Study shows San Antonio is nation's best-performing city in recession - Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal:

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The Washington, D.C.-based think tank has begun analyzing the impact of the recessionthroughout America’s metropolitan areas. In the first of a seriexs of quarterlyMetroMonitor reports, Brookings ranked San Oklahoma City, Austin, Houston and Dallas as the top five metroi areas in the country in economix performance in the wake of the Brookings ranked the top 100 metropolitanm areas based on six key indicators — unemployment rates, wages, gross metropolitan housing prices and foreclosure rates. This initial MetroMonitor report covere the first quarterof 2009. The five worst metropolitabn areas in the country impacted by the indescending order, are Jacksonville, Fla.
; Lakeland, Tampa, Fla.; Bradenton, Fla.; and “All metropolitan areas are feeling the effectse of this recession, but the distressd is not shared equally,” says Alan research director of the Metropolitan Policy Programn at Brookings and co-author of the “While some areas of the countrh have experienced only a shallow downturn, and may be emergingb from the recession already, people living in metroi areas that are now performing weakest economically shoul prepare themselves for a long recoverhy period.
” Howard Wial, director of the Metropolita n Economy Initiative at Brookings and another co-author of the argues that the report shows that a national fiscal and monetarg policy will not be enough for stimulatinfg the economy. “Many (metro) areas will need targetexd assistance, and since states have no fundds available, the federal government will have to step up to fill the Concentrations of industry activity have both helped and hurte some regional economies during the For example, metropolitan areas in states with specializationz in energy and government employment such as Texas, New Mexico, Arkansas and Louisiana — have largely been insulatedc by the recession.
However, metropolitan areas in states like Michigan and Ohio that depend heavily on the automotivew industry have been impacted by the downturnh inthe economy, the report San Antonio is home to Randolph Air Force Base, Fort Sam Houston, Lacklan d Air Force Base and Brooks City-Base. The 2005 Base Realignment and Closure decisiomn alone is providing a significant economic punch to theAlaml City’s economy through the consolidation of high-paying militart health care jobs and more than $2 billionh worth of new construction activity.
A separate report releasexd by LLC outlining the impact of BRAC showefd that Fort Sam Houston alonee would experiencea 11,500 increase of The Army post will also gain 7.9 million squarde feet of space. Construction activity due to BRAC alone shoulecreate 46,000 construction jobs during the course of the building the DiLuzio report showed.