Community Profile Information

San Antonio Overview

More than half of the trade flow between Mexico and the United States travels through San Antonio, a fact which underscores the importance of the city’s strategic location. San Antonio lies at the crossroads of major interstate highways and railroads serving both coasts, as well as the NAFTA corridor. Its proximity to the Port of Houston and direct access to other major ports, such as Long Beach and Mexican port Lazaro Cardenas, further facilitates trade. In addition, the logistical functionality of your business may be enhanced through Port San Antonio, a multimodal logistics hub and business platform catering to Fortune 500 companies such as Boeing and Lockheed Martin.

San Antonio enjoys a diverse industry portfolio that continues to strengthen and build upon the city’s historic economic base. Once, primarily steeped in Military and Hospitality Industry investment, more diverse industry strengths have emerged in recent years making San Antonio one of the most recession resistant economies in the country. In April 2008, Forbes named San Antonio as one of the most recession proof cities in the nation based on employment figures, housing prices and industry growth. The Brookings Institution named San Antonio one of the strongest performing economies among the 100 largest metropolitan areas in the United States. In fact, in June 2009 they ranked San Antonio No. 1 in overall performance based on employment, unemployment, gross metropolitan product and housing prices.  

Competitive Utilities

City Public Service (CPS) Energy is a municipal utility operating under a Board of Trustees and owned by the City of San Antonio. CPS provides metropolitan business customers with a reliable electrical power system with a 20% reserve generation capacity year round and industrial power rates below the national average. The power company has experienced an outstanding record of reliability over the past 60 plus years of its existence. CPS uses eight power plants that operate coal, nuclear, gas/oils fuels and wind, with a current generating capacity of 5,727 MW. The annual average electric rates for industrial users in San Antonio are the lowest of the major cities in Texas and among the lowest in the nation.

San Antonio Water System is also a City-owned utility with very competitive rates and outstanding reliability. SAWS is currently negotiating contracts for additional supplies, including aquifer and surface water, as part of the metropolitan area’s development and implementation of a water resource plan that will ensure water supplies for the next 50-100 years.  

Education

San Antonio has a range of growing educational institutions sustaining a skilled workforce to support San Antonio’s continued economic growth. Ranging from community college options like Alamo Colleges to nationally recognized private universities like St. Mary’s, San Antonio’s institutions are keeping pace with its growth and industry needs.

Five colleges make up the Alamo Colleges: San Antonio, St. Phillip’s, Palo Alto, Northeast Lakeview and Northwest Vista who are home to a total enrollment of over 50,000 students. Alamo Colleges in partnership with the City of San Antonio also support four academies in the targeted industries of aerospace, manufacturing, information technology and the health professions offering high school junior and seniors’ skilled training, college credits, summer internships and employment opportunities. The Alamo Area Academies are a national model for building and sustaining a workforce pipeline to support private industry requirements.

The University of Texas at San Antonio is aggressively pursuing Tier 1 Research Institution status by adding students, growing research dollars and recruiting talented professors. As UTSA continues to grow, San Antonio will also become home to a regional Texas A&M University Campus making San Antonio the only city in the State of Texas to have a major presence of both the University of Texas and Texas A&M University.

San Antonio is also home to a number of prestigious private schools. For the 18th consecutive year U.S. News and World Report listed Trinity University with a No. 1 ranking in their “America’s Best Colleges” guide for 2010. U.S. News and World Report, for the second year in a row, ranked St. Mary’s University fourth in the West in the “Great Schools, Great Prices” category. This is the 16th consecutive year for St. Mary’s to appear in the top tier of colleges and universities listed annually by the magazine.  

City Market Profile

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Council Districts Profile

District 1,   (Mary Alice P. Cisneros)
District 2,   (Ivy R. Taylor)
District 3,   (Jennifer V. Ramos)
District 4,   (Philip A. Cortez)
District 5,   (David Medina, Jr.)
District 6,   (Ray Lopez)
District 7,   (Justin Rodriguez)
District 8,   (W. Reed Williams)
District 9,   (Elisa Chan)
District 10, (John G. Clamp)