Alumna expresses pride in representing city in district where she grew up

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APRIL 24, 2020 — Melissa Cabello Havrda M.B.A. ’13 recalls when she was just 8 years old walking alongside her grandfather in his neighborhood on the West Side of San Antonio. As they walked together Havrda stayed in the grass and her grandfather walked in the street.

Unlike other neighborhoods Havrda had been in, her grandfather’s neighborhood had no sidewalks to walk on.

“I remember looking up at my grandfather and asking, 'Why don’t you have any sidewalks here?’ And he looked down at me and said, ‘Porque no les importamos. Because they don’t care about us,’ he said. That started this spark in me as a little girl. It was a fire that enraged me. Why wouldn’t they care about this neighborhood? It sparked that interest in me that I wanted to help people that didn’t feel like they had a voice.”

Today, Havrda represents San Antonio’s Council District 6, which spans from Castroville Road to parts of Alamo Ranch, as the city councillor. It’s also the same area Havrda grew up in herself and attended school in the Northside ISD.

“It excites me being Latina and representing a predominantly Latino community,” she said. “I feel like I am truly representative of the people that live in this community. I'm from here, and these are mi gente [my people].”

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“It excites me being Latina and representing a predominantly Latino community.”

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When Havrda was elected to the District 6 seat in June 2019 the San Antonio City Council became a woman-majority council for the second time in history.

“I’m supergrateful and proud to be part of that. But I think it’s more interesting that all of the women that have been elected on the city council are born and raised in the districts that they represent,” Havrda said. “That means to me they’re truly representative of the people around them, and not by ethnicity, education level, socioeconomically.”

As a member of the city council, Havrda wants to ensure her district continues to be a good place to live in, which is why she hopes to preserve the area’s green spaces, help small businesses and improve transportation.

With District 6 being one of the fastest growing districts in San Antonio, preserving whatever green spaces are left is important to Havrda.

“We want people to be part of our community. We didn’t use to have some of the amenities that we have now like Main Event and restaurants,” she said. “When I was going to Taft, there was nothing around—just cows and the convent—and now it’s Alamo Ranch. The flipside of that coin is all of our green spots are being taken up, so one of my big initiatives is preserving our green spaces.”

When developers want to come into District 6, Havrda said it’s important they keep a green space.

“So far, I have to say developers are really positively responding to that. They’re responding to that positively because they will want to come in and be a good neighbor,” she said.

Growing the number of small businesses in the area is also another important goal of Havrda’s.

“We have some small businesses, but if you go downtown in the District 1 area, you can go to a coffeeshop because there’s plenty,” she said. “We don't have a lot of little cafés or little bookstores that we can go to and enjoy that are local in our district.”

To help keep up with the area’s continuous growth, Havrda is working to address how transportation can also be improved, especially in the outer areas of the district.

“The VIA buses come regularly inside Loop 410 but not outside. I’m looking to increase frequency outside,” Havrda said. “I’m on the Alamo Area Metropolitan Planning Organization, which works with other organizations, to make sure we're more forward-thinking. We’re not just solving problems today, but we’re looking into the future.”

While these may be Havrda’s overall goals, right now her focus has shifted to ensuring public health and safety is a number one priority amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

“There’s a lot of people in this district that live in houses where they’re already having trouble keeping up with things, and now they’re losing their jobs or are on furlough,” Havrda said. “I want to be here for them during these times.”

Having the San Antonio Food Bank in the district has been a huge help during this pandemic as well, she said.

“It’s been a huge asset for us, not just our district but the city. People who normally would never have gone to the food bank or who never thought they needed that—they’re lining up because they need to feed their families,” Havrda said.

In addition to making sure all residents’ needs are met, Havrda also has shown support to the first responders in the district by dropping off food at their offices.

“They just need to be shown support as well,” she said, “even if it’s just the morale. That’s my number one goal right now—just making sure we get through this as a city, as a district and doing whatever I can to help get out there.”

— Valerie Bustamante

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