Word: antonios
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Cisneros' election marks the high point of a long struggle by San Antonio's Hispanics to wrest power from the Anglo establishment. Adopting the confrontational tactics of the late Saul Alinsky, local Hispanic leaders in 1974 formed a social action group called Communities Organized for Public Service (COPS) and quickly forced the city government to spend $200 million for improvement projects in poor Hispanic neighborhoods. In 1977, San Antonio's minorities won control of the city council for the first time, six seats to five...
Cisneros, first elected a councilman in 1975, was instrumental in bringing a measure of peace to that divided body. When the opposition proposed attracting business to San Antonio by advertising the city's low wages, COPS angrily proposed that no company be allowed to move into San Antonio without guaranteeing workers a minimum wage of $15,000 a year. Arguing that economic development was in everyone's interest, Cisneros helped persuade COPS to drop its demand. He also joined his Anglo colleagues in persuading Control Data Corporation to build a 600-employee computer software plant in a distressed...
...Antonio is now undergoing an unprecedented surge of growth...
...from 650,000 to 788,000 in the past decade, making it the ninth largest city in the U.S. (Hispanics now account for 53%.) Four new hotels have sprung up along the city's "Riverwalk," a charming, Old World district of shops and cafes along the San Antonio River. So far, seven high-technology electronics firms have announced plans to build or expand in the city; they could create as many as 5,000 new jobs...
...growth has also created new problems for San Antonio and an increasingly visible rift between Cisneros and COPS. The new mayor hammered away at the need for economic development during his campaign but refused to promise that new building would be confined to inner-city neighborhoods. "You can't give mixed signals to business," he says. "We can't say we want growth but only in certain areas." He believes, for example, that residential water rates must be raised in the city if new water sources are to be developed to attract industry. To the chagrin of COPS...