What Do You Like Or Dislike About San Antonio?

[dallasgoldrush]

Originally Posted by L210

These data do not correlate with what you're saying. There are 1.4 million people in San Antonio, and there are about 1 million people working in San Antonio. The poverty rate is 14.6%. I'm sure the percentage of working class people is higher than the percentage of those living in poverty, but I would assume that most people in San Antonio are middle class or above. The number of people employed by the military bases and USAA don't even come close to the hundreds of thousands of middle class people who work in San Antonio.

It's actually very easy to have a middle class living in San Antonio without being associated with the military. Teachers, firefighters, medical professionals, police officers, IT professionals, and dozens of other occupations make at least middle class salaries. The San Antonio economy could use more diversification, but it is a huge stretch to say that the middle class is almost exclusively military. Also, saying "exclusively military" doesn't make people think of the civilian, non-government employees at USAA, but it makes no difference if they're included or not.

Actually, at that link, it says that there are 282k people working in the military or military-associated jobs. It also says that there are over 1 million people working in San Antonio. Not all military-associated jobs are middle class, believe it or not. But, even if they were, for the middle class to almost be exclusively military, that would mean that most of the over 700k people who aren't in military-related jobs would have to be poor or wealthy.

If my use of the phrase "almost exclusively" is the specific point of contention, I can stand down from that. I could have used more specific phrasing, like "disproportionately high".

Let's go ahead and look at the jobs numbers you've pointed out: 282k/1million. That's 28%. Also as you pointed out these are total jobs rather than jobs subdivided by pay, so there's at least a chance that military-related employment constitutes an ever higher proportion of middle income jobs (or lower). Is it fair to say it's likely somewhere between 23% and 33% of middle-income jobs are military or related? Roughly between 1/5th and 1/3rd? Proportionally that's a whole lot. Like you I believe "The San Antonio economy could use more diversification", so the use of the phrase "almost exclusively" versus "disproportionately high" is beside the point.

I'm certainly not suggesting the city should intentionally eliminate any of those jobs. No one in their right mind would want that. But as SA adds jobs over the long-term, I believe it's ideal to add two or three (or more) civilian jobs for every military-related job that's added. These are the two primary benefits:

1. Diversification.
- Helps avoid over-reliance on any particular sector in case of economic downturns. Creates a stronger market for "other" fields. Helps keep a lid on Brain Drain.

2. Human Resources.
- Other sectors generally attract a more forward-thinking demographic in terms of the lifestyles they desire to live and the pressure their presence puts on cities to address quality of life issues (e.g. having a proportionately larger number of tech workers in places like San Francisco, Seattle and Austin has caused those cities to evolve in ways that probably make them more fun and interesting than they would be otherwise).

[L210]

Originally Posted by dallasgoldrush

If my use of the phrase "almost exclusively" is the specific point of contention, I can stand down from that. I could have used more specific phrasing, like "disproportionately high".

Let's go ahead and look at the jobs numbers you've pointed out: 282k/1million. That's 28%. Also as you pointed out these are total jobs rather than jobs subdivided by pay, so there's at least a chance that military-related employment constitutes an ever higher proportion of middle income jobs (or lower). Is it fair to say it's likely somewhere between 23% and 33% of middle-income jobs are military or related? Roughly between 1/5th and 1/3rd? Proportionally that's a whole lot. Like you I believe "The San Antonio economy could use more diversification", so the use of the phrase "almost exclusively" versus "disproportionately high" is beside the point.

I'm certainly not suggesting the city should intentionally eliminate any of those jobs. No one in their right mind would want that. But as SA adds jobs over the long-term, I believe it's ideal to add two or three (or more) civilian jobs for every military-related job that's added. These are the two primary benefits:

1. Diversification.
- Helps avoid over-reliance on any particular sector in case of economic downturns. Creates a stronger market for "other" fields. Helps keep a lid on Brain Drain.

2. Human Resources.
- Other sectors generally attract a more forward-thinking demographic in terms of the lifestyles they desire to live and the pressure their presence puts on cities to address quality of life issues (e.g. having a proportionately larger number of tech workers in places like San Francisco, Seattle and Austin has caused those cities to evolve in ways that probably make them more fun and interesting than they would be otherwise).

I can only speak for two fields. I moved away from San Antonio and don't plan to move back. While there is demand for substance abuse counselors in San Antonio, there aren't many internships. I ended up doing my internship in the Austin metro area. I had several coworkers who either moved from San Antonio or were commuting over an hour from San Antonio just to complete their internships.

When it comes to corrections and law enforcement, most of the cities and counties in the Austin area pay a lot more than the cities and counties in the San Antonio area. Austin does have a higher cost of living than San Antonio, but many of the suburbs have similar or lower housing costs. For example, San Marcos and Hays County pay more than San Antonio and Bexar County, but the cost to buy a house is similar between the two areas. Dallas also has relatively low pay for police officers, but at least its suburbs pay decently.

I don't know if I can find it again, but there was an article about San Antonio's IT field several years ago. While tech companies in SA were recruiting experienced people from other states, new graduates were leaving SA due to the lack of entry-level jobs. But, if you're in the medical field, San Antonio is a great place to be.

[ranchodrive]

Originally Posted by dallasgoldrush

LOL. Yes, Dallas traffic also sometimes makes me pull my hair out. Fortunately I've learned a lot of rules that help me get around it from where I live (northern suburbs):

- Avoid Central Expressway / Highway 75 and LBJ / 635 at all costs, plus of course any highway stretch currently under construction. All other major highways are mostly fine outside of rush hour.

- Two DART light rail lines run parallel to 75, so that's a great alternative option for getting back and forth from downtown.

- There are multiple major thoroughfares / roads that also essentially run parallel to 75 and 635 as well, providing more peaceful trips for those who have a little more time and can tolerate the stop lights.

- East-West highways to the far north (like George Bush and Sam Rayburn) are generally much better traffic-wise than anything that runs north-south. However they're all tolls, and the tolls are not cheap, so you almost have to budget for them.

So yes, our traffic s*cks also, but between having light rail, having a grid layout with a greater number of driving routes available, plus having the option to travel less busy roads for a fee, I feel pretty empowered in Dallas to alter my commuting situation to something that feels most comfortable for me.

This is the sense of empowerment I did not have in San Antonio. Many times I'd get caught up in a jam on 1604 or Bandera or 281 and have no other route to take because there were no parallel streets or highways that would go directly to where I needed. The frustration was sooo real.

Being from SA, I have found ways to make my way around with the traffic
in this city.

Something I could not do when I was visiting Dallas.

Took me almost an hour before I was able to find the right
freeway lane to leave Dallas.

Driving a fast speed Porsche helped in getting on the right lane
at the last minute to get home to "good old San Antone”!

I will say there are freeway signs that can be very confusing in SA.
for folks not familiar with the city.
But as I’ve mentioned, knowing the layout of the city, and what to
expect at certain times of the day...I don’t have a problem.

This was before vehicles were equipped with GPS.

Edit: If you haven’t been downtown in a while....there is a lot of
construction going on over by Soledad St.. Not sure of other
locations.

[resonator]

Having lived in Atlanta, GA for 13 years, I really like SA's surface streets as far as having excellent alternate routes through town. The freeways are better and safer here than Atlanta but that is not saying much !
Service roads are rare in Atlanta. The main reason is the solid granite ground there which makes road building expensive.