Sister-City Mayor of San Antonio, Ron Nirenberg Visits Gwangju 

By Gwangju News Staff 

Gwangju has six sisters – six sister cities, that is. And one of the longest of these sister-city relationships is with the city of San Antonio, Texas, in the United States. Just ahead of a planned visit to Gwangju by San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg in late October, the Gwangju News was able to connect with the San Antonio mayor to bring you this interview.  — Ed.  

Gwangju News (GN): Thank you for making time for this interview with the Gwangju News ahead of your visit here. We have much that we are eager to ask you. To begin with, since Gwangju and San Antonio have quite similar populations, at about 1.5 million each, and since their populations are the sixth and seventh largest in their respective countries, has this fact been beneficial in collaborations between the two cities in the exchange of ideas, policymaking, and policy implementation?  

San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg: Gwangju has implemented many important actions after receiving its UNESCO Creative City of Media Arts designation, and this is an area where our cities are able to exchange and learn from each other. Furthermore, Gwangju has played an important role on the global stage in promoting human rights and democracy, and this is also an area where we can learn and exchange ideas.    

On the economic side, San Antonio is a city proud to have a diverse economic portfolio that includes target industries like cyber security, aerospace, bioscience, mobility, and technology, to name a few. I understand Gwangju is focused on similar industries including cybersecurity and AI. Collaborating on these important industries that we share will provide many opportunities for future exchanges. 

In fact, joining me on this visit to Gwangju is the CEO of our 8-km² premier tech and innovation campus, Port San Antonio, that is home to several well-known and new innovative cybersecurity companies. This campus is also home to a state-of-the-art e-sports arena that has been visited by a recent delegation from Gwangju. I hope there will be an opportunity for e-sports diplomacy between San Antonio and Gwangju and its world-class e-sports facility. 

I think our comparable size was especially helpful when we discussed Covid-19 policies and best practices during the pandemic, as we had many of the same concerns and challenges. 

GN: What are the main objectives that you wish to accomplish during this visit to Gwangju? 

Mayor Nirenberg: In 2019, I had planned to come to Gwangju with a San Antonio delegation, but unfortunately my trip was cut short due to an unanticipated emergency that required my attention as mayor. My colleague, City Councilman John Courage, continued the mission to Gwangju and participated in the presentation of the San Antonio public art installation created by one of our local artists, Cakky Brawley, to honor our relationship with Gwangju. I was sorry not to have been able to join that important moment.   

Last year, we celebrated forty years of our relationship, and I resolved to visit Gwangju to honor these four decades of relationship that have bound our two cities. I am looking forward to meeting Mayor Kang Gi-Jung and exchanging our ideas about our respective priorities as big-city mayors. I also look forward to discovering Gwangju and learning some of the stories that characterize this city.  

GN: What areas has the Gwangju–San Antonio sister-city relationship been most concentrated in – city infrastructure, business investment, employment, climate change, human rights, or possibly other areas? 

Mayor Nirenberg: Gwangju and San Antonio celebrated forty years of sister-city exchange in 2022, and it is fair to say that there have been all types of exchanges over the last four decades. 

There have historically been a diverse range of educational exchanges. For many years, the University of Incarnate Word would send students to teach English in Gwangju, but they have also received students from Gwangju at their campus at both the high school and university level. They had a longstanding exchange with Salesio High School. In 2014, the International School of the Americas in San Antonio established an annual exchange with the Seongdeok High School in Gwangju, which was interrupted by the global pandemic in 2020.   

Last year, Gwangju City initiated a virtual exchange program called “Making Friends at Gwangju,” which was embraced by students from our higher education institutions, especially the University of Texas in San Antonio, which subsequently took a group of students to Gwangju for a few days during their summer program in Korea. Additionally, the Students of Service, another organization in our city, plans to bring a group of 30 San Antonio high school students to Gwangju in the summer of 2024. This will be an opportunity to connect a group of students with young people in Gwangju.   

Another important area of engagement in recent years has been in the creative industries and culture. Both Gwangju and San Antonio are members of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN), each representing different disciplines in the creative arts. The UCCN encourages transversal exchanges so, as a creative city of Gastronomy, San Antonio hosted Gwangju chefs An You-seong, Jung Won-sang, and Oh Myung-jin in September last year for a culinary exchange with San Antonio chefs and students as part of our World Heritage Festival. This year, we hosted Mr. Park Sang-hwa, an artist from Gwangju, at our Luminaria Arts Festival, which aligns with Gwangju’s creative city of media arts designation. 

Our most recent engagement with Gwangju was the “East Meets West” Concert with the Gwangju Symphony Orchestra at San Antonio’s prestigious Musical Bridges Around the World “UNITYFest 2023” in February of this year. This was a hugely successful and popular activity that drew attendance from throughout the city and beyond and inspired young musicians and local residents alike. It was a wonderful tribute to our sister-city relationship and a much-appreciated gift from Gwangju. 

GN: You seem to be a very popular mayor, being recently elected to a fourth term in that position. What do you think are the main reasons that San Antonians continue to vote for you? 

Mayor Nirenberg: I have spent my tenure working to ensure economic mobility for San Antonio residents by establishing our workforce development program, Ready to Work, and by instituting an aggressive approach to housing affordability so that San Antonians will have an opportunity to be prosperous. Our voters approved funding for these initiatives, demonstrating that my policy priorities are in step with the people of our city. During my tenure, we have budgeted through an equity framework so historically underserved areas of the city have equal infrastructure, services, and opportunities. Voters appreciate our efforts to improve the lives of San Antonians.  

GN: As a former chairman of Sister Cities International, how effective would you say sister-city relationships, like that between Gwangju and San Antonio, are in facilitating positive change? 

Mayor Nirenberg: Sister-city relationships build mutual understanding and a deeper recognition of the challenges and opportunities facing each city and their residents. These relationships foster economic development and educational and cultural opportunities. There is broad recognition in international business and diplomatic circles that economic partnerships, for example, do not just happen. They require lots of work and relationship building that happen at the civic level and citizen-to-citizen level – from student exchange to cultural engagement to trade. Sister-city relationships are a crucial tool to establishing new connections and nurturing existing relationships. 

GN: What was the most impactful moment of the exchange between the two cities so far? What do you expect as outcomes in the mutual development of the two cities? 

Mayor Nirenberg: There have been so many impactful moments. I do not think we can single one out. This is a historical relationship which has involved so many important people over time. The arts exchange between Gwangju and San Antonio has produced memorable moments such as the opening of the beautiful Korean Pavilion at Denman Estate Park gifted to the citizens of San Antonio by the City of Gwangju.   

Another very special recent memory for me was the performance of the Gwangju Orchestra in San Antonio earlier this year in our state-of-the-art performing arts center. The performance was beautiful, and we were so happy that the orchestra was able to add San Antonio to their US tour this year. It was a magnificent way to close out our forty-year anniversary commemoration. 

We should also ask our local students and residents about their fascination with Korean culture and language and their interest in learning about Gwangju. We had a tremendous response to the “Making Friends at Gwangju” virtual program and anticipate that this and our other programming is instilling a lifelong curiosity and awareness of Gwangju in San Antonians, and, we hope, a love of kimchi! 

More broadly, we know that these municipal, personal, and organizational ties have built a rock-solid foundation that serves not only our cities, but also our countries as we support global peace. We understand Gwangju’s truly exemplary model of democracy building and study your history for inspiration and lessons to be learned.   

GN: What would you like the people of Gwangju to know about San Antonio? 

Mayor Nirenberg: That we are a vibrant city with a thriving economy, deep cultural heritage, and communities that are compassionate, inclusive, and proudly diverse. We are the seventh largest city in the U.S. and one of the strongest fiscally managed cities in the country, nurturing entrepreneurship, encouraging investment, and funding infrastructure.  

Our municipality fosters partnership and growth opportunities in aerospace, bioscience, cybersecurity, green technologies, healthcare, and information technology. San Antonio’s famed Riverwalk and Alamo are the top tourist attractions in Texas, and its historic missions are a designated World Heritage Site – the first and only in Texas. We share with Gwangju a UNESCO Creative City designation and an unbending commitment to democracy. 

GN:  Thank you, Mayor Nirenberg, for your time, and we at the Gwangju News hope you enjoy your time in our lovely sister city. 

Interviewed by David Shaffer and William Urbanski.