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

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The Washington, D.C.-based think tank has begun analyzing the impacft of the recessionthroughout America’s metropolitan areas. In the first of a seriew of quarterlyMetroMonitor reports, Brookings ranked San Oklahoma City, Austin, Houston and Dallasx as the top five metro areas in the countrt in economic performance in the wake of the recession. Brookinges ranked the top 100 metropolitab areas based on six keyindicators — employment, unemploymentf rates, wages, gross metropolitan product, housing prices and foreclosures rates. This initial MetroMonitor report covers the first quarterof 2009.
The five wors t metropolitan areas in the country impacted by the indescending order, are Jacksonville, Fla.; Lakeland, Tampa, Fla.; Bradenton, Fla.; and “All metropolitan areas are feeling the effects of this recession, but the distresse is not shared equally,” says Alan Berube, research directord of the Metropolitan Policy Program at Brookings and co-author of the “While some areas of the country have experienced only a shallowe downturn, and may be emerginb from the recession already, peoplse living in metro areas that are now performinbg weakest economically should prepare themselvesx for a long recovery period.
” Howard Wial, director of the Metropolitanb Economy Initiative at Brookings and anothet co-author of the report, argues that the report shows that a nationaol fiscal and monetary policy will not be enougu for stimulating the economy. “Many (metro) areas will need targeted and since states have nofundsa available, the federal government will have to step up to fill the Concentrations of industry activity have both helpe d and hurts some regional economie during the recession. For metropolitan areas in states with specializationws in energy and governmentemployment — such as Texas, New Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana — have largelg been insulated by the recession.
However, metropolitan areaxs in states like Michiganm and Ohio that depend heavily on the automotivr industry have been impacted by the downturn inthe economy, the reporg shows. San Antonio is home to Randolph AirForcse Base, Fort Sam Houston, Lackland Air Forc e Base and Brooks City-Base. The 2005 Base Realignmentr and Closure decision alone is providing a significant economi c punch to theAlamo City’s economy through the consolidatiom of high-paying military health care jobs and more than $2 billion wortu of new construction activity.
A separate report released by LLC outlining the impact of BRAC showed that Fort Sam Houstoj alone would experiencea 11,500 increase of The Army post will also gain 7.9 million square feet of space. Construction activityy due to BRAC alone shouldcreate 46,000p construction jobs during the course of the buildin g programs, the DiLuzio report showed.