As a resident of San Antonio, I was happy to see one of the projects here featured in the article. I've been happy living here, with among other things, the low cost of living, great parks, unique culture, nearby beaches and wine country, plus a few options for gigabit fiber internet.
However, the city's never had a lot of tech employers, and the vacant office space downtown seems like such a waste. It is good to see it being put to use.
As an aside: with the expansion of major tech employers in Austin and pervasiveness of remote work, I wonder if there is much demand for optional hybrid setups like teams from in the region going into the office once a month or so for collaboration. I am not sure if I'd prefer it to full remote, but in person meetings with coworkers can be quite enjoyable.
Allowing people to live a little further from Austin while commuting in occasionally seems like a good way to get some of the benefits of in person work while letting people choose locales with a lower cost of living.
Getting between San Antonio is currently a poor experience that really holds back that idea to me. I35 is absolutely no fun during peak usage and requires car ownership. The train is insanely cheap but too slow and leaves once per day at extremely early / late times between the cities. Nicer busses like the Vonlane don’t run between the cities.
High speed rails would absolutely transform the paradigm overnight. It would solve a lot of affordability issues in Austin while introducing more money into the SA economy. As it currently stands, SA has virtually no tech scene (relative to other major cities), is too sprawled out, and too much effort for people to want to commute between regularly in my opinion. It’s a hard sale for younger developers. There’s a lot of potential though!
Yeah, I used to work there, initially out of the SATX office. They did have daily buses between the two locations for a time as well, if I remember correctly. Never got around to seeing the Austin office.
However, the city's never had a lot of tech employers, and the vacant office space downtown seems like such a waste. It is good to see it being put to use.
As an aside: with the expansion of major tech employers in Austin and pervasiveness of remote work, I wonder if there is much demand for optional hybrid setups like teams from in the region going into the office once a month or so for collaboration. I am not sure if I'd prefer it to full remote, but in person meetings with coworkers can be quite enjoyable.
Allowing people to live a little further from Austin while commuting in occasionally seems like a good way to get some of the benefits of in person work while letting people choose locales with a lower cost of living.