Fiesta is a time-honored tradition in San Antonio, but what does it say about the city’s inequality?
The Fiesta Battle of the Flowers Parade is bridging one of San Antonio’s most extreme gaps.
Its two-mile parade route starts one block east of the Pearl Brewery, where renters pay the highest rates in the city at roughly $2 per square foot.
The floats and bands line up less than a mile south of 78209, where Alamo Heights 09-ers enjoy multiple museums, three golf courses (bordering a fourth) and a national cemetery. Surrounded by San Antonio, Alamo Heights is one of several small wealthy cities that have not been annexed, boasting a 2.7 percent unemployment rate and a 72.8 percent college graduation rate.
The parade route ends just inside 78207, where the San Antonio Express-News reported last year that “nearly half of the adults don’t have a high school diploma. Nearly 60 percent of adults are not working. Unemployment is up. Income is far below the state’s median level. The poverty rate is stuck at 42 percent.”
Years ago, I marched in the parade with Marshall High School, carrying my trombone and wearing a plumed uniform. Since then I’ve read the 2012 Pew report on the rise of residential segregation by income. I’ve read the 2016 Distressed Communities index. Today, I’ll be watching Battle of the Flowers and celebrating San Antonio, but I know more about the city than I did in high school.
The first Battle of Flowers was postponed because of rain in 1891. Today, the stark contrast between these zip codes is another kind of rain on the city’s parade. The data is public. The reports are out. We know more about each other and our city than we did before.
