During its eight months of existence, the Instagram account @decomemesdistrict has tapped into the San Antonio zeitgeist, using humor to give voice to residents frustrated by the city's sprawl-centric urban design.
It's a design that by default favors large corporations over small business owners and suburban blandness over livability, said the account's creator, Carlos Perez.
"The account is trying to celebrate San Antonio but also pointing out the absurdity of what a city is, according to San Antonio," he said.
Deco Memes District typically skewers symbols of our city's antiquated development mindset — from downtown projects like the Shops at Rivercenter to its seemingly endless quest to build more stadiums at taxpayer expense.
The account also takes aim at "stroads," an urban development term referring to the often-dangerous intersections between highly trafficked roads and slower moving streets. Think Bandera or Culebra roads for an example.
What's humorous isn't always laugh-out-loud funny. Sometimes, it's simply somebody speaking the truth in a refreshingly blunt way, casting aside niceties and cutting through the bullshit. That's where Deco Memes find its strength: you don't always laugh because it's funny but sometimes because it's a bitter recognition of an unspoken truth.
A favorite Decomemes punching bag is the bizarre Alamo Heights phenomenon of white guys nicknamed "Cuatro." A recent meme depicts a Range Rover with a Photoshopped "CUATRO" personalized license plate, while in the background we see a painting of a battle from the Texas Revolution reading, in all caps, "REMEMBER WHAT YOU'RE FIGHTING FOR."
Another meme skewers an Express-News article discussing possible names for a San Antonio-Austin metroplex. The list of potential monikers suggested by Reddit users — Austanto, Sanmarcraunfels, Post-DFW, Alamoustin, Little California, SAATX and others — is layered over an image of I-35 snarled in construction traffic.
The most common theme, however, is San Antonio's crushing sprawl. Against a horrific collage of snarled traffic on Loop 410 near North Star Mall, a cartoon Goofy asks a potential mate, "Damn Shawty, you live like this?" It's likely to resonate with anyone who's spent time in gridlock at that spot.
"The account can be criticism of people and institutions, but sometimes we're just talking about intersections — hyperlocal knowledge," Perez explained. "Bandera and 1604, McCullough and Mulberry. Is Hildebrand one lane or two between Broadway and San Pedro? There are a lot of stinkers that ruin everything. Like our stroads. Too many lanes to be functional, inherently unsafe for both pedestrians and cars. A massive entity of waste and inefficiency. It feels like that mindset has guided all decisions."
Through humor and the power of online memes, Perez is opening the door to discussions about serious issues. His posts typically garner hundreds of reactions and have gained popularity among San Antonio's movers and shakers — small business owners, city officials and those advocating for a new development mindset.
Hitting close to home
Deco Memes' broad appeal was on full display during a recent installment of PechaKucha, the popular speaking event, at which Perez wowed the audience.
"Do I even need to talk?" Perez asked as the Tobin Center's roaring laughter overwhelmed his prepared remarks. However, as his talk went on, the laughter abated as his stinging, provocative rebukes of entrenched local mindsets hit closer and closer to home.
Mariah DeLaye Lange, one of PechaKucha's planners, is a longtime Deco Memes fan.
As a fellow small business owner who's run a catering company — Sage and Honey — for 20 years and conducts urban advocacy work through her day job at the San Antonio Parks Foundation, Lange said Deco Memes' messages resonate with her.
"I've wanted to see things flourish in SA, especially small business, and Deco Memes really touched on that underlying feeling," she said. "Why is there so much money in SA being poured into things that don't help communities, that don't help the city as a whole?"
Perez said his online commentary all comes back to small businesses and the corridors that allow them to thrive.
"SA wants tech jobs and to be cool and be international, but I really think small business is the actual culture builder of San Antonio," he said. "What if, instead of SA's current approach — expansion at all costs or building things for people who don't live here — we just identify the coolest things about SA, [such as] the fact that it's 300 years old, all the historic buildings, all the greenways and creeks, and just build from those strengths?"
These frustrations led directly to Perez's opening of his meme account. He wanted to create a space for residents to speak openly about their frustrations.
"Somebody told me the account resonates because it demonstrates how much time we spend in our cars in San Antonio," he said. "Our collective consciousness is built on waiting at the same lights and zig-zagging to the same places ... . We're all living parallel lives, all driving to the same downtown spots, without the true benefits of an urban lifestyle."
Perez said multiple city development officials have reached out to him, hoping to harness, or at least understand, the power of meme culture.
"A meme is a kernel of a coherent thought," Perez said with a laugh. "If nobody can question things, if people in power can't laugh at themselves and institutions can't have a sense of humor ... it's just not fun to live like that. It's OK to be serious and silly [at the same time]."
To be sure, Decomemes' humor plays an essential role in calling out the city's absurdities and shared experiences. As Mark Twain once wrote, "Against the assault of laughter, nothing can stand."
Embrace of place
Perez's frustration with San Antonio's apparent infatuation with corporate outsiders over homegrown entrepreneurism stems from his time as a small business owner. He and his wife own and operate Way Out Kombucha, which produces the fermented Chinese tea renowned for its health benefits by using yaupon holly leaves, North America's only native caffeine source.
He finds it absurd that U.S. companies import coffee beans and tea from all over the world but aren't making use of a domestically grown plant.
"It's crazy to think we have our own caffeinated plant and weren't using it," he said. "It just makes sense. We could sell kombucha just from a health perspective like everyone else, advertising 'millions of probiotics,' but the idea of native consumption was important to us."
That embrace of place began when a vacant storefront became available near Perez's Deco District home. He snatched the lease before it could become "another MetroPCS or something" and launched his business, tailoring its product to local tastes with flavors including local mesquite, prickly pear and Fredericksburg peach.
"[It] should really be easier to start a small business than bring in another chain," he said.
Urban development isn't a one-size-fits-all proposition, according to Perez. He also said he's aware that the diversity and thriving small businesses he advocates for on his account already exist in San Antonio.
"There's already a diverse community that literally fills a bingo hall by Tip Top Cafe every night of the week," he said. "And that's what San Antonio can preserve — having all these different businesses existing in harmony."
While it's painful to be on the receiving end of criticism, Deco Memes' critiques are born from a love of San Antonio, Perez said. He sees the city's potential and wants to champion a new generation of bootstrapping small business owners whose fresh ideas, brash energy and can-do optimism can challenge the status quo.
"Anyone who loves SA, we've been in eras where it felt like things were changing, where things were getting better and where we finally won't compare ourselves to other cities and we can be at peace," he said. "We are closer to that, but we still need a few changes of mindset. There's still so much opportunity in San Antonio to have free thought and cool things."
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