San Antonio's economy on a roll
T.A. BADGER
Associated Press
SAN ANTONIO - Grand predictions about San Antonio's economy are nothing new.
They were made in 1968 as the city hosted a world's fair and again a decade ago when the North American Free Trade Agreement let loose a heavy commercial flow north from Mexico.
But this time around, many believe there are enough good things happening that San Antonio may at last realize its decades-long dream: a place among America's major cities.
"It's like our moment has arrived," said Henry Cisneros, the city's former mayor and the federal housing secretary under President Clinton. "San Antonio seems to have hit the big leagues."
The Alamo City's economy has been on a fast-lane thrill ride since Toyota Motor Corp. announced plans for a pickup-truck plant in early 2003.
The $850 million plant will employ about 2,000 high-wage workers when it starts production late next year, and at least 18 of its suppliers will come to town with nearly as many jobs.
In April, the National Security Agency said it plans to hire at least 1,500 people in San Antonio for intelligence analysis work. And in June the city beat out the Dallas suburb of Irving for banking giant Washington Mutual Inc.'s regional service center, which will employ 2,250 people initially and perhaps twice as many within seven years.
Big corporations based in San Antonio are making noise, including an agreement by SBC Communications Inc. to purchase AT&T Corp., its former parent company.
Even the Pentagon's base closure plan looks like a boon for this historic military town. The current plan calls for San Antonio to gain about 3,500 uniformed and civilian positions, and as much as $1 billion in new construction.
"We just won ourselves a world championship in basketball," said Mayor Phil Hardberger, referring to the hometown Spurs' second NBA title in three years. "And as far as I'm concerned, we're winning ourselves another world championship in commerce."
There has been job growth for 12 straight quarters and wages have climbed faster than any of the state's big cities in recent years, though those paychecks are still smaller than the average in Houston, Dallas and Austin.
Still, is San Antonio - long considered a poor provincial town despite being the country's eighth largest city with 1.2 million people - stepping onto the national stage? Is it even ready to be mentioned in the same breath as Texas' other major cities?
"We have some small and very potentially powerful victories of late, and that's something to be excited about," said Char Miller, director of urban studies at Trinity University in San Antonio. "But I wouldn't say that we are now as potent as Dallas or Houston."
But the ever-optimistic business boosters predict that San Antonio's run is just getting started.
"The next decade will be the best decade this community has ever had," said Mario Hernandez, who heads the San Antonio Economic Development Foundation. "All of the pieces are place."
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