In winter storm, community activists shined
San Antonio community organizers and activists are a fierce bunch. They work at the grassroots level for modest pay, usually for nonprofits whose commitment is just as fierce.
Organizers usually don’t get much attention. Last week, as they assisted the most vulnerable among us, they should have.
Before most bureaucrats and elected officials had gotten out of bed, organizers, activists and advocates of all kinds were on the front lines of the winter storm.
They bundled up and checked in on the elderly, even if only to offer to charge their cellphones.
This kind of work isn’t new to them. A week before the power went out, some were protesting the city’s razing of tent camps for the homeless.
Once the storm hit, angry Facebook posts about what organizers saw as a slow response may have helped shame public officials into action.
Susana Mendez Segura was among the first to sound alarms about the danger posed by the extreme cold. She lives on the near West Side and often visits those she calls the “houseless” living under bridges, in tents and in other places exposed to the elements.
Amid the ice and arctic cold, she walked a four-block radius around her home, checked in on neighbors and encouraged one man to go to a “warming center” downtown.
The term irked her as much as it did me.
Though cots were set up for people to sleep at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center, “warming center” read like bureaucratic lingo for “don’t get too cozy.”
Mendez Segura also was among the first to notice that the downtown skyline was ablaze in light while West and East Side neighborhoods were in the dark.
She’s a staff preservationist and organizer for the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center. She’s working on the nonprofit’s project to renovate Lerma’s Nite Club on Zarzamora, a legendary live conjunto music venue that’s listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
On Sunday night, she was at District 1 Councilman Roberto Treviño’s office on Vance Jackson, awaiting a delivery of water and plumbing supplies from out of state.
She lost power at her house on Monday, Feb. 15. It wasn’t restored until Friday. As for water, she had a trickle during the storm, but when a pipe burst, she shut it off.
Mendez Segura said some politicians engaged in “political theater” during the crisis, attempting to heighten their visibility after being late to the party. She regards some as no-shows who abdicated their responsibilities.
Other activists such as actress-writer Mari Barrera were pleased to see “gente helping gente.”
Among them was Queta Rodriguez, a former Bexar County veterans’ service officer. At the height of the storm, she advocated for elderly tenants in San Antonio Housing Authority units that lost power and water.
“There were a lot of us,” Mendez Segura said.
What she most appreciated was the exposure of the “corrupt” grid that provides power to Texans at ultra-high costs, she said.
Activists have been emboldened by the deeper understanding Texas voters are gaining about the roles Gov. Greg Abbott; the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which operates the grid; and the Public Utility Commission played in the disaster.
“No one in Texas knew how convoluted and crooked the system had become,” Mendez Segura said. “We wouldn’t know any of this if not for the breakdown of CPS and SAWS.” CPS Energy is San Antonio’s cityowned power provider. SAWS is the San Antonio Water System, also owned by and answerable to taxpayers.
“Now we understand why Texas didn’t want to be part of a national grid,” Mendez Segura said.
The city’s grass-roots organizers found allies in Treviño, Bexar County Commissioner Tommy Calvert, former mayor and presidential candidate Julián Castro, U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro and other public servants who showed up for their constituents during the crisis.
They appreciated the words of Mayor Ron Nirenberg, who declared on national television that there would be “hell to pay” if utilities or ERCOT tried to saddle residents with big bills for electricity generated with natural gas, whose price spiked during the freeze.
Other activists such Lily Casura, an independent scholar and writer, created a Facebook page called Bexar Crisis Recovery to share available resources and data. It’s comprehensive.
It has encouraged people to sign a petition to protect Texas families from exorbitant energy bills resulting from the weather disaster. The Facebook group also shared information on two Texas House committees that will investigate what led to the power outages.
This is knowledge that can empower Texans and maybe even prompt some of them to organize on their own behalf.
For those who’ve long done such advocacy work, that would be a good outcome — and a silver lining from the snowstorms.