Texas Public Radio

While the City Council was melting down over how to solve budget deficit last month, East Side Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez (D2) was locking down funding for some major projects in his historically underserved district.

A new senior center and public pool for the East Side is expected to break ground in 2029, while he’s also closing in on another city land acquisition for affordable housing.

Once a progressive outsider on a business-friendly dais, McKee-Rodriguez, 31, is now in his third term on a council filled with like-minded members.

Together they join a growing list of progressives nationwide who are channeling their national policy frustrations into grassroots solutions — while bucking the traditional economic development models that they say have long failed to deliver on their promises.

“Right now people are exhausted of the tension and conflict and arguing at all levels of government. We see it at the federal level and it’s exhausting, and then at the state level, it feels even worse sometimes,” McKee-Rodriguez said in a wide-ranging Sept. 14 interview.

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