San Antonio District 7 Councilwoman Marina Alderete Gavito filed a Council Consideration Request on May 5 to expand the five-mile eligibility radius for free transportation to city-operated senior centers. The request, signed by four other council members, is expected to be discussed by the city's Governance Committee on May 20 before consideration by the full City Council.

Senior residents in San Antonio can currently receive free rides to one of 12 comprehensive senior centers only if they live within five miles of the location. The city also operates four part-time centers, all of which offer free services including meals, exercise classes, crafts and technology classes.

"The city policy is that they can pick up seniors within a five-mile radius and transport them to the senior center," Alderete Gavito said. "The city has grown, the city has expanded. So we need to expand too."

The councilwoman said constituents had raised the issue directly with her office. "We have had several residents say, 'I'm right outside the transportation zone, I'd love to go to the senior center, I just can't make it there,'" she said.

The CCR cites World Health Organization research estimating that 22% of the global population will be over 60 by 2050, up from 12% in 2022. Local data shows that nearly one in four Bexar County households has at least one resident aged 65 or older. Alderete Gavito hopes the expansion will be approved by the end of 2026.

The proposal originated from a conversation about six months earlier with Richard Robledo, whose mother Carolina Robledo lives about 6.5 miles from the Doris Griffin Senior Center near Ingram Park Mall, exceeding the five-mile limit. Carolina Robledo, now 93 and no longer driving, ran a cleaners business on the south side of San Antonio for nearly 50 years before retiring in her 80s.

"When she retired, it was like part of her identity went away. It was a strange feeling for her," Richard Robledo said. "When could I go, when Mom could go, it was hard to make that work. When you lose your ability to drive, it's like part of your freedoms – part of your ability to do anything – are gone."

Robledo said expanding the radius would extend service to residents living near Loop 1604. "Expanding the radius will allow service for the people who live out by 1604," he said.

Alderete Gavito said the conversation with Robledo directly shaped the proposal. "I thought, 'That's a really great idea.' Me and my team jotted it down, we worked through it as a team, now we have this policy proposal," she said. "My intent with filing this is to get more seniors to our senior centers."