Michael Mehl

We are snitches. Yep, that’s right. We are just friggin’ snitches.

According to recent numbers from Crime Stoppers USA, due to the rough times many folks are experiencing trying to make ends meet, there has been a substantial increase nationwide in calls with tips for rewards. Turning in perps for cash has become a cottage industry in many parts of the country, not only in places that have had historically poor populations, but also, not surpisingly, in places where the mortgage crisis has made itself more apparent. The average annual increase, nationally, in calls of Crime Stopper tips for rewards, is about 25 percent. In Southwest Florida, especially hard-hit by subprime problems, the increase has been close to 30 percent. But get this, in good ol’ chillin’ San Antonio, recently touted as a unique paragon of unwaivering economic strength, a bastion of stability and growth, the annual increase in calls has been (insert drum roll and bugles): 44 percent. Almost twice the national average.

Read more »

We are officially Macondo.

A recent report published by Forbes, concluded that San Antonio is in effect, the second most recession-proof city in the United States, right behind the gangbuster bastion of enterprise and compelling travel destination that is Oklahoma City. On the one hand it is good to know that we are close to the top of the list in something other than obesity rates, yet on the other hand we lag behind in the Lame category, not even lame enough to be the lamest in the country.

Read more »

210 CHILLIN

I saw these words the other day, decalled onto the rear window of a souped-up, black, late-model Suburban -Westbound on Highway 90, just off the I-35 South intersection, near downtown San Antonio- layered over a silver silhouette of our downmarket city’s unprepossesing skyline. The semiotics -hard at work on the darkly tinted window- would seem to indicate that for all practical purposes, San Antonio is a happenin place to chill. Or so the Suburban’s gangsta’d-up Latino owner would like it to be.

Read more »