bigcitysmalltown with Bob Rivard

172. Ambassador Tony Garza on Mexico, Trade, and What San Antonio Gets Right

This week on bigcitysmalltown, Bob Rivard sits down with Ambassador Tony Garza, a Brownsville native who served as U.S. Ambassador to Mexico under President George W. Bush from 2002 to 2009 and now works as counsel and special advisor to the global law firm White & Case in Mexico City, to discuss the state of the U.S.-Mexico relationship at a moment of unusual tension and opportunity. They discuss: * Why the transactionalism defining U.S.-Mexico relations today was always present beneath the surface — and what changed when it became explicit * How President Sheinbaum has managed the relationship with Washington, and why her approach has earned approval on both sides of the border * The coordinated operation that took down El Mencho, and what it reveals about the level of intelligence-sharing between the two governments * Why "cartels" is the wrong word for what Mexico is actually dealing with — and why that distinction matters for policy * Whether the Trump administration would ever order direct military action inside Mexico * How multinational companies navigate corruption and security risks while continuing to invest heavily in Mexican manufacturing * Why nearshoring has proceeded more slowly than the headlines suggested — and where the real growth has actually come from * The missed opportunity for comprehensive immigration reform in 2001, and what a more pragmatic path forward might look like today * Why San Antonio's DNA — automotive, cyber, aeronautics, and its deep ties to northern Mexico — positions it better than Austin for what's coming next in North America RECOMMENDED NEXT LISTEN: ▶ 165. How Hill Country Landowners Are Challenging CPS Energy's 370-Mile Transmission Line Plan — [https://www.bigcitysmalltown.com/165-how-hill-country-landowners-are-challenging-cps-energys-370-mile-transmission-line-plan/] Ambassador Garza references water and energy infrastructure as emerging areas for U.S.-Mexico cooperation. This episode examines one of the most consequential energy projects now moving through the Texas Hill Country. ….. GET THE NEWSLETTER 📰 If you enjoyed this conversation, sign up for Bob Rivard's Midweek — sharp takes on San Antonio's politics, culture, and civic life, delivered to your inbox every Wednesday. Independent, nonpartisan, and free to read. Subscribe here. [https://bigcitysmalltown.kit.com/fb1825d442] -- -- CONNECT 📸 Connect on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/bigcity.smalltown/] 🔗 Join us on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertjrivard/] 🎥 Subscribe on YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/@bcstsatx] SPONSORS 🙌 Support the show & see our sponsors [https://www.bigcitysmalltown.com/sponsors/] THANK YOU ⭐ Leave a review on Apple Podcasts ⭐ Rate us on Spotify

171. Texas Public Radio and the San Antonio Report Are Merging — Here's Why

This week on bigcitysmalltown, Bob Rivard sits down with Ashley Alvarado, CEO of Texas Public Radio, and Angie Mock, CEO of the San Antonio Report, to discuss a major development in San Antonio's local news landscape: the two organizations are merging.  Effective July 1st, the San Antonio Report will donate its assets to Texas Public Radio, combining operations under one roof to strengthen independent, nonprofit journalism in San Antonio. They discuss: * Why two financially healthy organizations chose to merge — and how this is different from the consolidations happening elsewhere in the industry * What the combined newsroom will look like on day one: 31 journalism positions, with all but four working as reporters in the community * How the San Antonio Report's digital specificity and Texas Public Radio's broadcast reach complement each other — and what that means for covering the city * Why YouTube has become unavoidable for reaching younger San Antonians, with 60 to 75 percent of county residents turning to it for news every week * What Ashley Alvarado learned leading a similar merger at KPCC in Los Angeles — and how those lessons are shaping the approach here * How the two newsrooms will physically unite, with the San Antonio Report moving to TPR's downtown facilities in late July * The challenge of serving a politically diverse city — and why relevance and trust have to be built together, not assumed * What the merger means for investigative and accountability journalism at City Hall and beyond RECOMMENDED NEXT LISTEN: ▶ 170. Don Graham and Dr. Abel Antonio Chávez on Journalism, Our Lady of the Lake, and Why Access to Education Changes Everything [https://www.bigcitysmalltown.com/170-don-graham-and-dr-abel-antonio-chavez-on-journalism-our-lady-of-the-lake-and-why-access-to-e/] — The retired chairman of The Washington Post Company and the president of Our Lady of the Lake University on the state of journalism, democracy, and what it takes to keep independent news alive in a city like San Antonio. ….. GET THE NEWSLETTER 📰 If you enjoyed this conversation, sign up for Bob Rivard's Midweek — sharp takes on San Antonio's politics, culture, and civic life, delivered to your inbox every Wednesday. Independent, nonpartisan, and free to read. Subscribe here. [https://bigcitysmalltown.kit.com/fb1825d442] -- -- CONNECT 📸 Connect on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/bigcity.smalltown/] 🔗 Join us on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertjrivard/] 🎥 Subscribe on YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/@bcstsatx] SPONSORS 🙌 Support the show & see our sponsors [https://www.bigcitysmalltown.com/sponsors/] THANK YOU ⭐ Leave a review on Apple Podcasts ⭐ Rate us on Spotify

170. Don Graham and Dr. Abel Antonio Chávez on Journalism, Our Lady of the Lake, and Why Access to Education Changes Everything

This week on bigcitysmalltown, Bob Rivard sits down with two guests at the podcast studio at Our Lady of the Lake University — a first for the show. Don Graham is the retired chairman and publisher of The Washington Post Company, whose family also owned Newsweek Magazine, where Bob worked as a war correspondent and later chief of correspondents in the 1990s. Dr. Abel Antonio Chávez is the 10th president of Our Lady of the Lake University, a position he has held since July 2022. A first-generation, first-in-family college graduate and son of immigrants, he went from Front Range Community College to a BS in mechanical engineering, an MBA, and a PhD in civil and environmental engineering, and built a career partnering with local governments and universities across the globe on community-based energy and emissions accounting. Graham came to campus as a commencement speaker. The visit grew out of his decades-long commitment to college access — work rooted in Washington, DC, where the city's lack of a state university system means students pay out-of-state tuition everywhere they apply. They discuss: * How Our Lady of the Lake has served San Antonio's most economically challenged students for 130 years — and what it takes to sustain that mission today * Dr. Chávez's path from a Denver neighborhood to a top engineering school he couldn't afford, a pivot to community college, and eventually the presidency of a university in a neighborhood that looks just like the one he grew up in * How Don Graham's time as a beat cop in Washington, DC after Vietnam shaped his understanding of what college access actually means * The federal scholarship program Graham helped push through a unanimous Republican Congress in 1998 to help DC students afford college * What Graham witnessed as an early Facebook board member — and what it taught him about giving young people real responsibility * The sale of The Washington Post to Jeff Bezos in 2013, why it happened, and what Graham thinks of the paper today * San Antonio's deep economic and cultural ties to Mexico — and how tariffs are affecting the local auto manufacturing economy * What it means to be an optimist about American democracy after decades at the center of Washington life RECOMMENDED NEXT LISTEN: ▶ 149. How AlamoPROMISE Continues Expanding College Access for San Antonians [https://www.bigcitysmalltown.com/149-how-alamopromise-continues-expanding-college-access-for-san-antonians/] — Stephanie Vasquez, Chief Program Officer for Alamo Promise, on what it takes to make college accessible to every Bexar County high school graduate — and what the program has learned from serving more than 30,000 Promise scholars. GET THE NEWSLETTER 📰 If you enjoyed this conversation, sign up for Bob Rivard's Midweek — sharp takes on San Antonio's politics, culture, and civic life, delivered to your inbox every week. Independent, nonpartisan, and free to read. Subscribe here. [https://bigcitysmalltown.kit.com/fb1825d442] -- -- CONNECT 📸 Connect on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/bigcity.smalltown/] 🔗 Join us on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertjrivard/] 🎥 Subscribe on YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/@bcstsatx] SPONSORS 🙌 Support the show & see our sponsors [https://www.bigcitysmalltown.com/sponsors/] THANK YOU ⭐ Leave a review on Apple Podcasts ⭐ Rate us on Spotify

169. How Phil Hardberger Built a Park, a Land Bridge, and a Wildlife Corridor for San Antonio

This week on bigcitysmalltown, host Cory Ames tells the story of the Robert L.B. Tobin Land Bridge at Phil Hardberger Park — in a new format for the show. Rather than a traditional guest conversation, this episode is a narrated oral history, recorded in the field at the park itself, weaving together tape from a morning walk Cory took with former Mayor Phil Hardberger and natural resources manager Wendy Leonard. Just a week or so before this episode was released, a bronze statue of Phil Hardberger was unveiled at the park that bears his name. He is 91 years old and still walks the trails. The episode covers: * How Phil Hardberger promised San Antonio a new park while running for mayor — and spent two years looking for the right land * The phone call that led him to a former dairy farm on the north side, never fully clear-cut, 330 acres still largely as nature left it * How Wurzbach Parkway split the property in two — and why that became the genesis of one of the most celebrated wildlife bridges in the country * The $23 million fight to fund the land bridge, the jury of architects Phil assembled, and the moment he committed to raising $12 million himself * How the bridge was engineered — steel girders, three feet of soil, Corten steel walls designed to block sight and sound from 60,000 cars passing underneath daily * Why animals began crossing before construction was even finished — and how within one year, all 31 mammal species known to inhabit the park had been documented using it * What Wendy Leonard has learned managing the bridge's natural systems, and why the vegetation hasn't always cooperated * How the land bridge reconnected a wildlife corridor stretching to the Salado Creek Greenway — and brought painted buntings back to the park RECOMMENDED NEXT LISTEN: ▶ 168. More Than Parks: How San Antonio Is Building Trails, Gardens, and Green Space Into a Growing City [https://www.bigcitysmalltown.com/168-more-than-parks-how-san-antonio-is-building-trails-gardens-and-green-space-into-a-growing-ci/] — A Creative Futures panel on green equity, urban nature, and the push to integrate green spaces into every corner of a fast-growing city. Essential context for this conversation. ….. GET THE NEWSLETTER 🗺️ If you enjoyed this conversation, subscribe to The San Antonio Something — Cory's newsletter with few things worth your attention about the city we call home. Things to do, taste, read, notice, and consider. Thoughtful, grounded, and unapologetically local. Subscribe here. [https://cory-ames.kit.com/cfc0c898b2] -- -- CONNECT 📸 Connect on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/bigcity.smalltown/] 🔗 Join us on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertjrivard/] 🎥 Subscribe on YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/@bcstsatx] SPONSORS 🙌 Support the show & see our sponsors [https://www.bigcitysmalltown.com/sponsors/] THANK YOU ⭐ Leave a review on Apple Podcasts ⭐ Rate us on Spotify

168. More Than Parks: How San Antonio Is Building Trails, Gardens, and Green Space Into a Growing City

This week on bigcitysmalltown, Cory Ames moderates a live panel from Creative Futures, a two-day summit in San Antonio bringing together creators, builders, entrepreneurs, and civic thinkers. This conversation focuses on green spaces in San Antonio — how we grow them, how we protect them, and how we creatively integrate nature into a city that is expanding fast. Joining Cory are Brandon Ross, capital programs manager for San Antonio Parks and Recreation, where he has spent two decades overseeing the Howard Peak Greenway Trail System, now over 100 miles of connected trail and growing; Bob Webster, co-owner of Shades of Green Nursery, a San Antonio institution he and his business partner Roberta Church built over 45 years, now being transformed into a public legacy garden; Stephen Lucke, founder and CEO of Gardopia Gardens, a nonprofit stewarding more than 20 acres across 75 schools and 10 school districts, reaching over 25,000 people annually; and Adriana Quiñones, President and CEO of Arboretum San Antonio, a 230-plus-acre former golf course on the southeast side being converted into one of the city's most significant public green spaces. They discuss: * How the Howard Peak Greenway Trail System grew to over 100 miles — and why connecting green spaces multiplies their ecological value * The physical barriers — rail lines, major roadways, lack of safe crossings — that limit access to parks and trails across the city * Why Bob Webster turned down $3.5 million for Shades of Green, and what he's building in its place * The difference between a park and a garden, and why San Antonio needs both * How Gardopia Gardens uses school yards, churches, and public land to integrate food growing into everyday life * Why native and edible trees — pecans, Mexican plums, mulberries — should replace the default landscaping choices across the city * How Arboretum San Antonio is using community input from over 18,000 San Antonians to shape a 20-year development plan * What green equity means in practice, and why access to green space shouldn't require traveling far RECOMMENDED NEXT LISTEN: ▶ 160. How a Polluted Lake Became a Wildlife Haven in San Antonio [https://www.bigcitysmalltown.com/160-how-a-polluted-lake-became-a-wildlife-haven-in-san-antonio/] — A closer look at how one of San Antonio's most degraded natural spaces was reclaimed — and what it says about the city's relationship with its environment. ….. GET THE NEWSLETTER 🗺️ If you enjoyed this conversation, subscribe to The San Antonio Something — Cory's weekly newsletter with five things worth your attention about the city we call home. Things to do, taste, read, notice, and consider. Thoughtful, grounded, and unapologetically local. Subscribe here. [https://cory-ames.kit.com/cfc0c898b2] -- -- CONNECT 📸 Connect on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/bigcity.smalltown/] 🔗 Join us on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertjrivard/] 🎥 Subscribe on YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/@bcstsatx] SPONSORS 🙌 Support the show & see our sponsors [https://www.bigcitysmalltown.com/sponsors/] THANK YOU ⭐ Leave a review on Apple Podcasts ⭐ Rate us on Spotify