SAN ANTONIO – Gina Ortiz Jones, who will be inaugurated as San Antonio’s new mayor next week, joined GMSA+ anchors Ernie Zuniga and Stephanie Serna to share her excitement and priorities for the city.
The mayor-elect emphasized her commitment to being a mayor for all. She highlighted her focus on addressing persistent poverty, expanding Pre-K SA, and ensuring San Antonio benefits from projects like Project Marvel.
She also talked about the importance of open communication among federal, state, and local leaders, particularly in addressing ongoing immigration issues.
Ortiz Jones also touched on the importance of peaceful protests and the crucial role of first responders in ensuring safety.
“People should be able to exercise their First Amendment rights. There will be, of course, consequences if people engage in crimes, like destroying property or whatnot,” she said. “So I think, again, our community is quite level-headed when it comes to these types of activities. We know the importance of speaking out, and people should, again, feel free to do that in a peaceful way.”
Looking ahead, Ortiz Jones said she is eager to strengthen San Antonio’s role in military and space missions, leveraging the city’s manufacturing capabilities. She’s also committed to investing in education and ensuring equitable development across all neighborhoods.
“Let’s bring space missions here, but let’s also — the robots that have to go up into space and do all the maintenance on these spacecraft, you got to build those somewhere,” she said. “I say we build them here in San Antonio. So I think this is how we have to be leaning forward, not only as Military City USA but also in all the commercial opportunities that are as a result of that.”
Watch the full GMSA+ interview in the player above.
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