Phil Hardberger Quotations

We're not going to wait for federal dollars to arrive, ... We're going to go ahead and write whatever checks need to be written right now to take care of these people and let them know that people in San Antonio love them.

Let Project Quest get back to work and train the citizens of San Antonio.

Nelson and I are talking or being together three and four times a day. Almost every decision has been made in conjunction with the county and Nelson.

My guess is Bank of America will come here,

No one told these fans to cheer for the Saints, ... They chose to do it, and I'm proud.

Nobody is tied to a special interest, none that I can discern, which means they are all independent, and that is so important to forming a team, because if you have somebody who is sold out to a special interest they're never going to get along.

I don't know that the re-branding campaign is a done deal, ... The council, including myself, had some concerns about it. It could be quite tawdry.

From the outside, it may look like a fairly seamless operation, ... but the truth is, that's not true.

If (Tagliabue) was here today, he could not help but be impressed, ... I don't know if he would change his mind (about calling San Antonio a small market), but I think he would be impressed.

We are going to pay more than we ever have for a city manager, but we have a lot more San Antonio than we've ever had, too,

I think it is legitimate to assume we're not talking about next week they're going to go home, ... The city of New Orleans is effectively closed.

or at least give us the money to do it.

Jury verdicts became highly suspect and were frequently overturned for a variety of ever-expanding reasons, ... Jury assessments were wiped out by increasingly harsher standards for mental anguish and punitive standards.

I would like to see a more beautiful San Antonio. It's important to a city, and to individuals,

We intend to welcome these people with open arms and try to give them some dignity that these circumstances have taken away from them, ... We will not fail to respond the way we would want to be responded to.

We're not as strong in the media market as we could be because San Antonio sits off by itself, it's not in the middle of a metropolitan area. I know (with) the National League, that carries a lot of water.

This year's general-fund revenue, paid for by property-tax revenues, fines, fees and City Public Service income is $728 million. Last year was $620 million, which is (about) a 17 percent increase over last year. Phil's not doing anything different than what the rest of them (former mayors) do. That money comes from taxpayers' pockets.

Financial services may soon be the largest industry in San Antonio,

Whatever we need to do, we're going to do, ... We're not going to wait for federal dollars to come in, we're going to write whatever checks that need to be written right now.

We are going to be immensely helped from having gone through this process two weeks ago,

there's probably been a bit of racism since the first time one person looked at another person that didn't look like them.

It would give us the best linear park in the United States and increase the drawing power of the river ... that would make this City even greater.

sophisticated things that the industry really needs, and that we don't have. We're not an industrial town, we haven't done much of that sort of thing. We don't have enough people that know how to do those things, and consequently we are losing jobs and subsequently we're losing business.

San Antonio is going through a metamorphosis from a small border village to a big city.

This is not going to be costing us a cent, and we will be getting a big return,

It's always possible. It's a tough business and certainly that's not unknown that they leverage one city against the other. I don't believe so myself. I think they have some serious interest in San Antonio. But perhaps I'm of a trusting nature.

The basic framework of this deal is (the Saints) make the city whole, and they get to keep the revenue,

I probably would rather be known for leaving a major park system in San Antonio,

get dropped out of society. Work is how we redeem ourselves, but there are people who can't work; they are desperate.

I do think that we will be totally ready for these evacuees, or as ready as we can be,

He's making noise about the budget because it's big, ... If you equate the words 'big' and 'wasteful,' then he's right. But big doesn't mean wasteful, necessarily. The questions I would ask is, Do you have enough money coming in to meet the needs of the budget you're drawing up? The answer to that is, Clearly yes, we do. As long as we can meet legitimate needs, keep soundly in the black, and not raise taxes, that's what we need to do.

I'd love to build in the feeling of early San Antonio, which was an oasis, which was why everybody came here. Urbanization has to some degree wiped that out ... we've been cutting trees and putting cement everywhere we can since then.

The great thing about a vibrant art scene ... is that it makes you a smarter city. Smarter cities get ahead in this world. More creative cities get ahead in this world. ... If you're not on the cutting edge, you're falling behind,

And clearly there are people with racist thoughts,