City Council puts proposed curfew for Hemisfair Park on hold

SAN ANTONIO – After back and forth discussions during a city council meeting Thursday, the vote on imposing a curfew on Hemisfair Park was put on hold.

During the conversation, some expressed concerns about the proposal, including whether the curfew would prevent crime in the park, the wording of the proposed curfew, and the potential impact of the new opening hours on tourism.

Sukh Kaur, a 1st District council member and a key proponent of implementing new hours for the park, told her colleagues that her district had received several concerns from citizens about the park’s safety following a spike in crime downtown last spring.

However, San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said he does not believe public safety is a concern in the park area, adding that he does not believe a curfew would lead to a reduction in crime.

“The cries for help don’t support that,” McManus said. “The statistical aspect says curfews are not necessary. The other side of this war is perception. That’s what’s driving this right now. But from a law enforcement perspective, I don’t think it’s a good idea to impose a curfew in a park that’s in the center of the city where there are a lot of businesses and other activities.”

As for the wording of the curfew, City Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez was among those who said officers would be confused about who to stop and cite if they were still in the park after hours.

“The issue of discretion means that police decide when and how to enforce the curfew. So we can stay up here all day and say, ‘This is the expectation; this is what’s going to happen,'” he said. “And that’s ultimately at the discretion of the officer. Not everyone is treated the same. An officer can see a little old lady and determine that she’s not a threat and then decide, ‘I’m not going to approach her. She obviously has a reason to be here.’ But if you see a young black man in a hoodie doing the same thing, they may feel compelled to make sure that he’s supposed to be there and is not a threat.”

Others who expressed frustration with this language included Deputy City Manager Lori Houston and City Council member Melissa Cabello Havrda.

Cabello Havrda said that some shops were open after 10 p.m. If the curfew was enforced, she did not want cooks or waiters to receive summons after work.

Houston had similar thoughts, but focused on whether people walking through the park after hours to return to their vehicles would get tickets.

Commenting on the impact of the proposed curfew on tourism, 9th District Councilman John Courage said the park will be surrounded by hotels, restaurants and bars in the future.

Courage added that tourists may want to stroll through the park late at night and changing the park’s opening hours would only limit their options.

“I’m a romantic, so, you know, couples might want to walk hand in hand through the park at midnight or something on a Saturday night,” he said. “And this park is for the residents, all the residents of San Antonio, but also for tourists.”

After the lengthy discussion, Nirenberg and the council members voted to put the proposal on hold for now. Discussion could possibly be resumed in October. However, no final decision was made.

“Okay, we’re going to pull that back and put some more staff on it because it’s clearly not ready for prime time yet,” Nirengberg said.

“If and when this ever comes up again, we need to make sure that it is brought before the full council in the B meeting and that if there is ever further discussion beyond that, we schedule some public hearings,” he said. “But that is clearly not a solution to the challenges we are trying to address.”