Lew Moorman

Building SaaS companies @scaleworks. Growing Regenerative Ag @soilworksNC. Trying to spark growth in San Antonio at @theCivic.

[Lew Moorman @lewmoorman]

Confident this is not whole story. Either way, past is past. That was early days for this tech. Let's see if something really to be done here. The upside makes it worth exploring aggressively.

[Danny Mendez @dannycmendez]

@lewmoorman @boringcompany @Mayor_GOJ @COSAGOV https://t.co/1rmmnhJ7Y4

[Lew Moorman @lewmoorman]

San Antonio can be a showplace for the future and solve a major transportation problem - if we choose it. Anyone called @boringcompany company yet? @Mayor_GOJ @COSAGOV

https://t.co/QbJCrc3hgL

[Lew Moorman @lewmoorman]

I am for whatever works and can actually get done. Rail not happening. Failed for decades. Only harder now.

[Mac @MacPena]

Yall want everything BUT public transportation.

[Lew Moorman @lewmoorman]

Yes! Would be game changer for San Antonio!

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

Boring Company is working on a simple, precursor Hyperloop tunnel between Austin and San Antonio (>200 mph).

Due to traffic congestion, that journey can currently take up to 2.5 hours. @BoringCompany can reduce that to a consistent <30 mins.

[Lew Moorman @lewmoorman]

Like most large cities in the US, San Antonio, has grown its budget across the board massively in recent years - up almost 50% since 2019. But, affordability just gets worse. No way to cut now - all programs are essential, of course! So the response:

-Increase property taxes
-Increase utility rates
-Increase community college tax
-Increase River Authority tax
-Raise bus fares
-Raise ambulance and other medical fees
-Raise fire inspection fees
-Raise library fees
-Raise towing fees
-Raise public sport field fees
-Raise assisted living fees
-Raise fees on garages
-Raise cost of fiesta event security

The list could go on and on. No one is willing to truly question the big programs and be honest about what is working and what is not. So just raise taxes and fees.

The city is obsessed with affordable housing, but the current reduction in property values (the goal!) now requires choices to make the lower costs real. Instead costs are just being increased elsewhere. Truly no leadership to face real trade-offs. All while big programs (VIA, RtW, many others) underperform.

This dynamic is playing out everywhere - and is a bipartisan epidemic of handouts, bribes and cronyism to keep political coalitions together. It will not end well.

[Lew Moorman @lewmoorman]

Good piece. Americans want free markets. They are getting socialism from one side and crony capitalism from the other.

[Cory Klippsten 🦢 Swan.com @CorySwan]

BOTH SYSTEMS TAKE FROM EVERYBODY.

ONLY ONE OF THEM EVEN CLAIMS IT WANTS TO HELP YOU.

Maybe the socialists have a point. https://t.co/mKxz0P7oQR

[Lew Moorman @lewmoorman]

Do you even cover San Antonio anymore? Notice at all that we are left out? Ask any hard questions of our leaders? Please call @Mayor_GOJ or @Ron_Nirenberg What is their take?

[San Antonio Express-News @ExpressNews]

The new vehicles arrive as CEO Elon Musk pushes to expand Tesla's autonomous ride-hailing business, joining a growing Texas fleet that’s still far smaller than Waymo's. https://t.co/ZekgWrzENe

[Lew Moorman @lewmoorman]

Nice work as always @TheMontereySA ! You make SA better.

[Wemby Alien Era @WembyAlienEra]

Spurs mural at the Paper Tiger 🔥🔥🔥

#GoSpursGo #PorVida

[Lew Moorman @lewmoorman]

They are waiting for council approval of staging lots. They want to be here. Just waiting on us.

[Ben Jones @Ben_Jones85]

@lewmoorman @Mayor_GOJ @COSAGOV I think Trish D is leading the effort with Waymo. I’ll call Tesla tomorrow if no one else has

[Lew Moorman @lewmoorman]

hey san antonio leaders...where you at? austin, dallas, houston will be part of big release tomorrow. please join the future. @Mayor_GOJ @COSAGOV

[Tahreem Hussain @tahreem57]

oh my god! Cybercabs ready to flood Houston.

[Lew Moorman @lewmoorman]

Stop these buses. They will be an anchor around our necks for decades. Let's see how self driving cars and other tech shake out first. This is old tech that will help a small number of people at HUGE cost.

[San Antonio Express-News @ExpressNews]

VIA Metropolitan Transit is considering raising its regular bus fare for the first time in more than a decade, as ballooning costs for two planned rapid lines are forcing it to dig further into its savings. https://t.co/OPElUsbjPC

[Lew Moorman @lewmoorman]

Ok so killing Marvel deal failed. Now what’s the agenda? What’s the ambition for our city? How about good jobs for all?!? Attract employers! Embrace those we have! Create opportunity. Make SA a great place for the builders and creators and creatives and all those that work with them. @Mayor_GOJ we need to hear what you have in mind! What will you do to create opportunity for all?

[The Civic San Antonio @TheCivic]

City Council voted 6-5 against putting San Antonio's $489 million Project Marvel contribution on the November ballot, ending Mayor Jones' push for a citywide vote one year after the county's arena election. Jarrett Whitener reports:
https://t.co/ZxYz6LogI0

[Lew Moorman @lewmoorman]

Sorry your 2bn is made up. And any team in one of those markets is instantly and radically more valuable. Look at lakers deal. Your argument rests on they will never leave. Might be true but it is rational for them to. So I don’t believe it. Just notice how we are not mentioned for any expansions in nfl or mlb? You have 7th largest city delusion. We need to work on jobs. Then we don’t have to subsidize the spurs or airlines or anyone else we want.

[Lew Moorman @lewmoorman]

Sadly true. San Antonio does not realize how far behind we have fallen. We are a small market team. The owners would make billions by moving. We need to spend the next 30 years - when this comes back up - making sure we are a market they won’t be better off leaving. That means winning employers and creating a more dynamic economy. An agenda you hear nothing about from our mayor or council.

[Carolina Teague @CTtheMicSlayer]

Austin’s downtown is lit and companies keep coming.. have yall not given Austin the simple eye test the past 20 years? Look at how much their downtown has grown compared to SA. SA’s government signals (budget fights, Spurs drama) tell big business “maybe not.” When you make it harder for capital to stay or expand, growth goes north.

[Lew Moorman @lewmoorman]

All negotiations take turns and can fall apart. The spurs don’t want to leave. But there will be a point where it could go south. This is likely the best small market deal in last decade. Or longer. We can push. But will she ever say yes? And at what point do they say enough. Either way we are a market that would never get a new team. That is the issue. Our economy is on the wrong trajectory.

[Lew Moorman @lewmoorman]

Just wrong on every level. And even if you were right, ok, Vegas, Seattle, Nashville….the economics would be epic vs SA. My real ask is to focus on the real problem: not enough good jobs in SA. Spurs have agreed to stay. Now get to work on leverage down the road. We have much less than you or others think.

[Dave @meatpopiscle]

@lewmoorman Ha. There’s no space in Austin. UT has the market by the cajones in Austin. Hence why San Antonio has confidence. The two other places already have teams and Austin is a much smaller market than San Antonio. Austin has the money but not the people. SA has the international mkt

[Lew Moorman @lewmoorman]

@NeelLane Needs to be core mission. Opportunity is the path. For all. Don’t see anyone saying this is #1. Right now most of what we are doing tells employers to be wary.

[Lew Moorman @lewmoorman]

This delusion is why we are still debating this one.

[Stevie Bacala @Stevough]

@lewmoorman It would cost the owners billions to move between relocation fees, legal fees, and the costs to convince another city to build an arena for them. If it was more profitable to move, they would do it in a heartbeat.

[Lew Moorman @lewmoorman]

@TxRogueNews don't know details on SCOBEY but hard to find a VIA project that did not massively underperform.

[Lew Moorman @lewmoorman]

San Antonio leaders, here is an idea on how to easily cut some costs to close budget gap. Stop the Green and Silver Lines at VIA while you can. The case:
1. These projects are massively expensive (over 1bn combined).
2. Yes, feds paying some of that, but the ongoing losses and maintenance will be huge.
3. The lines will impact a tiny number of people in SA.
4. They are old tech that people don't want.
5. They will destroy roads people rely on.
6. There are much better options emerging. Read below on tunnels. Also coming: self driving cars at low costs. Don't commit to old ways at massive cost.
7. Nashville is doing our Green Line as a tunnel. Cost: 0.
8. You can divert some of the money and help get these new ideas going and impact more people with a better more future proof solution.

We need to skip to the future not go backwards. Buses will not change SA. @Mayor_GOJ @TheCivic @COSAGOV

[Phil Trubey @PTrubey]

Boring Company is about to explode.

They just closed about $3B in new funding and they are now aggressively hiring tons of people including business development (sales). This tells me they’ve reached the level of technical maturity they want so they can blitz municipalities worldwide to build Loop projects.

We currently know about Las Vegas (12 stations, 8 more by end of year, 104 within a few years), Nashville (40+ stations), and Dubai (20), but other cities are coming.

They currently have 7 tunnel boring machines in operation, with an additional 4 more anticipated to be put into service by the end of 2026. They currently build a new machine every two months.

Loop is Boring’s big urban transit innovation. It is a hybrid system, allowing EVs to pop out of tunnels and drive on surface streets for a bit. Stations can be small surface parking lots (one of Vegas’ new stations will be at a Mexican restaurant), or be placed beside a hotel’s entrance portico.

Small cheap stations mean you can build lots of stations resulting in a design rule of less than 100 feet for customers to walk as opposed to a subway’s 1/4 mile design target.

And unlike a subway, Loop is a point-to-point express system. No stopping at intermediate stations along the way or changing train lines in the Loop system.

AI? Absolutely. The boring machines are mostly autonomous now and the EVs driving passengers will be autonomous soon. Obviously these systems will eventually tightly integrate into Tesla’s Robotaxi network.

Being a Musk company, Boring has wrung tons of cost out of the system, making Boring more than 10x cheaper than legacy tunnel boring. Among other things, this has resulted in both Las Vegas and Nashville systems being completely privately funded through a combination of hotels paying for their own Loop station and rider fees that still cost less than an equivalent (but slower) taxi ride.

Any city investigating ways to lighten urban traffic load should be calling up Boring.