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Originally Posted by Keep-SA-Lame
Ah good, things had been quiet here. We needed a good knock down drag out fight about comparing ourselves to Austin to liven things up.
There's a lot of angles to this, but if you had to boil it down to one thing Austin has that SA doesn't, I think it's UT. UT has been this dynamo pumping out knowledge economy workers into Austin for a very long time. SA didn't get UTSA until the 60s, and even today it obviously doesn't hold a candle to UT. Combine UT with Austin being a nice town (one that grads want to hang around in) and you've got the recipe for growth that starts to create new high paying jobs and draw in people from all over. It's the same reason Pittsburgh has been able to rebound somewhat from its Rust Belt malaise (its cluster of top notch universities combined with natural beauty and interesting local culture).
The military bases and tourism have been good economic engines for San Antonio, but River Walk waiters and Lackland drill sergeants just aren't in the same league in terms of economic development as those UT grads.
My hot take here is that if like A&M (or even a Texas State) had been placed in San Antonio back in the day instead of where they are now, San Antonio would be a radically different town
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I think another decent comparison is Columbus Ohio. For a mid west city it is doing far better than the others I think due to Ohio state and it being a good place to raise a family and the like. Of course, the Texas cities have had much more robust growth overall when compared to the rust belt.