THE SAN MARXIST
Paraphrasing and editorializing City Council since mid-Pandemic.
December 16th City Council Meeting
Foreboding week at Council! You get a sneak peek of Cape’s Dam and the Data Center, both which will blow up in 2026. Here we go! Hours 0:00 – 3:21: Pretty much just Cape’s Dam and the data center! Bonus! 3 pm workshops: Results from the community survey, updates on the Office of Community Support…
Hours 0:00 – 3:21, 12/16/25
Citizen Comment: Two big topics! (I’m combining comments from 3 pm and 6 pm.) Cape’s Dam nomination to be on the historic registry: The Data Center Details on what people actually said when we get to these! Other comments: … Item 8: Cape’s Dam This item was pretty infuriating! It’s also not the most important…
Bonus! 3 pm workshops, 12/16/25
Workshop #1: San Marcos Community Survey Every three years, we run a community survey. The first one was in 2022, and so 2025 is the second. Methods: They try to get a random sample of people by sending mailers out to households. They also open the survey up to anyone, online. The responses are overwhelmingly…
December 2nd City Council Meeting
This week at council: You’ll come for the death of Flock Cameras, but you’ll stay for the deliciously petty Price Center mural discussion! Exciting meeting this week. First, though: VOTE FOR SAUL in the council run-off. Details below. …. Onto the meeting! Hours 0:00 – 1:17: Everything but Flock Cameras! Some zoning, and some TIRZ…
Hours 0:00 – 1:17, 12/2/25
Citizen comment: There were 12 speakers, and only one topic: Flock Cameras Lots and lots of details when we get to that item. … Item 10: The Downtown TIRZ TIRZ stands for “Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone”. What this means is that we’re going to put more resources into a fixed area. TIRZ #5 is…
Hours 1:17 – 3:50, 12/2/25
Item 19: Flock Cameras This is the biggie! What are Flock Cameras? Flock cameras are Licence Plate Readers, or LPR. They sit at intersections like so: We have 14 of them in San Marcos, and they’re located here: (We also have 8 downtown cameras that are not Flock cameras. The city owns these cameras.) What…
Bonus! 3 pm workshop, 12/2/25
Do we want to be sister cities with Inverness, Scotland? No, we don’t! … (I’m dying to leave the post like that, full stop, but I also am physically unable to stop telling you tiny municipal details.) Basically, Texas State approached us about forming a sister city relationship with Inverness: We also have a dormant…
November 18th City Council Meeting
Short little meeting this week! A little bit of zoning, a lot of HSAB grants, and a little bit of Paul Laurence Dunbar. Here we go! Hours 0:00 – 2:04: Blanco Gardens is getting some new houses, we unpack the HSAB grants to nonprofits, and we talk about the guy behind the Dunbar name. Bonus!…
Hours 0:00 – 2:04, 11/18/24
Citizen Comment: There were five people who showed up to talk. Tonight’s the night that Council determines their HSAB grants, and so almost everyone speaking was representing nonprofits – one speaker from School Fuel, and three from Southside. I’ll save it for that item. One last speaker talked about Meet and Confer, and whether or…
Bonus! 3 pm workshop, 11/18/25
Workshop: Heritage Tourism and Preservation Grants “HOT” stands for Hotel Occupancy Taxes. How shall we spend our HOT money? The city is proposing offering some grants to nonprofits who have some kind of historical preservation project. City staff goes through a long list of slides. Who would be eligible? What kinds of projects are okay?…
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The San Marxist 