SAN ANTONIO – After back-and-forth discussions during a Thursday city council meeting, the vote to impose a proposed curfew for Hemisfair Park was shelved.
During the conversation, some expressed issues with the proposal, including whether the curfew would deter crime in the park, the proposed curfew’s language and how the potential new hours could impact tourism.
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District 1 Councilmember Sukh Kaur, the main proponent of imposing the park’s new hours, told her colleagues that her district had several concerns from citizens about the park’s safety after the influx of downtown crime this past spring.
However, San Antonio Police Chief William McManus expressed that he doesn’t believe public safety is an issue in the park’s area, adding that he doesn’t believe a curfew would decrease crime.
“The calls for service don’t back that up,” McManus said. “The statistical part of this that says curfews are not necessary. You’ve got the other side of this war as perception. That’s what (is) driving this right now. But from a law enforcement perspective, to put a curfew in a park that’s in the urban hub of the city, with a lot of businesses in there and a lot of other activity. In my opinion, not a good idea.”
Regarding the curfew’s language, councilmember Jalen McKee-Rodriguez was one of those who said officers would be confused about who they stop and cite who may be in the park after hours.
“The issue of discretion means that police choose when and how to enforce the curfew. So, we can stay up here all day and say, ‘This is the expectation; this is what’s going to happen,’” he said. “And that is up to the officer at the end of the day. Everyone is not treated the same. An officer can see a little old lady and determine that she’s not a threat and then decide, ‘I’m not going to approach her. She obviously has a reason to be here.’ But you see a young black man in a hoodie doing the same thing, and they may feel compelled to make sure that he’s supposed to be there and that he doesn’t pose a threat.”
Other people who felt weary of the language were Assistant City Manager Lori Houston and Councilmember Melissa Cabello Havrda.
Cabello Havrda said some businesses stay open past 10 p.m., and if the curfew was enforced, she didn’t want to see cooks or food servers get citations after they leave work.
Houston had similar thoughts but focused on whether people walking through the park to greturnto their vehicles after hours would receive citations.
District 9 Councilman John Courage, on the proposed curfew’s impact on tourism, said hotels, restaurants and bars will surround the park’s future.
Courage added that tourists may want to walk through the park late at night, and changing the park’s hours would only limit their opportunities.
“I’m a romantic, so, you know, couples may want to walk through the park hand in hand at midnight or something on a Saturday night,” he said. “And this park caters yes to residents, all residents of San Antonio, but also to tourists.”
After the lengthy discussion, Nirenberg and the council members voted to table the proposal for now, with the discussion of it being possibly brought up again in October, but nothing was finalized.
“All right, so, we’re going to pull this, and we’re going to have a little bit more staff work on this because clearly this is not ready for prime time,” Nirengberg said.
“If and when this ever comes back, we need to make sure that it comes before the council as a whole in B session and that if it ever gets further conversation beyond that, that we schedule some public hearings,” he said. “But this is clearly not a solution to the challenges that we’re trying to address.”