Alan Warrick wants to be the next East Side San Antonio City Councilman. The businessman pulled in the most votes in the Nov. 4 election, but did not receive the 50 percent plus one vote needed for a victory.
Keith Toney, the current council appointee to the seat, following Ivy Taylor's switch from District 2 to the mayor's chair, came in second. A runoff election is scheduled for Dec. 9, with early voting from Dec. 1-5.
The runoff campaign is giving Warrick a second chance to tell voters about his approach to city government. Always dressed in his Sunday best, he stood on the corner of Martin Luther King and WW White Road, getting a lot of waves, honks and hellos. He yelled out to drivers stopped at the light: “Hey, I need your vote again.”
Warrick thinks the district needs an overhaul, and it begins, he says, with getting people engaged and involved by voting. He cites development as a key issue and gives the example of the Alamodome and the AT&T Center, which promised revitalization in the area, something, he says, never happened.
He notices the standing water near the corner as well, saying drainage problems plague streets all over the East Side. “There's no drainage over here,” he points out. “When it floods, it's the worst here on the East Side and it's just not necessary because we're a thriving city. We're a growing city, economic revenues are growing, everything’s growing in San Antonio. People are moving here everyday and it's not the face that we want to put out.”
"If we want everybody to live in Schertz, and Cibolo and Live Oak and Universal City and Boerne, then that's fine," Warrick continues. "We cannot take care of our streets and not care of our city, ‘cause they're going to take care of theirs.”
People are signing on to support him, too. Pastor Ben Alexander stops by to greet Warrick as he campaigns. Alexander says that as a pastor, he feels an obligation to pick the right guy because people, especially in communities on the East Side, trust their religious leaders. “He's a nice young man and he'll be good for the community."
Warrick is also catching the eyes of voters like Calvin Young. Young said that in the Nov. 4 election, he had preferred Warrick's competitor, but he wants to shake Warrick's hand and talk to him. Now that he’s done that and heard him out, he's undecided. “I'm impressed,” says Young.
As early voting is set to begin, Warrick wants to make sure the small lead he already has grows to be enough for a victory in this runoff. He plans a win, and a run for the full term in May. “I want to be here eight years,” he says.
Editor's note: TPR is currently attempting to reach Keith Toney for an interview about his runoff campaign."
