Alex Birnel is advocacy director at MOVE Texas.
Teri Castillo, a housing organizer and Democratic Socialists of America member, is fighting on the San Antonio City Council for public investment in housing, health care, education, utilities, and more. Castillo says the era of municipal austerity must end.
Austin City Council member Greg Casar has passed dozens of pieces of progressive legislation in the last 7 years, from paid sick leave law to renters’ protections. Now he says he wants to take federal action on working-class issues by running for Congress.
Musicians say that management’s austere proposal, gutting the full-time orchestra and slashing pay and benefits, will destroy the San Antonio Symphony. They’ve gone on strike because, as one musician said, “We will not be complicit in our own destruction.”
People with disabilities who rely on local public transit are getting squeezed between gentrification and austerity.