SAN ANTONIO | City and Metro News Thread

[trillhippy_210]

Originally Posted by JACKinBeantown

And still no real plan for a commuter rail between the two cities. Talk about poorly planned growth.

LSTAR is in the middle of their environmental study for their route. So its not not going to happen. We just have to wait a little longer to hear the result.

[Keep-SA-Lame]

Originally Posted by trillhippy_210

LSTAR is in the middle of their environmental study for their route. So its not not going to happen. We just have to wait a little longer to hear the result.

Heard a blurb on NPR that said it's projected to cost $5 billion.

[WorldTexas]

Originally Posted by Keep-SA-Lame

Heard a blurb on NPR that said it's projected to cost $5 billion.

I've seen $6 billion. Funding will be the main thing holding that project back. Demand and political will are there, but not the broad will to fund it.

[trillhippy_210]

Originally Posted by Keep-SA-Lame

Heard a blurb on NPR that said it's projected to cost $5 billion.

$5, $6 billion? Really? Cuz here it says only $1.8billion....

http://www.smartrailworld.com/project-focus-lone-star-rail-district-texas-usa

[WorldTexas]

Originally Posted by trillhippy_210

$5, $6 billion? Really? Cuz here it says only $1.8billion....

http://www.smartrailworld.com/project-focus-lone-star-rail-district-texas-usa

Is that for the whole portfolio or just for LStar to modify the existing lines? I believe it's still contingent on a new loop-around route being constructed and given to UP.

My feeling is that whether it's $1.8 or $6, the funding will be an uphill battle. That's why the private Japanese firm got involved in the DFW-Houston route.

[trillhippy_210]

Originally Posted by WorldTexas

Is that for the whole portfolio or just for LStar to modify the existing lines? I believe it's still contingent on a new loop-around route being constructed and given to UP.

My feeling is that whether it's $1.8 or $6, the funding will be an uphill battle. That's why the private Japanese firm got involved in the DFW-Houston route.

I dont know tbh

[Spoiler]

Whatever the cost, this will be a privately funded transit system. There is no way state government will be involved.

[Keep-SA-Lame]

That's the cost just to modify the existing lines. The main cost is re-routing the freight routes.

[KevinFromTexas]

http://www.expressnews.com/150years/econ...09c911de76b0b9435f&cmpid=twitter-premium

Tower Life building opened to great fanfare

By Benjamin OlivoMarch 31, 2015

San Antonian’s enchantment with the Tower Life Building isn’t one that took years to develop. From opening day 85 years ago, when it debuted as the Smith-Young Tower, the 31-story skyscraper drew the masses.

On June 1, 1929, the Smith-Young Tower formally opened to the public. It was a Saturday, and throngs explored the wedding cake-tiered building during a daytime open house. That night, the tower was “ablaze with lights,” and roughly 5,000 people attended the festivities, which began at 8:30 p.m., the San Antonio Light reported.

“The six elevators, having all-automatic controls, were not able to handle the crowds,” the Light wrote. “Hundreds didn’t wait for elevators but climbed up and down long flights of stairs. The crowd did not become thin until midnight.”

[AwesomeSAView]

Very interesting article!
According to the article, San Antonio would have had a cluster of highrise buildings called the "Bowen Island Skyscrapers" on a strip of land on the Riverwalk. The plans were derailed with the emergence of the Great Depression.
I can just only imagine what San Antonio could have had. The article goes on to say that the Bowen Island Skyscrapers were to rival the buildings in Rockefeller Center in NY. Very interesting piece of San Antonio history!!!

[kornbread]

CPS Energy Board Meeting to Retain CEO Beneby
http://www.therivardreport.com/cps-energy-board-meeting-to-retain-ceo-beneby/
Authored by: ROBERT RIVARD on 21 April, 2015 at 17:27

http://cdn.therivardreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/scottball_cps_sama_trustees9.jpg
For the fourth time this year, the agenda for CPS Energy‘s monthly board meeting states that trustees will meet in closed executive session and then return to an open public meeting for “discussion and possible vote regarding CEO compensation.” For the last three meetings, however, trustees ended their meeting without public discussion or action regarding President and CEO Doyle Beneby’s compensation...

Apparently the CEO of CPS is considering greener pastures. I'm betting that whether he stays or goes could impact CPS getting a new office.

If he goes, it will likely be from public pressure to not allow matching the salary offer. In that case the strongest advocate for a new building is gone, and the utility/successor may be more conservative with regards to certain spending.

Actually, I wouldn't be surprised to see the current mayor, who sits on the board, vote against the raise. She seems to be making a play for the conservative votes for the upcoming election and voting for a raise for a salaried public employee might not play well with that group.

[KevinFromTexas]

Drone photographer captures stunning aerial views of San Antonio

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/a...g-aerial-views-6077548.php#photo-7516666

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTeaGyRpxKuLRPVj0qB09gQ

• Video Link• Video Link

• Video Link• Video Link

• Video Link• Video Link

• Video Link

[sirkingwilliam]

Originally Posted by kornbread

CPS Energy Board Meeting to Retain CEO Beneby
http://www.therivardreport.com/cps-energy-board-meeting-to-retain-ceo-beneby/
Authored by: ROBERT RIVARD on 21 April, 2015 at 17:27



Apparently the CEO of CPS is considering greener pastures. I'm betting that whether he stays or goes could impact CPS getting a new office.

If he goes, it will likely be from public pressure to not allow matching the salary offer. In that case the strongest advocate for a new building is gone, and the utility/successor may be more conservative with regards to certain spending.

Actually, I wouldn't be surprised to see the current mayor, who sits on the board, vote against the raise. She seems to be making a play for the conservative votes for the upcoming election and voting for a raise for a salaried public employee might not play well with that group.

And the day after you made this comment the raise was approved.

[Onward]

Thanks for the Videos Kevin. He definitely has some talent in capturing the city in ways I haven't seen before. Can't wait to see what he releases next.

[kornbread]

Originally Posted by sirkingwilliam

And the day after you made this comment the raise was approved.

Yes, that's what the article said they would do; vote on it the following day. The board was very interested in retaining him. What wasn't known is if it would be unanimous given the current mayor's bid to win re-election. Would she make some sort of stand given that she threw rail under the bus? (Which is now left to the voter's to decide, essentially limiting it from happening.) She did not.

If I'm not mistaken, there might still be some public forum needed and Beneby would need to officially accept the offer. I had not heard that he had done that.

http://www.therivardreport.com/cps-energy-board-offers-beneby-a-big-raise/
CPS Energy Board Gives Beneby a Big Raise

Iris Dimmick on 22 April, 2015 at 11:45
...
Whether or not it’s enough to keep him in San Antonio is unknown. Beneby is currently in London representing CPS Energy at the Dentons Global Energy Summit and could not be reached by deadline. Chávez did confirm in a Wednesday statement to the Rivard Report that Beneby has a job offer outside San Antonio, which prompted trustees to move the board meeting scheduled for Monday, April 27 to today...

[SAguy]

KXTJ-LP is a Low Power FM radio Station known as ENERGY 96.9, devoted to EDM and Dance Hits. The station launched in early May 2015 in NW San Antonio.

From Energy 96.9-For our local San Antonio listeners, KXTJ Energy 96.9 will be off the air this Sunday from about 11am to 5pm to work on reaching more listeners in San Antonio (signal upgrade).

www.energy969.com

Party ON!!

[Restless 1]

Originally Posted by SAguy

KXTJ-LP is a Low Power FM radio Station known as ENERGY 96.9, devoted to EDM and Dance Hits. The station launched in early May 2015 in NW San Antonio.

From Energy 96.9-For our local San Antonio listeners, KXTJ Energy 96.9 will be off the air this Sunday from about 11am to 5pm to work on reaching more listeners in San Antonio (signal upgrade).

www.energy969.com

Party ON!!

Meh, I'm a metalhead from way back. Don't get the EDM thing, but nice to see San Anto, () keeping up with the young folk.

[sirkingwilliam]

SAN ANTONIO IS FINALIST FOR NEARLY 1 BILLION DOLLAR ALCOA PLANT

San Antonio is one of five cities under consideration for $750 million manufacturing plant by Alcoa, the San Antonio Express-News reported Friday.

The newspaper quotes Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff and San Antonio Economic Development Foundation Mario Hernandez as saying the company could make a decision on where to locate within the next two to three months. No potential job count was available.

The Express-News reported that Alcoa already owns a 45-employee plant in Elmendorf in South Bexar County that manufactures an advanced, aluminum product used for the automotive and other industries.

“We are working with the company, but beyond that I cannot comment,” Hernandez is quoted as saying. “The community is working with them to make a decision to grow here. They have choices around the country.”

[sirkingwilliam]

JUNE 12TH ARTICLE

GERMAN BIO-SCIENCE COMPANY TO DEVELOP HIGH-WAGE JOBS IN SAN ANTONIO AS RESULT OF HEADQUARTERS RELOCATION

City Council made it official Thursday, voting unanimously to grant a $1 million incentive to Cytocentrics, a biotech and robotics company that is moving from Rostock, Germany to San Antonio where it will open a robotics assembly and biotech research facility that will employ more than 300 locally-trained people. The company will invest a minimum $15 million in establishing operations here over the next five years as part of the incentive agreement.

Assembly workers will earn $50,000 a year and laboratory technicians who will earn $70,000 a year, Cytocentrics CEO James Garvin said Thursday. The company will partner with UTSA, UTHSCSA and the Alamo Colleges. The decision by Cytocentrics to move here from Germany was first reported on the Rivard Report Tuesday.

JUNE 10TH ARTICLE

CYTOCENTRICS CEO: BIOTECH COMPANY PASSED UP BIGGER FINANCIAL OFFERS TO MOVE TO SAN ANTONIO

The San Antonio’s City Council is not scheduled to vote on a $1 million incentive package to help lure Cytocentrics until Thursday. However, the biotech company’s CEO, James Garvin, said it has already decided to move its headquarters from Rostock, Germany, to the Alamo City.

Perhaps indicative of a larger leap of faith is the fact that Garvin said Cytocentrics passed on larger incentive offers from multiple cities before deciding to move here.

“We turned down two better offers,” Garvin told me Wednesday. “We had one for $3 million and one for $5 million — without many of the constraints" placed by San Antonio. Meanwhile, the company already has people in San Antonio, he said, having had a "soft landing with a couple of thousand square feet" of office space at Targeted Technology, a San Antonio-based venture capital group focused on early-stage investments in health care and bioscience companies.

Cytocentrics employs about 50 people internationally, including nine in San Antonio who are part of the company’s executive team and management group. CEO James Garvin expects the company to create a significant number of additional jobs in the Alamo City over the next several years.

Cytocentrics bills itself as a biotech company developing technology that enables researchers to better understand how human cells react to medicine.

“We do that in ways that have never been understood before and that are opening whole new horizons,” Garvin said.

Leaders at Targeted Technology helped sell Cytocentrics on moving to the Alamo City. Cytocentrics will initially house its San Antonio operations in some of Targeted Technology's office space in Stone Oak.

[kornbread]

So maybe one of the biggest stories of the year and no one has any thoughts as to the outcome of the election? Business as usual?