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Volume 22, Number 19
POLITICS AND
GOVERNMENT
(8/26/11)
The die may be cast
before the end of the year that could dramatically alter the makeup and the way
Austinites elect the Austin City Council.It could be the first major
overhaul of city government leadership in decades.
The Austin City Council is taking the first steps that
could lead to a very significant change
in the governing structure of Austin.A 15-member Charter Review Commission,
appointed by the City Council, will study several proposals and make
recommendations to the Council by year-end.Whatever the Council adopts must be approved by the voters.And considering the charge given to the
Commission, those recommendations could
be dramatic.
The headline-grabbing part of the Commission’s task is
whether the City should set up single-member districts from which individual
council members will be elected – instead
of being elected by all the voters in the city.Austin
voters in the past have defeated the concept of single-member districts many
times.
What will single member districts look like?Well, the Council is asking the Commission to
consider a Charter amendment that would elect six Council members from geographic districts, and two Council members and the Mayor at large.But who knows?In the past, proposals would increase the
number of council members, mixing citywide and single member districts.
But there are other election/governing issues on the
agenda for consideration.For instance,
right now, members and the mayor are
elected to three-year staggered terms.This means that during one election cycle
only three council seats are open and in the next cycle three council seats and
the mayor’s post are up for consideration.Other agenda items call for the elimination
of staggered Council terms and changing the terms from three to four years.
However, as they say on those 1-800 TV commercials,
that’s not all!The Commission is also
charged with considering a Charter amendment that would move municipal elections away from the uniform election date in May to
the uniform election date in November of odd-numbered years only.
If the city elections were to take place in odd-numbered years, such as this year, they would not be held during the high-turnout even-numbered years when you vote on a President or
statewide elected offices.Some
argue that this low-turnout cycle favors special interest groups that can sway
outcomes because there are no big offices, such as President, Governor, etc. to
draw voters to the polls.
Finally, the Commission will tackle the redistricting
process by considering whether to require City staff to deliver a proposed redistricting map to a Council-appointed seven-member redistricting committee.You get the picture.If these
items are recommended and adopted by the Council, Austinites will be voting next year to drastically alter the way Austin
elections are held and your City Council is elected.It’s quite important.
(7/29/11)
Even as Texas Gov
Rick Perry considers a run for president, his political history is being dissected and it will only become more
intense if his Stetson is tossed into the ring.But will his time as an elected
Democrat hold much sway in the GOP primary process?
Conservative credentials are an important factor for
many Republicans as they vote for their nominee.Does
Perry’s time as an elected Democrat
in Texas
diminish his credibility if he campaigns as an avowed conservative?Not really, says Mark Jones, the chair of the Department of Political Science at
Rice University, because Perry was part of the “ultra conservative wing of the Democratic Party, light years away ideologically from
liberal Democratic colleagues.”
A little political refresher is important here.For almost all of the 20th
Century, Texas
was in effect a one-party state.In Perry’s
West Texas House District, the Democratic Party was the only game in town.In
fact, as recently as 1965, the Texas
House of Representatives was composed of 149 Democrats and 1 Republican.Perry arrived in Austin as a Democratic legislator in 1985.
In a very in-depth analysis of Texas ideological voting records, Jones
concludes that Perry’s voting record as a Democrat was more
conservative than 77% of Democrats.Perry switched to the Republican Party in
1989.In the session following Perry’s
departure from the House in 1991, only two Democrats had more conservative
voting records than Perry, and since
1997, no Democrat more conservative
than Perry has served in the Texas
House.
This bit of history is important for those who vote in
the Republican presidential primary – especially if Perry’s potential opponents for the GOP nomination
start to slam him as a philosophical flip-flopper.Should Perry jump
in and win the GOP nomination, it’s a different ballgame to win votes in the
General Election.But that’s another
story for another day.
(6/17/11)
One effect of Texas
Gov Rick Perry’s flirtation with a
presidential run is a major national media focus on the state’s economy.And
this could bode well for Texas
economic future.
No matter how you feel about Perry’s presidential
prospects, one result of the media spotlight on him is that the nations’
business movers and shakers are getting huge doses of positive economic news
about Texas.These
captains of industry make decisions about where to expand or re-locate, creating new jobs in the process.
The president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, Richard Fisher, points out that 37% of
all net new American jobs since the recovery began were created in Texas.He notes that Texas is also among the few states (3 very
small states, actually) that are home to
more jobs than when the recession began.He cites more stats, but since we’ve reported
them previously, we’ll forego the repetition.
Fisher further observed that all states labor under the
same Fed monetary policy and interest rates and federal regulation, but all
states have not performed equally well.Texas stands out for its
free market and business-friendly climate.And he stresses that capital – both human and
investment – is highly mobile, and it migrates all the time to the places
where the opportunities are larger and the burdens are lower.
Fisher is an economist with a dry way of expressing
himself.Not so Jay Ambrose, a columnist for the Scripps Howard News Service.Comparing Texas to California, Ambrose wrote
this week:“So what example should
America follow, that of deficit-slaughtering, budget-cutting, seriously limited
government in Texas, which has added 730,000 jobs in the past decade, or
that of regulation-happy, spend-mercilessly, owe-everything, flee-this-place-quickly California,
which has lost 600,000 jobs during the same period?”
These are just a couple of examples of the positive
economic notoriety being spread around nationally about the Texas economy now that Perry has expanded his political stage.Of course, there are those who disagree with
Perry politically and they point out what they feel are
Volume 22, Number 19
HIGH TECH
(5/27/11)
“Tech Help Wanted.Choose From Dozens of Companies.High-Paying
Professional Positions.Live in Austin, one of US’s Top Cities.”
This headline could be bolstered by the following
copy:“If you are an engineer,
computer scientist, programmer or
developer, come to Austin.Dozens of companies are hiring
aggressively – 40 to 100 new
employees per company, per year.”This is a direct quote from Joel Trammell and Larry Warnock.Trammell is
the chair of the Austin Technology Council and Warnock was chair of the
Technology Council’s CEO Summit.
The two went on to say:“To the fantastic talent developing in universities across the country, consider starting your career here.Most of Austin’s
tech companies offer mentor programs and development labs for training.There are also hundreds of start-ups eager
for talented technologists.”
And then, they gave this advice:“to
the youth of Central Texas, wrap
your mind around the fact that by 2015, 76% of the jobs in the US
will require skills based on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and
Math).Less than 50% of the jobs in the US in
1991 required those skills.Develop STEM
skills – they will serve you well in the future, and serve us well as a
region.”
And to the greater Austin
community, they said to “celebrate all that is unique about Austin.It helps attract the technologists we need to accelerate growth.Imagine
what our local economy would be if we had twice the companies we have now, each hiring 40 to 100 additional employees
each year.”
There is an engineering talent shortage in Austin, they say.And the local tech community is taking
immediate steps to correct the situation.Later this year Austin tech leaders will
hold a recruiting event in California’s Silicon Valley. “We will go where we know there is an
abundance of programmers, engineers and computer scientists, to recruit what the industry needs to
accelerate the growth of technology in Central Texas,”
said Trammel and Warnock.
Speaking about UTAustin, the tech leaders acknowledged
that “one of the best computer science
and engineering schools in the country (is) in our own backyard.”More about that in the next item.
(4/22/11)
With the flurry of
current activity and interest in the high tech/Internet business sector in the Austin
area, is there a danger of a tech
bubbleor a dot-com bust similar to a decade ago?
Take a step back and look at what’s happened in recent
months.Governor Rick Perry is out front leading a charge to make Austin the next Silicon
Valley.Facebook began operations downtown as
part of its first US
expansion of its online sales and operations teams outside of its Palo Alto
headquarters.eBay/PayPal committed to
create at least 1,000 jobs in Austin over the next ten
years.Samsung is concluding a $3.6 billion expansion (the most expensive
in Austin’s
history).And there’s more.
This is amazing
economic news, especially when you
consider the jobs that are created (eBay/PayPal’s average salary for new
hires is $107,000).But if you weathered
the frenzy of the dot-com era in Austin as the 1990s ended, as well as its
ultimate bust, you may be thinking, as Yogi
Berra put it:“It’s déjà vu all over
again.”Well, is it?Are we building up for a bust?
Not likely, because this
is a vastly different surge.The
dot-com frenzy was fueled by investors, IPOs and the market dumping huge sums of money in companies that had never shown a profit.
Do you have any
idea how much profit Facebook is
expected to book in 2011?A billion dollars!Profit!This is hardly the bottom line of a company that may go bust anytime
soon.eBay was one of those dot-com
companies that survived and in February reported that eBay/PayPal revenue could
double in as little as two years, thanks primarily to PayPal.
Besides, these are different times than just a dozen
years ago. There are many more users online now and the
number is growing.It’s roughly 2
billion today, compared to 55 million (and many of those were on dial-up
modems!) in the late 1990s.
So, not only is there a much stronger financial underpinning to many of these companies, but the marketplace has expanded
exponentially to enhance future success.Nothing is totally failure-proof, but this is a much better economic
place than it was just a few short years ago.
(4/8/11)
A Top Ten Cleantech
Cities in the United States
report was released this week.Austin was #3.
This is part of what was said about #3Austin:“Austin has
long been Texas’
hub for solar, wind, geothermal and biomass power, as well as fuel cell
technologies.Its commitment to the environment and sustainability has made it not
only a national CleanTech player,
but a global one as well.”
Other cities:#1
Boston … #2 San Jose … #4 San Francisco … #5 Seattle … #6 Chicago ... #7
Philadelphia … #8 Berkeley … #9 Pasadena and #10 Washington, DC.
Volume 22, Number 19
REAL ESTATE
(11/4/11)
One of the
highlights of the Austin
area’s economic rebound is a segment
that hasn’t shown positive year-over-year growth in three years.
The release of preliminary job payroll numbers from
September by state and national agencies indicate the Austin
area construction and natural resources industry has had the largest rate of
growth over the last 12 months since April 2008, according to the Austin
Chamber’s VP Research, Beverly Kerr.
(10/28/11)
When the housing
bubble burst several years ago devastating much of the nation’s economy, the Austin
market didn’t have a real estate
bubble to deflate.As a result, the Austin
area economy fared much better than most.What about now?
Even though the Austin area today is among the nation’s
leaders in terms of a healthy economy, some are complaining they don’t think
Austin area home sales and values are rising at a fast pace. First of all, there are some encouraging
signs.We’ll get to that in a
moment.
But secondarily, the very fact that Austin area home sales/values moved upward at amoderate
pace when housing prices were going crazy in California, Nevada, Arizona, Florida,etc. did much to keep the local
economy on an even keel.And the same,
steady, methodical pace of improvement in housing values that protected the Austin area during that
difficult time is occurring today.
In fact, from that perspective, the recent stats are
downright impressive.According to the
most recent Multiple Listing Service (MLS) report from the Austin Board of
Realtors®, for four straight months (through September), year-over-year sales volume increases have been
reported.Importantly, for the past
three months, those increases have
exceeded 33%.
Yeah, but isn’t that such a strong pace it might lead to
a housing bubble?Nope.And the reason why is that Austin home values
have remained stable.While home
sellers may have wished for a higher price, the fact that prices have not
skyrocketed indicates this robust housing market is settling into a reasonable
period of growth.Good sales activityand good
value without booming prices.
The other indicator to watch is how many homes have
“for sale” signs in the front yard and how long it takes for them to sell.Homes remained on the market for an average
81 days in September.And themarket overall does not have a glut of housing offered for sale.
Quite the opposite.At the current sales pace, the
market has about 5.4 months of
inventory.The Real Estate Center at
TexasA&M reports that 6.5 months of inventory represents a market in which
supply and demand for homes is balanced.The 5.4 months of inventory in the Austin
area indicates the market is leaning a bit in favor of the home seller.
(10.28.11)
A new report
indicates the nation’s economic eyes
are on Austin
real estate trends.
As the two previous stories reported, there are strong
arguments for investing in real estate in Texas.And now Austin
is ranked #2 in the nation as a
market to watch in 2012, according
to the annual Emerging Trends in Real
Estate report.The report was
authored by two respectable organizations, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and the
Urban Land Institute.
The report said Austin registers
significant interest on investor radar screens and has all the ingredients
needed for the 21st
century.Specifically the report
contrasted Austin with Dallas and Houston by
pointing out downtown Austin
features pedestrian-friendly, downtown apartment neighborhoods with plenty of
nightlife attractions.
It also pointed to the diversity of educational, medical
and government jobs, backed by high tech, as an environment that protects the Austin
area from drastic boom/bust cycles
Volume 22, Number 19
BUSINESS AND
ECONOMY
(11.11.11)
“Texas is the most
successful state in America.Texas economic output exceeds Mexico’s and Australia’s and rivals India’s,” according to a staff
writer in The Wall Street Journal.
The writer, Daniel
Henninger, came to Austin
to check out claims made by Gov. Rick
Perry in Perry’s run for the presidency.Setting politics aside, the piece he wrote contained some interesting insights about Austin
and the LoneStarState after talking to several
high-level CEOs who have invested heavily in Texas.
Ed Trevis, a
California-educated Brazilian immigrant and tech entrepreneur in Silicon Valley
for 25 years, moved Corvalent Corp to Austin and
told Henninger:“what I found in Texas
is that from the standpoint of running a business, cost of living, education, the labor pool, quality of life, it just
blew other states out of the water.”
Henninger added:“I heard this constantly – people enjoy
being in business in Texas.”David
Booth, who moved Dimensional Fund Advisors’s headquarters to Austin from Santa
Monica in 2008, told Henninger:“it’s just that they believe in the whole
Horatio Alger myth down here.It’s
hard to understand if you haven’t
lived here.”
“In 1990, one of the world’s biggest companies, Exxon
Mobil, left New York City for Dallas.Exxon’s former CEO, Lee Raymond,
says the move was indeed about costs and New YorkState’s
notoriously overbearing tax authority.But it was also about working
amid a culture of competence.‘It’s
just the attitude in Texas
of getting things done and doing them well’.”
Others were quoted as well and their observations led
Henninger to comment:“in Austin
you discover a primary reason beneath Texas’ success:it’s about competition plus
collaboration.It seems everyone in Texas high-tech knows
everyone, and if they can help each other, they will.”
Henninger says the story of Texas
is “a story the rest of the US
should hear – the parts of the country that want a better economy than they’ve
got now.”Then came his clincher:“This
much is obvious:Texas, not California, better be the American future.”
(11.11.11)
So, your business needs to borrow money from a
bank.Has the lending situation changed recently?What about in the near future?It’s
improving.
It looks like 2012 may be a “pretty good time to
borrow,” predict our friends at Kiplinger,
who for 88 years have been providing forecasts
for management decision-making.Of course they point out it helps if your
firm is enjoying healthy growth, has strong prospects and may be in a position
to expand.Here are the reasons cited by
Kiplinger:
Interest rates
can’t get much sweeter.On a $200,000, 10-year loan to purchase
equipment, a typical small retail business in Austin with a top credit rating can find a
fixed rate of about 6.5%, for example.
Banks will be
eager to lend.Following the
financial crisis of 2008-2009, the banks bolstered reserves they held to offset
risky loans partly by cutting back on lending.Now they’re able to loosen the purse strings, making up for the dearth of lending during the recession and for
revenues they continue to lose elsewhere in a mortgage market stunted by a
housing slump, and in credit card rates and fees that are curbed by new federal
regulations.
Lenders want to
diversify, spreading risks.Both
small and big banks see small business clients as the answer.In
fact, so far in 2011, JPMorgan Chase has hiked its lending to small businesses
by 71%.
Declines in late
payments and bad loans make it easier for banks to say yes.The share of non-performing business loans
has fallen nationally from 2.8% in 2009 to 1.6%.And remember, this is a national average and Austin
has a much better economy than the nation as a whole.
Kiplinger
said competition will extend beyond interest rates to more relaxed terms, such aslonger re-payment periods, lower
monthly payments, less collateral
and so on.And Kiplinger predicts lending to subprime businesses will pick up
because competition for small business loans will result in easing standards
further.As an example, Kiplinger notes that new credit cards
issued to subprime borrowers increased 64% over last year’s level.
(11.11.11)
Two different
national publications, normally in
competition with each other, agree
on one thing:Texas
is the best place to be in business today.
The site and facility planning publication, Area Development, in its online edition
surveyed a select group of highly-respected site location consultants with a
nationwide client base.These are the pros who are hired by companies to do all
the digging to recommend locations where the companies should expand or re-locate.
States were ranked in each of 12 site selection
categories based on the number of times they were named as a Top Five choice by
the responding consultants.The conclusion:“Texas is far and away the consultant’s #1
choice for doing business.”Rounding
out the Top Five, in order, behind Texas:Georgia,
Alabama, South Carolina,
Indiana and Louisiana.
The other publication, Site Selection, using different criteria, came to the same
conclusion.
The magazine’s selection was based on factors including
a survey of corporate real estate executives, a tax climate analysis and the
state’s performance on a database that tracks new business activitiy.“Executives
who participated in the survey ranked Texas the best state for business based
on its lack of red tape, financial
assistance and government cooperation with businesses,” the magazine
concluded.North Carolina has held the top spot for the
last decade.
Whenever Texas is top-ranked
in economic surveys it augurs well for Austin.After all, inside Texas Austin is considered
by many to have the strongest economy in the state.
(11.11.11)
Where does the
average private sector salary in Austin
rank nationwide?Out of 938 metro areas, Austin was certainly not at the top, but in its own way, its average private sector salary rank is
quite impressive.
The Austin
area has a large number of government jobs.Payroll checks from state, county and city government, universities and
public schools, federal employers, etc. are a big part of Austin’s economy.But
what about the private sector?How
do its wages compare?
Austin’s average private sector salary ranks 28th in the nation.Not bad, especially considering the Austin area regularly
ranks favorably for its moderate cost of living.The
average Austin
private sector annual salary:$45,500.
Dallas-Fort Worth ranks 25th nationally ($46,200 average salary), Houston is #12 ($51,300), but San Antonio is 189th ($36,000) in the
recent analysis of USCensus Bureau data by On Numbers, a division of American
City Business Journals.
Volume 22, Number 19
ENVIRONMENT
(10.7.11)
The Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) has asked the state
for permission to significantly cut back or cut off water to farmers next year
if drought conditions continue.
Lakes Travis and Buchanan are “storage” lakes on the Colorado River.The LCRA manages the level of these lakes to “store” water for its
customers to use during dry times or, at the other end of the spectrum, to “capture” water in flooding situations to protect those downstream.As a result the levels of these two lakes vary widely, depending upon weather conditions.
Right now, the levels of lakes Travis and Buchanan are
very, very low.For instance, Buchanan
is declining to an elevation of 987 feet above sea level.This
is more than 23 feet lower than Lake Buchanan’s historic October average.The same is true for LakeTravis where the lake
level is at an elevation about 628 feet above sea level and still
dropping.This is almost 38 feet below Lake Travis’s historic October average.
Just as important is the amount of water that is being
stored. If both lakes are “full,” the combined volume
is 2,011,000 acre-feet of water.Right
now, the current combined volume of
lakes Travis and Buchanan is 749,000
acre-feet.In other words, the storage of water is only
37% of what is possible.This is serious and it is getting worse
as the exceptional-to-extreme drought conditions remain in place.
With the absence of any tropical storm activity in the Gulf of Mexico, and hurricane season nearing its end, meteorologists are forecasting the drought
is likely to continue into next year and maybe even beyond.Lake water
continues to evaporate and streams in the Texas Hill Country are dry.As a result, inflows into the HighlandLakes continue to be well below
normal.So what is the LCRA doing as it
watches the water levels drop daily?
The LCRA has formally filed applications with the Texas
Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) to deviate from its state-approved
water management plan.LCRA is asking TCEQ for approval to cut off
HighlandLakes
water to farmers in the GulfCoast area and to other
irrigation divisions downstream.
The trigger LCRA is seeking:if
lakes Travis and Buchanan combined contain less than 850,000 acre-feet of stored water on March 1st 2012, water would be cut
off to the downstream farmers.Remember what we told you a minute ago.The current combined water storage in the two water supply reservoirs is
749,000 acre-feet.And with minimal, if
any, water going into “storage,” water is still being released to downstream
users as per existing water contracts.
The situation is
dire.If the TCEQ approves the LCRA
requests to deviate from the existing state-approved plan, downstream farmers
could face severe crop-growing restrictions next year.
(9/2/11)
Goodbye August!Don’t let the door hit you on the way out!And
take the unprecedented heat and lack of rain with you!Okay, that said, let’s get realistic. What can you expect from the
drought in the weeks and months ahead?
No need to continue to hammer that last month was the
hottest August and the hottest month ever recorded in the Austin area.Or that August followed June and July where record heat was also
recorded.What is happening to the major source of water for the Central Texas area?
The LakeTravis pool elevation
fell a foot from last week to this week.The water level stands around 634
feet above mean sea level (msl) this week – thirty feet below its average
of 664 feet.The conservation
storage level of the lake is 681 feet msl. And the lake is expected to fall another foot
next week.
The Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) controls the
water flow in the HighlandLakes along the Colorado River.As a result, it continually forecasts what will happen to the lake
levels through droughts, floods and normal times.
Here’s what the LCRA is currently forecasting.If
drought conditions continue, as
September heads into October, the
level of LakeTravis will drop below 630 feet.After that, the LCRA predicts
the level should remain steady – not dipping below 625 feet through the end of
the year.Obviously, as the temps
cool, the rate of evaporation diminishes.
Wait a minute.Isn’t September the most active month for tropical storm activity?So, what if this activity results in rain?
(Rain?What’s that?)
The LCRA predicts if
there is “normal” rainfall between now and year-end, LakeTravis
should rise above 640 feet.And if there are, hold on, “wet” conditions, the LakeTravis could rise past
650 feet as 2012 approaches.That 650-foot
level would get the lake back to where it was at the beginning of June, but
still 30 feet below its hoped-for conservation level.
Hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, and earthquakes – such
as those that hit the US
so far this year – are extreme natural phenomena.Some extreme conditions hit almost without
warning.But drought?Drought is different.Climatologists
call drought a “creeping disaster” because its effects are not felt at once.
This drought is being felt right now in Central Texas
and across most of Texas
as a whole.And, its effects are not
limited to impacting the water supply.Agriculture suffers.Businesses that rely on water recreation activities are struggling.Property values are hurt when trees and other landscaping wilt or
dry due to the heat and lack of water.And, you almost don’t want to say this out loud, but wildfires can be the most devastating of
all – especially in urban areas.So,
keep your eye on the Gulf
of Mexico for any signs of tropical storm activity.
Volume 22, Number 19
GROWTH AND
DEVELOPMENT
(10/28/11)
The Texas population growth is one of nine reasons cited by
two Texas economists why investors find Texas so attractive.The
other eight reasons make up a strong list.
Ali Anari
and Mark Dotzour are economists at the Real
Estate Center at TexasA&M.They
point out that high net worth investors may live in New
York City, Miami or San
Diego, but they invest in Texas
real estate.Here are the nine reasons
the economists say out-of-staters invest in Texas.
1.Texas is leading the nation in economic recovery.The duration
of the recession, measured by the number of months of job losses, was shorter for Texas
while theintensity, measured by the highest job loss rate in the trough
month was smaller for Texas than the nation.
2.Texas’ economy is big and getting bigger.Texas
economy was the 14th largest
in the world in 2010 and was the 2nd
largest in the nation in 2010, larger than New York’s.
3.Texas’ economy is profitable.According to private sector gross domestic
product, Texas
businesses are more profitable.
4.Texas’ population is growing.State demographers have estimated the Texas population could grow by 12 million from 2010 to 2030.
5.Texas’
economy is international.The state exported more than $1 billion to 25
countries in 2009.
6.Tax burden is less in Texas.In 2009, state and local taxes accounted for 7.9% of the state’s per
capita income, compared with 9.8% for the nation.
7.Texas has affordable housing.The average price of an owner-occupied
housing unit in Texas
in 2009 was about 68% of the national average.
Two “personal
qualities” of Texans round out
the nine reasons.See the next item.
(10/7/11)
The vibrancy of
Austin’s economic future resulted in
another #1 ranking – this one, the Top Ten US
Cities with Potential Growth.The ten, as ranked by a publication whose roots go back 88 years, are spread all over the country with Austin at the top.
Our friends at Kiplinger’s
Personal Finance in Washington
worked with Martin Prosperity Institute, a think tank that studies economic
prosperity.Kiplinger then visited the cities to interview business and
community leaders and residents.Their
Top Ten:#1 Austin, followed by
Seattle, Washington DC, Boulder, Salt Lake City, Rochester, Minn., Des Moines, Burlington, West Hartford, Conn. and Topeka.Kiplinger,
as you may recall, is nearing nine decades of providing insight and analysis to
the US
business community.
Kiplinger’s
senior editor Robert Frick said of
the Top Ten:“It’s no coincidence that
economic vitality and livability go hand in hand.Creativity in music, arts and culture, plus
neighborhoods and recreational facilities that rank high for ‘coolness,’
attract like-minded professionals who go on to cultivate a region’s business scene.All
these factors make our Best Cities more than just great places to live.They’re also great places to
start a business or find a job.”
“Cities with potential growth have a few things in
common.They have smart people and great ideas.However, a third key element is vital, and it’s one we find that is becoming increasingly more popular.They collaborate,” noted Kiplinger.“Business communities to governments to
universities to residents – when they’re in collaboration, the economic
vitality is impressive.As these cities soar in vitality they
become more livable.The arts, culture and music come alive, making
the cities with potential growth more desirable.”
What about Austin,
specifically?“Austin,Texas has outstanding programs to help build a
network for business brainpower and encourage entrepreneurship.Plus there are available venture-capital
funds and about 20 business associations.Mix all these elements in what many call a classless society, where
hippie communalism coexists with no-nonsense capitalism, and you’ve got a breeding ground for start-ups.”
Kiplinger
didn’t just throw a dart at a US
wall map to come up with the ten cities and the ultimate top ranking of Austin
as the best of the best.As we
mentioned, the research was supplemented by a visit to Austin and interviews.Here’s what else went into the study:
A formula and a methodology that included several
economic indicators were used to select the top ten cities that have current and likely future growth in
high-quality jobs and income.The
number of “creative class” workers (those who are educators,
writers, scientists) in the area was considered, as well as things like public transportation systems and overall
affordability.
Noteworthy:Kiplinger’s information is circulated
widely to US
business and thought leaders.