What if Bergstrom hadn't been closed? (San Antonio, Austin: rentals, movers, houses)

[ashbeeigh]

For those unfamiliar or new to the Austin area, ABIA, between 1942 and 1993 was an airforce base. I recall very vividly, as a resident of San Antonio when the government went through a phase of closing bases (Base Realignment). Kelly Air Force Base and Brooks Air Force Base were also casualties of this. SA is bleeding military bases, so, although those closures hurt, they didn't remove the military culture from the city like (I assume) getting rid of Bergstrom did. I know the VA is located by ABIA, so there's still some military culture, but I'm comparing the military culture of a city with a VA versus a city like San Antonio that is "Military City USA" where every other car has some type of DV plate or insignia.


So, the obvious question is...what would the airport situation have ended up being like? The airport was super landlocked with not a lot of room for expansion. Where would / could have the airport gone? I'm assuming there were discussions when it was moved over to its current location.

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?

(This all came up in my head during a run in Mueller, of all places, tonight when I saw a plane overhead).

[atxcio]

If Bergstrom had not become available due to the early 90s base closings, I’d think some form of the earlier plan
— which was a big airport between SA and Austin, neither of whom alone merited a major airport — would have been built instead. We lucked out getting a very expandable site with a huge runway, and the rest is history.

[TX Rover]

ABIA was a very small base, compared to Lackland or Hood - the “culture” is driven by scale.

[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 .

In any case, all the speculators had picked one or the other of the two proposed locations and were pushing the 'best' option (i.e. the one that made them money) hard. Then Bergstrom became available and they all pretty much turned into contortionists trying to explain why that was a terrible place to put an airport.

[Need4Camaro]

The location is perfect.. ..15 minutes from downtown (without traffic).. near an industrial area (due west) ..could use better entry / exit methods though.

[atxcio]

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'm curious what ScoPro remembers. Or Austin-Steve or TXHorseLady. I vaguely recall these other sites pitching an airport location, but I also seem to remember that the Mueller closing was not finalized until AFTER the Bergstrom deal was made. Meaning, the other locations -- like the plans for one between SA/Austin -- weren't really going to happen and could have been discussed for years if they had not been quashed by the Bergstrom deal.

[ashbeeigh]

Originally Posted by Need4Camaro

The location is perfect.. ..15 minutes from downtown (without traffic).. near an industrial area (due west) ..could use better entry / exit methods though.

But….had Beegstrom been larger/different…I envision it being like a Lacklsnd area of San Antonio. Lackland is on the west side of San Antonio with lots of highway access with light industrial around…but homes popped up. Lots of homes. Now it’s more residential, now very middle class with lots of rentals because military folks wanted bigger, brighter and shinier…and directly related to the western suburbs of SA. Would that have happened in Austin?

[Trainwreck20]

Originally Posted by Need4Camaro

The location is perfect.. ..15 minutes from downtown (without traffic).. near an industrial area (due west) ..could use better entry / exit methods though.

The arguments against it basically centered around 'environmental justice', back before that was such a hot topic. The 'poor' city of Del Valle - and the local schools - would be impacted while the 'rich' people elsewhere would benefit. Never mind that this was true at any other site and that there was currently an AFB flying military planes over the houses. They did end of moving the school that was nearby.

The problem that did need to be addresses was soil contamination, which did end up slowing down the airport some and they actually paved over some areas and dig them up later to remediate after the airport was open.

[Trainwreck20]

Originally Posted by ashbeeigh

But….had Beegstrom been larger/different…I envision it being like a Lacklsnd area of San Antonio. Lackland is on the west side of San Antonio with lots of highway access with light industrial around…but homes popped up. Lots of homes. Now it’s more residential, now very middle class with lots of rentals because military folks wanted bigger, brighter and shinier…and directly related to the western suburbs of SA. Would that have happened in Austin?

I doubt that that area would have been revitalized, at least not in any near future. It was considered one of the worst areas of town at the time and not because of the AFB. Anything is possible, but I think some - if not a lot - of the growth in Bastrop is due to ABIA being built there. Hwy 71 would not have been expanded w/o the airport location.

[ScoPro]

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 .

In any case, all the speculators had picked one or the other of the two proposed locations and were pushing the 'best' option (i.e. the one that made them money) hard. Then Bergstrom became available and they all pretty much turned into contortionists trying to explain why that was a terrible place to put an airport.

Precisely the way it went down.
A very good longtime friend was the media spokesman for that group of investors who were trying to repeat the fleecing of the Austin taxpayers with their insider land deals like they did with the Decker power plant in the 1960s.
Their “explanations” of how their favored Manor site was better than the free Bergstrom site were ridiculously absurd. As if the voters thought building a new airport from scratch on raw land would be cheaper than converting Bergstrom which already had a massive runway in place along with the required extensive utility infrastructure in place.
Not to mention all the base family housing (Duplexes) that were moved by contractors to eastside locations for affordable civilian housing.

Those Austin “movers & shakers” investments in Manor were shook up when the voters wisely saw through their laughable shenanigans and finally chose the Bergstrom site.
It took quite a few years for those investors to recoup their money, what with the very slow development out towards Manor over the years. Lol