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Warrick Touts East Side Business Boom

More than 25 new businesses have opened on the East Side so far this year, District 2 Councilman Alan Warrick told East Side business leaders at a ‘State of the Eastside’ business briefing Wednesday.

“I think that’s almost 2.5 times what we did last year, year-to-date,” Warrick said.

Those businesses in Warrick’s high poverty district include a coffee shop, a career training center and new restaurants like Tony G’s and Grayze. Warrick says the new additions are attracting more people—and dollars with them.

“Some of these restaurants are the hottest restaurants in town now,” said Warrick. “So, it’s a great to have these brand new businesses that are really stepping the game up and showing people that you can get a quality sit-down dinner on the East Side of San Antonio.”

As new commercial properties pop up, Warrick says housing remains a priority. The city will sell 18 vacant lots on the East Side to affordable housing developers. Single family homes would have to sell for less than $150,000 to people making less than 80 percent of median income for the area.

“We have a 100,000-home gap for affordable housing in the city, because we have over 30 percent of our population living below the poverty level,” Warrick says.

As the East Side changes, Warrick wants to tackle some ongoing concerns. His ‘getting to zero' plan calls for zero murders, zero vacant homes, zero stray dogs, and zero percent unemployment in District 2.