Welcome Walk

San Antonio's Welcome Walk & Festival returns to celebrate immigrant and refugee families

Mayor Ron Nirenberg will join the free, family-friendly celebration.

Courtesy of Culturingua/Instagram

Returning for the second year, a special event this weekend will celebrate the journey and cultural heritage of immigrants and refugees who have made their home in the San Antonio area. Hosted by the City of San Antonio and local nonprofit Culturingua, the Welcome Walk & Festival takes place at the Rosemont at Denman Estate Park from 10 am to 2pm on Saturday, November 12.

On its website, Culturingua shares its mission to "cultivate, promote, and preserve Middle Eastern, North African, and South Asian (MENASA) cultural, linguistic, and artistic heritage to invest in human, community, and economic development." Since 2018, the group's innovative programming has focused on building bridges to foster human development and civic engagement in order to serve the Bexar County community.

According to the Welcome Walk & Festival event page, over 250 members participated in the 2021 event. The celebration was such a success that city leaders encouraged Culturingua to make it an annual occurrence.

"As the need for refugee resettlement has grown, San Antonio has taken the lead to become a welcoming ground, and ultimately home, for many refugees and immigrants seeking a new life in the U.S," the event description reads. "San Antonio Welcome Walk & Festival is an event that was created to embrace these new faces in the community."

Saturday's celebration will kick off with a one-mile walk with San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg, symbolizing the journey of immigrants and refugees to the United States. Nirenberg will also deliver remarks during the event, along with other local leaders.

“For more than 300 years, San Antonio has been a city of immigrants and refugees,” says Nirenberg in a release. “When we talk about San Antonio to the world, they know it is through our diversity that we find strength, and through the embrace of our diversity that we find unity.”

Nirenberg added, “I cannot think of a better to express who we are as a community, here in San Antonio, than to start with a welcome walk in which everyone is welcome to join us.”

The free, family-friendly event will feature food vendors, children's activities, an immigrant-owned small business market, and more, including:

The launch of Nourish to Flourish Mobile Commercial Kitchen, a culinary training facility that empowers immigrants and refugees with guidance, skills, and mentorship when entering or expanding into the culinary industry.
The kickoff of San Antonio for Global Entrepreneurship Week, an international celebration of entrepreneurs in every country and community around the world.
The San Antonio launch of Kiva, an internationally renowned, global microlending platform that expands access to capital for entrepreneurs with zero-percent interest character-based loans. Three locally- and immigrant-owned restaurant owners will present their Kiva loan request to the community.

For more information and to register (for free) in advance, visit the event’s website.

Vehicle News

What to know about new car inspection requirements in San Antonio

Texas Department of Motor Vehicles

Texas is changing requirements for vehicle registration.

Beginning January 1, 2025, Texas vehicle owners will no longer need to obtain a safety inspection prior to vehicle registration. House Bill 3297, passed during the 88th Legislature in 2023, eliminates the safety inspection program for non-commercial vehicles.

We'll all be free, free, free of the oppression of the safety inspection process. However …

Under the new law, the $7.50 fee that drivers had to pay as a safety inspection fee has not gone away. It now appears on your registration notice under a new name: "Inspection Program Replacement Fee."

This name change comes courtesy of the legislature, who want to keep collecting this fee because the funds go to state programs such as construction and expansion of state highways — funds they previously collected from the Safety Inspection Fee.

And while the safety inspection is gone, state law will still require that drivers in 17 counties must pass an "emission inspection" on vehicles that are 2 to 24 years old, in order to get your vehicle registered. In Bexar County, the new requirement will go into effect in 2026.

But what does an "emissions inspection" mean?

The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) details the following changes:

Safety inspection out, emissions testing in
Until December 31, 2024, safety inspections are required for vehicle registration in all 254 counties. Beginning January 1, 2025, noncommercial vehicles in Texas will no longer be required to have an annual safety inspection. Instead, vehicles will have to get an emissions inspection on gasoline-powered vehicles that are 2 to 24 years old.

What is no longer going to be "inspected"?
Texas Transportation Code §548.051 specifies the list of old-school inspection items which will no longer be checked. Moving forward, they will no longer be checking: tires, wheel assembly, safety guards, safety flaps, brakes, steering, lighting, horns, mirrors, windshield wipers, sunscreening devices, and front seat belts in vehicles on which seat belt anchorages were part of the manufacturer's original equipment.

What will still be inspected are listed as "Items 12–15": exhaust system, exhaust emissions system, fuel tank cap, and emissions control equipment. These will be part of the emissions inspection process in 17 counties.

Those 17 counties where this is relevant include:

Austin: Travis and Williamson
DFW: Collin, Dallas, Denton, Ellis, Johnson, Kaufman, Parker, Rockwall, and Tarrant
Houston: Brazoria, Fort Bend, Galveston, Harris, and Montgomery
El Paso County

In Bexar County, emissions inspections will be required beginning on November 1, 2026.

Where will emissions inspections be obtained?
Emissions inspections can be obtained at DPS-certified vehicle inspection stations in the 17 emissions counties. These will be the exact same inspection locations we've been going to all along, when it was called a safety inspection. Emissions inspections are not available in the other 237 Texas counties.

DPS offers an inspection station locator online.

What is the estimated cost of an emissions inspection?
Vehicle owners will pay an emissions inspection fee of $2.50 annually to the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles (TxDMV) at the time of registration. The actual fee you'll pay at the inspection station (as listed on TCEQ’s website) will be $25.50. Just like the former "safety inspection" fee.

In short: There is little that's changing about the entire inspection process, except they won't bother making you honk your horn.

transportation