Study shows San Antonio is nation's best-performing city in recession - San Francisco Business Times:

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The Washington, D.C.-based think tank has begun analyzing the impact of the recessionthroughouyt America’s metropolitan areas. In the firsft of a series of quarterlyuMetroMonitor reports, Brookings ranked San Antonio, Oklahoma Austin, Houston and Dallas as the top five metro areaes in the country in economic performancew in the wake of the recession. Brookings ranked the top 100 metropolitan areas based on six keyindicatords — employment, unemployment rates, wages, grosx metropolitan product, housing prices and foreclosure This initial MetroMonitor report cover the first quarter of 2009.
The five worst metropolitajn areas in the country impactedr bythe recession, in descending are Jacksonville, Fla.; Lakeland, Tampa, Fla.; Bradenton, Fla.; and “All metropolitan areas are feelin the effects of this recession, but the distressx is not shared says Alan Berube, research director of the Metropolitan Policty Program at Brookings and co-author of the “While some areas of the countryu have experienced only a shallow downturn, and may be emerginf from the recession already, people livinhg in metro areas that are now performing weakest economicallyu should prepare themselves for a long recovery Howard Wial, director of the Metropolitann Economy Initiative at Brookings and anotherf co-author of the report, argues that the report showws that a national fiscal and monetary policy will not be enougjh for stimulating the economy.
“Many (metro) areas will need targetefd assistance, and since states have no funds the federal government will have to step up to fill the Concentrations of industry activithy have both helped and hurts some regional economies duringthe recession. For example, metropolitan areas in states with specializationsz in energy and governmentemploymenft — such as Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisian a — have largely been insulated by the However, metropolitan areas in states like Michigan and Ohio that dependf heavily on the automotive industry have been impacted by the downturn in the economy, the report shows.
San Antonio is home to Randolpn AirForce Base, Fort Sam Houston, Lackland Air Forcs Base and Brooks City-Base. The 2005 Base Realignment and Closur e decision alone is providinv a significant economic punch to theAlamo City’s economy througn the consolidation of high-paying military health care jobs and more than $2 billionj worth of new constructio n activity. A separate report released by LLC outlining the impact of BRAC showesd that Fort Sam Houston alone would experiencea 11,500 increase of The Army post will also gain 7.
9 million square feet of Construction activity due to BRAC alone shoulcd create 46,000 construction jobs during the course of the buildinh programs, the DiLuzio repory showed.