I've seen another "San Antonio is world class" claim on another thread, so I thought I'd offer up an alternative, more fact-based view than just someone's anecdotal feelings.
San Antonio is not a "world class city." It's not even close. And it's embarrassing that people living here would think that. Hell, we don't even stack up when compared to the other major cities in Texas, let alone the country. And I actually think it's really dangerous for people living here to perpetuate the idea that we're world class; there are some HUGE problems that we need to address that COULD make San Antonio a world-class city someday. But if you ignore them and say it already is, then what incentive is there to do so?
There is no objective measurement that you can come up with that would make San Antonio a world class city.
Infrastructure, transportation, crime, air quality, education, walkability, economic segregation, inequality, environmental issues, etc etc. These are the metrics that matter when objectively determining whether a city is truly world-class or not. And we consistently do poorly on all of them.
1) Let's start with infrastructure. There are potholes everywhere. We have huge issues with runoff and a city policy that lets developers pay a fee (FILO) instead of capturing said runoff on site. We've got almost 2000 miles of streets that don't have sidewalks in this city. Let's not even talk about the traffic.
https://www.mysanantonio.com/opinion...et-6431734.php
https://therivardreport.com/report-s...nfrastructure/
https://therivardreport.com/council-...r-san-antonio/
2) And then there's public transportation. What world-class city doesn't have some kind of rail?! We have none. No subway, no metro, no light rail, nothing. And no PLANS for rail, either. We're in the bottom third IN THE COUNTRY for our public transport system. We're ranked in the 50s in the USA alone for people who use public transport (in fact, 80% of people in San Antonio drive to work ALONE), we can't even beat out Rochester and Syracuse, those well known world-class cities. And we're ranked the 28th most dangerous city for pedestrians, out of 104. In the world? Nope. Again, just in the USA. Oh and we've got one of the worst airports in the country, yay:
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features...sit-stacks-up/
https://therivardreport.com/census-d...to-work-alone/
https://therivardreport.com/tierraby...alities-occur/
http://sanantonio.culturemap.com/new...t-first-class/
https://www.mysanantonio.com/busines...r-12218809.php
3) What about crime? San Antonio is a safe place, right? I mean, world-class cities should at the very least be safe, right? HA!
As recently as 2016, San Antonio was the WORST CITY IN THE COUNTRY FOR VIOLENT CRIME. And wow, we've made a slight improvement and crime has dropped a tiny bit, now we're only number 3! Whoo-hoo!
https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/lo...s-12231174.php
https://woai.iheart.com/content/2018...arply-in-2018/
https://www.neighborhoodscout.com/tx/san-antonio/crime
4) How about air quality? Okay, public transportation sucks, we've got high crime, can we at least breathe the air?! Nah. San Antonio has some of the worst air in the country, and in fact we recently OFFICIALLY were told by the EPA that we don't even meet the minimum smog standard:
https://www.texastribune.org/2018/07...-new-standard/
https://www.ksat.com/health/bexar-co...imits-epa-says
5) What about education? Come on, give me something, San Antonio? Nope. Out of the top 150 major cities in the US, we're ranked 107. We are in fact one of the least educated major cities in the country---forget the world. And we've got one of the highest high school dropout rates in the state:
https://wallethub.com/edu/most-and-l...d-cities/6656/
https://www.expressnews.com/news/edu...h-10596952.php
6) Oh and don't forget poverty! Yup, we're unique alright---somehow poverty is going UP in San Antonio even though it's going DOWN across the country! Yes, we're different! And our median income and distribution are both far worse than the national average, with
https://datausa.io/profile/geo/san-antonio-tx/
https://therivardreport.com/as-natio...ios-increases/
https://www.mysanantonio.com/opinion...o-12221803.php
7) "Micah, give me something. The mayor keeps saying we're a world class city, it must be true. At least we've got a lot of equality in the city, right?" Yeah, no. San Antonio in fact is one of the least equal cities and most segregated cities in the country:
https://www.mysanantonio.com/opinion...ty-6922291.php
https://www.folomedia.org/economic-segregation-matter/
https://news4sanantonio.com/news/local/income_disparity
As for the environment, I already posted links for our *officially* awful air quality, our stormwater and impervious cover record, and we all know about the constant stress the aquifer is under with the current population alone, forget about when we add another million or so people.
***
Safety, transportation, education, crime, etc; THESE are the factors that determine whether a city is world-class or not. Have you ever seen us anywhere even near the official quality of life indices? Do you think that's just some... clerical error? No one who looks at cities objectively would think San Antonio is world class. No one. We're not even close to being one of the best cities in Texas. Let alone the country. And you want to tell me we're world class?!
Now, you can look at all the above and say "well, there are reasons why San Antonio is poor, has high crime, has bad education" etc etc. Well of course there are reasons. Nothing exists in a vacuum. There are a lot of socioeconomic and political factors that have let down the city and its residents. But now we've changed the conversation from "San Antonio is world class" to "we're not world class but it's not our fault" etc etc.
All of that being said, it's not like San Antonio is alone in failing in a lot of these categories. There are worse offenders, and in the areas we suck, there are lots of other cities that suck, too.
Every time I see San Antonio being mentioned as world class on this forum, the rationale given is usually something about the Riverwalk, a couple of hotels, the Missions, etc etc. I mean, first of all, pretty much every major city has landmarks that are interesting. And there are great hotels everywhere. But this entire argument is sending a different message: San Antonio is a great place to VISIT. And I'd agree on that. It's definitely an interesting place to get away to for a weekend. But that's not the same as it being a world-class city FOR THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE HERE.
The worst part about all of this is that it's exactly what the people who run this city want. They want you to think that we're living in a great city already, so that they have no pressure to fix these massive, crippling problems that we have with transport, education, inequality, and poverty.
So why do people insist that San Antonio is world class when they know it isn't? Well, no one wants to live in a dump. Everyone wants to have pride in where they live. But wouldn't you rather face up to why we are failing as a city, and fix it, so that maybe in 10 or 20 years we can say we're world class and actually back it up? Wouldn't that be better than pretending otherwise in perpetuity?
/end rant.