Hundreds gather downtown for release of SA 2020 report
Culminating a six-month community visioning effort, Mayor Julián Castro and a steering
committee of community leaders released the first official SA 2020 report on Saturday, March
19, 2011, at UTSA's Downtown Campus.
Mayor Castro was flanked by numerous new community partners who said they were inspired by the
SA 2020 effort to expand existing public-private partnerships or create new ones in the areas
of education, economic development, public health and safety, government accountability and the
new energy economy.
The 135-page report was based on community input gathered at five public forums that attracted
thousands of San Antonians in person, and hundreds more online, to dream about what San Antonio
should look like in the year 2020.

“We set out to dream it, map it and do it, and this SA2020 effort has been about the first part
of that — dreaming it. It is not a list of projects; it's not even a strategic plan,” Castro said
to a crowd of several hundred gathered Bill Miller Plaza on the university's downtown campus.
“It is a set of aspirations for our city, the dreams that we have for ourselves, the targets that
we have in mind to reach by 2020. And this report is the culmination of that first stage, but in
the coming years, the most important part is how we get on the mapping it and the doing it.”
The effort, which included meetings around the city at the TriPoint YMCA, St. Mary's University
and McCollum and Roosevelt high schools, was led by three tri-chairs and a 21-member steering committee.
The tri-chairs are Darryl Byrd, managing director of Pearl Brewery, Sonia Rodriguez, a local attorney
and chairwoman of the Mayor’s Commission on the Status of Women, and Graham Weston, chairman of
Rackspace Hosting.
Among the announcements made on March 19 was the formation of Brainpower Initiative task force to
scour the educational landscape for proven programs that could move the needle in one of three
areas:kindergarten readiness, dropout prevention and college matriculation. Mayor Castro named USAA
President and CEO Joe Robles Jr. and H-E-B CEO Charles Butt as chairman and honorary chairman to
identify a potential sales-tax proposal to take to voters in November 2012.
The other partnerships include:
SA Reads
Community-wide effort being led by Rotary International District 5840, Literacy San Antonio (LSA)
and San Antonio Youth Literacy (SAYL). In the area of education, targets third grade reading proficiency.
Specifically, a new corps of volunteers will scale up a successful, but small program pairing struggling
second grade readers with volunteer reading coaches to 104 new schools next year, with a goal of getting
all third graders on reading level by 2020.
P16 Plus Council of Greater Bexar County
P16Plus will collaborate with 15 area school districts, not for profit organizations, Region 20
and early childhood focused organizations to agree upon consistent measurements and processes to
determine and improve Kindergarten Readiness. The P16 commits to leading efforts to evaluate our
progress and reaching the SA2020 goal of increased kinder readiness.
Problem Oriented Policing
The San Antonio Police Department is proposing to expand the use of the Problem
Oriented Policing (POP) philosophy. The POP philosophy was utilized by SAPD during the Eastside
Initiative last year. A POP project can be a portion of a neighborhood, business corridor or other
targeted area. The philosophy relies upon street level officers to identify, coordinate, analyze,
and track results and monitor for success. Officers will be able to coordinate the services of
other City service departments if needed. Key City partners include Code Compliance, Animal Care
Services, Solid Waste and Public Works.
Going forward, SAPD has convened a group of commanders to outline the organizational shift needed to incorporate
this philosophy citywide. The plan will integrate the City’s 104 SAFFE officers with the 50 Stimulus funded POP
officers. The unit’s mission will be defined and specific in order to create the accountability system to track
results. This reengineering of the SAFFE unit and the creation of accountability measures is also consistent with
recommendations from the Matrix review of SAPD.
Partnerships with UTSA
- College of Public Policy will host a Great Cities Dialogue on April 22, 2011 to further
SA 2020’s government accountability goals. The event will promote discussion on how to increase
the number of persons running for City Council and other public offices.
- Data Collection and Reporting of key and supporting SA 2020 indicators. The Texas State
Data Center will be the lead institute authorized to collect and interface with the various partners
in the collection of data relevant to reporting on the Key and Supporting Indicators. The Texas
State Data Center will work with individual partners in the development of agreements for data
transfer and reporting to and between the UTSA.
- Hosting of the SA 2020 Office – provision of office space for up to 3 staff members on
the UTSA Downtown Campus.
Centro Partnership
The Centro Partnership is a newly formed public/private partnership focused on creating
a great downtown. It intends to embrace the downtown development vision created by SA2020
and follow up with a strategic plan that clearly defines implementation and funding strategies
that will help create a great downtown that is truly the heart of San Antonio and serves as
everyone’s neighborhood
Mission Verde Alliance Business Plan
The Mayor's Green Jobs Leadership, chaired by Larry Zinn, will be launching the Mission
Verde Alliance with the Clean Tech Forum to coordinate the building of a 21st century green
economy in San Antonio.
Body Mass Index/Weight Loss Initiative — San Antonio Medical Foundation
The Wellness Coalition of San Antonio has committed to adopt 30 local businesses with between
50 and 300 employees to provide a comprehensive BMI/Weight-loss program to improve health outcomes.
The effort was initially piloted with 4 companies and will target obesity and overall health and
fitness. Partners include the Food Bank, San Antonio Metro Health District, Kronkosky Foundation,
Y.M.C.A, H-E-B, U.T.H.S.C.
Community of Churches for Social Action
CCSA member churches are committed to reaching the education goals outlined in the Vision 2020
report. CCSA’s initiatives include implementing a comprehensive mentoring process to ensure all
youth have a meaningful relationship with a caring adult, and expanding college assistance to all
member churches and all communities. Called Empower 21, the college financial assistance process
developed by Grace First Baptist Church will be aligned with the Café College model.
To see a recording of the live webcast or to view the SA 2020 report, visit www.SA2020.org or
www.NOWCastSA.com.