Beyond the Bite with Eddie Aldrete

Fourteen years ago, San Antonio made a significant investment in its youngest residents. In 2012, voters approved a one-eighth-of-a-cent sales tax to establish Pre-K 4 SA, an initiative designed to expand access to high-quality early childhood education. Today, the program has grown beyond its original four education centers, developing partnerships with school districts and early learning providers throughout the community. But as Pre-K 4 SA looks toward its next chapter, important questions re

In this episode, Eddie Aldrete sits down with Kevin Dinnin, Board Chair of the Greater San Antonio Chamber, and Paul Basaldua, Board Chair of the Metro San Antonio Chamber, for an in-depth conversation about an unprecedented effort to unify San Antonio's business voice. Together, they discuss the evolving roles of the city's two major chambers of commerce, tracing their origins, missions, and the vision behind their planned merger. You'll hear candid reflections on the challenges of merging non

San Antonio’s media landscape is changing—and a new voice is asking some important questions. In this episode of Beyond the Bite, Eddie Aldrete sits down with Phil Reichert, editor of The Civic San Antonio, an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan media outlet focused on accountability journalism. Reichert explains why the founders of The Civic believed San Antonio needed a different kind of local news outlet—and how their mission of accountability journalism is designed to ask a simple questio

The San Antonio City Council has rejected Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones’ call for a second vote on the city’s $489 million contribution to the new Spurs arena. Now the focus shifts to what comes next: negotiating the contract with the Spurs, shaping the master plan for the surrounding development, and confronting a $158 million budget gap. In this episode of Beyond the Bite, Eddie Aldrete sits down with two veterans of San Antonio city government and politics, Carlos Contreras, CEO of Goodwill and for

Who gets the final say when voters have already spoken? In November 2025, Bexar County voters approved a financing plan for a new downtown arena for the San Antonio Spurs, including $489 million in city visitor tax funds and $311 million in county visitor tax funds. The Spurs are contributing $500 million toward the arena, guaranteeing construction cost overruns, and investing another $1.5 billion in the surrounding sports and entertainment district. But now, Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones is calling f

Texas came within 4 minutes and 23 seconds of a total grid collapse during Winter Storm Uri—and the consequences could have been catastrophic. In this episode, Host Eddie Aldrete sits down with Bill Lauderback of Texans for Responsible Infrastructure Investment to take listeners inside that near-disaster and explains why strengthening the state’s power grid has become one of Texas’s most urgent economic and public-safety challenges. As Texas adds millions of residents, major employers, manufact