Every relationship begins as a social contract. Whether as a friendship or a working dynamic, a social contract sets the foundation for underlying value systems and how a relationship will thrive and grow. The relationship between the University of Texas San Antonio (UTSA) and the vulnerable Westside community is of utmost importance to the university, community, and San Antonio, as the city is experiencing rapid urban growth and transformation. As UTSA is expanding its downtown campus, the university is aware of its impact and responsibility in lending a helping hand as a partner, neighbor, and friend, and we as a community also have to respond to the challenges that come with progress, growth, and change, impacting the communities.
Studies by the National Association for Latino Community Asset Builders (NALCAB)––a national network of nearly 150 nonprofit organizations serving diverse Latino communities in more than 40 states––and Prosper West––a nonprofit community economic development organization that has formed a coalition of community members and partners to make San Antonio’s Westside a more prosperous place for families and businesses––assert that a deeper commitment on the Westside is fundamental, supporting the community in this critical moment of transformation.
As a Next-Gen Faculty Leadership Fellow, Dr. Antonio Petrov and Urban Future Lab (UFL) interns Kelsey Brown, Nicole Chavez, Karla Ruiz, and Luis Escalante are undertaking a research initiative, working with UTSA Vice President for University Relations, Teresa Niño, to think about UTSA and its downtown campus expansion in the context of the Westside and propose a strategic plan. Following NALCAB and Prosper West’s recommendations, we argue that a “social contract” between the communities is necessary as a foundation to outline possible future relations between UTSA and the Westside. This “living document” is based on shared values in which the relationship between the communities manifests in betterment. The foundation is set by investing in new ideas that incentivize local economic development and incremental community revitalization. To accomplish these objectives, it is vital to foster the preservation of cultural identity and an affordable housing strategy as part of a larger plan to make housing not only more accessible for Westside residents but also for students seeking accommodation near the expanding downtown campus.
While the recommendations unearth opportunities for economic growth, they also outline challenges like rising residential property taxes, increasing population and gentrification due to a growing student body, and the loss of cultural identity because of the negative impacts global market-economies have on communities such as the Westside. The UFL’s proposal finds inspiration in the existing condition, turning what appears to be conflicting interests into a strategic plan that catalyzes new opportunities by activating the synergies between UTSA, the Westside, and the city. The goal is to turn the increasing demand for student housing into an activator for the Westside rather than eliciting existential socio-economic conflicts with fears arising based on UTSA’s expansion. While the Westside’s priority is to maintain affordability and cultural identity in its neighborhoods, values UTSA shares, the university operates on the scale of student success, educational excellence, progressive growth, and innovation. We see a window of opportunity, considering both local needs and supporting the ambitions of a R1 research institution, fusing them into a social contract and the “Casita” project.
Casitas, or accessory dwelling units (ADUs), are characteristic in San Antonio’s housing landscape, supporting families with residual income across the city. Accordingly, the plan’s primary goal is to help homeowners with additional income and establish ties in the form of a social contract, outlining the relations between a community, students, and a university, investing in a long-term economic development strategy. This approach highlights the future can be affordable, attainable, and safe, with accessible new resources helping to maintain community ownership, neighborhood character, and cultural integrity, further integrating the university into the Westside.
Within this context we propose 5 topics that:
1. imagine integrated community housing on the Westside for downtown campus students under the umbrella of a tenant program.
2. utilize UTSA resources to educate the community when it comes to questions about taxing, rapid appreciation, inflation, community trust, and city resources, like the owner-occupied rehabilitation and reconstruction program, the proposed spending plan for affordable housing by the City of San Antonio’s 2022-2027 Bond program, and TIRZ funding.
3. assist in identifying microfinancing sources to activate local opportunities on an individual scale to participate in the Casita project, providing the possibility to those who have no access to regular loans.
4. stimulate the existing makers economy on the Westside by keeping the making of Casitas a part of local economic cycles.
5. advocate for code and zoning adjustments to provide equitable, inclusive, and just environments that allow residents to take ownership of their own economic opportunities amid rising housing costs and property taxes.
As part of this plan, our recommendations build on the already vital relationships between UTSA and the Westside, manifested in the Westside Community Center (WCC), laying the foundation for successful community relations. Furthermore, UTSA President Eighmy’s strategic plan and community engagement and experiential learning initiatives further facilitate our approach. Yet, we recommend taking this project a step further and proposing the full integration of community engagement efforts in neighborhoods like the Westside into curricula changes across the university’s various disciplines. Such changes could be vital in exemplifying “reciprocity”. Community engagement is not only a one-way activity but a practice that goes both ways, with implications in both environments. Not only would our students greatly benefit from the practice of reciprocity, but seeking this form of active engagement is part of an experiential learning experience.
In the following steps, we propose discussing the plan with university leadership, students, the Westside, stakeholders, and city officials. At the UFL, we have experience in organizing such community events (for more details, see www.urbanfuturelab.org) and panel discussions in which we invite these groups to discuss possible trajectories for implementation but also elaborate ways in which the UTSA community can adapt teaching, research, and service to the constantly changing dynamics of the challenges placed in front of us. In preparation for the event, we have already developed a sequence of events document in which we propose a curated list of potential collaborators and entities (inside and outside of the university) to discuss social contracts, student housing, ADUs, tenant programs, tax alleviation, microfinancing, making and maker spaces, codes and zoning, housing policy, and affordable housing, but also how this program could be integrated into CoSA’s 2022-2027 Bond program and city-funded home repair programs.
Much has been accomplished on the Westside in the last few years. Most noteworthy, its challenges have risen to the awareness of the White House holding a Latino Economic Summit in March 2022 in San Antonio. Although transformation and investments are on the horizon, the relationship between UTSA and the Westside has not been formalized yet. The WCC and university leadership’s approach to structuring its initiatives are well received, and progress is palpable with the community, engaging more actively in the center. However, Dr. Petrov’s main takeaway as a fellow working on the Westside is that formalizing the terms and conditions of the relationship between the Westside and the UTSA community is essential. Not to impose a framework onto something that wants to be organic, but to manifest a social contract that sets an initiative into action based on value systems and investment strategy, determining how a relationship will thrive and grow.
Through Dr. Petrov’s fellowship, we have accomplished setting these parameters for a social contract into action. He has integrated the Westside community, the objectives of the fellowship, and what could be best explained as “reciprocity” into his philosophy how he has approached the fellowship. First and foremost, this unfolds in the integration of every aspect of the fellowship into his research, teaching an undergraduate and graduate seminar, an independent study with a master’s student, four interns who are master’s students, and three visiting scholars at the UFL. Full integration not only meant fully exposing the students to the challenges, activating our (moral) obligation to use our resources to the best of our ability and make an impact in the community, but we asked ourselves, what would it take as a university to fully exercise “reciprocity”, practicing inclusion, equality, and diversity on a larger scale? In a nutshell, we believe our social contract-casita proposal exercises reciprocity as a fundamental aspect of community engagement and as the path that prepares the next generation to develop meaningful relations, friends, and partnerships.
Read more on the Casita Project strategic plan.
Read more on Dr. Antonio Petrov as a Next-Generation Faculty Leadership Fellow.
Read more housing market research and background information on the project.
Read more background research on zoning, code, and policy challenges.