Wow, I actually spit up a bit laughing after reading this, I can't tell if you are a teenager with a good imagination or a city booster gone bad but lets look at some of your points then refocus your energy a bit. And to start let me say it is not bad to have plans and dreams for your city, but one must be realistic about it first. Here we go:
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Originally Posted by PTSA
AT&T moving to Dallas is a wake up call for both areas. Bad bruise to deal with.
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It is not a bruise to Austin. there are no articles in the Austin Biz journal discussing how horrid this is to the Austin Economy, unless I missed it, then please post it here.
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Immediate action is required to reposition these two metro areas within a proper position in the global community with respect to prestige and strength. Think of this loss as a call to action to be better.
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What exactly should their status and proper position be in your opinion?
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First you can not be diminished both areas in size and prestige by a lack of a world class airport. If you except this you will be destined to the last rows in a movie theater.
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Austin has a world class airport, especially for a city its size. SAT is renewing its terminals which is good
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It is time to put away the differences between the two metro areas and work together. When the two areas work together as a metroplex then Dallas and other large cities will tremble.
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No they won’t. Metroplex is actually a marketing term created years ago. It means nothing geographically or demographically but I digress. Cities don’t tremble.
Boston does not tremble at New York. San Diego does not tremble at LA.
Manchester does not Tremble at London
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You have large growth rates on your side. They do not, and they know it. They will be left in the dust in the end.
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Really, the US census bureau says otherwise. Houston and Dallas are booming (as is much of Texas) On this one you just simply have incorrect information. Hate to burst your bumble.
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On the airport issue, build a brand new one half way between the two cities with 80 gates at a minimum.
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Why? So San Marcos and New Branfels grow bigger? And business travellers are not happy having to spend an hour to an hour and half to get to the CBD during peak traffic times. Really bad idea.
And spare me the rail argument. Biz travelers don’t jump on the rail bandwagon as often as locals and it would still take 45-60 minutes to hit a CBD, and those are not the full employment nodes in each city. One should actually just work on expanding each airport and making them better (See Austin above). Air travel is hurting right now due to oil at 140$ a barrel. AvGas and JP-8 is going to stay expensive for a while so this is a market both airports must deal with by attracting service and helping established airlines. Plenty of regions and cities have hubs that are smaller than San Antonio. Building an 80 gate airport (absurd concept if you know anything about aviation) is not going to just attract new service. Central Texas is not Dubai and doesn’t have the multi BILLIONs of dollars such a project would entail, especially since the project would fail. And how exactly are you going to attract some world airline or legacy carrier to hub at your big mega-airport that would eat many square miles of central Texas? With new airports if you build it they don’t always come. (See St Louis East as an example)
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Don't stop there, plan and eventually build a runway capable of landing the subspace orbital air crafts. Don't stop there, plan separate runway capabilities to accommodate future post space shuttle vehicles.
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Right, and how long would that be. I have flown many different types of airplanes and studied a bit of aerospace engineering but didn’t know NASA had changed the policy of landing aircraft with hazardous materials in urban enclaves. When did this change?
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Don't dismiss this as Science fiction. There are plenty of times now that the space shuttle can not land in Florida or California.
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No it has happened once in 28 years, and the shuttle landed in New Mexico. Other landing spots like Moron, Spain and Banjul, Gambia can be used if needed. NASA likes the shuttle to land in Florida, it saves the million dollars it costs to fly it back from Edwards. Both locations remote and not in population centres.
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The next generation of crafts will make this more routine and a common occurrence. You know where it all goes from there. Both will be landing at capable airports in the future but you have to plan now.
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Not at 140$ a barrel you don’t.
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You have NASA in Texas, work on it. This is a competitive race so it needs to be played as one.
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With what money? Easier said than done, not counting the fact NASA is a government agency Central Texas has no control over….
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Go after an air carrier airport hub (Dallas?). Bring it to the airport from anywhere you can.
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I'm sure American Airlines would love to spend a billion dollars they don't have and move to your super airport and I am sure Dallas and Fort Worth will just let that happen. Easy right
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There are plenty of carriers unhappy with their current status at inefficient hubs.
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Really? Who? Hubs have closed due to overlapping markets. You have to of the largest hubs in the country within less than an hour flight from Central Texas. How exactly are you randomly creating new O&D demand in the market for this new hub? Not counting Southwest’s point to point service from the area already.
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When globalization is a call this will put the globe on your doorstep. This will set you up with a solid platform to build future economic gains.
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The Globe is already on Texas’ doorstep. In Houston and Dallas and Austin, in that order.
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Oil industry. All the oil companies are at risk in the future.
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Haha, thanks. Energy companies are not going anywhere.
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If they do not diversify properly then they will go the way the check printing companies are going. Time to act San Antonio. The San Antonio area is a prime area for solar energy companies. Get them now!
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Really, says whom? El Paso has more average days of sunshine and less hail and bad weather…
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Did I mention battery storage technology.
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Well you just did…
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Toyota is a risk with each gas price increase. Think alternative transport prototypes. A new industry, involve Toyota. Launch it in San Antonio.
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And again who is paying for that?
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San Antonio. Start acting as a gateway to Latin and South America. Grow this industry. The airport is a start.
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Its called Geography. San Antonio is out of the way for flights to Central and South America. All it can serve is Mexico, and since there are no connecting oppurtunities all the Mexico traffic is O&D. Miami is north of most of Latin America. It will remain the number one hub. Houston will remain the number 2 hub, with Dallas and Atlanta fighting for 3. Dallas is out of the way for much of the connecting traffic. There is a reason Houston has more service to Mexico than any other US airport, is second to only Miami in cities served in South America. Geography and hub status and O&D to be exact.
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Windows. With the rise of the Mac recently the outlook for Dell is a risk.
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Really, that 5% market share of Mac is really a threat…
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Time to act Austin. There are tons of disgruntled employees with the high cost of living at One Infinite Loop.
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Says who again?
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It's time to start relocation talks. Steve will not be there forever.
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Here is the phone call: “Hi would you like to spend millions moving your company to Austin. No reason really but we have some disgruntled folks that want other jobs” What could we give you? “Well how about a tax abatement that will not fund our infrastructure properly?” Not interested, bummer dude.
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Austin is much more suitable to all the high tech companies that are presently located in the Dallas area.
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Really? Why? And you know Houston actually has more High Tech jobs than Austin (see US DOL stats) as the former Compaq HQs there is HP and BMC software and many others. Let me guess, you want all those companies to move to Austin also? And your 80 gate airport will need a super huge cargo facility to handle the shipping involved so we are all okay with that…
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Act on it make the necessary changes. Diversify beyond the game industry. You have a terrific pool of talent to do that.
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Game industry?...
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San Antonio. Its time to think Disney. Start the talks.
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Another phone call: “Hi Disney, this is San Antonio, come on over”
Don’t get me wrong it is not bad to try and talk with Disney, but you seem to act like all it takes is a phone call and few lap dances on the business trip of the VP of sales to get them to build a new theme park. That is not how business works.
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The airport will get you there. Travel and leisure component manufacturing is ideal in San Antonio. Go for it. There are firms on the west coast paying high corporate taxes and dealing with a high cost of living and they may consider a move.
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Maybe (your first plausible idea), and to offset the cost of moving you have to give them tax abatements or other deals, and the city still needs money to build infrastructure. One cannot sell bonds forever. It is a balance, but somewhat more realistic.
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Oh yes, did I mention, with a global airport where will AT&T eventually be?
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Dallas
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This should have been anticipated. Global status requires global actions you can not fall asleep at the wheel. As one prominent general once said "The best defense is an offense"
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I thought boxer Jack Dempsey said that or was it Stanley Baldwin, oh well matters not.
Refocus your energy and money and making the quality of life in a town better and then the smart growth will come. Being proactive and going after jobs and business is great, but having at least one foot grounded in the realism of the business world is a good idea.
Business (and even government) just doesn't work like you seem to think in a capitalist market. But good luck with all that...
Ciao,
AWACS
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