspace Technology, Gomez is a key player in the development of San Antonio’s downtown entrepreneurial ecosystem. During Gomez’s four years as chairman and CEO of Geekdom, San Antonio’s premier collaborative startup community, Geekdom companies raised more than $422M in funding and its startups have created 2,489 jobs. A trusted advisor to Graham Weston, co-founder of Rackspace Technology, Gomez helped shape Weston’s 80|20 Foundation, which invests in San Antonio’s future by issuing grants to public charities that attract, grow, and retain San Antonio’s future workforce and job-creating entrepreneurs. Gomez has authored four books: Cilantro Diaries, Tafolla Toro, The Rack We Built, and The Bully in Your Pocket. All four are Amazon best sellers and two are winners of the 2021 International Latino Book Awards. Lorenzo’s driving passion is his love for his hometown, San Antonio, Texas. His goal is to recreate for every San Antonian the opportunities the startup world has provided him in this city on the rise.

iesta has always been about showing up, not spending big. And this year, as prices climb and budgets tighten, that spirit matters more than ever. Across San Antonio, there are still plenty of ways to take part in the color, music, and energy of Fiesta without stretching your wallet.

We pulled together a list of free and low-cost ways to experience it all. So bring the family, lace up your walking shoes, and get out there. Fiesta is still yours to enjoy.

Fiesta Fiesta (Start Here)

If you’re doing Fiesta on a budget, start at Fiesta Fiesta. The official kickoff at Travis Park is completely free and sets the tone for the entire week. Expect live music throughout the evening, food booths representing different parts of the city, and a crowd that feels like all of San Antonio showing up at once. It’s one of the easiest ways to tap into Fiesta without spending a dollar.

https://fiestasanantonio.org/fiesta-fiesta-presented-by-toyota/

Fiesta de los Reyes (The Everyday Fiesta)

If you only pick one event to return to multiple times, make it Fiesta de los Reyes. Held at Historic Market Square, this is one of the largest and most accessible Fiesta experiences in the city. Historically free to enter, but some days or times may now require a small entry fee. With multiple stages, nonstop performances, and vendors lining the square, it’s the kind of place you can spend an hour or an entire evening without planning anything in advance.

https://fiestadelosreyes.com

United Way Kids Festival (100% Free)

This is as close to a no-excuses event as it gets. Admission is free, and many of the activities are included. Think bounce houses, games, interactive booths, and stations where kids can move from one experience to the next without needing tickets or wristbands. If you’ve got kids, this is a must.

https://fiestasanantonio.org/our-events/united-way-kids-festival/

Fiesta de los Niños (Underrated Pick)

At Port San Antonio, Fiesta de los Niños offers a different kind of Fiesta experience. Free admission and free parking make it easy to access, and the event blends rides with hands-on activities and interactive exhibits. Kids are just as likely to be building or experimenting as they are riding something, which gives it a different energy than most Fiesta stops.

https://fiestadelosninos.com

Mission Reach Fiesta Flotilla (Go South)

If you want something that feels different, head south. The Mission Reach Fiesta Flotilla brings Fiesta to the river in a more relaxed setting. You’ll find people kayaking, families walking the trails, and small performances that feel more like a community gathering than a major event. It’s less crowded, more local, and one of the most unique ways to experience Fiesta.

https://www.sariverauthority.org/event/mission-reach-fiesta-flotilla/

Fiesta East (Neighborhood Fiesta)

Fiesta East is a community-first event that brings together live music, local organizations, and families in a more relaxed park setting. Expect rides, food, and a crowd that feels more neighborhood than downtown. It’s a reminder that Fiesta isn’t just concentrated in one place. It shows up across the city.

https://fiestasanantonio.org/our-events/fiesta-east/

Chaparral Music & Heritage Festival (Final Weekend Play)

If you’re looking for a strong close to Fiesta, the Chaparral Music and Heritage Festival at Hemisfair is a full-day, free event. Music runs throughout the day, vendors line the park, and there’s plenty of space to spread out. It’s built for lingering, not rushing, and it’s one of the easiest ways to spend a full day without spending much at all.

https://fiestasanantonio.org/our-events/chaparral-music-heritage-festival/

Fiesta Jazz Festival (Urban Nerd Pick)

Held at St. Mary’s University, the Fiesta Jazz Festival offers a completely different rhythm. Performances rotate throughout the day, featuring student musicians from across Texas. It’s the kind of event where you can drop in, listen for a while, and move on without needing a strict schedule. If you’re looking for something more laid back and rooted in craft, this is it.

https://www.stmarytx.edu/events/fiesta-jazz-festival/

River Walk (No Ticket Required)

The River Walk can feel expensive during Fiesta, but parts of it are still completely open. The Fiesta Artisan Show is free to walk through, and the Ford Mariachi Festival can be enjoyed from public vantage points without a ticketed seat. Walking the river during these events feels like moving through a series of pop-up performances, where something is always happening just around the corner.

https://www.thesanantonioriverwalk.com/events/

More Free & Low-Cost Finds

Beyond the marquee events, there are dozens of smaller gatherings that are either free or very low cost. Fiesta Square and Round Dance invites people to participate, not just watch. Senior Fiesta creates space for older adults to engage with the celebration in a more intentional way. And events like Festival de Cascarones at Texas A&M–San Antonio continue to offer accessible entry points into Fiesta culture. Fiesta is not one experience. It’s a network of more than 100 events across the city.

https://fiestasanantonio.org/schedule

Don’t Skip the Parades

Even the largest Fiesta staples can be experienced on a budget. The Battle of Flowers Parade and Fiesta Flambeau Parade both offer paid seating, but large portions of their routes are free if you’re willing to stand and arrive early. The Texas Cavaliers River Parade is a bit different. Because it takes place on the river, most viewing areas are ticketed, but you can still catch glimpses and experience the energy by walking nearby sections before or after. It just takes a little more effort.

https://fiestasanantonio.org/parades/

The Urban Nerd Take

The biggest mistake people make is thinking Fiesta is something you have to buy into. You don’t. Start with one anchor event, then walk, explore, and let the city fill in the gaps. Fiesta rewards curiosity more than it rewards planning. And the truth is, the best parts of Fiesta were never behind a ticket. They’re in the streets, along the river, and in the neighborhoods that bring San Antonio to life.

Maximum Fiesta. Minimum spend.

THE VOICE:

Lorenzo Gomez III

Lorenzo Gomez III is a community builder, author, and public speaker who draws from his personal and professional experiences to inspire others. A former director at Rackspace Technology, Gomez is a key player in the development of San Antonio’s downtown entrepreneurial ecosystem. During Gomez’s four years as chairman and CEO of Geekdom, San Antonio’s premier collaborative startup community, Geekdom companies raised more than $422M in funding and its startups have created 2,489 jobs. A trusted advisor to Graham Weston, co-founder of Rackspace Technology, Gomez helped shape Weston’s 80|20 Foundation, which invests in San Antonio’s future by issuing grants to public charities that attract, grow, and retain San Antonio’s future workforce and job-creating entrepreneurs. Gomez has authored four books: Cilantro Diaries, Tafolla Toro, The Rack We Built, and The Bully in Your Pocket. All four are Amazon best sellers and two are winners of the 2021 International Latino Book Awards. Lorenzo’s driving passion is his love for his hometown, San Antonio, Texas. His goal is to recreate for every San Antonian the opportunities the startup world has provided him in this city on the rise.