The relationship between city government and San Antonio’s business community is sometimes seen as adversarial.
And, no doubt, there are issues about which our city’s political and business leaders will not see eye-to-eye. When government at any level makes it more difficult for businesses to succeed or imposes unreasonable burdens on the way businesses operate, the business community can and should push back, as any other interest group or constituency would.
In San Antonio, however, tension between city government and the business community is the exception, not the rule. Some of our city’s greatest accomplishments, from HemisFair ’68 to the establishment of San Antonio as the home of military medicine and the Spurs’ five NBA championships, have been the result of collaborative efforts between local government and business. As a new City Council with three new council member begins its work, that spirit of collaboration should be acknowledged — and expanded.
In recent decades, especially since 2007, San Antonio has flourished as a hub of economic growth, cultural diversity and innovation. Once a city that regularly lost its best and brightest talent to cities on the East and West Coast, San Antonio is now a destination for people seeking jobs in technology, bioscience, advanced manufacturing and cybersecurity.
The University of North Carolina’s Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise, in its latest report on winning cities, talked about San Antonio this way: “The city’s noted collaborations among civic, academic and business entities allow for rapid innovation, which is then borne out in its economic output.”
In that report, San Antonio was ranked seventh in its list of “top gainers” in the U.S. from 2007-2022.
While San Antonio is a wonderful place to live and start or grow a business, it is also confronted with significant challenges. Those challenges are best addressed in a collaborative way between local government, businesses, nonprofits and other stakeholders.
The latest Census figures confirm that San Antonio remains one of the fastest-growing big cities in the country, adding nearly 19,000 residents between July 1, 2021, and July 1, 2022. Maintaining San Antonio’s quality of life amid that growth requires a comprehensive bond program and budget investments in our community’s infrastructure — the expansion and improvement of our roads and sidewalks, public transportation systems and digital infrastructure, along with libraries, parks and community and arts facilities.
Beyond issues of quality of life, investing in our city’s infrastructure is also the foundation of our local economic development efforts. Improving public transit, as VIA Metropolitan Transit is doing with its Keep SA Moving plan, connects more people to jobs, education and economic opportunity. Closing the digital divide, the focus of the public-private partnership SA Digital Connects, is essential to give more local residents the opportunity to participate in the digital economy. And San Antonio International Airport’s $2.5 billion strategic development plan will not only increase the connectivity our community needs to continue attracting major business expansions and corporate headquarters, it will also give our region’s travelers the world-class facility the nation’s seventh-largest city deserves.
Another crucial area where collaboration can yield significant results is education and workforce development. San Antonio is now the beneficiary of a talent migration. From 2008-2011, a report prepared for SA2020 and the 80/20 Foundation found, San Antonio ranked second out of the 51 largest metros in percentage increase for residents 25 and older with at least a bachelor’s degree.
While these newcomers add to the vitality of the local economy, we must not lose sight of the imperative to also develop our homegrown talent. Businesses thrive when they have access to a talented and skilled workforce, and our city’s economic future depends on the success of our educational system. By partnering with the city, school districts, Alamo Colleges and other higher education institutions, the business community can contribute its industry insights and resources to shape educational programs that align with the needs of our local job market.
That kind of partnership is present in the Alamo Fellows, internship, apprenticeship and job shadow programs of SA Worx, and SA Worx is the lead entity supporting employer engagement for the city’s Ready to Work program. Expanding this collaboration can help bridge the gap between education and employment, empowering our local youth and fostering greater economic mobility.
One of the lingering challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic is to continue the revitalization of downtown San Antonio. Recent data from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas shows the local office vacancy rate in San Antonio at 18.4%, well above pre-pandemic levels. Notable departures from downtown office buildings, including USAA, have highlighted the changes in workspace usage and remote and hybrid working.
Great cities have great downtowns alive with people and activity, and not just during the workday, argues Weston Urban CEO Randy Smith. They have a diversity of uses and a diversity of schedules. Their vibrancy is driven by restaurants, arts and cultural events and sports and community events all supported by a strong base of city core residents — something that San Antonio lacks, but that also presents us with an opportunity.
If the changes in work habits are long-term, then city and business leaders need to rethink our strategy for a thriving downtown San Antonio. With San Antonio becoming the destination of choice for talented individuals who can work from anywhere, one option is to convert office towers into residential buildings, as Robert Rivard recently suggested.
“Redefining downtown is going to take vision and another big, sustained push by local government in partnership with the private sector, UTSA and others,” he wrote.
No discussion of a vibrant downtown with a flourishing residential community can take place without addressing homelessness. The latest homeless point-in-time count by the South Alamo Regional Alliance for the Homeless (SARAH) presents a mixed bag of data: the overall count of individuals experiencing homelessness in San Antonio and Bexar County increased by 5.3% from 2022, while those experiencing unsheltered homelessness decreased by 15.6%. Depending upon where you live in San Antonio, homelessness may be out of sight, out of mind. But for the downtown area and other neighborhoods, it’s a problem for residents and businesses in addition to being a humanitarian issue.
San Antonio has a successful history of addressing homelessness in a collaborative manner. Haven for Hope, our community’s transformational campus for wraparound services to end homelessness, was conceived by business leader Bill Greehey and is supported by significant public and private funding. In the years following Haven’s opening, the point-in-time count for the downtown area fell from 738 in 2010 to 131 in 2019. Yet among the byproducts of San Antonio’s continued population growth are rising rent and housing costs that put more people at risk of experiencing homelessness — a risk exacerbated by the pandemic and reflected in the point-in-time count’s dramatic rise in sheltered homelessness, from 1,499 in 2021 to 2,281 in 2023.
The causes of homelessness are complex. To continue to make progress on this critical issue will require increased collaboration and greater funding from both the public and private sector. Homelessness is not a “city” issue, it’s a community issue. As with Haven for Hope, the business community and business leaders have a vital role to play in finding effective and innovative strategies that produce life-changing outcomes.
San Antonio’s success lies in the power of partnership.
By harnessing the collective strengths, resources and expertise of the business community and local government, we can overcome our city’s most pressing challenges and create a future with greater opportunity, greater prosperity and greater quality of life for the residents of our unique city. As a new City Council starts its term, let’s seize this moment to collaborate, innovate and build a better San Antonio — together.
