SAN ANTONIO | City and Metro Transportation Thread - Page 40

trillhippy_210 · #**781** Posted **Jul 21, 2015, 7:29 PM**

[QUOTE=Fireoutofclay;7102400]No author listed
www.woai.com
Posted Monday, July 20th 2015 @ 1pm

http://www.woai.com/articles/woai-lo...roup-13775810/

Quote:

Expect the Lone Star Rail District's effort to build a commuter rail line up Interstate 35 between San Antonio and Austin to pick up steam in September, as the Districts makes a formal request to San Antonio City Council for funding to help get the long planned project up and running, News Radio 1200 WOAI has learned.

We need this! I hope this becomes a reality.

aggie2008 · #**782** Posted **Jul 21, 2015, 11:03 PM**

Completely agree with your assessment Spoiler. I just don't think San Antonio has the appetite for it. We're used to cheap living on the fringes and continues to sprawl. I am really, really, really hoping money to keep the extensions of the highways on the northside to prevent them from becoming tolls doesn't materialize, but I won't hold my breath. My guess is that one or all of them expand without taxing the people who move out there and drain our tax base for all the infrastructure they end up using daily anyway. I expect to hear more businesses moving to the 1604 loop which will mean more people will move out past that and commute in. A lot of people really like that, especially when they are highly subsidized.. Cheap land, lower taxes, brand new infrastructure, and completely income segregated...

I do wonder what San Antonio would be like if they took the highways out of downtown, like the whole ring.. Where would those cars go? Of course you would need to save some space for dedicated lanes for rail/buses and really beef up transit but people still drive. Would love to see some real transit oriented development that leased land to developers around stations that could then partially fund our entirely underfunded transit system. Some large parks and open spaces could also be a part of the equation along with private development. I can only imagine the added value of the apartments that are built 50 feet from the side of an interstate if that was gone. It would take a bold investment and one that would have to be approved by the voters. Too bad the only thing people tend to like to spend money on is highways on the far north side. I do wonder what the city plans to spend the huge increases in property valuations on. I'd love the tax rate to be cut, but I'd rather see it spent on infrastructure if possible.

ILUVSAT · #**783** Posted **Jul 22, 2015, 9:38 PM**

[QUOTE=trillhippy_210;7102798]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fireoutofclay

No author listed
www.woai.com
Posted Monday, July 20th 2015 @ 1pm

http://www.woai.com/articles/woai-lo...roup-13775810/

We need this! I hope this becomes a reality.

With regard to the Lone Star Rail proposal...I do not think a link to Austin is "needed" by the citizens of San Antonio. A "need" is something that is necessary for survival. We've done fine without it. Even though I think the idea is cool and I would probably use it a time or two.

Having said that, some sort of rail option within the metro of SA would be considered more optimal.

Austinite101 · #**784** Posted **Jul 23, 2015, 4:30 AM**

[QUOTE=ILUVSAT;7104196]

Quote:

Originally Posted by trillhippy_210

With regard to the Lone Star Rail proposal...I do not think a link to Austin is "needed" by the citizens of San Antonio. A "need" is something that is necessary for survival. We've done fine without it. Even though I think the idea is cool and I would probably use it a time or two.

Having said that, some sort of rail option within the metro of SA would be considered more optimal.

I think it could be good for both cities. Is there a reason why they rarely cooperate? Austin and San Antonio have the 3rd and 4th largest economies in Texas, respectively. You'd think there would be some incentive.

ILUVSAT · #**785** Posted **Jul 23, 2015, 8:47 PM**

Interesting...SAT's average fare was more than double that of #1-CVG

How Texas Airports Stack up for Affordability

arkitekte · #**786** Posted **Jul 24, 2015, 5:40 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by ILUVSAT

Interesting...SAT's average fare was more than double that of #1-CVG

How Texas Airports Stack up for Affordability

Not throwing rocks at you, but these rankings are always odd and usually misleading or incorrect. CVG has never been known for cheap fares. They also have MEM ranked higher than BNA.

Flying to and from BNA has always been cheaper, regardless of destination than flying from MEM. CVG is/has gone through Delta's cuts and de hub similar to MEM pricing flights from CVG extremely high due to low O&D numbers and little to no competition. CVG and MEM have for the past 5-10 years had the most expensive fares.

Of course most major cities with legacy carrier hubs or even low cost hubs will have well priced fares, but some of those rankings make little to no sense. Maybe someone is using their own formula to produce higher searches for undeserved or under purchased (through cheap flights website) markets.

Paul in S.A TX · #**787** Posted **Jul 25, 2015, 6:47 PM**

[QUOTE=Austinite101;7104567]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ILUVSAT

I think it could be good for both cities. Is there a reason why they rarely cooperate? Austin and San Antonio have the 3rd and 4th largest economies in Texas, respectively. You'd think there would be some incentive.

What's new? hopefully this gets the green light.
In reality San Antonio's GMP is much more than $98 billion.

Austinite101 · #**788** Posted **Jul 25, 2015, 10:57 PM**

[QUOTE=Paul in S.A TX;7107399]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Austinite101

What's new? hopefully this gets the green light.
In reality San Antonio's GMP is much more than $98 billion.

How so?

JACKinBeantown · #**789** Posted **Jul 26, 2015, 1:56 AM**

[QUOTE=ILUVSAT;7104196]

Quote:

Originally Posted by trillhippy_210

With regard to the Lone Star Rail proposal...I do not think a link to Austin is "needed" by the citizens of San Antonio. A "need" is something that is necessary for survival. We've done fine without it. Even though I think the idea is cool and I would probably use it a time or two.

No, a need is something that is necessary to achieve a certain goal or outcome... not survival.

Lone Star Rail IS necessary in order to provide an alternative means of transportation to the horribly congested traffic on I-35. It IS necessary in order to make the region a more viable place for people to live, especially people who are accustomed to living in a place that has rail transit. It IS necessary in order to allow more sustainable and intelligent growth in the region. And it IS necessary in order for SA/Austin to be a viable place to live and work in the future... years down the road (no pun intended).

And even if San Antonio has done fine without it (due in large part to low cost of living and heavy state and local government incentives to corporations to relocate), why limit yourself and your city to just doing "fine" when you could do better?

Paul in S.A TX · #**790** Posted **Jul 27, 2015, 6:33 PM**

San Antonio is such an underrated city I have a hard time believing it has a smaller economy than a list of metros that are smaller. In general the bigger the metro the higher the GMP.

Austinite101 · #**791** Posted **Jul 27, 2015, 8:46 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul in S.A TX

San Antonio is such an underrated city I have a hard time believing it has a smaller economy than a list of metros that are smaller. In general the bigger the metro the higher the GMP.

In general that'd be the case if wealth and industry were the same in every metro area. But that isn't the case in reality. Consumer consumption is almost 3/4ths of the whole economy so if two metros are similar in size, the metro with the wealthier residents will probably have more economic weight.

ILUVSAT · #**792** Posted **Jul 27, 2015, 9:10 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul in S.A TX

San Antonio is such an underrated city...

In what way(s)?

I respect your opinion, however, we are what we are. Almost everyone knows about our beautiful city! Just because we don't have certain things and are obtaining certain milestones other cities are does not really mean SA is "underrated."

Some solid, quantitative data to back up your claim(s) would be helpful for others in seeing what you see.

maxus · #**793** Posted **Jul 27, 2015, 10:07 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul in S.A TX

San Antonio is such an underrated city I have a hard time believing it has a smaller economy than a list of metros that are smaller. In general the bigger the metro the higher the GMP.

Economics, Geography and perhaps City Planning courses may help our friend Paul. Wealth in a metro sustains its economic impact and viability.

One measure is this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highes..._United_States

Notice Austin 18th. SA 126th.

Paul in S.A TX · #**794** Posted **Jul 28, 2015, 12:51 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by maxus

Economics, Geography and perhaps City Planning courses may help our friend Paul. Wealth in a metro sustains its economic impact and viability.

One measure is this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highes..._United_States

Notice Austin 18th. SA 126th.

S.A's total personal metro income is among the top 25 metros in the U.S. last I looked. Cost of living, etc plays a big role with these figures among other things of course.

Spoiler · #**795** Posted **Jul 28, 2015, 1:20 AM**

The GDP of San Antonio is $96.8 billion/year. The GDP of Austin is $103.2 billion/year, and Austin has how many fewer people than SA?

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_by_GDP

Schertz1 · #**796** Posted **Jul 28, 2015, 4:08 AM**

Good News for San Antonio. (Please move to correct Thread)

Intel will shift some of its engineers from Portland to staff the new center, where they will work side-by-side with Rackspace personnel.

Hundreds of new developers will be added over the next year or two.

http://www.bizjournals.com/sanantoni...ndreds-of.html

SAguy · #**797** Posted **Jul 28, 2015, 11:22 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Schertz1

Good News for San Antonio. (Please move to correct Thread)

Intel will shift some of its engineers from Portland to staff the new center, where they will work side-by-side with Rackspace personnel.

Hundreds of new developers will be added over the next year or two.

http://www.bizjournals.com/sanantoni...ndreds-of.html

This is awesome news!!

GoldenBoot · #**798** Posted **Jul 28, 2015, 9:19 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul in S.A TX

S.A's total personal metro income is among the top 25 metros in the U.S. last I looked. Cost of living, etc plays a big role with these figures among other things of course.

Based on 2013 U.S. Census data, SA was ranked 182th overall in per capita income (#49 when only looking at MSAs & CSAs with over 1,000,000 inhabitants).

jaga185 · #**799** Posted **Jul 28, 2015, 11:20 PM**

Things are on the rise with SA's income. Let's not cry about what we don't have. We should be excited for what actually is and what is for sure coming...

Like the Intel news, that's fantastic!

JACKinBeantown · #**800** Posted **Jul 29, 2015, 12:35 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by GoldenBoot

Based on 2013 U.S. Census data, SA was ranked 182th overall in per capita income (#49 when only looking at MSAs & CSAs with over 1,000,000 inhabitants).

#49 out of 62. That's excellent!