The Alamo Hour Justin Hill

Michael Girdley has become a well-known advisor, commentator, investor, and authority on all things San Antonio business related. He has a huge Twitter following and has a lot to say about our city and what we need to keep progressing.
Transcript:
Justin Hill: Hello and bienvenidos, San Antonio. Welcome to The Alamo Hour, discussing the people, places and passion that make our city. My name is Justin Hill, a local attorney, a proud San Antonian, and keeper of chickens and bees. On The Alamo Hour, you'll get to hear from the people that make San Antonio great and unique in the best-kept secret in Texas. We're glad that you're here.
Michael Girdley: How long do we go?
Justin: One hour. Welcome to The Alamo Hour. Today's guest is Michael Girdley. He's kind of all things. I'm going to hit some of the points from his website. His bio, he's currently Chairman and Co-founder of Dura Software. He's a partner at Geekdom Fund. He's been involved in co-founding and leading multiple different ventures in San Antonio and around Texas.
He was Man of the Year with San Antonio Business Journal and Geek of the Year with Geekdom, right, in 2016. He's passionate about San Antonio's future. If you follow him on Twitter, you know how much San Antonio and the future of our city matters to him. He's a perfect kind of guest to have on here, so thanks for being here.
Michael: Yes, excited. Thanks for having me.
Justin: You've listened to a few of my really compelling episodes, so I appreciate it.
Michael: Yes, four actually. [unintelligible 00:01:10]
Justin: That's more than most people. I start a lot with just some general questions about San Antonio I wanted to ask you about.
Michael: Yes.
Justin: All right. Do you have any pets?
Michael: We have two cats.
Justin: Okay. What kind of cats?
Michael: Four-legged ones, simple.
Justin: Like alley cats?
Michael: Ones we got at The Humane Society.
Justin: Okay. Some people are into like Persians or these bald cats.
Michael: Yes, we're not.
Justin: None of that?
Michael: We're not fancy.
Justin: All right. Favorite hidden gems in San Antonio?
Michael: Oh man. I definitely like just the normal taquerias that are like all over the place.
Justin: Do you have a favorite?
Michael: Man, I don't want to hurt anybody's feelings. They're all my favorites.
Justin: I had a judge on here who wouldn't give me a single restaurant she liked because she didn't want to endorse them.
Michael: I love that we have Tex-Mex. To be totally frank with you, I don't enjoy eating it that much. When my wife and I have options to go out or we go out for dinners like we're ended up at Bliss or Cured or those types of places. We lived in California for a while and we still brought that taste back with us. We want to eat that kind of food and have that kind of dining experience.
Justin: Bliss and Cured do it for you.
Michael: They're definitely fancy. We love going to the Pearl Food Hall as well. I will be unabashedly snobby about where I like to go.
Justin: I like the Food Hall now that you can just sit at your table and order on the QR code and it comes out. I appreciate that, especially during the pandemic. Do you have any odd hobbies...

Patrick Svitek is new to San Antonio but a long time political reporter covering the state of Texas. He works for The Texas Tribune and covers Texas politics and policy from a local level to how they affect national discussions and trends. We have a lively discussion about what is happening in Texas and how he is enjoying San Antonio.
Transcript:
Justin: Hello. Bienvenidos, San Antonio, welcome to the Alamo Hour, discussing the people, places and passion that make our city. My name is Justin Hill, a local attorney, a proud San Antonian and keeper of chickens and bees. On the Alamo hour, you'll get to hear from the people that make San Antonio great and unique in the best-kept secret in Texas. We're glad that you're here. Welcome to the Alamo Hour. Today's guest is Patrick Svitek. He is the primary political correspondent for the Texas Tribune. If you don't know, Texas Tribune is become a really a nationwide leader in nonprofit journalism and reworking the way the business model works.
He's their primary political correspondent. He's previously worked at the Houston Chronicle. He's covered the 2016 campaign trail. He's in my estimation one or two of the biggest Twitter accounts to follow if you're interested in, especially state of Texas politics. For me, it's really cool able to have you here because I've been following you for a long time. You recently moved to San Antonio so I took the opportunity to ask you to come on my show. Thank you.
Patrick: Thanks for having me. I'm excited about this.
Justin: You're recent to San Antonio as of Labor Day, I think you said.
Patrick: Around Labor Day weekend, me and my girlfriend moved down to San Antonio. She got a new job here. We decided to pack up and come down here and we bought a home in Beacon Hill, and we're loving it so far.
Justin: You're living like real San Antonian and so many people are like, "I live in San Antonio, I live in our north or here," but they are in San Antonio. It's just a different experience. All my shows I always get some information on people, the city of San Antonio feel for you. You're new here, so it'll be interesting to get some of your takes. This is your first time to live in San Antonio, right?
Patrick: That is correct. Previously only had traveled to San Antonio for work basically. I think I've made a number of trips, but only even spent the night just once is usually an afternoon day trip [unintelligible 00:02:00].
Justin: Sure. You've spent so much time in other Texas cities. What stand out to you after being here for the last few months as what sets San Antonio apart in your estimation?
Patrick: I think it's more laid back in a good way than other major Texas cities, especially compared to Austin. I think the two cities are hard to compare in some ways, but one comparison I will certainly make is that it's more laid back than Austin, and in a good way. A big city with a small city culture, I think in some ways. Again, I mean that in a positive way. Absolutely. I've loved the people so far. I've loved living in Beacon Hill.
My girlfriend and I wanted to live somewhere really central in this city as we were talking about that also had its own identity, it wasn't just blended into downtown or Midtown or the urban core. We're getting that with Beacon Hill, and we like it a lot.
Justin: I think it's one of the oldest neighborhoods in San Antonio. I'll speak out to turn, but I remember when I was doing some research, I wanted to move by building over there and move office over there. I was doing some research, and I was surprised at how historic that neighborhood is for the City of San, which is already a...

Frank is fresh off a nail-biter loss in a special election for House District 118. He is running again and joins us to talk about the lessons learned and plans if he wins. He is born and bred in 118 and has a wealth of knowledge about our great city.
Transcript:
[music]
Justin Hill: Hello and bienvenidos, San Antonio. Welcome to The Alamo Hour, discussing the people, places, and passion that make our city. My name is Justin Hill, a local attorney, a proud San Antonian, and keeper of chickens and bees. On The Alamo Hour, you'll get to hear from the people that make San Antonio great and unique and the best-kept secret in Texas. We're glad that you're here. All right. Welcome to The Alamo Hour. Today's guest is Frank Ramirez. Frank was recently running for election in HD 118, a special election to replace the retired or resigned Leo Pacheco.
In the special, it was a super close election. He did not win. There's a chance. I think he probably already has an answer to it that he will be running in the future, but we're here really to talk to him about his time in San Antonio. His love for the city has worked in politics here. Get to know him a little bit better. Frank, thanks for being here.
Frank Ramirez: Hey, thank you, Justin. Coming off of the trail has been a very sobering time. It's been about a month now since the election and I've taken time to myself to recollect myself rest and really get a better understanding of the race that we ran and how effective it was because for all intents and purposes, it was. Even though we fell short, we did a lot of really great work that brought a lot of people out that normally would not have come out. We're excited about you having me here today. Thank you so much.
Justin: Rest and relaxation [laughs] is that you like the Japanese tea garden doing yoga, looking at the koi pond, or is that beers and tacos on the strip?
Frank: Hey, that's me getting a mile in the morning now, but also being able to balance that with those beer and tacos.
Justin: [laughs] All right. That's fair. I told Frank before we started that maybe the least amount of research today for a guest, but I'd done plenty of research when you're running for office and got to know you a little bit. We're just going to talk a little bit about San Antonio, talk a little bit about your time in politics, your hopes for the city, what you think the future San Antonio looks like because I think that's a real important discussion that's being had right now.
We are on the edge of this Austin explosion and that's going to spill over so we're going to talk about that, but I always start with a top 10. It's probably might be 10, might be 20, might be 4. What are your favorite hidden gems in the city? You're a San Antonion and so you might have some places that I've never been to or never heard of so dig deep favorite hidden gems.
Frank: I am a lifelong south sider. The majority of my experience in this city has been in the south side. I'm a product of the Harlandale Independent School District. That's Gillette, Kingsborough, McCollum high school go Cowboys, and go Cowboys in Dallas as well. We were a very tight-knit community, but at the same time we support businesses in the south side and we like to tout them. We like to tell people, "Hey, when you come to the south side, you got to go to these spots because they're the best."
Justin: Sure.
Frank: I'll give you my top five restaurants in places in the south side. If you're looking for some great Mexican food, you got-- Don't bet those Mexican restaurant. I have been in the neighborhood for over 50 years. Then you got the other one, which is one of my personal favorite south of 90 is Blue Moon...

Rick Hill moved to San Antonio for college and has been here since. He has worked for a variety of local sports teams and events. He currently work as the VP of communications and marketing at the Valero Alamo Bowl. Additionally, he has a few cool hobbies and likes that we discuss. Rick is a big fan and advocate of our great city.
Transcript:
[music]
Justin Hill: Hello and Bienvenido, San Antonio. Welcome to The Alamo Hour discussing the people, places, and passion that make our city. My name is Justin Hill, a local attorney, a proud San Antonian, and keeper of chickens and bees. On The Alamo Hour, you'll get to hear from the people that make San Antonio great and unique and the best-kept secret in Texas. We're glad that you're here.
Rick Hill: Who is the worst guest you've ever had?
Justin: [chuckles] We'll talk about that in a second. I like how Rick just spoke over the intro, so in the intro, we'll have Rick in the background. Welcome to The Alamo Hour. Today's guest is Rick Hill, no relation to me, unfortunately. He is the VP of Marketing and Communication with the Valero Alamo Bowl, and I realize you have to say Valera with the Alamo Bowl now. Rick has also spent time with the Spurs, the Missions and something called the SA Riders, which I am told is a football game. I thought it was maybe something that happens on the strip late at night, but no, a football team here in San Antonio.
He has no championship rings, he likes to tell people on his internet profile. Since the Alamo Bowl is right around the corner and I'd bugged Rick for like a year, I figured it'd be a good time to bug him, and here he is. Rick, thanks for being here.
Rick: My pleasure, Justin. Thank you.
Justin: While we were starting, Rick said who's the worst guest I've had on here. Well, the worst guests are the ones that just no matter what you ask, they're going to answer whatever they want.
Rick: Good. I have nothing prepared, so I will be the opposite. I just like to set a low benchmark so people are happy.
Justin: Some people have and I feel like if I was calling out guests as the worst, I'd have a hard time finding other guests, so I better not do that. Let me just say, the least listened to episodes are some of my better friends, so I just better not tell them. You will have 10s of listeners at a minimum, I guarantee that. You could have many more than that.
Rick: I'm used to people not listening to me. This is perfect.
Justin: Well, it's funny. I had one guy on here who became an all-star of the fintech Twitter, the Fintwit I think they call them and his episode just went bonkers because of that. All that world wanted to hear whatever he had to say because he had the highest performing stock over the last 17 years, and even The Wall Street Journal was like, "It wasn't Tesla. It was this group out of San Antonio had the biggest stock in the last 20 years." It was interesting. All right, so let's start with a top 10. I'm going to ask you, it'll be 10-ish. Favorite Fiesta event?
Rick: Coronation.
Justin: We were just talking about that before and you seemed super excited about it, so I'm glad you brought that up. Something I'm probably going to talk more about, but you have some sort of weird BCycle thing. What's the number of miles you've put on a BCycle in a year, the most?
Rick: The most? Probably 3,000 in a year. They have the E-bike now, but it's more pedal-assisted. I think the E-bike takes too much credit. I love jumping on Saturday, jumping out the Witte, driving through downtown, Southtown, and...

Mario Bravo unseated an entrenched incumbent City Councilperson to become the new District 1 representative. He has a history that includes working fishing boats out of Dutch Harbor, Alaska. Now, he is dedicated to improving San Antonio for all.
Transcript:
Justin Hill: Hello and Bienvenidos, San Antonio. Welcome to The Alamo Hour, discussing the people, places, and passion that make our city. My name is Justin Hill, a local attorney, a proud San Antonian, and keeper of chickens and bees. On The Alamo Hour, you'll get to hear from the people that make San Antonio great and unique, and the best-kept secret in Texas. We're glad that you're here.
All right, welcome to The Alamo Hour. Today's guest is Councilman Mario Bravo. Mario is District 1 Council Person for the city of San Antonio, recently elected. District 1 is basically everything you see on a map in the middle of San Antonio, from Southtown all the way up to about 410, a little bit on other sides, but between 281 and I-10. He ran on the issues of public safety, healthy community, and economic redevelopment. He unseated an entrenched incumbent, who, if he had won, would maybe have been the longest-serving council person in San Antonio history, is that right?
Mario Bravo: I'm not sure, but yes.
Justin: Something along those lines. It would have been a very long run.
Mario: I think that's probably right because we had just recently gone from four years to eight years for term limits.
Justin: Oh, okay. Yes, yes.
Mario: He would have been at about eight and a half years.
Justin: There are two four-year terms now for y'all, right?
Mario: Four two-year terms now.
Justin: Oh, yes, because four two-year terms would make a whole lot more sense. I remember thinking how strange it was the way we did it. Mario has been involved in activism in San Antonio for a long time. We'll talk to him about that. We asked him to come on to talk to us about his most recent election, challenges for the city, and now is a very challenging time, so this is very [unintelligible 00:01:42], I think, and a little bit about who he is. I got to know Mario, when he decided to run for this District 1 seat, I reached out to him and said, "I think it's time for a change. I'd like to get to know you."
Mario is very passionate about our city and his district. Before this, we were talking that when you're passionate about something, it doesn't feel like work and he's really enjoying it. Mario, I sort of start all these with a little bit of getting to know some strange questions. What are your favorite places to eat and drink right now in town? Let's do District 1, District 1 where's your favorite place to have a bite and have a drink right now?
Mario: Oh, there's quite a few, but Liberty Bar's one for sure. I'm a big fan of Curry Boys on North St. Mary's Strip. I like to get the much [unintelligible 00:02:31] tacos from Garcia's.
Justin: I just heard Curry Boys BBQ, right?
Mario: Right. It's barbecue, but it's like barbecue chicken and brisket, but with Curry, and it's amazing.
Justin: No, it was fantastic. It was all very spicy though. Just heed the warning. I haven't been to Liberty Bar in a little while, but I used to be known to go there on occasion. Favorite hidden gems in District 1 of San Antonio, maybe places people didn't know or haven't been within your District.
Mario: Hidden gems.
Justin: You have a lot of stuff in your district, so this should be an easy...

Judge Alvarez joins us to talk about her path from San Antonio, to Stanford and back to San Antonio. She was educated and worked as an engineer before going to law school. After law school she had a few jobs before running for District Judge in Bexar County. Join us to hear her talk about her unique path and the great things happening at the courthouse.
Transcript:
[music]
Justin Hill: Hello and Bienvenidos San Antonio. Welcome to The Alamo Hour, discussing the people, places, and passion that make our city. My name is Justin Hill, a local attorney, a proud San Antonio, and keeper of chickens and bees. On The Alamo Hour, you'll get to hear from the people that make San Antonio great and unique and the best-kept secret in Texas. We're glad that you're here.
[applause]
All right. Welcome to The Alamo Hour. Today's guest is the Honorable Mary Lou Alvarez. She is a civil district judge at the 45th Civil District Court in Bexar County. She was educated as an engineer prior to being a lawyer. Born just south of here, raised in San Antonio, a graduate of Incarnate Word High School. Bean and cheese are her favorite breakfast tacos I learned. I didn't know that.
Mary Lou Alvarez: Yes.
Justin: If you're spicy, it sounds like bean and cheese and bacon.
Mary Lou: Bacon or brisket, a little meat to add something to the mix.
Justin: The beans have to be good you said, so we're going to ask some questions about that. Judge Alvarez, thank you for being on here. We asked you to come on today, talk about what's going on in the court. I want to talk about your path into elected politics because I don't know why anyone would do that to themselves but you've got a lot of thoughts on that. I've practice law in front of you. I've gotten to know you, really over the last five years, as you decided to run and it's really been very enjoyable for me to get to know you, see you on the court, see how passionate you are about it.
You're not just a judge, you're actually volunteering your time to improve some of the processes of the courthouse, which I think is really invaluable because people maybe don't realize but Bexar County has been revolutionary in the way we run our courts for so long. Old Judge Casseb brought in the presiding system, which I tell everybody to this day, we have the most efficient court system in the state of Texas. You should file all your cases here because you're going to get hearings, you're going to get justice, you're going to get answers and other places don't have that benefit.
I think it's good that we are still moving to improve what we have that is already a really good system. I start with everybody, top 10. It's never really 10 but I have a stick to it. Who has the best beans?
Mary Lou: Real beans or fast food beans?
Justin: For your bean and cheese taco, let's go there because that's where I've got this from.
Mary Lou: All right. Well, it depends on how much time I've got. If I can sit down and have a bean and cheese taco and wait, then it's going to be a hole-in-the-wall taqueria. My favorite right now is the one that's off McCullough and Dewey, Taqueria Jalisco I think, or El Chapala. I forget the sign because I think it changed once while I was off Locus, but it's off McCullough and Dewey.
Justin: Where's Dewey at?
Mary Lou: Dewey, it becomes St. Josephine closer to 35 I think.
Justin: Further down McCullough Monte Vista area?
Mary Lou: No, it's St. Josephine is what it becomes. It's by Hawthorne, Hawthorne Academy right across on the backside of the Pearl. Then coming up to McCullough, it's Dewey, and...