and I'm the Volunteer State President of AARP here in Texas, and we're very excited to be here today. Before we start though, I would like to recognize a very special individual, Dr. Mike Flores, who's the President of Palo Alto College, and he has been so gracious. He's been so gracious in allowing us this venue as he has before on other occasions, so we thank you very much, President Flores. We're delighted to bring you today, which should be a terrific discussion, but some of the brightest minds in San Antonio and how to make this great city even greater for people of all ages. AARP takes both participation in the electoral process seriously, and we're happy to be back at Palo Alto College, a place where we've had some very memorable moments, including other debates. This debate is different in that it focuses on the age 50-plus population and how to make San Antonio a better place to live in terms of safe, walkable streets, better housing, transportation options, and opportunities for residents to participate in community activities. So let's talk logistics for a couple of minutes. The debate today will be composed of two parts. The first 50 minutes or so will be the moderator asking questions of the candidates, and we have an excellent moderator. The next 20 minutes will allow the audience and our web streaming viewers to ask questions. Then the candidates will have their closing statements. You should have received these white index cards when you walked in, and these are for you to jot down questions for the candidates because they want to hear what some of your concerns are. So if you don't have an index card and would like one, please raise your hand, and the staff will get you one right now. So if you need one, raise your hand. Okay? You can write your questions anytime with contact information and pass them down to the end of the aisle where our staff is going to collect them. Now, we do have something that we need to be aware of, and that is that during the debate there will be no cheering and no outbursts. You will just listen to the debate and you will have time to ask the questions that you wish to later, but no cheering for any candidate. We are nonpartisan and that's one of the regulations. We will only be able to get a handful of questions today. However, we will forward all the questions to the candidates so they can see what's on your mind. Also at the end of the debate, as you walk out of the auditorium, we will be handing out box lunches and water bottles as well as a way to thank you for your participation here today. Finally, I'd like to recognize one of our staff, Lisa Rodriguez, our Associate State Director in San Antonio and she is the one who leads all the work here in the area. So Lisa, would you please stand and be recognized? We also have other ARP staff and volunteers here present. Would you please stand and be recognized? Anyone that's a volunteer or that's another staff person, just wave your hand so they'll know where you are. And now it's my honor and my privilege to introduce a friend, a very good friend, and native San Antonio who is a member of our Volunteer Executive Council in Texas. And I'm going to tell you just a little bit about her. Julia Castellano Hoyt worked 25 years for the city of San Antonio where she became the first Hispanic woman to serve as an assistant to the mayor and the first Hispanic Social Services Administrator. She also worked as a teacher and served on the Bear County Welfare Board and also in the military as a member of the Women's Army Corps. In addition to all that, Julia is one of ARP's most active volunteers having worked with ARP for almost 14 years now and being an outstanding member of our Executive Council. So would you please help me introduce to you Julia Castellano Hoyt. Thank you, Ollie, for that very gracious introduction. I began to feel older as she was going over what I had done. It is my pleasure to welcome you here today. I'm interested citizens and volunteers to this very, very important event. ARP is proud of its civic involvement and in getting the information out so that people can become informed voters. San Antonio is blessed this year to have some excellent public servants who have thrown their hats into the ring to become our next mayor. It is a pleasure to have all of them here today with us and they will share with us how they plan to make San Antonio an even better place. So let's get things started by introducing our moderator who will then introduce the candidates to you. Elena Yalla has been in the newspaper business for over 33 years as a reporter, editor, blogger, and columnist. She has worked at six metropolitan dailies including the Carpus Christi Caller Times, the Arizona Daily Star, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the Austin American Statements, and the El Paso Times. For the last 16 years, Elaine has reported for the San Antonio Express News her metro column runs on Monday in the Express News and its bilingual weekly in Conexionist. She also writes a Latino live blog about Latino arts, politics, and mass. Her minority of the community focuses on diversity and ethnic communities. A San Antonio native, Elaine graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and has been involved in several journalism organizations throughout her career. She's mainly focused on increasing the number of minorities and women in the U.S. newsrooms and raising money for scholarships for students pursuing careers in the media. Please help me welcome Elaine Yalla. Thank you so much AARP for inviting me to moderate this mayoral candidate forum today, only the 150th in the season. That was a joke. But this one is focused on San Antonio's age friendliness and its livability. The city's population of senior citizens. With that as our focal point, our candidates today are Taylor, the city mayor of San Antonio, Leticia Vandiput, former member of the Texas Senate, Mike Villarreal, member of the Texas House of Representatives, and Tommy Atkinson, former Bear County Commissioner. Please welcome them. We only have a few rules today. Each candidate will have two minutes for their opening comments and a two-minute closing statement. Candidates will then have 90 seconds to answer questions. Our timekeeper, wave your sign. Is seated in the front row with a 30-second sign and a time's up sign. So, with that, let's begin with your two-minute introductions and we'll begin at your left, Commissioner Atkinson. Thank you very much. I appreciate having a chance to be here. And glad to address issues affecting those of us who are marching down the road of life. My Back to Basics campaign has included focus on crime-free, safe and sustainable neighborhoods, road infrastructure including curves and sidewalks. Many neighborhoods do not have adequate sidewalks. Flood control, a big deficit of flood control needs that have not been addressed, the walkability of our neighborhoods, and of course expanding local businesses, things that matter most to San Antonio families. But today I stand before you as the vanguard of the silver tsunami. Those baby boomers who are either retired or about to retire or somewhere in that direction. And so it's all of a sudden, when you couldn't be 21 or 30 quickly enough, you're all of a sudden 60, 65, you know, I get my first Social Security check, I hope this month, here at age 66. But we're strong and we're going to last very long. They say that because of diet exercise, modern medicine and modern dentistry, that many of the baby boomers are going to grow very old and fall apart very slowly, many of them reaching 100. And I would just hope that you have a very long and good life and I hope to do the same. One of the things that I think is critical to our well-being is that we, those questions that seniors are most interested in, I think of course the ability to walk your own neighborhood should not be in question, but I can tell you in my neighborhood it is in question, because you're going to be chased by dogs. And that is unfortunate. There also is a lack of sidewalks. We came up in an era where sidewalks were considered rather optional in very middle American neighborhoods. In the nicer neighborhoods, they had sidewalks. Okay, I live in a nice neighborhood, but it's not in the socioeconomic category of having sidewalks. We'll look forward to addressing all these issues as we go. Thank you. Thank you. Mayor Taylor. Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for taking the time to be here. Thank you to AARP and Alamo Colleges for organizing this forum. Well, my name is Ivy. I've had the privilege of serving as your mayor since July 22nd of last year. Prior to that, I've been a member of the San Antonio City Council since 2009, representing District 2. Before that, I worked at an affordable housing agency that was focused on providing great options for living for San Antonians. And prior to that, I was a city employee doing some of that same work focused on affordable housing and improving our neighborhoods. So as you can see, based on my career record, I'm not a career politician. I'm so focused on doing what's right for San Antonians and helping in areas where it's needed. So I'm asking for you to allow me to continue serving as mayor so that I can focus on those things that will help us to continue to be a great city. And certainly at the top of the list is ensuring that we have a strong economy, which I think we have to achieve through investing in ourselves, investing in our capital infrastructure here in our city, streets and sidewalks and drainage to ensure that people have the infrastructure for their daily living and to facilitate commerce, and also investing in our people to ensure that all San Antonians have the skills and education necessary to participate in our economy. I'll make sure our city government is smart and fiscally responsible, but most importantly, I'll work with all San Antonians, bringing all folks together to work on behalf of our collective vision of creating a great San Antonio for people of all ages and all walks of life. Thank you. Senator Vanderpute. Thank you, Elaine. Good afternoon. And thank you for giving your most precious gift that you have. That's the gift of your time. I am grateful to Dr. Flores and the great staff here at Palo Alto for hosting us this afternoon. And I am extremely grateful to AARP, not just for this afternoon, but for the years of advocacy and the working relationship that we had when I was in the Texas legislature. First, the nine years I was in the house, but most recently the 14 years in the Texas Senate. I was proud to sponsor the bills and pass them successfully that were so important to AARP, creating that statewide council on aging. This forum is important, and maybe it's important because San Antonio is an old city. We are almost 300 years old. We have a rich legacy, but we also know that as the seventh largest city, our best days are ahead of us. It is important to focus on the issues that are critical for all ages, but particularly the growing demographics of seniors.  My girlfriends and I have decided that we're not really excited about the term baby boomers. We've decided we're going to be called boomer babies. We want to be active throughout our 80s and 90s. But I know that what we call that the third age is so important to have seniors give back to the community, stay healthy, make sure that they have inclusion and activities throughout the city. Not just in our nutrition centers, but in every aspect. I look forward to your questions today, and I want to thank you for your participation. Thank you. Representative Villarreal. Thank you. Is this on? I think so. Okay, great. Elaine, thank you. And when it's the ask, good morning. It's a pleasure to be with you. My name is Mike Villarreal. I was born and raised here in San Antonio. My father immigrated to the city from a small town in Guadalupe. He became a citizen in high school. My parents cared deeply about education and things to go further. I was the first in my family to graduate from college, Texas A&M. I studied economics. Went on to Harvard, earned a master's degree, worked in finance for over a decade. My clients were cities. I would help them manage their debt. I served in the legislature for 15 years, proudly representing you and our larger community in Austin, fighting for issues that were about protecting the lives of seniors, but also your children and your grandchildren, advancing consumer protections, whether it was payday lending protections or protections against predators who were trying to push home equity loans on seniors who couldn't afford them. I talk a lot about building a city of opportunity. That is not just for our young people, but it's also for our seniors. I want San Antonio, and I know we can build a San Antonio, where we are connected to our communities, where we have more safe places to walk or catch a bus. We don't have to worry about somebody harming our property or our lives in our homes, in our neighborhoods. We can build a safer San Antonio together. Yes, we are a historic city, but together, working every day, giving it our all. We can continue making history for San Antonio, for our people today and into the future. Thank you for including me. Okay, let's begin with Commissioner Atkinson with the first question that all of you will take turns answering. For San Antonio residents ages 45 to 64, community support and services that help them live independently remains the biggest unmet need. How would you address this issue as mayor? Well, first of all, many people have spoken about combining city and county government. I have found that that is a major departure from what we've all done and a major infusion of time and effort. I would like to form a partnership with the county where I came from and make sure that we have health, front and center. We have a 17% incidence of diabetes in this community. We have, the national is seven, okay? It's a hugely debilitating factor in our community and we need to address health. We need to work to make sure that the county, the university health system is in every way possible, making sure that our health is on the uptick and I think we take some guidance from them and not be so insecure about us not being in complete control of the health system that we turn our backs on it and try to create another entity of government to do that. I think that's front and center. They can encourage the diet, the exercise, the knowledge. A lot about diabetes prevention I think is surely education. There are a lot of people that are surprised to find out that they did diabetes and there's a lot of our eating habits that are well known to the world as not healthy and we have to work on it. My mother has I think borderline diabetes and sometimes I had to wonder about whether I'm creeping up there myself. So far not, but that remains to be seen in the future so those are just starter thoughts. Mayor Taylor. Sure. Well as I mentioned in my opening comments I have been and will continue to focus quite a bit on our economic health as a city. I think certainly having a vibrant economy provides folks opportunity to be gainfully employed and that helps quite a bit in them living independently but there are other things that we as a community can come together to do to facilitate that worthy goal as well. I think certainly ensuring that we have safe, stable, mixed income and mixed use neighborhoods where there are a variety of housing types that are available in a range of ages or lifestyles is very important. We can help make that happen in planning and right now we're in the middle of an effort or the front end of an effort called SA Tomorrow to allow us to plan for the growth that will continue here in San Antonio and allow us to prioritize investments that will make an infrastructure so that we can create just those types of neighborhoods that I described. And then finally, certainly I've used this opportunity in the merits office to continue to promote healthy lifestyles because you can't really you can't enjoy anything in life having a good job or living in a great neighborhood if you're not healthy. And so I think we as a community have to continue educating folks on healthy lifestyle options and also working in partnership with the many partners that focus on health to ensure that access to health is available access to health care is available for our citizens. Senator Van DePute. Thank you, Elaine. Can you tell me the age that you just mentioned because I thought you said 45 to 64. That is the group that said that community support and services are the biggest unmet need. Thank you. Because when I think of seniors, I've got to tell you I don't think of that age group that you mentioned because most of folks in that age group are still working and they're working because they have to. We know that our poverty statistics for San Antonio are extremely embarrassing particularly when it comes to that age group. We know that a lot of those seniors and I would call them those that are probably 50 and above the percentage of grandparents who are raising their grandchildren because of circumstances in their family. So as mayor, I would focus on making sure that those jobs and the economy is available because that transportation and jobs, that age group, they're still in the workforce and making sure that they can take care of their families. But there is no age discrimination within our city when it comes to hiring and with those who have contracts with the city. Time and time again, I have been told by friends that they are passed over for promotions, that they are looked over when they're trying to get a job just because of their age and that would not happen. We need to make sure that those in that group have the transportation options that they need and particularly the job opportunities so that they can live a life of dignity. Thank you. Representative Villarreal. When I think about improving the quality of life at the neighborhood level, the community level for San Antonioans, there are two issues that come to mind. One is transportation.  I want us to improve transportation throughout San Antonio. We are wasting too much time away from our friends and our loved ones in traffic or taking multiple bus connections to get from point A to point B. The city of San Antonio needs to act strategically in a way that improves public transit and also alleviates congestion on our most trafficked streetways and highways. I support Via's vision for having a high quality bus system called Bus Rapid Transit that is coupled with HOV lanes and parking rides to help relieve the most congested areas of town and help people who are dependent on public transit get to the places they need to go. The second issue is keeping our neighborhoods vibrant and that means creating more safe places to walk, to easily get to, to pop into a neighbor's home, to walk to a market that is nearby or a neighborhood library. San Antonio has done a terrible job in too many of our neighborhoods for not building basic things like sidewalks for our children to walk safely to school or our seniors to get to a center. The next question is somewhat... A recent AARP survey found three issues that urgently needed addressing to help ensure the safety of life for older residents. They were well maintained streets, neighborhood safety, and adequate sidewalks and street crossings. What will your administration do to advocate for these issues and improve on the services all provided by the city? And we'll begin this round with Mayor Taylor. Thank you. That's a great question and something that I've been working on since I've been at City Hall really and certainly since I've been in the mayor's office. But there are two great opportunities that we have in order to address this issue. One doesn't fall within the purview of these issues but impacts our physical health and that is having a contract with our public safety workers that is sustainable for our financial future. And so right now the revenues are growing... are not growing at the same pace as the costs of that service that we have to provide. And so we need to make adjustments in order to allow for space within the budget to address other things like maintenance of our streets and sidewalks. So we have on an annual basis a budget that allows us to do those things and we've been trying to increase that. But then we'll also have an opportunity presented in 2017 through a bond where we'll go out to the voters and ask for permission to borrow money so that we can make the necessary improvements in our streets and in our sidewalks. I think, again, we have to plan for that. We have to plan for how we want to grow so that we can prioritize the investments that need to be made so that we can make investments that will catalyze additional investments from the private sector recognizing that there's usually not enough money to do our top priorities and we have strategies in place to address them. Terrific. Senator Vanderpute. Thank you. When you talk about well-maintained streets and sidewalks that you can get a wheelchair through and particularly crossings, it's all about that transportation. And our city has kind of been kicking the can down the road. We've got over $1 billion of deferred maintenance needs right now. So as Mayor, I will propose in the upcoming 2017 bond package that at least 75% of those bonds that our citizens will be able to approve probably between $500 million and $600 million that 75% go to streets and sidewalks and the drainage. The very things that make our neighborhoods safer.  We had to put in special crossings right there across from Primrose, which is our senior apartments, because they were trying to get to the bus stop. And we also know that in communities all across that we've got seniors who fall out of their own car in the wheelchair because there are no sidewalks. With public safety, we need to make sure that we get this contract done so that we can hire more police officers. Right now, we are about 150 short, and that means our neighborhoods are going to start to be impacted. Thank you, Representative Villarreal. Thank you. Well, I've already been talking about the importance of sidewalks and creating more safe places to walk and doing basic street repair and, of course, making our neighborhoods safer. Now, let me tell you the truth, because it's easy to make promises when you're on the campaign trail about all the things that we're going to purchase for you. But how are we going to pay for it? That is really the question. How are we going to pay for all of this? The single most important challenge facing City Hall today is getting the police and firefighters contract right. And that means making it a contract that is affordable, that is financially sustainable. Imagine your own household. What would it look like if you were spending money faster than your earning money coming into your home? Well, let me tell you, City Hall has a public safety contract with costs that are growing year to year at 6%. Revenue coming in is only growing year to year by 4%. This wouldn't be a big deal if public safety was a small part of our budget, but it is not. It's 67% of the budget. If you care about streets, sidewalks, senior nutrition centers, arts, libraries, anything else, we've got to get this contract right. In this race, this is an important issue because there is only one candidate who's been endorsed by the police union. And the police union has decided to step away from the negotiating table and try to advance their interest through this election. And that's not in our best interests. Commissioner Atkinson. Well, I think when you talk about streets, safety, and sidewalks, quite frankly, I have grown up here and I was born in the Santa Rosa Hospital. My wife and the Wilford Hall have been here all our lives. I have watched neighborhoods consistently get neglected and demise to the point where people start losing faith and moving out. And the older neighborhoods are left without the kind of strength and advocacy that these foundation neighbors could have provided. And also, if you look at the property taxes, the revenue is less from a declining neighborhood than it is from a neighborhood that's stable or that's actually on the uptick. And so it actually helps the donor communities to have the older communities sustainable and functioning. So I think if you have not throwaway neighborhoods, you have sustainable neighborhoods, your tax revenues will be adequate and we can do great things as a community. That's what I would basically suggest. And I think that these efforts on neighborhoods has been less than adequate. If you look at the project 2020, you see number three is to consider leaders of the things you ought to do. Excuse me. I founded my neighborhood association in Highland Hills 37 years ago. I've been involved with neighborhoods throughout that time, helping form the Highland Park Neighborhood Association as well as my own. So those are things that your leader needs to do as mayor. Okay. The next question will begin with Senator Vanderpute. Independence in one's own home is a critical issue for seniors, especially since building enough care facilities is costly and can restrict independence. How can the city address this desire to age in place? Thank you. Our family has been really blessed. My great-grandmother, who was born in Musquiskuawila and lived here in San Antonio as a business owner, had a Roy's Ice House on Commerce Street. When she suffered a stroke, doctors all had said that she needed to go to a nursing home. She needed to go and stay there. We knew that that wasn't the appropriate place for our Walita.  And guess what? It was six kids and four dogs and two cats and Memo and help and us, and it was the most wonderful years. Today, my mother, Belle, who's in the audience, a retired educator, lives with Pete and I in our home. And where we used to stay awake at night trying to figure out when our teenagers and college age kids are coming home, I can tell you now we wait up to see when mom's coming home. She lives a very active life and I know that what seniors want is independence. But we also need to make sure that we've got the cohesiveness and the services for our seniors so that they can be in the place that they want to live. Whether it's in their own home, whether it's in a group home, whether it's in the senior living community. And to do that, you're going to need a city and a county that work together, not just on a joint commission of affairs, but also with the COG, our Council of Aging, and with our state. My experience in bringing people together is a common solution. We'll help in this because we'll be focused on it. Thank you. Representative Villarreal. My mom has been a nurse as long as I've known her for my whole life. In fact, she was pregnant of me when she walked across stage at St. Philip's College earning her certificate to be an LVN. This has been her special gift, caring for seniors. Still today, this is what she does. She's turned the home I grew up in into a residential care licensed home. She cares for eight seniors, little ladies. These are like my great-great-grandparents. And when I visit mom, I get to visit them as well. And so I know on a personal level how important it is to have multiple housing options. Yes, it's important to stay as long as we can in our own homes. But when the time comes, and we need to be more directly cared for around the clock, it's important that the group homes, the residential care homes that exist in San Antonio are up to par, have high quality. As your mayor, I want the city of San Antonio to be actively engaged in raising the quality and the standards of these group homes. I've heard of too many stories where seniors have been abused. And the city of San Antonio should not let that happen to our own community members. As your mayor, I will put an end to that. In terms of helping people stay as long as they can in their own homes, I think the nutrition programs, the centers, need to be properly funded. Both the new ones that are up and running and the smaller neighborhood-based ones that were once a common neighborhood. Thank you, Commissioner Atkinson. As the founding attorney for the Texas Organization of Residential Care Homes, I was early on in my legislative life in the fact that not everybody can afford to be in a nursing home. Not everybody can afford a lot of things once you get, if you're in a hospital that costs the Medicaid and the federal government 70 to 80,000 a year for a person in dialysis. Talk about a prescription for breaking the bank. We have got to not only discipline and deal with our own situations, but we've got institutions and pathways that allow us to affordably handle the buffettings of life that we receive. And I think the residential care development was hugely important. I think that the home health industry is hugely important. I think your family, of course, fundamentally and firstly, is of huge importance because they've got your back. And I think that it's important that we find ways to connect with those who have the contacts that can help us sustain ourselves financially as we move into those years where the money is not so plentiful, but the challenges are. So the smarts that it takes to get from point A to point B and point Z for that matter is all available, like torch and all of your neighbors and your families. And I look forward to working with them on that. Thank you, Mayor Taylor. From my earliest days at City Hall, dating back to 1998, I've worked on this issue. At that time, we were talking about a concept called visitability, which meant that if we were going to invest city dollars in construction of homes, we wanted them to have a standard that may not have been 100% ADA accessible, but would make it a lot easier for someone to age in place. No step entrances, wider hallways, accessible showers, that type of thing. That's a simple thing that we can continue when the city makes investments in housing developments. But one thing that I have noticed is that there is a gap in housing availability for seniors who are kind of middle income range. There are a lot of options for senior income, and if you've got five or six thousand dollars a month, you can certainly find a senior living facility that offers a range of services. Some may have a pension that's not very hardy, but it puts them above the level where they can actually benefit from housing authority or other income restricted property. So, I would like to have more conversation about that, how those kind of facilities can be sprinkled throughout neighborhoods and how we can have a range of housing types within neighborhoods that provide for less maintenance, smaller properties that would allow seniors to continue to live in neighborhoods where they've been for years. I invite you all to come out on May 15 to the Mayor's Housing Policy Conference to be part of the discussion on how we can do that together. Thank you. With this question Representative Villarreal, older citizens are becoming a larger share of the population. What are the benefits in that? How can you take advantage of their contributions and their experience? We benefit from our senior senior attorney in so many different ways. Many are choosing to mentor the next generation. Many are reading buddies helping second graders get on track so that they can be on grade level and help them to achieve a goal of ours which is to make sure all of our children read on grade level by age three. Seniors are giving back in so many different ways through education nurturing the next generation in housing programs in nurturing and mentoring even the next generation of professionals. What I'm a big fan of here locally and as your Mayor I will help continue is the organization called SA 2020 which came from us thousands of us came together and envisioned an aspirational vision for our city the San Antonio at its best and it set out specific goals and then directed us community members and largely seniors at the organizations where they can give their time and make the biggest difference in areas they care about whether it's literacy or health or protecting the environment and being better stewards of our part I want to keep that organization going because it allows all of us and especially our senior population to plug into the most effective organizations to give of our time the most important thing that we have. Thank you. Commissioner Atkinson. Okay. And the question was how does San Antonio take advantage of their experience and contributions? Well first of all most of you probably heard what I was saying earlier that I read and that is most of the baby boomers are going to grow very old fall apart very slowly many of them reaching a hundred. Okay. So you got a lot of them retiring at 65 let's say I can't imagine 75 myself. At least not full time retire. But you've got a lot of people that are going to live I've got 80s and they're looking great they say 80s is a new 60 but there are a lot of folks out there my mother is 90 she's still driving I'm happy for her and those around her as well but but when that time comes she'll stop driving the fact is I think we have a huge wealth of talent and we need to take a bigger picture view of who we are as we age beyond 65 on our way to 100 and start talking about neighborhood organizations I go to neighborhood associations I can tell you it is pathetic the low support they have and when I see what the city is doing for neighborhoods and frankly the county I don't think was really great either but we generally are thought to not have those intensely populated neighborhoods but your neighborhood takes care of a whole lot on the neighborhood agenda streets security hello from a person whose mother was home invaded 10 days ago security streets drainage the dangerous that prevent walkability but let me tell you the person that invaded my mother's home was caught within 24 hours it's a direct credit to the greatness of the San Antonio police department and it's new chief Anthony Trevino but that and his girlfriend the car is going to testify against him I love it but we do need to take advantage of the neighborhood feature and opportunity great thank you Mayor Taylor our seniors provide so much to the richness of our community here in San Antonio well first of all just from a civic participation perspective seniors are the ones who run the neighborhood associations and who are involved with boards and commissions and keeping up with keeping tabs and keeping us accountable down at city hall many seniors are involved in volunteering I would certainly like to help strengthen connections between senior groups and our K through 12 system as we need more mentors to help our young people to advance but by and large the most important contribution that seniors make to our community is just the wisdom that you have to offer based on your years of experience and I think more of us folks who haven't quite reached that senior category left need to be open to listening and hearing about your life experiences many adversity that we can't imagine in this day and age when the laws have provided a level playing field to a certain extent for for many of us to hear and think about the things that you all went through successful in raising your families in creating stable neighborhoods should serve as an inspiration and as mayor I certainly look forward to learning from more of you and facilitating opportunities for younger San Antonians to benefit from your vast experience. Thank you Senator Vandeputte. I was at San Fernando Cemetery visiting my grandparents grave and I had with me my three year old grandson and then a new infant granddaughter and it hit me at that moment that I was at my grandparents grave and yet I had my grandchildren with me and it was that stark reality of the generation after generation and the wisdom that I hoped one day that I would be able to impart to now my almost eight grandchildren will have twins born in August my grandmother only had a third grade education but she always had these and one of the things she always used to say is which means if you know what you don't know you know something we don't know everything and we live in a very complex world but what we do know is that AARP has at least 130,000 members in San Antonio what we do know is that 12% of our population here is 65 and older we need to make sure that those folks in that age range feel valued in our community and one of the things that we can do is to feel valued you want to give back but you can't give back if you're having to go back to work so keeping our taxes low our property taxes low as your mayor that would be one way we can make sure that our city USA and I have a proud but we're not veteran city USA and as mayor I would make sure that we are working with the county to do that we need to embed seniors whether it's our public health department the arts because they can give back so much thank you so much in this next round of we'll go with Commissioner Atkinson first and this is a follow-up what will you do as mayor to increase aspects and economic opportunity for San Antonio from their jobs in their 50s and 60s well I think I think that we have the Texas workforce commission and there's a lot of opportunities for the city to replicate what other entities are already doing very well but I think what we can do is we can be a catalyst we can help support things project quest is one that the county is now supported and I think the city as well supports those are things to keep people in a job training capacity one of the things I've been hearing as a commissioner is that we're really not up to some of these jobs that are at Boeing for instance and some of the other various large employers and so we have to really be on task we cannot live in the comfort zone of less than acceptable or competitive educational levels so I think we need to encourage these arrangements between the high schools and the junior college the Texas workforce commission ought to be a central partner with the city and the county as we continue to prepare for everybody to be ready to work in those various skills I have understood that some of the people from Toyota have been lured away into the Eagleford shale area where they're making more money so you can only imagine that Toyota is probably thinking do we have the kind of talent it takes to work here at Toyota I submit that that's just like the road to progress is always under construction and the road to those jobs will always be under construction and central to the city's work thank you Mayor Taylor okay well workforce development has been a priority of mine during the time I've been in the mayor's office it's important that we streamline our workforce development system to make it easier for people to access the training that would be necessary for them to a new skill set that would allow them to re-enter the workforce doing something else I believe also apprenticeships are great people to possibly pivot from one career path to another to have opportunity for hands-on learning and so I've been working with the Chamber of Commerce in a program that they have created to help facilitate internships and I'd like to grow that to scale I've worked closely with Dr. Leslie at Alamo Colleges so that we could implement the role of Alamo Colleges as the central entity that would help us with our workforce development system and then finally I'd say from the City Hall perspective that we can certainly support those non-profit organizations that are providing the assistance to people who are making that transition and some of the ones that I've been pleased to support in the past include Dress for Success as well as Project Quest in the legislature I sponsored would make sure that the unemployment services and all of the things that we now consider Alamo workforce were at the local level before that all of those decisions were made in Austin and I knew that if we got appointees to local board they knew what the services were knew what the data was that it would be a better decision making and City Council makes appointments to the Alamo workforce solutions and they're the ones that do the contracting out through the Texas Workforce Commission we know that our unemployment is only at 3.8% so our problem particularly with the age group and seniors is not under employment I mean it's not unemployment it's under employment they're working but they're not making the salary level that they need and because of that it's that technical skills we know now that so much of every single job is computer skills and so we're proposing that through Alamo workforce solution that they partner with our Alamo colleges not just to up the skills of our students that have just graduated but with those that need those new computer skills to stay up with that promotion to be that level of employment that they really are worth that's how we can really help seniors it's not just the unemployment it's their under employment Representative Villarreal workforce training vocational education has always been important to me my father is an AC repairman my mom a licensed vocational nurse they both got their training and certifications at St. Phillips college and for them vocational education help them get a foothold into the working middle class and so as a state legislator I help create a state fund to support programs like project quest and not just project quest locally but all around the state so this concern of to job training programs has always been important will continue to be important when I am your mayor you can expect from me number one I want to and I will with you create more than 20,000 internships and apprenticeships that allow our people who go back to school to couple their classroom learning with on the job training and experience we know that our people learn best when we are doing we learn by doing and so that is very important I will continue the effort of creating just in time training programs where our biggest employers come to the table and say can you help create a training program because we need 12 or 20 people who can do this kind of job we have success in doing this with Holt Kat and with Toyota I will keep that up so that we have innovative job training programs for our people thank you I probably have time for one more one of my questions but I encourage you to fill out those index cards we are going to be receiving questions from both you in the audience and people via web okay so with this question we will start with Mayor Taylor San Antonio is a relatively young city yet more than 22% are 55 and over as we become more age diverse where specifically can we better cultivate intergenerational opportunities focus your answers on city programs and infrastructure that can more comprehensively include citizens of all ages in such activities that is a wonderful question certainly we have many city programs that would allow us to do that I think we could work with our senior centers to determine how we could allow for the seniors to interface with some of our young people perhaps in the summertime when the city also has the parks and recreation summer program and the kids would be a great opportunity for them to sit at the feet of our statewide seniors and hear about how life was when they were I also believe our arts and cultural facilities and programs provide a great opportunity for kids of all ages to enjoy our rich culture and heritage here in San Antonio so I believe there could be more emphasis in ensuring that the programming of seniors as well as young people and providing the opportunity for them to interact and interface within the context of those arts and cultural activities I've lost where I am who's next who's next thank you Ling there's a lot that our city can do if they think creatively if we're able to bring people to the table and if we listen for 35 years I've been listening across a prescription counter and I know kind of what works and what needs to be tried Councilman Ray Lopez has a great concept and in fact they're putting it in place in his council district the new library is not just the library it is going to be managed by the YMCA as a fitness and wellness center a library, a community center a place where seniors will go during the day and then after school our children can go it is a place where they're going to have computer skills taught so it's not a silo where you have a children's activity center here in a park and a library then you have a senior center here then you have a wellness center here it's all in one place so that families can be together at certain times we know that people will use the facilities differently but we know that it's best to share those skills and you can save taxpayer dollars by doing it all in one location so I think the new model of city should not just be something here and something there but look at it collaboratively so that we do have expertise and experience so we can value all generations of San Antonians Representative Villarreal this is a very good question and it calls to my mind a person who is giving in my neighborhood school his name is David Gannon he's a retired scientist a senior he comes to my children's school Bonham Academy which is a K through 8th grade school a part of San Antonio ISD to mentor and tutor students he pulls out young students who need some special one-on-one attention and he focuses on teaching them math and science lessons this is a wonderful example of how to connect people experience and want to give back and the next generation for me when I envision the city of San Antonio a quilt of neighborhoods and within each one is a neighborhood school as your mayor I will work to open up our neighborhood schools so they can be places of partnership of collaboration where different generations can come and work together and learn together this is working in many parts of our city today I think we can do more with this and as your mayor I will make sure we do thank you Commissioner Atkinson well this is a moment in time that all of us should take a good snapshot of because in my lifetime of being here all 66 years of my life I have never seen the growth that we've had here in San Antonio and so when I look at the older neighborhoods too many of them are all over this area east, west, near north we have we had 166,000 from what I gathered in my information 166,000 people that came in 2013 and apparently that's every year and growing and growing that's why you see all the traffic on the highways and the byways but I would think that it would be great for the department of neighborhoods for your city to facilitate the marketability of older neighborhoods try to find ways for the city to reinvest in those older neighborhoods and reduce the traffic glut as everybody tries to rush to the same place hello there are other places besides one place where people living north would appreciate having a little measure of calm in their neighborhoods and maybe a little less traffic we've got old infrastructure just like the old schools are closing down one just near north of town closing down a structure has gotten a lot of investment SAISD paid blood, sweat and tears to get it there we need to do what we can to seize the moment seize the opportunity to use what we have already have you ever heard that? use what you got and I think if we split up the neighborhoods we'll have new neighbors that can intergenerational mix with older ones thank you now for our questions from the audience this one comes from Roslyn Barksdale bus stops oh and we'll begin with senator van depu bus stops often feel unsafe what will your administration do to make them safer and more accessible your mayor and your county and the surrounding cities appoint members of the VIA our metropolitan transit that is funded separately by a half cent sales tax that we all pay but we get to a point right now we've seen that in certain quarters we've begun the process of improving those bus stops and the amenities you can see them in certain ones the newest one is actually kind of that Nakadotius parent vital and also around brocala the fastest number of growing seniors is actually that area just north of the airport you wouldn't think so unless you looked at the demographics but as mayor we would make sure to appoint people that would look at this in a very very comprehensive manner as we roll out more of the bus rapid transit as we roll out more of those parking rides the newest one to be on the north side we need to make sure that those bus stops are safe lighting is critical but it's not just the safety issue I can tell you that right near the house even on the medical center in the medical center a senior on a wheelchair can't navigate where the bus stop is because there's a utility pole right in the middle that's one of the things that we absolutely need to take care of and as mayor I would make sure that we put our focus on that mobility and on via making sure that they are doing everything they can for the safety of our patrons on the bus Representative Villarreal here's what I'll do, number one I'll change the specifications of how to build a sidewalk in San Antonio now the standards for building a sidewalk are not even acceptable to highway traffic engineers about making things walkable here's what's wrong with them they're too narrow two wheelchairs approach each other without one falling off they're right up against the curb this doesn't make the walkers feel the drivers who are speeding nearby they should be away from the curb there should be a space of grass where a tree could be planted utility poles should not go into the sidewalk these are basic things that for too long we have not cared to write as your mayor I will fix this second I recognize the relationship between transportation and housing I will make sure that we encourage development along our business corridors our most trafficked areas because as we as we grow if we grow in a way that allows us to be more dense that will encourage more people to take the bus finally Via is often seen as the most care of public transit and the city doesn't have to play an aggressive role no, I think the city needs to play a much bigger role in investing in public transit and as your mayor I'll make sure to prioritize public transit in our budget thank you Commissioner Atkinson thank you very much the basics the basics the basics the fundamentals that's what made me realize once I joined my fellow commissioners proposing that we do the street car that I asked Mayor Taylor and Judge Wolfe to please set it for an election the people were angry and upset that they were really not properly consulted no problem, I'm not infallible because I get elected to a public office in fact all contrar I'm just as capable of the next guy of having a challenge I'm so glad that after about 10 days from having written that letter that both the mayor and the county judge pulled it down down put an election but the problem is the people are not happy with it I had a lot of people tell me we're not for it we're not for it what I think is important about our about Via they have pretty good security in some instances and some instances they don't but this is where street car money can go security for that bus system if you don't have a secure bus system people aren't going to ride it I don't blame them, I wouldn't either I have a friend who has asked me please go to Via and tell them take this bus stop away from my house these people are harassing my house and my friends in the house and all that kind of stuff making it ugly but I also had a brother-in-law who had some guys jacking with the bus driver on the trip he was on within a couple of blocks of them acting silly somebody boarded the bus from Via and threw the guys off put them in jail the ultimate solution but it did the trick there's a lot of security that Via does have thank you Mayor Taylor thank you for this question this is an important issue well certainly it's top priority for us to have a strong partnership with Via at the city as your mayor I worked to ensure that they had strong leadership in the chair seat on the Via board of directors and the person of Miss Hope Andrade the other thing that we need to do beyond working with Via on where the bus stop should be and how they should look how they should be designed we've also got to work with our city staff and with CPS to ensure that the proper street lighting is available because if you're waiting for the bus after dark we want to make sure that you feel safe and street lighting certainly is a way that we can address that and then yes right now we are looking at our unified development code which is kind of the code that says how we have to build streets some setbacks and that type of thing and we have to have a conversation about widening the sidewalks because for many people that is unsafe because they're basically sitting up against the curb while they're waiting for the bus and the traffic is coming very very close to them so I think one of the things that we can do of course widening the sidewalks is important but then also just to make the area around the bus stop pleasant as well Okay for the next round a question from the audience and we'll start with Representative Villarreal and this is not signed what can be done about the rising cost of utilities for seniors on a fixed income we can keep our rates low we can make sure that our seniors who have a hard time making ends meet who are on a fixed income enjoy the lowest rates we need to make sure that our seniors are not forced because of market pressures either caused by our utility companies or by prices out of their homes this is important in the long run the longer that we can stay in our own homes that we can afford to be independent and live a full life in our own neighborhood community the better off we all are you'll be more able to give back to be connected to your family members that we grew up with spending more money on large institutions like nursing homes this is important so I see this issue of affordable lower rates for seniors not just as a way to help a given senior but rather its connection to these other large issues of making sure seniors are integrated in our community so that we can make sure that we have a high quality of life independently one of the things I think is so fundamental and I have been a big proponent of renewable energy efficiency and conservation in fact the county interestingly enough has I believe more solar panels than the city does we have a big solar hot we have solar photovoltaic for the new Elizondo tower and the new part of the I think that keeping rates low requires being innovative about how you get your energy when gas prices go up the sun's still shining that's a big deal and it helps keep rates in a decent direction we have 25% of the city's money comes from sales tax about 31% from CPS and the rest is court costs and fines and what happens the big piggy bank is CPS energy every time we got a budget crisis CPS save us how can they say no the mayor sits on the board hey it's our municipality-owned utility but what happens in the process is people get hit with higher rates to be more gently directed to eliminate income folks not just seniors but them primarily and let's not use CPS energy quickly as a piggy bank thank you Mayor Taylor well first off I think we've got to have strong management at the utility company so that we don't have any unnecessary rate increases toward that end I believe it's important for us to have more regular interface with the utility companies right now they generally come forward when they need a rate increase and that's when it gets into the public dialogue but I think the council the entire council as mayor I sit on the boards but I believe the entire council and the public at large should be continually informed on what their plans are for operations capital improvements that they need in order to continue to serve our city well and I believe that would help it's also important for them to maintain the assistance programs that they have available for people who you know are in dire straits or there's a month or two where you just cannot make the bill or you need to have payment arrangements we have to ensure that they continue making that available and also that we continue funding programs for the weatherization programs that allow those of you that are in older homes to benefit from opportunities to lower your utility bills through weatherization of those homes senator van depute I don't know who actually asked this question but it might be someone who was involved in AARP in the past legislative sessions where I actually had to put into the code those types of discount requirements I want to give a shout out to Luis who led that at the time at the state Cian Antonio has a utility that's owned by the people city public service and as such we do have some of the lowest rates when compared to other cities the mayor sits as a member of that board I know that it was important to me and important to AARP members so I put into the rewrite of the electric public utilities code the ability for municipal loan utilities to have those discount and payout programs because before out they said oh no we can't yeah you can and we put it in statute to make sure that those that were really having difficulty could have a payout problem so that you could have added to it last two sessions ago the ability for those who were severely burned particularly those military members who stay here who have been injured in the war but what we need to make sure is that we are on sound footing and that means not just homeowners there are a lot of seniors who own small businesses and what we cannot do is in our rate system say that business all of it versus the home owners we need to make sure that our small business owners and a lot of our people who own their businesses family owned businesses that those rates stay in line okay we're going to try to get two more questions in so I ask our candidates to really look at the time's up sign this one comes and we'll start with Tommy Atkinson this comes from Mel L on Facebook when will the city of San Antonio get light rail well there's a good one ha ha ha ha I have sat on the Lone Star Rail District as the representative for Bear County for the last eight or nine years and I believe that I-35 is in the process of shutting down whether anybody wants to admit it or not how can you widen it again and take in all those businesses that moved in to be next to I-35 and double decking I-35 well yeah serious serious dollars I think that the Lone Star Rail is a lot of the of the solution it's clean it's efficient and you can leave the driving to them and I think when you get between Austin and San Antonio by rail it's going to catch on big time and be a big plus plus it will come into San Antonio come as far south as the Port Authority over here at Kelly Field I believe will go to I believe to the airport and other places so to me that's what we that's what we need to be thinking about doing and what was the other part of your question that was pretty much it it asks you to tell us when but you know when I've been hoping the legislature wake up and smell the coffee because they have not treated it with the I-35 demands and you're going to be an absolute solid Lone Star Rail thank you Mayor Taylor thank you well I do not have the answer to that question for you I don't know when or if we will enjoy having light rail here in our city I believe that we should all be engaged in the dialogue and determining whether that is the right option for our city it makes the most sense when you have very strong nodes where people live work and play spread throughout the city and then you can connect those nodes of activity through rail right now we're in the middle of a planning process that I encourage everyone to get involved with go to SAtomorrow.com to learn more information because we are developing a comprehensive plan a transportation plan and a sustainability plan all in one and we need everybody to be part of that dialogue so that we can determine whether or not as we grow between now in 2040 as a city and potentially welcome an additional million people whether rail is an option that we need and that we'll be able to support financially now as to the question of Lone Star Rail I certainly support the concept it would be great to be able to hop on the train to go to Austin but I will tell you at this point we don't know where the funding mechanism would come from we estimate that it would cost twenty million dollars per year on top of our additional budget and we just talked about the need for more sidewalks for road repair for additional senior services so that is a conversation that we as a city would need to have now people can stand up here and tell you that they'll find a way to pay for it but I'm a straight shooter and I'm going to tell you right now the money is not in the budget but I welcome the opportunity for all of us together to adequately plan for our transportation Senator DeVandepu the question is when will this community support light rail not when we're going to get it because those are one in the same we will never have light rail until the people of San Antonio support it five years ten years I really don't know but what I do know is this community will be able to embrace the types of changes those of you that have been here a long time know we did three votes before we got fluoridated water twice we said no white reservoir which would have been our water reservoir this community really says no until convinced that it's a wise investment Lone Star Rail is only that I-35 corridor and it is San Antonio maybe a little south and there are mechanisms that other communities are using like tax increment finance they haven't been willing to look at that yet and we want to make sure that whatever is done on that that it is sustainable but what we do know is that we all live in this community and when light rail looked at simultaneously people don't they confuse what streetcar is and light rail you have a chance to vote on that it will be up on the charter amendments and I hope that you do go and that you vote Representative Villarreal when will San Antonio have light rail when a majority of our voters vote for it that's when how do we get there to first get right our bus system we need to improve via we need to make sure that high quality lines that are serving our people that are connecting us where we live to where we work we're not there yet with the current system get us there I want to take serious this idea of having the city invest more aggressively and improving our bus lines and encouraging development so that more of us have opportunities to choose to live in a place where we get to live play and work without being highly dependent on a car we can meet our needs our everyday needs by taking a safe stroll to a neighborhood HEB or safely getting on to a bus that gets us where we need to go if we can do this further along in creating the environment where our people have confidence that we can take a greater step in something there's more investment but first we need to get our bus system of the highest quality thank you so much now we're at our point for our two minute closing from each of our candidates and we'll begin how we started with Commissioner Atkinson thank you very much Lane it's been a pleasure to be here thank you ladies and gentlemen and thanks to AARP they've been sending me an application for some time and I've been in denial I want to tell you but I think they're a wonderful organization my dad was a chapter president over here for a number of years but education is a guardian genius of democracy and that is what probably plagued the trolley so much is we tried to trot it out there and then cram it down the throat to the public and say you've got to have it and that's when I started receiving the pushback no no no I'm not going to do that I'm not going to demean myself and my public by doing that let the people vote and I've been involved in a lot of public propositions both on the plus side as well as the opposition side college's bond issue was one where we said you're not going to take the health facilities out of SAC in St. Phillips you're going to keep them right there and they did because we defeated their first bond issue we came back and won the next one we shook hands and said let's go forward yes education is a guardian genius of democracy our urban corridors could take 15 to 20 percent of the traffic in many expressways and reinvigorate those older corridors that had ice houses and moms and pops and neighborhood interface and vitality but they needed to have traffic let's give it back to them expressways don't need it a lot of people would like but you've got to have synchronized lights you can't have a light that goes green and then the next one is red immediately you've got to have a synchronized traffic system and as far as those intersections let the red lights blink after 9 o'clock or 10 o'clock so that you don't have to wait and wonder whether somebody's going to come up to your car and beat you up or rip you off those are the kind of things that we need urban corridors and we can do it and so much more and thank you so very much I appreciate your vote on May 9 for your next mayor of the city of San Antonio Mayor Taylor thank you so much for being here today and listening to us I'm looking for your support to allow me to continue serving as your mayor I am a true public servant not a career politician I'm the only person on the stage here today who's never run on a partisan ticket my focus is on bringing San Antonians together to boost San Antonio and to make a greater city for all of us I've demonstrated what I can do as mayor some of the things that have been accomplished have been stopping the unpopular streetcar project in response to your concerns bringing the police to the negotiating table because when I became mayor there was no negotiating happening I've been focused on getting that contract right on your behalf because it impacts our fiscal health I led the council on a successful vote to approve a water supply project to ensure that we have water for our continued growth as a city and also establish a charter commission to ensure that it will allow us to have the framework to act in a smart and fiscally responsible way all that since July we are at a pivotal point as a community I'm so appreciative of the investments that you have made in our community over the years in raising your kids and paying your taxes and leading neighborhood associations it's time for us to build on all those assets and contributions that you've given to our community that will allow me to continue serving because I'm someone who will look you in the eye and tell you how it is down at City Hall even though it may not be what you want to hear but I'm willing to work with you in order to ensure that we can create safe, stable, mixed income communities all throughout our city and that our children and grandchildren can continue to enjoy boundless opportunities right here in San Antonio thank you and I respectfully ask for your vote on May 9th or earlier on April 27th during early voting thank you Thank you it's been a joy to be here today and I'm thankful to be here with public servants that I have worked with I think our issues are very, very important when it comes to our senior community but this is just not about one segment of San Antonio it's about all and I know that the most treasured person in our family was my grandmother, Memo and her thing to ask was when will be the day of the cap and gown the most important thing to her was to see her grandchildren walk across that stage and I know that it's the joy that my mom has had watching her grandchildren walk across that stage getting their college diploma and I hope that the good Lord gives me the ability to see our grandchildren find their life's love and their life's career and success right here in San Antonio so I want to be your mayor I know that what I bring is proven leadership the ability to bring people together work across the aisle to confront the really big challenges and find workable solutions to be inclusive and respectful understand that you need a city hall that's effective, that's efficient and it works in a transparent manner we know that public safety is a great concern we'll get that right that our streets and drainage are important because of mobility and transportation for all the generations of San Antonians that our arts and culture needs to be robust and answerable and in places accessible to its people that we have green spaces so that people can exercise with their families and have fun and that we need to focus on job creation so that we keep our tax rates low I ask for your vote and I'm humbled by the support you've given me as your voice in Austin for so many years Thank you Representative Villarreal Thank you for giving me this opportunity to answer your questions since last May I've been in pursuit of one single office and one single goal and that is to make San Antonio a city of opportunity for all of our people let me tell you the summer I left for Texas A&M I was with my father on a service call as I mentioned earlier he's an AC repairman we were working on a unit and at some point he turned to me and he said well Mike, you're going to go off be the first in the family to earn your college degree and then you're just going to keep on going what he was telling me was that he expected me to do well but he didn't expect me to come back home this is what I want to change about San Antonio I want our people who earn in education acquire 21st century skills to see our hometown as the place to launch their careers start businesses raise their families I want us to keep our children here I want this for all age groups to stay connected for seniors that means making sure our neighborhoods are safe there are places where we can take a safe walk connect to a reliable bus line that is farmed in our homes safety is important let me tell you this police contract is the most important challenge facing today our council is divided we lack the leadership to bring the council members as your mayor through the conviction the strength of my convictions on this idea of financial sustainability to bring the council together get that contract right so we can make the investments and all the other things that we need to to keep San Antonio strong I respectfully ask for your vote thank you so much let's give them all a big round of applause let's also thank our wonderful host Mike Flores the president of Palo Alto let's give him a round of applause too and mostly let's give AARP our thanks for bringing us together for this event now I have probably the most important card of the night if you arrived on the lunch and AARP bag is on the bus you do not need to put it on your way out all others please pick up on your way out so have a wonderful lunch thank you so much for inviting me good afternoon


For more videos on people's struggles, please subscribe to our YouTube channel. Number of COVID-19 cases continues to rise across the world, with the Omicron variant believed to be the major reason. On December 28, the US recorded over 310,000 cases, while France saw close to 180,000 cases. Other European countries such as the UK, Italy and Spain have also been hard hit. Meanwhile, the situation in South Africa, which had seen a spike in cases, has improved now. The data is still coming on the patterns of the Omicron variant, but at least some experts have expressed the hope that it could be less devastating than the Delta variant. Meanwhile, a number of countries, including India, have given emergency authorizations to vaccines and antiviral drugs. Immunologist Dr. Satyajit Rath analyses the latest developments. So let's start with what the current status of the spread of the Omicron strain of the COVID virus is. Clearly, there have been more bits and pieces of evidence added about Omicron, both globally and in India. Globally, two issues seem to be emerging. The first issue that seems to be emerging more and more clearly in South Africa is a steady reduction in case numbers, Omicron case numbers, COVID case numbers. It's almost as though case numbers have gone up very rapidly with extremely rapid transmission, but they're also coming down perhaps not exactly at the same rate, but at a fairly rapid rate. Whether this is going to be the case elsewhere or not is still quite unclear. Case numbers are going up in many other parts of the world, particularly in Europe and North America. Also, in other South African countries, Southern African countries outside South Africa, case numbers are still going up. So it's a little unclear whether the somewhat hopeful possibility that an Omicron case number spike may be relatively short in duration is going to be a general experience or not. The second issue that's emerging on the Omicron front is also starting from South African experiences that while case numbers are rising, hospitalization requirements for intensive care and deaths are not rising at anywhere near the same rate, implying that in these communities, the Omicron strain is not causing severe COVID illness to the extent that earlier strains were causing. And this experience from South Africa is also being borne out by experiences in Britain and to a somewhat more uncertain extent by experiences elsewhere in the world. If that holds, then that is a, again, somewhat modestly hopeful component of how we are going to deal with and how we are going to be able to deal with the Omicron spike. So that's as far as Omicron related issues worldwide are concerned. An India-specific recent development is that India has approved with great rapidity the two more vaccines for emergency use approval and has also approved an oral antiviral drug for COVID treatment for emergency usage. This is on the background of India's particular Omicron related situation, which is a peculiar mix. India's COVID case numbers are not rising dramatically as yet. India's number of Omicron cases identified is rising steadily, but those are small numbers. Now, a technical reason why they are small numbers is that Omicron can only be identified within the total number of COVID cases by full virus genome sequencing or by specific tailor-made testing. And that's being done in a very, very small percentage of total samples. The data uploading, data transparency, data comprehensibility is still somewhat confused and limited. So it's a little unclear what proportion of India's COVID cases currently are Omicron and even more at what rate Omicron is spreading locally in various localities in India. But the fact still remains that India's total COVID case numbers, which includes Omicron numbers, is not rising particularly dramatically as yet. This is, of course, quite possible to argue is the lull before the storm, but for what it is worth, this is where India is at the moment. Yet, India has made major policy interventions. One policy intervention, which is much more a matter of visibly doing something rather than necessarily having effect is, as an example, the night curfew is declared by local authorities, especially metropolitan authorities across the country. It's not quite clear that night curfews prohibiting movements of anybody are dramatically useful in curbing respiratory virus transmissions, but it certainly underlines the fact that governments, both local, state and national, are taking the matter seriously and it conveys the impression that this is a serious matter. There are downsides to it that we need to be worried about as well. In addition to that, as I pointed out, there is approval for two vaccines and an overdrive. The two vaccines, interestingly, are vaccines that are from a totally different vaccine technology platform, that of recombinant pure protein-based vaccines. Kovavax, which is the Novavax vaccine manufactured by the Salem Institute of India here, and Korbavax, which is from the Baylor College of Medicine in the USA, developed locally in India biologically and called Korbavax. Both of these have been given emergency approval. This brings India's emergency use approved vaccines for COVID up to six, even though they are the first two protein-based vaccines. Monopiravir is the first oral antiviral drug to be given emergency approval for COVID in India. And a common problem going forward with all of these emergency use approvals is that emergency use approval is one step. But the real issue is, what comes after? Do these approved vaccines actually reach the people? Six months ago, India approved Sputnik V. That's still not in widespread usage. Three months ago, three odd months ago, India approved an indigenous vaccine, the Zykoff D, from Zydus Cadilla. That's again in very, very scattered and very small number usage. Really, the question therefore is, can these two new vaccines, can this oral drug, which will prove an extremely useful instrument for dealing with emerging strains of the COVID virus, be made available through manufacturing and distribution and pricing in affordable accessible terms to make a difference to the pandemic? That's what all of us are going to be tracking as we go forward. That's it for the week.