Democracy Café

Ron Nirenberg, who in June 2017 became Mayor of our nation's seventh largest city, believes that a blend of pragmatic, progressive and visionary bottom-up governance stands the best chance of having a kind of spillover effect that can make our world more vibrant and inclusive on national and global scales. To that end, besides an array of pioneering environmental, housing, education, transportation and education initiatives that he seeks to implement at the local scale in San Antonio, Mayor Nirenberg also is Chair of Sister Cities International, created in 1956 by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, such is his commitment to building diplomatic bridges the world over in an era of increasing nationalism. "It's extremely important, especially in these days, that people understand who it is that lives next to them," says Mayor Nirenberg, who has attended our thriving annual Conversation with the Constitution in San Antonio. "And we must all strive to understand the differences between us and the importance of