Taylor, others from S.A. appear at Austin political festival

Mayor among those speaking in Austin

Mayor Ivy Taylor spoke at the annual Texas Tribune Festival.

AUSTIN — Mayor Ivy Taylor said she faces a significant challenge in keeping San Antonio from dividing into two communities: one with means and one without.

She made that comment during a panel discussion before a politically astute crowd in the state’s capital Saturday.

“The biggest challenge I think about in relation to the future of our city is to ensure that we don’t grow into two cities based on economics — the haves and the have-nots,” she said on a stage with her mayoral counterparts from Houston, Austin and Corpus Christi.

“That’s a dialogue that’s happening across the nation, this idea of income inequality, but my goal as mayor is to ensure that we can connect all San Antonians to the prosperity that we have in our community,” she said.

San Antonio’s economy thrives and its unemployment rate remains low, she said, but many residents aren’t reaping the benefits of those statistics. As mayor, Taylor is trying to figure out how to use her position to work with others in the San Antonio community to provide folks with “those things that are happening,” she said.

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“It’s a big challenge,” she said.

Taylor appeared with Mayors Steve Adler of Austin, Annise Parker of Houston and Nelda Martinez of Corpus Christi at the fifth annual Texas Tribune Festival, which brought together more than 250 politicians and leaders from Texas and beyond over the weekend to discuss myriad issues affecting the state and its cities.

Several others from San Antonio appeared on various panels as well, including state lawmakers Diego Bernal and Trey Martinez Fischer, and U.S. Reps. Joaquin Castro and Henry Cuellar.

Former U.S. Housing Secretary Henry Cisneros discussed the current state of politics with former U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, former New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu and former Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind.

Julián Castro, the current housing secretary, is scheduled to close out the conference today.

On the mayoral stage, Taylor’s counterparts said their biggest challenges come from various issues surrounding infrastructure, and Parker noted that Houston is struggling with an overly costly pension for its firefighters.

Parker, the first openly gay mayor of a major U.S. city, said she was upset that Houston voters are heading to the polls in November to decide the fate of the city’s nondiscrimination ordinance, which offers protection to people based on their sexual orientation and gender identity.

“You never want to put civil rights issues on a ballot because they lose,” she said. “And rights are not something that should be subject to a popular vote.”

She said, however, that she believes that the voters will ultimately pass the proposal.

“But it is an ugly and difficult fight,” Parker said.

She said opponents have deemed it the “mayor’s sexual pervert protection bill” but that’s clearly not what it is.

Conversely, in San Antonio, the city has had its NDO in place since 2013. Taylor, a councilwoman then, opposed it, which the panel’s moderator noted in his introduction of the mayor. Taylor didn’t address the issue in the hourlong discussion.

She did note that San Antonio again has ride-hailing, after both Lyft and Uber agreed to operate in nine-month pilot programs that allow drivers to voluntarily go through fingerprint background checks in addition to the criminal checks run by the companies.

“Just this week, we announced that Uber would be returning to San Antonio, but it certainly was a long road to get there. We passed three ordinances related to transportation network companies, and we finally were able to get to somewhat of a compromise that focuses on consumer choice that allows them to operate,” Taylor said. “Well, actually, they had been allowed to operate before, but they chose not to.

“It was certainly a tough issue because on the news, and in the press, they didn’t really report on the real details of the negotiations back and forth — what were the things we were actually talking about, like fingerprint background checks, the changes in the insurance industry and requirements, and those type of things. All people know is, ‘I want my Uber.’”

Scores of stories delving into those issues have run in the San Antonio Express-News and on its websites.

“At first, we passed a very rigorous ordinance that mirrored the ordinance for our taxi industry, and that was a nonstarter,” Taylor said. “However, in retrospect, I realize part of that was how the public debate was framed early on. We had the taxi advocates who came out to all the public meetings, and that was the main perspective that was being shared. Once that didn’t work, we tried again.”

A second attempt at fixing the situation didn’t work, Taylor continued, and the city just kept letting Uber know that it had priorities and that “it wasn’t just about their business model.”

In Austin, there’s seemingly less worry about ride-hailing.

“This is Austin, Texas — we believe in disruptive technology,” Adler said, eliciting laughs from the audience.

In Houston, Parker fought and won — sort of — on background checks. The city requires that drivers be fingerprinted. Uber has met the city’s requirements, but Lyft left the city altogether.

And Parker clearly didn’t like her interactions with the San Francisco-based company, saying its representatives don’t bargain in good faith.

“When you shake hands with them, count your fingers,” she said.

jbaugh@express-news.net

LINK: http://www.expressnews.com/news/local/article/Taylor-others-from-SA-appear-at-Austin-political-6575840.php