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

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The Washington, D.C.-based think tank has begunj analyzing the impact of the recession throughout America’s metropolitan areas. In the firsy of a series of quarterlhMetroMonitor reports, Brookings ranked San Antonio, Oklahoma City, Austin, Houston and Dallas as the top five metrop areas in the country in economic performance in the wake of the Brookings ranked the top 100 metropolitan areas based on six key indicatores — employment, unemployment rates, wages, gross metropolita product, housing prices and foreclosure This initial MetroMonitor report covers the first quartere of 2009.
The five worst metropolitaj areas in the countrhy impacted bythe recession, in descending are Jacksonville, Fla.; Lakeland, Fla.; Tampa, Bradenton, Fla.; and “All metropolitan areas are feeling the effects of this but the distress is not shared equally,” says Alan research director of the Metropolitan Policy Program at Brookings and co-authotr of the report. “While some areasw of the country have experiencee only ashallow downturn, and may be emerginf from the recession already, people living in metro areasd that are now performing weakest economicallyy should prepare themselves for a long recovery period.
” Howars Wial, director of the Metropolita n Economy Initiative at Brookings and anothe co-author of the report, argueas that the report shows that a nationalp fiscal and monetary policy will not be enough for stimulatin the economy. “Many (metro) areasa will need targeted and since states have no funds the federal government will have to step up to fill the Concentrations of industry activity have both helperd and hurts some regional economies durinbgthe recession.
For example, metropolita n areas in states with specializations in energ and governmentemployment — such as Texas, New Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana have largely been insulated by the However, metropolitan areas in statea like Michigan and Ohio that depend heavily on the automotiver industry have been impacted by the downtur in the economy, the repory shows. San Antonio is home to Randolph AirForce Base, Fort Sam Houston, Lacklandx Air Force Base and Brookw City-Base.
The 2005 Base Realignment and Closures decision alone is providing a significant economi c punch to theAlamo City’s economhy through the consolidation of high-paying military healtb care jobs and more than $2 billion wortg of new construction activity. A separater report released by LLC outlining the impact of BRAC showed that Fort Sam Houstonj alone would experiencea 11,500 increase of The Army post will also gain 7.9 million square feet of space. Constructiojn activity due to BRAC alone shouledcreate 46,000 construction jobs durinf the course of the building programs, the DiLuzi report showed.