Elon’s Boring Co., proposal to the Alamo Regional Mobile Authority to build a subterranean “public transit” from the San Antonio airport to downtown is the right vision but headed in the wrong direction.
It’s unfortunate the Alamo RMA didn’t request proposals to tunnel from San Antonio to Austin’s Airport because that would be huge for the Alamo city region. This is because San Antonio’s airport is below par and many travelers will journey to Austin or even Houston for direct and cheaper flights. Being the biggest poor city in the country and San Antonio’s less than average airport have a vital relationship to each other and it’s why Elon’s proposal is mired in political tunnel vision by city leaders.
Thanks to Alamo RMA, this grand tunnel idea shines a spotlight on what’s been wrong with San Antonio for the last score. Not since AT&T left San Antonio in 2008 – because of our diminutive airport situation – has anyone led the charge to ensure an exit like this never happens again.
If we had this leadership, San Antonio would be home to a world-class airport today. When you’re a top tourist destination, home to the world famous Alamo and gateway to the rest of the Americas, San Antonio could be accomplishing more than what the new DIA airport has done for the City of Denver and the State of Colorado which generates more than $33 billion in economic impact annually. This is how you tackle poverty.
Sadly, San Antonio doesn’t know this leadership, we can’t go back in time and we missed a big window. This vision void over the last twenty years has regressed an amazing 300-year old city second fiddle to Austin; it wouldn’t be surprising if bat city rebranded their airport as Austin-San
Antonio because it’s true and why this homeboy applauds the Alamo RMA out-of-the-box thinking to shake things up.
RMA Board Member Michael Lynd Jr. deserves applause for this thought-provoking plan and for indirectly highlighting the lack thereof coming from city leaders for many years now. Just as AT&T understood, San Antonio’s poverty is a major deformation to the city’s economic well being. San Antonio’s mediocre airport has stunted the city’s true growth potential and there does not seem to be a plan con juevos to reverse-thrust San Antonio out of its #1 poverty ranking.
If only San Antonio wasn’t so poorly visioned and so poor, Elon’s Boring Company’s proposal to the Alamo RMA would be a no-brainer for a city older, and should-be wiser, than the rest. Instead, decades of city officials with little experience and self-interest agendas to be career politicians have deformed San Antonio into Austin’s enormously poorer and unhealthy red-headed, step-sister city to the south was the 20-year plan and current reality it does appear.
This is why AT&T finally terminated its last public relationship and cut ties as the Spurs arena sponsor this year and why Bexar County is approving more games for the silver and black in bat city for the coming season.
Noe H. Chingues is a satire and comedy freelancer who writes about the lame decision-making in San Antonio that is predictable, obvious and comes with no surprises.