MySa.com doing it best at poor journalism - San Antonio is shrinking (layoffs, food)

[WVNomad]

Originally Posted by 01Snake

Where to next?

Back to the Midwest…..shorter and cooler summers, but much colder and longer winters. I keep thinking I should be looking to move to San Diego or Honolulu. Would be nice to have nearly perfect weather everyday all year long.

Our stay in SA will end up being relatively short…just 3 years, so I don’t know the city as well as many of the posters here. But from my perspective, SA just seems like it is a city that can’t figure out what it wants to be or hasn’t quite found its niche. I mean, it’s a pretty darn big city population wise, but it seems to lack the economic and employment opportunities that similar sized cities have been able to draw. Again, it’s not like it is a barren wasteland of economic development with USAA, Valero, etc. calling SA home….but I don’t think it’s the kind of place most people immediately think of coming to if they are looking for economic opportunities. It also strikes me as odd that given the size of the area that we don’t have more in the way of professional sports and that entities like the symphony orchestra have been struggling to make it. Obviously, the ability to support these sorts of organizations “is what it is”….I’m just surprised there isn’t enough critical mass here to make those sorts of things more abundant. Property taxes here are as high as anyplace I have ever lived, but the absence of an income tax makes (I think) the tax burden no worse than midwestern cities. The thing that I think is different though is how limited city services seem to be for the tax dollars paid. Things that immediately come to mind are the woefully inadequate animal rescue/control services, and the lack of any reasonable attempt to hold property owners responsible for maintaining their properties (especially those that are vacant). Over time, one obviously grows accustomed to certain things and they seem “normal” or “sensible”, but after 3 years, I’m still puzzled by how roadways were designed here….seems like that way too many of the highway on-ramps are too short, on-ramps/off-ramps often seem too close together creating lane changing chaos (San Pedro exit on west bound 410 comes to mind), etc. Some of those issues may be exaggerated by what I think is more frequent aggressive driving than I have experienced in other cities. The large size of the city, how spread out it is, and how car dependent it might be more the cause than any difference in the drivers. More people on the road going more places leads to more opportunities to see bad driving.

[ged_782]

Originally Posted by WVNomad

Back to the Midwest…..shorter and cooler summers, but much colder and longer winters. I keep thinking I should be looking to move to San Diego or Honolulu. Would be nice to have nearly perfect weather everyday all year long.

Our stay in SA will end up being relatively short…just 3 years, so I don’t know the city as well as many of the posters here. But from my perspective, SA just seems like it is a city that can’t figure out what it wants to be or hasn’t quite found its niche. I mean, it’s a pretty darn big city population wise, but it seems to lack the economic and employment opportunities that similar sized cities have been able to draw. Again, it’s not like it is a barren wasteland of economic development with USAA, Valero, etc. calling SA home….but I don’t think it’s the kind of place most people immediately think of coming to if they are looking for economic opportunities. It also strikes me as odd that given the size of the area that we don’t have more in the way of professional sports and that entities like the symphony orchestra have been struggling to make it. Obviously, the ability to support these sorts of organizations “is what it is”….I’m just surprised there isn’t enough critical mass here to make those sorts of things more abundant. Property taxes here are as high as anyplace I have ever lived, but the absence of an income tax makes (I think) the tax burden no worse than midwestern cities. The thing that I think is different though is how limited city services seem to be for the tax dollars paid. Things that immediately come to mind are the woefully inadequate animal rescue/control services, and the lack of any reasonable attempt to hold property owners responsible for maintaining their properties (especially those that are vacant). Over time, one obviously grows accustomed to certain things and they seem “normal” or “sensible”, but after 3 years, I’m still puzzled by how roadways were designed here….seems like that way too many of the highway on-ramps are too short, on-ramps/off-ramps often seem too close together creating lane changing chaos (San Pedro exit on west bound 410 comes to mind), etc. Some of those issues may be exaggerated by what I think is more frequent aggressive driving than I have experienced in other cities. The large size of the city, how spread out it is, and how car dependent it might be more the cause than any difference in the drivers. More people on the road going more places leads to more opportunities to see bad driving.

As a retiree who grew up here in San Antonio, I think your observations after only 3 years here are pretty accurate.

What many newcomers don't realize, is that San Antonio has grown immensely over the decades, both in population, as well as expansion of city limits through annexations. For example, Loop 410 was originally the city's "outer loop", and 1604 was just a two-lane farm-to-market road way out in the county. The current airport was beyond the northern city limits when it was established. The military bases have always been one of the greatest economic generators here, especially before the closure of Kelly AFB, and to a lesser extent, before the closure of Brooks AFB. So there never was that much of a corporate base.

Still with all that growth, the population of the metro area isn't that tremendous, something like 24th or 25th. That puts us on the smaller side when it comes to professional sports franchises, plus it is a lower income region, which also impacts things like funding for a symphony or attracting direct flights to overseas destinations.

[WVNomad]

Originally Posted by ged_782

As a retiree who grew up here in San Antonio, I think your observations after only 3 years here are pretty accurate.

What many newcomers don't realize, is that San Antonio has grown immensely over the decades, both in population, as well as expansion of city limits through annexations. For example, Loop 410 was originally the city's "outer loop", and 1604 was just a two-lane farm-to-market road way out in the county. The current airport was beyond the northern city limits when it was established. The military bases have always been one of the greatest economic generators here, especially before the closure of Kelly AFB, and to a lesser extent, before the closure of Brooks AFB. So there never was that much of a corporate base.

Still with all that growth, the population of the metro area isn't that tremendous, something like 24th or 25th. That puts us on the smaller side when it comes to professional sports franchises, plus it is a lower income region, which also impacts things like funding for a symphony or attracting direct flights to overseas destinations.

The part I don’t get, however is why SA is, as you put it, a “low income region”. I agree that it is, but it just seems like it is punching below it’s weight class. While it’s not a major metropolitan area, it is decent sized, it has a number of colleges/universities with presumably qualified young people from which employers could draw from, it has a “legitimate” airport which presumably that could offer more direct flights to other business hubs (and it is located just minutes from the city center—-easy access), and it is an attractive tourist/convention destination. Just seems like it should be way more economically successful that what it is.

[01Snake]

I've been here since '87 and while I enjoy the laid-back atmosphere here for the most part, there's obviously things I don't like about the city. Of course this holds true wherever you live as no city is ever going to be perfect.

With that said, if the ridiculously hot summer we just had starts becoming the norm here, I can definitely see myself putting serious though into giving another place a try for a few years. I used to travel a lot for work all over the country and there were quite a few places I could actually see myself moving to.

[thenewtexan]

Originally Posted by 01Snake

Where to next?

Monterrey, NL for retirement.

[Remington Steel]

Originally Posted by thenewtexan

Monterrey, NL for retirement.

What is "NL"?

[jcp123]

Originally Posted by Remington Steel

What is "NL"?

Nuevo León (Mexico)

[Remington Steel]

Originally Posted by jcp123

Nuevo León (Mexico)

Oh

[RadiantBaby]

Originally Posted by thenewtexan

Monterrey, NL for retirement.

Very nice.

We just bought a condo in CDMX and plan on spending a month or two a year there.

[Remington Steel]

Originally Posted by 01Snake

I've been here since '87 and while I enjoy the laid-back atmosphere here for the most part, there's obviously things I don't like about the city. Of course this holds true wherever you live as no city is ever going to be perfect.

With that said, if the ridiculously hot summer we just had starts becoming the norm here, I can definitely see myself putting serious though into giving another place a try for a few years. I used to travel a lot for work all over the country and there were quite a few places I could actually see myself moving to.

You're correct. This past summer's heat was unbearable and kept us from going out numerous times and just stay in our A.C. home.