At the end of the year, the San Antonio Report newsroom looks back at the stories that happened in the months before.
Each year, we keep track of some of our favorite or most memorable quotes of the year, some of which tell a story and others just made us smile.
Which ones did we miss? Text your favorites to (210) 796-6853.
“I’m going to continue everything I’ve been doing, and you can stay peeping my Twitter for spicy tweets. I triple-dog-dare anybody to use this as a political tool against me.”
— Jalen McKee-Rodriguez (D2), during a dramatic discussion over a new code of conduct for San Antonio City Council members in person and over social media
“Everyone loves their moms so much. And they know in our culture, if you want to show that you care, you get a mariachi.”
— Alejandro San Miguel, a University of Texas at Austin student who joined his grandfather Juan Ortiz’s Mariachi Los Campanas de America troupe for Mother’s Day serenatas
“Last I checked, the City Council members don’t carry people out of a burning building.”
— Andrew Vicencio, a U.S. Army veteran, who argued against raising council pay by comparing the role to that of a San Antonio firefighter who’s been on the job for five years and makes about $62,000 per year
“We’re just here to eat the popcorn like everyone else. I think what’s most important to see if there’s any takeaways — to see if there were any revelations.”
— Joe Jones, president of the San Antonio Professional Firefighters Association, after a group of five council members calling themselves the “Block of Five” took issue with the city’s handling of the fire union contract, the city attorney’s performance and more broadly what they see as a lack of transparency
“For Republicans to come to San Antonio, to convene at the Henry B. González Convention Center — a champion for the immigrant, a champion of Latinos and the working class throughout the state — I know that Henry B. is turning in his grave right now.”
— U.S. Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer (D-San Antonio), on the state GOP convention being held in San Antonio
“Nobody has ever accused me of doing anything unethical. Now, there’s just a glimmer — a hint — that I might run for mayor and people are attacking me. It makes me think a little harder [that] maybe I should.”
— Melissa Cabello Havrda (D6), arguing that there was a “political motivation” behind criticism that she had lobbied the city to give her employee’s nonprofit $300,000
“[San Antonio is] the best place for filmmaking in the entire world.”
— City of San Antonio Film Commissioner Kimberly LeBlanc, touting local filming incentives at a mixer celebrating the opening of the 30th annual San Antonio Film Festival
“There has been a lot of debate about the level of pay, but from my perspective, … let me tell you exactly what’s happening. … We are forevermore taking the power of setting wages for City Council members away from City Council members.”
— Mayor Ron Nirenberg, after council members spent hours at an August meeting debating City Council and mayor pay
“If you have a coffee shop, you have a small bakery, if you have a small salon, … you don’t have a lot of extra time, and you have zero knowledge of what to do when Development Services and Public Works screws with you.”
— Chad Carey, after announcing the formation of a political action committee made up of members of San Antonio’s bar and restaurant industry who want to influence local politics
“Budgets are moral documents that reflect values and priorities,” and this decision “continues the tradition of neglect on the Eastside.”
— San Antonio for Growth on the Eastside CEO James Nortey after the city ended direct support for three nonprofits that boost small businesses, including SAGE, in the 2025 budget
“I realized that I was so indoctrinated in segregation that I was willing to volunteer in an environment that discriminated against my own people.”
— Aaronetta Pierce, recalling an epiphany she had after a question from a young Black student on why none of the portraits on display in the San Antonio Museum of Art’s 19th century gallery looked like her
“We … used to be a brewery, and it was in a not-so-great part of town, and it was dilapidated. But our owner Kit Goldsbury had a vision, and against all of his advisers to make it a Walmart distribution center, he transformed it into what we have now.”
— Matthew Lauzon, Hotel Emma’s manager, reflecting on the hotel’s rare two-key rating in the latest Michelin Guide
“It’d be far easier for us if they met every 140 years for two days instead of the opposite.”
— Mayor Ron Nirenberg on the Texas legislature
“What you call a mess is what I call the story. This is where she has logged countless hours stewarding what will now be rightfully recognized as a Legacy Business. It’s the unglamorous moments of work and dedication that makes a business strong and resilient.”
— Photojournalist Bria Woods to Alma Cañedo, owner of Thrif-T-Mart after she apologized for her messy office, from the Insider in the Recap newsletter. For more, sign up for twice-weekly Recap emails featuring Insider write-ups.
“You might be downstream from your trauma, but you’re upstream from your potential.”
— Debbie Jennings, a nurse practitioner and assistant professor at UT Health Science Center, quoting a friend, while discussing CAMpassion Care, which was born out of frustration with the barriers within the mental health system that chronically homeless individuals face
“When I first started … I believed that we were having honest disagreements with Republicans about the way that [school funding cuts] should go. Someone said to me, ‘You know, they are trying to dismantle public education,’ and I thought, ‘Oh, my God, that’s so cynical. But I’m telling you, I believe it. I believe it in my core right now.”
— Democrat Wendy Davis, who served on the Texas Senate’s Education Committee, at a campaign event in San Antonio in support of education bonds
“There’s this emotional kind of connection when you don’t have to be married to the score.”
— Ronnie Sanders on his work as a football referee and orchestra conductor
