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A comment on Why Don’t the 20 Cities on Amazon's HQ2 Shortlist Collectively Bargain?. Parent comment

Re:Why Don’t the 20 Cities on Amazon's HQ2 Shortlist Collect... by unethical_ban on Tuesday January 23, 2018 @05:22PM (#16218383)
Rackspace is one example of that business, but Amazon is not going anywhere. And there is STILL a lot of space all around San Antonio (far west, anything east) as well as New Braunfels and even (if Amazon spent the $$$ to get land) plenty of space within a mile or two of downtown for a large campus.

I've thought for a while that commuter rail lines:

Along the freeways: 35, 10, 281, 151

Between big retail spots: Downtown, Quarry, Rim, Stone Oak, 1604/Bandera, Forum

Big Business: Rackspace, USAA, Downtown (again), Amazon, Lackland AFB, Kelly AFB, Brooks

And new parking areas near big residential centers: Bandera/Tezel, Helotes, Boerne, Stone Oak, Great Northwest, Brooks City Base

Along with parks renovation, school improvements on the South Side and small business incentives would make San Antonio the best place to live in the country.

There's a lot of potential here.

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Re:Why Don’t the 20 Cities on Amazon's HQ2 Shortlist Collect... by Kalium on Wednesday January 24, 2018 @03:27AM (#16221219)
San Antonio can't even build a street-level rail line for the densest areas without politics getting in the way and halting it. Until that changes, San Antonio is likely to be Our City Of Lots Of Potential for decades to come.

Personally, I wouldn't move back without massive densification of the "urban" core. Right now the place is a massive suburb where getting by without a car is impossible.

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Re:Why Don’t the 20 Cities on Amazon's HQ2 Shortlist Collect... by unethical_ban on Wednesday January 24, 2018 @11:29AM (#16223965)
I don't know the details of street rail - but I would say that if you wanted to, you could live anywhere between southtown and Alta Vista without a car, if you could also work there. And you can get across the city with Lyft and uber if you want to go elsewhere.

I won't argue with your qualms on local government.

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Re:Why Don’t the 20 Cities on Amazon's HQ2 Shortlist Collect... by Kalium on Wednesday January 24, 2018 @03:05PM (#16225829)
I lived in Southtown. Right at South Alamo and Flores. I needed a car to be able to grocery shop and get to work. A 10-15 minute drive to the office was anywhere between a one-hour and two-hour bus ride.

In practical terms, it would have been workable if my office had been along the Riverwalk. Otherwise, not really. SA's public transit isn't usable for white-collar professionals in most cases.

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