The Billion Dollar Question: Who Really Pays for the Spurs Arena?
(It’s Not Your Pothole Fund.) This is Part 4 in a 12-part series on San Antonio’s Sports & Entertainment District, aka Project Marvel. In order to understand how the new Spurs arena will be funded, take a little ride with me. Meet two characters heading to the future San Antonio Sports & Entertainment District (aka […]
Divorcing the Sports District from the City’s Deficit
This is Part 3 in a 12-part series on San Antonio’s Sports and Entertainment District, also known as Project Marvel. One of my favorite quotes comes from the movie Raising Arizona. An inmate, watching a couple argue, leans over to another inmate and says, “I wouldn’t be surprised if the source of the marital friction […]
Not One Project. Not a New District. Not Just for the Spurs.
This is Part 2 in a 12-part series on San Antonio’s Sports and Entertainment District, also known as Project Marvel. My branding mentor has a phrase I’ve always remembered: The One Rule of Carry On. People only have room for one story in their head at a time. That’s it. One story. And that’s part […]
Urban Momentum: Broadway East, BESA District
Would you like to see the San Antonio of the future? I can show it to you today. Meet Broadway East, a luxury-forward, pedestrian-friendly district rising just across from The Pearl. For years, the block directly east of The Pearl, bordered by Broadway and Pearl Parkway, has sat quiet. On one side is a nationally […]
The Marvel Garble: San Antonio’s Perfect Storm of Confusion
I have a standing rule: if I don’t have a lunch meeting, I go eat lunch with my parents. They live just outside of downtown, and it’s one of the favorite parts of my week. They’re retired now, but still two of the most curious people I know, always asking questions about what’s going on […]
One Million New Neighbors
San Antonio is about to grow by a million people. Are we going to build walls—or build community? Several years ago, I was at a community event hosted at Geekdom downtown. I struck up a conversation with a kind woman who lived in Tobin Hill, which I had just moved into. I told her how […]