What San Antonio needs to become a major city (Houston: how much, job outlook)

[Guerilla]

Charlotte isn't either. It may be the largest city in the state, but Raleigh-Durham and Winston-Salem are also other major metros in NC above one million in metro population.

Originally Posted by 210

There metro area isn't urban, their downtown and uptown are but that's it.

You use one picture of their downtown/uptown skyline and that's your def. of urban?

Downtown SA is more urban than downtown Charlotte. Charlotte just has more taller buildings.

When did I say Charlotte's metro was urban? A lot of metro areas aren't urban, like Charlotte, San Antonio, and even Tuscon. It is a urban skyline with many tall towers. A lot of new towers are under construction, too. Just check out SouthernUprise. Downtown SA is more dense than Downtown Charlotte thanks to the Riverwalk, but DT Charlotte is going along just fine. Charlotte has more building period.

According to Emporis, its metro is actually larger than San Antonio's. It is at 2,124,013.

[wCat]

Originally Posted by UTSASTUD

Do you want to see SA move to the next level or not? This attitude right here is why SA continues to be left behind. SA should take the Dallas example and run with it.

UTSASTUD....bite your tongue! OMG....I would never wish "Dallas" on anyone. Dallas has a lot going on, but the competitive mindset in general a town of "Type A" personalities. I moved up there in 77 and grew to follow that fast pace! When I moved back to SA in 96 it was like being able to breath again! I realize my "age bracket" has a lot to do with it, but life is just to short to spend it stressed out all day commuting and carpooling and raising a family. It's definitely more of a corporate feel.....and if that's what some one wants then they will get it in Dallas or Houston.

Personally, I don't think SA will EVER be on that track just because of our very southerly location. Shipping and trucking is very expensive to get down here......and we're sort of out of the "trucking" loop. If you've ever driven across Tennessee on any day of the week, you'll understand what "trucking traffic" really is! It's a nightmare.

I'm all for improving the Arts and Entertainment...and even sports.....but I don't want to see SA become a "corporate" city. Been there and don't want to go back. This city is just not on the fast track...but it's not backwoods either. I think it's a happy medium. I'm rather concerned about the fast growth because of the demands on our natural resources.....virgin land, the fresh water aquifer, air quality....it's all starting to suffer.

As far as downtown dying.......that won't happen. It died after Hemisphere and was almost a ghost town because shopping was moving out to the malls......and the river walk had little to offer. Since the tourist industry is one of the city's largest source of income, the river walk and downtown will stay alive.

BTW - UTSASTUD....You may not have been here when the Houston Street project was going on. I was very involved in the Houston Street Alliance to bring tourists and businesses up to the street level. Houston Street has become alive again....and it's spreading up Broadway with a master plan......and now the upper end of the river. BIG things will be happening in that area. Downtown is very much alive and getting better all the time. It's just a matter of time for it all to spread through out other areas of downtown.

The tourists take care of this city.....and that's a good thing!

[hello13685]

Cutting back to the topic of the thread, I think the first step for SA to become a major city is for the folks here to somehow realize how hick the place is. I think that this has a lot to do with education, as others have noted. I know that people will disagree, and I don't mean to offend. But think about it: Do most people who lack a sense of humor think they have one? (Of course!) Do most people think they are above average in intelligence? (Studies say yes, even though this is a statistical impossibility!) So it should come as no surprise that most residents of SA would not know that they are hicks living in a hick town. Y'all are like Bruce Willis in "The Sixth Sense" -- don't know you're dead!! Point is, only when you can accept who and where you are, can you change or improve it.

[noplacelikeWA]

I am new to SA from Seattle and I have to remind myself constantly not to compare "apples to oranges." This is hard to do coming from a busy city full of BIG business, Pro teams, Top of the line Performing Arts, Colleges, very good city transit and lightrail... all mind you having about half the population of SA in a small 11sq miles compared to about 400sq miles for SA.

That being said UTSASTUD is on to something with his ideas. My first thoughts would be the roadways to improve the basic infrastructure of the city, how could BIG business survive with the current road system and who would bother going downtown for the arts if any came? A boost in the educated population could do a lot as well, of course SA would need to offer a wider selection of higher paying jobs to attract these people.

The tourist are what seems to keep this city ticking in my view and maybe it is ok if it stays that way. It is an old city and culturally set in its ways, the "biggest small town" isn't too bad of a title really.

[noplacelikeWA]

Originally Posted by hello13685

Cutting back to the topic of the thread, I think the first step for SA to become a major city is for the folks here to somehow realize how hick the place is. I think that this has a lot to do with education, as others have noted. I know that people will disagree, and I don't mean to offend. But think about it: Do most people who lack a sense of humor think they have one? (Of course!) Do most people think they are above average in intelligence? (Studies say yes, even though this is a statistical impossibility!) So it should come as no surprise that most residents of SA would not know that they are hicks living in a hick town. Y'all are like Bruce Willis in "The Sixth Sense" -- don't know you're dead!!

OK this is getting ugly, rather than bash on SA for being "under-educated" I would argue that it is less sophisticated and more simple, maybe I'm just being politcally correct, but it's really not fair to stereo type nearly 2 million people as being hicks who don't know it. In almost a year of living here I can't say I've met a "hick" yet.

[wCat]

Originally Posted by hello13685

Cutting back to the topic of the thread, I think the first step for SA to become a major city is for the folks here to somehow realize how hick the place is. I think that this has a lot to do with education, as others have noted. I know that people will disagree, and I don't mean to offend. But think about it: Do most people who lack a sense of humor think they have one? (Of course!) Do most people think they are above average in intelligence? (Studies say yes, even though this is a statistical impossibility!) So it should come as no surprise that most residents of SA would not know that they are hicks living in a hick town. Y'all are like Bruce Willis in "The Sixth Sense" -- don't know you're dead!!

LOL! I'm a hick I suppose! And I can certainly laugh at that one! I'm not sure how to change that....or better yet, if I want to! I have some very educated friends and clients that prefer the unassuming lifestyle here (Notre Dame, Yale, Harvard, Stanford...etc (not to mention the Texas universities).....I think that's an "ok" thing. Maybe "unassuming" is a better word? Hicks? hmmmmm.....thinking on that one!

[210]

Originally Posted by noplacelikeWA

OK this is getting ugly, rather than bash on SA for being "under-educated" I would argue that it is less sophisticated and more simple, maybe I'm just being politcally correct, but it's really not fair to stereo type nearly 2 million people as being hicks who don't know it. In almost a year of living here I can't say I've met a "hick" yet.

Ignore Hello and basically almost everything she says.

[hello13685]

I'm wrong above because I love wCat. She's not a hick at all. I'm sorry if I offended you

[210]

Or maybe I'm wrong, Hello could be right, I mean she is a University professor (who has never disclosed which University she works for...hmmm) who started a thread where she went ape-crazy over a state freeway road sign that didn't make grammatical sense.

Bur yes, I guess she is right, I mean if there isn't a second of the day that doesn't go by that I don't encounter someone like this:

http://www.stanford.edu/~bckerr/about/Hick.jpg (broken link)



I'd say out of the some 2 million people that live in San Antonio, I'd say 1,999,998 are exactly like the pictures above, the two lone exceptions being Hello and her husband.

[wCat]

Originally Posted by 210

Ignore Hello and basically almost everything she says.

Aww....210....she's ok! Nothing wrong with being brutally honest with one's opinion! I'll take that over being a brown noser anyday!

Thanks Hello....I'm probably more of a "hick" than I want to admit! No apologies.....