| In a column in Plaza de Armas Gilbert Garcia pondered the question of whether a non-Latino could win in District 1. A friend of mine had mentioned that exact same point and noted that the district has always voted for Hispanic candidates. Granted, in some cases the Anglo candidate just wasn't up to the task. But it's definitely a point worth noting.
"The myth of a Latino hegemony in District 1 is so potent that it's common to hear people privately write off the chances of ex-Tobin Hill neighborhood leader Carolyn Kelley and IT entrepreneur Chris Forbrich," said Garcia in his piece. Garcia noted that even with Kelly has been the leader in money in the race to this point. But she may need all that money to overcome two key points in any election - voter awareness and bias.
So I started my quest to find out more about Kelley at Taqueria Jalisco, a local taco restaurant located in the northern edge of Tobin Hill. It was a part of my "get to know the D1 candidates restaurant tour." I ordered my typical bacon/egg and potato/egg taco combo and she ordered a potato/egg taco. When the tacos arrived I now see why one taco was enough. I call those type of breakfast tacos the anaconda tacos, the one's that resemble the reptile after a good feeding. Sorry about the imagery but it seems to capture the size of the tacos.
Background
Carolyn Kelley moved to San Antonio several years ago and settled in the Tobin Hill neighborhood, an area filled with old, historic homes just north of downtown that is going through a revitalization. Kelley has been at the forefront of that revitalization, serving as president and co-founder of the Tobin Hill Community Association. Through their efforts Kelley said that over $30 million funding has been secured for various projects throughout the area.
It appears Kelley's motivation for running for city council is to help bring the same level of community involvement of Tobin Hill to other parts of District 1, creating a new model of neighborhood activism and revitalization. When she decided to run for office Kelley contacted 20 of the NAs and CAs located in the district for ride-arounds.
During those rides she asked the leaders to tell her what was good in the district, what was wrong, and where their priorities might be. Pretty much all the leaders said the same things about infrastructure, public safety, and graffiti and animal control, what I typically call the motherhood and apple pie issues of city government. Kelley sticks to those issues and lists them as the core elements of her campaign, both in her literature and on her website.
To dig deeper I decided to see where Kelley stood on the three key issues Mayor Castro has iterated through SA2020 and his own vision - education, transportation, and the urban core. Focusing on those would help move the conversation out of the typical and into Castro's agenda for the next year or two, finding out how the candidate might line up with the mayor's strategies.
Education
Kelley felt that education is mission critical to the city and really applauds the mayor on taking a stand to improve education in San Antonio. When pressed about going as far as to back a candidates for school board trustee, she said that she frowns on grandstanding when you can't really do much more in the system but that we should all be a part of the conversation. Kelley has had experience in helping improve education during her term as managing director of the Junior League through the signature project, Literacy San Antonio.
She noted that some other key initiatives that should be considered in improving education, pointing to an Express-News article about Castro's desire to leverage a sales tax increase to address key issues. She mentioned that increasing 3rd grader reading is a vital part of that strategy and said it would be good to take the work Graham Weston and Rackspace have done with regards to mentoring and extending that deeper into the city.
Transportation
With regards to transportation Kelley feels that as San Antonio works to increase the population density downtown it will need to be able to move people around. Kelley felt that not only should San Antonio address citywide transportation issues but also those regarding transportation between cities in Texas.
At this point Kelley has not taken a stance on the feasibility of streetcars in San Antonio but admits she doesn't have all the information or answers. She borrowed a quote from Woodrow Wilson saying "I not only use all the brains that I have, but all that I can borrow." Kelley said that we need to understand how streetcars might fit into the goal of urban core development and when will it fit.
Revitalization and development
This is a key element important to District 1 and one that Kelley has a lot of interest in. With regards to the focus, Kelley supports increasing development downtown, especially residential development, but also feels that San Antonio should address development in an area I call Center City, or the ring of neighborhoods around downtown. She feels that this is not a competition between the core downtown and the neighborhoods, it's just that most of the recent focus has been solely on the downtown area.
Kelley said that if you really want to grow downtown you have to create "workforce housing" and not be afraid of those words. It's important to develop affordable housing in the downtown area where young professionals can live to help grow the downtown. One example she cited was Wonderland Columbus, a revitalization effort taking place in Columbus, OH.
With an upcoming bond election in 2012 Kelley said she is ready to work with the NAs and has helped develop 16 different neighborhood infrastructure plans that have consensus from the organizations, according to her. She talked about one recent project that involved the movement of an old, historic home located on McCullough to a location in the Five Points area, working with the owner to help facilitate the move. In doing so the move helped open an area on McCullough for business development and save a historic home.
LGBT issues
One of the key issue areas within District 1 surrounds those touching the LGBT community of San Antonio. District 1 has probably the largest concentration of LGBT residents and is home to most of the businesses that cater to that community. Short of the traditional "gay ghetto" that most major cities have, it's about as close to a community as you can get. I asked Kelley about her positions on several of the issues confronting the community, as I understand them from several people in the community.
- Employment non-discrimination ordinance - Kelley said she would support an ordinance to extend language in our city code to include sexual orientation and gender identity as protected classes. Currently San Antonio is the only major city in Texas to not include such language.
- Gay Pride Parade - As a council member, Kelley would participate in the community's annual Gay Pride Parade, typically held on the July 4th weekend.
- Gay and Lesbian Community Center - Kelley was unsure what she could do in support of a G/L Community Center as councilmember short of lending support for the initiative but would possibly do so if asked.
Kelley said she has lived around gays and lesbians most of her life, mainly while living in New York City and in the Dupont Circle area in Washington, D.C. She has several gays and lesbians as friends and has worked with the G/L businesses along Main Street through the Tobin Hill Community Association. That partnership prompted at least one business owner, Randy Cuniff and his partner Peter Becker, to financially support Kelley's candidacy, citing her willingness to sit down and work with the businesses to help partner for area improvements.
Funding
Kelley seems to be the best funded candidate of those in the District 1 race. In her last campaign finance report she had the most on hand of any of the candidates and had not really entered into her first round of fundraising. An article in Plaza de Armas Saturday noted that Kelley is planning a large dollar fund raiser with several notable developers listed as hosts. Kelley can probably expect to have another major fundraiser after this upcoming one to keep the coffers well funded going into the election.
That will be critical for Kelley to most past any name recognition issues she might have going into the election. With short tenure in San Antonio and a limited scope of the Tobin Hill area she will need to be able to get her name out in front of the other candidates, two of which have Hispanic surnames. While this shouldn't be an issue, as was noted prior District 1 has never elected a non-Hispanic since single-member districts were established.
Kelley is currently viewed as the front runner candidate for District 1, mainly because of a solid and well-funded campaign operation being managed by Christian Anderson. She also seems to have a strong plan ready should she be elected. Her challenge will be getting over the name recognition issue and demonstrating to voters outside Tobin Hill that she will be working for them. |
