What is SA missing? (Houston, San Antonio: schools, quality of life, tax)

[oldmanshirt]

Originally Posted by Primo

This city has an obvious disportionate number of poor & uneducated people. And if you don't agree...you are probably not well travelled and have probably never left this city. This is why there are very few major companies in this town. A town this size should have far more national or global companies employing thousands of people.

Yeah, apart from the world's largest telecommunications company, the nation's highest rated bank/lender/insurance company, the nation's largest broadcasting corporation, the nation's largest refiner, two other Fortune 500 energy companies, one of the nation's fastest-growing data server companies, Bank of America, Washington Mutual, Wachovia, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Pratt and Whitney, the only US bank to survive the 80's banking crisis without government assistance, Toyota and Microsoft, there aren't that many companies in SA

[Primo]

Originally Posted by oldmanshirt

Yeah, apart from the world's largest telecommunications company, the nation's highest rated bank/lender/insurance company, the nation's largest broadcasting corporation, the nation's largest refiner, two other Fortune 500 energy companies, one of the nation's fastest-growing data server companies, Bank of America, Washington Mutual, Wachovia, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Pratt and Whitney, the only US bank to survive the 80's banking crisis without government assistance, Toyota and Microsoft, there aren't that many companies in SA

I said we should have more. And while it has been emproving over recent years. It is still not where it should be for a city of this size.

While AT&T his headquartered here....I recently read, they employee close to 300,000 people...only 8,000 work in SA. Their major employement hubs are Dallas, St. Louis, San Francisco, Chicago, Atlanta. From what I understand these cities have huge AT&T Campuses, similar to USAA.

USAA is an overgrown call center.

Microsoft having 75 people here is not what I call a major corporate presence.

I view this from the persective of ....a view of our infamous downtown skyline....the only names you are on buildings are hotels names....and you see AT&T off to the side of downtown. Other cities of our size would have a host of corporate logos on the buildings downtown.

[Primo]

Originally Posted by Chakapu

You would lose that bet. The public schools serving KW are very highly rated and well attended by the locals.

What high school serves King William? I have never heard of a SAISD school being top rated? I guess all the people in NISD and NEISD moved to the wrong part of town.

[urbsan]

Originally Posted by Primo

I said we should have more. And while it has been emproving over recent years. It is still not where it should be for a city of this size.

While AT&T his headquartered here....I recently read, they employee close to 300,000 people...only 8,000 work in SA. Their major employement hubs are Dallas, St. Louis, San Francisco, Chicago, Atlanta. From what I understand these cities have huge AT&T Campuses, similar to USAA.

USAA is an overgrown call center.

Microsoft having 75 people here is not what I call a major corporate presence.

I view this from the persective of ....a view of our infamous downtown skyline....the only names you are on buildings are hotels names....and you see AT&T off to the side of downtown. Other cities of our size would have a host of corporate logos on the buildings downtown.

i dont understand your last sentence at all i am sorry and at&t would only be on a side of downtown depending on which side of town you are when you are looking at the skyline. The reason most of our major companies dont have a strong presence in our downtown is because all the suburbs have taken them away.

[SAtoDallas]

Originally Posted by Primo

What high school serves King William? I have never heard of a SAISD school being top rated? I guess all the people in NISD and NEISD moved to the wrong part of town.

King William is served by Brackenridge HS which does very well, I belive it's Magnet status. And no all the people moved to the NISD,NEISD areas weren't wrong they just prefer "new" in an area.

[oldmanshirt]

Originally Posted by Primo

I view this from the persective of ....a view of our infamous downtown skyline....the only names you are on buildings are hotels names....and you see AT&T off to the side of downtown. Other cities of our size would have a host of corporate logos on the buildings downtown.

Go to any city in TX, including Houston, Dallas, Austin, or Fort Worth. Count how many corporate logos you see on the office buildings downtown. I think you will find that proportionately speaking, SA has as much "corporate flash" in its CBD as any of those cities. For some reason, TX downtowns just don't have a lot of corporate names on public display. Heck, the most prominent corporate logo in downtown Austin represents a San Antonio company

Where you will find most of the logos is on the uptown and suburban office buildings in SA. Look around the Breckenridge park area, and you will see AT&T and Wells Fargo; around the airport and North Star you'll see two buildings with the Wells Fargo logo (including one big enough to see from space), as well as Chase bank, Bank of America and Merrill Lynch. In the I-10 corridor around the Medical center, you find Wachovia, Bank of America again, and Verizon. . . oh, and that "overgrown call center" with as much square footage of office space as the Sears Tower

As far as our downtown not being up to snuff in your eyes, perhaps you should do what you so blithely suggested others to do; go to some of the other well-known cities in the US, and you will discover that its not only height that matters in building a great downtown, its also density. What SA lacks in the former, I believe it makes up for in the latter. This density only stands to improve with the development of River North. And who knows, one of these days the Bank of America Center (its the bronze-colored building next to the oldest-looking of the 4 AT&T buildings) may even get the corporate branding you so crave.

[Guerilla]

Wells Fargo is HQ'ed out of San Francisco.

[cooter1869]

Originally Posted by Primo

USAA is an overgrown call center.

Ha. This is classic. Yeah, a call center that continues to refer you to their website...

[urbansa]

Originally Posted by Primo

I totally agree. It is amazing how many adults do not have degrees in this town....and the kids cant even graduate from high school. I am sorry , if you can't pass the TASP test....you are a complete moron. People here seem to think working a minium wage job in a hotel is a career. I is probably safe to assume that these same people think the Longhorns are just a football team, and don't even realize there is a university behind that team.

This city has an obvious disportionate number of poor & uneducated people. And if you don't agree...you are probably not well travelled and have probably never left this city. This is why there are very few major companies in this town. A town this size should have far more national or global companies employing thousands of people.

But one thing I do like about this aspect is the way the wealthly and educated few (for the most part) are centralized on the northside between I-10 and 281. Most cities have pockets...where multi million dollar neighborhoods...will be righ next to crack row. I like being able to live my life completely north of 410. Pretty soon we will be able to live it North of 1604.

That's a big part of the problem right there, an expansion and continuation of the old Alamo Heights/Good Govt League. The wealthy and educated insulate themselves from the rest of the city so they can forget there are needs in this town greater than another pro sports franchise or chasing a political convention/Pan American Games/etc etc etc

[Chakapu]

Originally Posted by Primo

What high school serves King William? I have never heard of a SAISD school being top rated?

Brackenridge HS serves KW and has been well recognized.
Bonham Elementary is very highly rated and now a charter school. The only downside is Paige MS, but Bonham is trying to move to K-8.