As one of the city’s oldest and largest community activist groups, COPS/Metro Alliance has spent half a century pushing local leaders to steer more government money toward education and infrastructure and away from subsidizing projects led by corporations and developers.
On Sunday, its leaders made clear they view the city’s plans to an develop an expansive sports and entertainment district in downtown San Antonio — known as Project Marvel — as the next frontier in that fight.
More than 1,100 community activists affiliated with the group gathered at St. Mary’s University’s Bill Greehey Arena on Sunday afternoon to celebrate COPS/METRO Alliance’s 50th anniversary, and to chart a path forward for their organizing plans for the coming year.
“Sisters and brothers, the City of San Antonio has presented us with their plan for economic development: Stadiums, land bridges, hotels and an overhaul of the Alamodome,” said longtime COPS/Metro Alliance leader Jimmy Drennan, a pastor of St. Margaret Mary Catholic Church on the city’s Southeast Side, in his opening speech.
“We believe that investing in buildings is not going to bring about economic development,” Drennan said. “You all, everyone in here, is worth more than any building ever built in the city.”
Plans for Project Marvel, which includes a new downtown arena for the San Antonio Spurs, have been kept under close wraps for the past year.
When plans were finally presented publicly to the City Council last month, city officials estimated the project would cost between $3 billion and $4 billion, and would require combining money from the city, county, the San Antonio Spurs and other sources.
At Sunday’s event, Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai and San Antonio City Manager Erik Walsh were among the local officials seated on stage, but in brief remarks, did not respond to the comments about Project Marvel. Councilwomen Teri Castillo (D5) and Adriana Rocha Garcia (D4) were seated in the audience.
Distinguished guests attend the COPS/Metro 50th Anniversary Citywide Action event at the St. Mary’s University – Greehey Arena on Dec. 8, 2024. Credit: Bria Woods / San Antonio Report
Drennan led the packed arena into an echoing chant: “So we tell our leaders — and we want them to hear it right now — ‘Invest in us. Invest in us. Invest IN US.'”
City officials said in their Nov. 21 presentation that taxpayers would be asked to fund infrastructure improvements related to Project Marvel. The public’s investment in the project would come through the use of the county’s venue tax, which would need to go to voters for approval.
“As an organization, we’re against using public tax money for private development,” said Mike Phillips, a COPS/Metro leader with First Unitarian Universalist Church. “If [Project Marvel] gets anywhere near that, then we’ll be opposed to it.”
A people-driven agenda
COPS/Metro Alliance is made up primarily of faith-based organizations that came together in the 1970s to fight for public services and infrastructure in economically disadvantaged parts of the city.
At Sunday’s event, its leaders held numerous up examples of their work fighting projects similar to Project Marvel, from influencing plans for a government-subsidized PGA golf village the early 2000s, to securing wage guarantees in this year’s deal to build a new Minor League Baseball stadium for the San Antonio Missions.
Audience members listen and cheer during the COPS/Metro 50th Anniversary Citywide Action event at the St. Mary’s University – Greehey Arena on Dec. 8, 2024. Credit: Bria Woods / San Antonio Report
Like many of the projects, leaders of COPS/METRO said their work on Project Marvel will likely begin by fighting for a seat at the table in negotiations the public typically doesn’t have much access to, like proposals brought to various Tax Incentive Reinvestment Zones.
But Phillips said Monday that plans for bigger public rallying point — putting the taxpayer funding out to voters — are still in limbo.
COPS/Metro Alliance leaders were briefed last week about the project by Sakai, who indicated the county hasn’t been properly briefed on the city’s plans.
As such, it’s not currently in a position to ask voters to fund the project in May 3 municipal election.
“At this point, it’s hard for us to have an approach to it when we don’t know enough about it,” Phillips said of the public vote. “But there’s a history in this town of pushing something right before the holidays, and we don’t want to see that repeated.”