San Antonio: Google Fiber on Hold

Re:San Antonio: Google Fiber on Hold by wiggity on Thursday January 12, 2017 @07:50PM (#13387546)

As a San Antonio resident, tech industry worker, and optimist about the city's future tech relevance, this is sadly representative of the growing pains we have to overcome. NIMBY, sure, but also simple ignorance about how important this could be, and how some huge the returns could be on such small sacrifices.

Efforts to expand the city's tech scene [1, 2, 3] and a significant tech industry driven by notable employers [4, 5, 6, 7] are too often offset by middle-child syndrome among SA's TX peer cities, and misguided conservatism about preserving aspects of the city very few people would miss. Generally speaking, the city is sprawling and not particularly scenic, and I could name 50 eye-sores worse than a few equipment shelters.

There's no reason we couldn't eventually share in and augment Austin's cachet, both cultural and technological (we're already trending towards a south-Texas megalopolis), but we'll have to embrace our strengths and cast off some of these provincial weaknesses.

Crossing my fingers.

1. https://www.satechbloc.com/

2. http://buildsecfoundry.com/

3. http://geekdom.com/

4. https://www.usaa.com/

5. https://www.rackspace.com/

6. http://www.24af.af.mil/

7. https://www.nsa.gov/about/cryptologic-centers/texas/

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Re:San Antonio: Google Fiber on Hold by classybull on Thursday January 12, 2017 @10:32PM (#13388201)

Having lived in both San Antonio and Austin, I wouldn't actually mind much if San Antonio's tech scene caught up. I'm at the point I'm contemplating home ownership, and the fact that a decent house in Austin is starting to hit the $400k market while San Antonio's is literally half of that makes San Antonio very attractive nowadays, especially if they ever get shit together and build a rail between the cities. But my employment prospects are severely diminished there, particularly companies that offer the standard tech work environment and benefits.

And yes, before anyone says anything, I know that Austin is still relatively affordable compared to some of the other tech hubs, but its still its expense is still growing quickly.

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