What if Bergstrom hadn't been closed?

[DashRiprock]

ScoPro knows the details better than me but as I recall, the Manor site was kinda assumed to be close to a done deal for a while. Lots of investors had been buying up land out there and then more or less out of the blue, Bergstrom was closed as part of the "peace dividend" following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Then suddenly there was the pivot to repurpose Bergstrom, which made all the sense in the world, and lots of those developers were left holding the bag. And boy were they upset. Oh well.

I remember talk off and on about going in with San Antonio and building something to serve both cities in the San Marcos area but I don't remember that ever gaining traction like the Manor proposal did. That might have made more sense than Manor but once Bergstrom became available, there was really nothing else to discuss.

Also, when Bergstrom was a base it was pretty small and didn't contribute much, if any, military character to the city. Camp Mabry probably has more of an influence than Bergstrom ever did. I do remember the jets flying over on the various training missions, though. That was cool.

[DashRiprock]

My favorite memory of that time was when longtime Austin Democratic rep JJ "Jake" Pickle was caught flatfooted by the closure of Bergstrom. He was the prototypical insider old school smoke filled back room bring home the bacon Congress critter and literally NOTHING got by him. HE was the puller of the strings, by gosh.

But the closure of the base in his district was a complete shock to him, so much so that he was vacationing in Mexico (I think) at the time and frantically called in to one of the Austin stations to assure us that he was going to get to the bottom of this travesty. He ultimately pivoted himself onto some commission guiding the construction of the civilian airport there but I'll never forget the anger and panic in his voice on that call. Probably the only time in his life he wasn't in control of events, and he didn't know how to handle it.

[DashRiprock]

Originally Posted by Trainwreck20

Manor was one location that was being heavily pushed, I forget the other site. It wasn't, iirc, between Austin/SA though. ScoPro probably remembers better than me .

I don't remember any sites discussed other than Manor and somewhere San Marcos-ish between Austin & San Antonio. At the time you couldn't go southeast because of proximity to Bergstrom and interfering with the military operations there (which as I recall was sometimes an issue even with the old Mueller).

Going west was geographically prohibitive due to the hills, and installing adequate roads and infrastructure would have been monumentally expensive.

Going north might have made sense but if you're gonna go north, why not just as easily go south and combine with SA?

In retrospect we really, really lucked out with Bergstrom. I rarely say this about any government run thing, and especially an Austin government run thing, but they did a really good job on it in almost all respects.

[ScoPro]

Dash is correct in all three posts.
Ol’ Jake still made out like a bandit though, as did other local powers that manipulated contracts with the Bergstrom conversion.

[DashRiprock]

Originally Posted by ashbeeigh

And second, had the military stayed in Austin, would it have inhibited the growth that has come this way? Would Austin have been an "it" city for tech? Would it just be an occasional spot for tech? I know 3m and IBM have been here for ages and Dell just kind of popped up. But, would facebook, indeed, oracle, tesla, Samsung, etc, etc, etc end up here had the city not have lost Bergstrom Air Force Base?

Hard to say what would or would not have grown out that way if the base was still operating. Austin was growing regardless, a new airport was needed regardless. Most likely it would have gone in around Manor, most likely 130 would have still been built where it was and that's driving a lot of the commercial growth out there, it seems. Also, an airport in Manor would be pretty much the same logistically for that area as Bergstrom is now, just a bit further north.

The area immediately adjacent to Bergstrom wasn't desireable for housing then and really isn't all that desirable now until you get a few miles down 71 towards Bastrop.

COTA probably wouldn't be where it is now, but whether it would be somewhere else in town is anybody's guess.

I don't see that it would have had any impact on the tech sector here - that was already up and running long before we decided to move the airport.

[ScoPro]

Originally Posted by DashRiprock

Hard to say what would or would not have grown out that way if the base was still operating. Austin was growing regardless, a new airport was needed regardless. Most likely it would have gone in around Manor, most likely 130 would have still been built where it was and that's driving a lot of the commercial growth out there, it seems. Also, an airport in Manor would be pretty much the same logistically for that area as Bergstrom is now, just a bit further north.

The area immediately adjacent to Bergstrom wasn't desireable for housing then and really isn't all that desirable now until you get a few miles down 71 towards Bastrop.

COTA probably wouldn't be where it is now, but whether it would be somewhere else in town is anybody's guess.

I don't see that it would have had any impact on the tech sector here - that was already up and running long before we decided to move the airport.

Agreed, but there has been quite a bit of residential development going on around Elroy Road between 130 & the COTA, and to the north.
Plus some industrial distribution development is slated for the McAngus Road area west of the COTA.
I think the tech development will stay up along 130 north of Musk’s gigafactory.

[DashRiprock]

Originally Posted by ScoPro

Agreed, but there has been quite a bit of residential development going on around Elroy Road between 130 & the COTA, and to the north.
Plus some industrial distribution development is slated for the McAngus Road area west of the COTA.
I think the tech development will stay up along 130 north of Musk’s gigafactory.

I'm not familiar with all the new residential developments springing up out there but I look forward to the endless noise complaints from people who moved in after the airport had been established for two decades.

[ashbeeigh]

Originally Posted by DashRiprock

I'm not familiar with all the new residential developments springing up out there but I look forward to the endless noise complaints from people who moved in after the airport had been established for two decades.

It’s like people on the east side complaining about the train noise. . But to be fair, depending on what runway planes are taking off at the noise can be very different.

[kt2le]

Converting Bergstrom to ABIA was one of the best things to happen and made tremendous sense. As an AFB, Bergstrom didn't have much influence. With ABIA and the nearby Telsa factory changing the landscape, areas around the Hwy 71E/130 interchange and on out to Del Valle and Garfield are ripe for commercial/industrial development as everything marches that way. It used to be out in the country but certainly isn't anymore.