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It holds San Antonio and Austin, two cities that used to seem so far apart.

The 75 mile difference along age 35 was marked by open pastures and farms and a few small towns in between.

But now, while the distance has remained the same, those 75 miles.

The world has changed considerably.

I 35 is stop and go all the way, and the open fields are now shopping centers and commercial districts and the once small towns have become the largest small towns in America.

What you see along this highway doesn't really reveal what's happening.

San Antonio and Austin, the entire region are becoming a mega metro, a metropolis created by growth between two cities where two essentially become one.

And this mega metro will be home to one of the world's largest economic powerhouses.

Welcome.

I'm Henry Cisneros.

How did two medium sized Texas cities end up as anchors for what will all accounts become one of the world's top economic mega metros in the coming decades?

And how will we grow these cities together in a way that is sustainable, affordable, environmentally sound, equitable and desirable?

In the next hour, we'll talk with many of the major players involved in Austin, San Antonio growth.

We'll hear their thoughts and plans and hopes for the evolution of the San Antonio Austin Mega metro.

The development of a mega metro starts with strong population growth consistently.

Year after year, both Austin and San Antonio have seen that growth.

There are few people I can think of over the last 30 years who've had a better perspective to the rapid changes in Austin than Mayor Kirk Watson.

He's been a state senator, city attorney and two times the mayor of Austin.

Early on, he put emphasis on developing Austin's downtown.

The first time I was mayor, which was 97 or 2001, you know, Austin's downtown really wasn't much of a downtown.

We didn't have a convention center hotel, for example.

So we needed to create a way to build one of those.

And we did.

We doubled the size of our convention center.

But importantly, what I was saying at the time was we can't have our downtown just be a downtown of what I was calling the older economy lawyers, real estate and bankers.

What we needed was the new economy that was growing up in Austin, Texas.

Ordinarily, you don't think of those as in high rise buildings, know suburban campuses or research parks or something.

How did you do that?

Well, a big part of it was, for example, we're sitting in city hall right now, and on either side of us, we have two buildings that Silicon Labs and a homegrown Austin company occupies.

But originally it was Computer Sciences Corp.

I remember that.

And they wanted to go out in a suburban typesetting, but I wanted to try to get them into the downtown so that we had the growth of the new economy in our downtown.

So I remember going and sitting with the CEO in California and telling him he kept saying, We want to campus.

And I said, You can have a campus because we have such a unique situation, we can grow.

That's right.

That's exactly what I was saying.

You could have made the pitch for me.

And and so that's what brought them down here.

At about the same time, San Antonio's Rackspace made its debut and was growing rapidly.

Co-Founder Graham Weston was talking with investors who wanted him to relocate to Silicon Valley, but he chose to stay in San Antonio.

He was watching the growth of the technology business in Austin.

You know, Austin was not nearly as much of a tech magnet in those days as it is today.

And that's it's hard to remember that.

But Dell was is really a computer hardware company and not really not a not a not at the center of the tech universe, but Silicon Valley has.

And so I would not say that Austin had nearly the power that it has today.

That power has emerged in the last 20 years.

Can you describe what you think was the dynamic of that emergence in Austin?

First of all, Dell was Dell was and is one of the most important companies in Austin and in the whole tech industry.

And it was certainly on the rise.

But the other companies that were so important also were Motorola.

They were companies like the like like companies like Symantec.

I mean, consortiums like tech, also companies like AMD.

These were companies that were doing actual chip fabrication.

It's an ecosystem of tech investing and tech development.

And the University of Texas, of course, has played a role in that.

Was there a moment when the University of Texas became Stanford like in this process?

Yes, I think I think the University of Texas has certainly emerged as as a leader in the startup community and in tech.

I think that that's maybe ten years old.

So I think we need to remember that two thirds, probably 80% of all the square footage in downtown Austin was built in the last 15 years.

And of the residential probably also 80% of it.

So it shows that these things actually can happen quickly and shows that they build cumulatively.

They do to the south.

San Antonio was also growing, but not do so much to technology.

It was biomedical and tourism and the military driving the San Antonio economy.

Mayor Ron Nuremberg tackles the question that many have asked What's the difference between Austin and San Antonio in economic trajectory?

Why is our growth a little different?

I think we have to look at it is, first of all, difference in the timeline development of the two cities.

But also we're a different city.

San Antonio brings a history and cultural identity that is a replicable in anywhere else in the country, and that's our strategic advantage as we make the smart investments in our community in terms of creating access to good education and and workforce training as we ensure that we're building sustainably across our region and focused on building out services like mass transit.

San Antonio becomes a smart investment and that growth will come.

But Austin, while growing in technology, also diversified.

You were not satisfied just to put everything on technology.

You also understood the significance of the bioscience.

That's right.

And you get credit for sort of putting together the resources of the University of Texas and putting the first medical school in Austin.

They talk about that.

Well, so it never made sense to me.

Why?

Austin, Texas, with a world renowned Tier one research university that made such a difference, didn't have its own medical school.

I wanted us to look at how we did it like San Antonio.

And so what I was able to do in solving the funding puzzle that we had was incorporate our local health care district, also incorporate one of our major providers of health, private medical.

Yeah, private, medical.

And out of that, and working with the regents from the University of Texas system and UT itself, we were able to get a medical school, a new modern 21st century teaching hospital and safety net hospital.

San Antonio's biomedical sector is a strong economic driver, the largest employer in the city, and the UT Health Sciences, Medical School, University, health, medical Research and biomedical companies both here and in Austin.

Education has been key to growth of the bioscience sector.

I do not want to discount the importance of investment in higher education.

Austin For years, the skyline dominated by the University of Texas at Austin, that is at the foundation of a lot of the growth and development and industry and technology.

The workforce that's developed there.

Our pursuit of ensuring now, today the best commuter college district in the country, as well as a Tier one, are one Carnegie designated institution at UTSA, will begin to now shape the new foundation of our economy.

Well, I think UTSA, UT San Antonio is is is a very important is, I think, the most important higher ed institution in San Antonio because of its scale, as well as the ambition that the UT system has for it as UT Austin gets full capped enrollment.

Now it's it is it is requiring the UT system has to invest even more in the in the the non Austin schools and UTSA is is the most among the most important to them.

I think that to me on the God's work here at the university level is being affordable and accessible to the first generation college student who we're going to have an enormous population coming from South Texas and all across the country to go to school here.

So I think our schools are well positioned to be a school of choice for those population.

Economic leaders in both cities want the world to know we have the educated workforce now and into the future.

Jenna Herrera leads greater as ATX, and her counterpart in Austin is Gary Farmer with Opportunity Austin.

They join us now together.

Texas is now a talent factory.

I think personally to people understand that we now have more Tier one research universities in the state of Texas than any other state.

Yes, California had that honor for a very long time.

No longer.

Bioscience is our largest industry.

So one in six San Antonians is employed in the space in addition to that, cybersecurity.

So San Antonio boasts the second largest concentration of cybersecurity assets at certifications of of people employed in this space.

Again, tying back to the veterans and our military community in San Antonio and then of course, automotive manufacturing or what I would like to say truck manufacture, ring.

And in San Antonio, we know what those industries are.

We've done work to do to actually analyze what those scarce skill sets are.

And we're working with what I would call the supply side to generate that talent at scale.

So we have the programs now, the UTSA Data Science School that just got off the ground, the cybersecurity program at UTSA, what Texas A&M San Antonio is doing.

Texas State, 16 colleges and universities within our MSA alone, believe it or not, we actually have more students enrolled than Austin.

State Representative Cheryl Cole represents sectors of East and Northeast Austin.

She stands firm in her belief that as the cities grow, education must support teachers who will train our future workforce.

We should have more special education programs.

We should focus on African-American and Latinos.

The population is expanding, and I don't think we're doing enough with our English language classes and the teachers who teach that.

And we have to make more of a seamless effort to put our students back into the community.

Let's this let's dig into it a little bit.

Is this because the economic factors in the country point to this region for because we're in Texas and lack of income tax and so forth?

Is it about big economic moves?

Is it about the decisions households are making to move?

And therefore, we have this dramatic pressure on on housing and just population growth.

Is it because it may not be Austin and San Antonio, but all the communities around and between us, New Braunfels is 100,000 people now.

They expect to be 200,000 people.

They're going to have a downtown with high rise buildings.

Tell me what you think is happening.

So I would say that you begin with the fact that we're in the state of Texas because the policies of our state are conducive to business, a low tax environment, a light regulatory touch, right to work state, tort reform.

And so all of those things from a business perspective, come together and wrapped up in a wonderful place to live with great outdoor spaces, outdoor activities, little warm in the summer maybe, but generally a pleasing and facilitating climate for people to be outdoors.

Quality of life is a huge and that quality of life, coupled with particularly the tax advantage of being here, attracts people.

And those people are talent.

So talent attracts the company.

Are you saying that even if we didn't work to attract companies, the region would grow because it's now gotten into the public consciousness in the country that this is a place to come.

It's gotten in the public consciousness globally.

We are globally known now no more do I have to say I'm from Austin.

They say, Oh, Boston, No, Oscar.

So it's technology, education and medical research that have taken both San Antonio and Austin from sleepy central Texas towns into one of the fastest growing economic regions in the world.

And as Gary Farmer pointed out also to a great quality of life as we move forward toward that mega metro, there are a number of challenges we face as a region of collaboration.

One of the main challenges is transportation.

Anyone who travels on Interstate 35 between Austin in San Antonio knows it's a traffic mess.

The road is not handling the growth well, and it can't by itself.

We need other solutions as we continue to grow.

I mean, I remember when I first moved to San Antonio, we used to go all the players.

If we had a new car, we'd go drive them on 1604 because no one was out there.

I mean, it was all trees and forest on 1604 and now you see what it's like.

Now if we were driving to Austin, going to 35 was an easy drive.

It wasn't that hard.

Now it's a little scary, little stressful because it's so much traffic.

Lots of times you get stopped on the freeway, you come to a standstill out there because the congestion is just incredible.

So can we be a player together if we don't have better transportation between us today?

The spine is age 35.

You take your life in your hands amongst the 18 wheelers of 35.

The bottom line is, yes, we need to move people and goods more freely and we are overly dependent on the spine, as you referenced, right in our highway infrastructure.

And so we need to think more broadly and in more of an innovative way about mobility and connectivity and ways to, again, move people and goods, because we will be bottlenecked as we continue to grow exponentially, as you say.

But look at the state of Texas in 2050, projected to be 55 million people.

And the real fact of the matter is, I don't think we have enough public resource to provide the infrastructure that we need.

Now, I know this is going a bit against the stream of current thinking at the state level, but we've got to devise private sector and bring private capital out to help build infrastructure that we need to generate and greater tax opportunity.

Often representatives, we all were in support of a bill during this past session that would allow the creation of a connector between 130 and 35 correct below New Braunfels.

Unfortunately, because of the thought that we shouldn't be engaged in the building of toll facilities, that bill was killed.

We need to bring that bill back because we've got to have that connectivity between 130 and 35.

This is a very tough problem to solve in Texas, where we love our cars.

But it is a critical problem to solve.

If we had a train or some way to jet the zip back and forth between Austin and San Antonio, we would be a stronger, more competitive, more more prosperous region for a city like New Braunfels, smack in the middle of the Austin San Antonio corridor, traffic on I-35 is a major concern.

Former Mayor Rusty Brockman knows we have to find new solutions after having served on the the San Antonio Austin Corridor Council for many years and knowing what the efforts had been from way back when it was formed to present, I think that their goals were to to create a pathway from Mexico to Canada.

And it just happens to go through San Antonio, New Braunfels and Austin.

And we're fortunate for that because it does help us draw those businesses, those distribute Asian centers.

We are working really hard with Senator Donna Campbell on maybe a connector between 35 here in Comal County somewhere that would go over to stage one.

So it could be better utilized.

It could be better utilized.

It took it's a fantastic roadway, but it's vacant.

A good part of the timeline.

Exactly.

So we would love to be able to take that traffic out of San Antonio and give people an option to get one idea.

Already on the table is daily frequent bus service between the two cities.

It's been called the Alamo Capital Connection.

And though it's not been funded, the cities are pushing for it.

But we have to consider not just moving people, but vast volumes of goods.

For the past 25 years, Ross Malloy has headed the Greater Austin San Antonio Corridor Council, and it's focusing on transportation, including rail.

We've had several different initiatives to try and bring more focus to rail.

The rail lines that operate here, largely Union Pacific and BNSF.

But the truth is that as a freight carriers going through the center of our cities, we don't think that's viable long term.

We think that more makes more sense to convert those to passenger lines.

Is there any thought about the sources of capital to put in place either those lines or new lines that would carry passenger traffic back and forth across this region, up and up and down what is now 35?

Fortunately, the Biden administration recently passed a several different measures that put a lot of money into rail infrastructure.

Amtrak is receiving about $66 billion under the five year plan that the Biden administration put forward.

Of that, about 26 billion is going to be put into intercity rail.

We would like to see Austin, San Antonio be a part of that transportation and not just road congestion, but connecting people from our region to the rest of the country and the rest of the world.

We need collaboration between Austin and San Antonio.

As the mega metro takes shape, each city has its own airport.

Do we continue to work independently and competitively?

Do we join forces and each offer different flights?

Austin Including international flights to Asia and Europe and San Antonio, including flights to Mexico.

And domestically, we need to work together on airport solutions.

Is there some rationalization of how these airports can work together to enhance the region?

There is no doubt because both Austin and San Antonio are interested in the expansion of air service capacity.

And the truth of the matter is, if we can fill in that middle, which is the ability to travel between Austin and San Antonio, you create a massive new potential for air service for people in the region.

San Antonio has for San Antonio residents and businesses, a strategic competitive advantage if it includes just our San Antonio airport in the heart of the city.

But Austin-Bergstrom has done amazing work to expand capacity to Europe and another place is the opportunity to combine those strengths by making it easier to get from one airport to the other, two to the other is immense and we shouldn't let that go by.

Peter Jay Holt is the chairman of the San Antonio Spurs and also general manager and CEO of Holt Cat.

His investment in San Antonio and South Texas is generational, but it will continue as a commitment into the future.

Moving people in our mega metro is an issue he's carefully watching.

What might you imagine in terms of collaboration between the airports?

I think we're past the point where we can build a joint airport.

I champion that once upon a time, but the land now is not available.

Right.

And 75 miles is is is a good distance.

It means 35 miles or so for each.

It is.

That's more than most places that have joined airports.

I would put one in the middle if I had a magic wand, still would.

I think the ship has sailed, Henry, unfortunately, but and so we can't be so rooted in the past mistakes just to just try to push a square peg in a round hole.

Let's invest in it properly.

What I think needs to happen is more collaboration.

We need to work together on flights, right?

Planning, investing so that we are not cannibalizing that, that that hurts our our constituents the most.

The airports are driven by where their citizens want to go.

So clearly, Austin has more people flying to San Francisco than San Antonio does.

But we also have an enormous convention, tourist tourist industry, that sort of that is that stretches across the US.

I think that, you know, in a perfect world we'd have one airport, but we also benefit from having our ports right in the middle of the city.

Correct.

And I think that that and those areas are important.

And the fact that neither one in either city is a hub is is something we have to work hard to overcome to make them to get the airlines more motivated to to serve us.

Congressman Greg Cassar is the rare political leader who represents both Austin and San Antonio, and he has seen a certain competitiveness.

I remember when I was on the Austin City Council hearing from the folks at the Austin airport, Oh, we've got to invest in the airport.

Otherwise, San Antonio is going to is going to overtake some of those flights.

Well, that's totally the wrong way to think about it.

And now then I get to represent the areas and communities around both airports.

Right.

Let's think about how it is that we can actually get the most flights and the most opportunity if we can have both.

Many Metro areas in the country have more than one airport.

And if this ends up being a kind of a mega metro, there'll be some flights out of Austin that make sense.

It'll be some flights out of San Antonio that make sense, like Los Angeles and Burbank or San Francisco and Oakland or any other number of places across the country.

Hundreds of years ago, settlers founded San Antonio along the San Antonio River.

It was the water that made this a habitable location.

And that remains true today.

This area has a very unique feature a recharging aquifer, its supply water needs.

But it's not an endless supply because the aquifer needs raw land to recharge.

The more we pave over the developed land, the lower the recharge.

The largest water utilities in the region are Austin Water, and the San Antonio water system are such a difference between the water utilities are that Austin's water sources are primarily surface water or reservoirs lakes along the Colorado River, while source sources are almost entirely underground aquifers.

The Nature Conservancy is one organization working to preserve the raw land over the Edwards Aquifer.

And Suzanne Scott leads the Texas chapter.

This is an amazing region.

If you really think about what connects us to each other, Austin The San Antonio corridor is really water.

And if you think about the the groundwater resources that we have, the Springs network that connects all the way from Austin through to San Mark is to to New Braunfels and then down here to San Antonio.

This talk about that a little.

This Springs network, Barton Springs in the north.

Yes, all the way down to Comal Springs.

And then, of course, we have the San Antonio Springs, the blue hole that a lot of people know about here.

And, you know, this is an this is a a very, very much of our heritage in our culture connecting these springs.

And the fact that the groundwater surface water interaction, I mean, all of those springs are coming from this just wonderful aquifer network that we have that then bubbles up to the top, I think both cities, Austin, San Antonio, in fact, the whole region could do more conservation.

And I think we need to do more duplicate.

We need to find more water to continue to find water.

Yeah, but I think we're making progress in that arena.

In fact, when I look across this channel, desalinization an opportunity or not, I think it is.

But I think the more likely near-term scenario is the conversion of brackish water.

That's, you know, some of the shallow aquifers.

It's a much cheaper solution than desalinization.

Do you think we're doing enough?

We passed a major water bill this session to help with the rural counties, with water infrastructure and water supply this time and that's going to help Bude are in Cal and Sam Waters but it didn't address the major city.

So we're doing some, but we're not doing enough.

San Marcos along the corridor is home to the Metro Center for Water and the Environment, run by Texas State University.

The center is a leader in water and environmental policy topics throughout Texas and is renowned nationally and internationally.

Dr. Robert Mays is the executive director and chief water policy officer at the center.

So Texas plans for the drought of the past, which which is a pretty nasty drought.

47 to 55 1955.

Right.

Was the drought the deepest drought on record?

Right.

It's a little bit of a sad truth that not everybody is ready for a repeat of the drought of record.

And then what is this most serious drought we've had since that drought that the drought that occurred like 2009 to 2015.

Right.

So for Austin, that was a new drought of record for the Highland Lakes on the Colorado River.

It's also pretty scary how quickly the Highland Lakes dropped.

2011 was the worst one year drought on record for the entire state.

So tell me about how you plan for that.

So the state really doesn't plan for that.

The state plans for a repeat of the drought hit record and the drought on record again is looking in the past.

With with climate change, there's a high risk there.

We're going to see droughts worse than the drought of record.

And so that puts many, if not all, of our communities at risk of of losing their entire water supplies during a new drought.

What do you conclude about climate change?

You know, it's here we are seeing increasing temperatures in Texas in addition to around the globe.

And we're also seeing impacts on our water supplies.

So, Austin, after that 2009 to 2015 drought where the reservoirs drop below 50% for city council and the mayor got concerned about being ready for future droughts and and climate change being part of that.

And so they undertook their own water planning process of looking out 100 years instead of the 50 years it's done in state water planning and building in climate change.

And the storyline was that would keep Austin in water for 100 years.

Indeed, without climate change, it would keep Austin in water for 100 years, assuming what level of growth, assuming Austin proper would grow from 1 million people to 4 million people in 100 years.

Yeah.

So so it's a remarkable water supply in that sense.

However, if you apply climate change on there, there's not enough water.

Without doing anything else, the high of the lakes would go dry for more than a year.

And what would that do to Austin's water supply?

It would completely go away.

That's a sobering thought.

No water at all.

We need to plan now as part of our plan for this mega metro.

Dr. Mays gives kudos to San Antonio for its efforts.

San Antonio's done a lot of amazing things on water conservation, you know, getting people to water their yards more efficiently, more efficient fixtures indoors.

Rainwater harvesting can help defer your source supply, whether that's the Edwards Aquifer, the Colorado River.

There's water reuse.

You know, San Antonio's been a state leader in in water reuse like the river walk used to be fed by springs.

You know, water reuse can be a very, very important supply.

And then even in in Travis County, not Austin, but a small utility in Travis County and another one here in Hays County is looking at direct potable reuse, which is kind of the Holy Grail of reuse.

You're taking treated waste water, clean it all the way to where you can drink it.

Drinkable in Texas has been a leader in that.

There's still one major area of concern for him, and that is development over the fragile hill country recharge zone and the hill country.

It's very ecologically sensitive, environmentally sensitive, and it's very different.

And it's also a lot of it's unregulated growth outside of cities.

And so with all of the septic tanks going in, wastewater discharge, going to those those rivers, you know, the quality is it's it does it just doesn't look hopeful for me.

But most of the water that recharges the Edwards Aquifer is being funneled down from the Hill country and then over the rivers that flow over the recharge sound.

And most of that does not have protections.

There's only so much land, even in a state as big as Texas.

As the mega metro develops along age 35, there's tremendous growth to the West throughout the hill country, developers in Texas and from all over the country want to build in the hill country at issues are highly sensitive.

Environmental area and preservation and development need to work hand in hand.

The thing that we would like to see is if growth is going to happen, then let's do it as sustainably as possible.

Let's build into the development that we're thinking about practices that would involve more greenspace, more trees, protection of the water, making sure that, you know, if instead of having these huge boulevards and roads and everything, you know, doing it in such a way that you have but buffer strips and places where the water to to come off of those lands and be filtered before, it goes into our aquifers or our rivers.

Let's try to if we're going to build that, to build as sustainably as possible, to protect these wonderful natural resources that we have.

Leaders like San Marcos, Mayor Jane Houston are working to manage growth while protecting the land.

So are you fully built out in terms of the land area?

No, sir.

To the north and the south, our eyes are meet up with Kyle and New Braunfels.

But east and west, we have a lot of space to grow.

Yet.

Of course, to the west we discourage dense development because that's over the Edwards Aquifer recharge transition contributing zones.

So we've got impervious cover limits on that side.

So when you have when you have development going into the hill country, it's affecting water quality and quantity.

On the quantity side, there's a lot of wells going into the Trinity and that's going to, you know, with time, dry up the springs, dry up those rivers.

That also has consequences to water flowing into the Edwards aquifer because a lot of the Edwards Aquifer water comes from the Trinity Aquifer or the hill country.

On the surface, we can still develop, we can still be a economic powerhouse, but we can do it in a way that is much more respectful of the natural environment.

Actually, they actually go very well together.

They do.

In an era when we're high tech, there's also a need for high touch.

Absolutely.

And so the green space, the outdoors, the the water features become very important to young people.

That's right.

We're choosing this area to make their lives.

Make no mistake, the environment, the quality of life are a big part of attracting people to an area and thus attracting the jobs that feed the economy and a green way of thinking is right on target with that desirable young demographic of tech talent that there are talent attraction campaign we conducted some research with with young.

We can't even say millennials any but young talent looking to relocate the number one criteria for relocation decisions was access to green spaces.

And so we have actually allowed that research to influence our outbound messaging to include 150 miles of hike and bike trails.

What's your sense of San Antonio as a quality of life and as we expand?

It can't just be about structures and buildings and homes development that way.

I think it's crucial for us to develop outdoor areas for outdoor activity.

And it's not just about your physical health, it's about your mental health being outdoors, getting some sunshine, looking at nature.

And so those things are important to remember going forward.

When you're talking about developing the city to large cities don't just somehow grow together into a mega region.

Physically they might.

But in order for San Antonio and Austin to make this inevitable growth become a sustainable, equitable economic region with a rich quality of life, we have to work together and that means planning and collaborating as we grow.

When we started opportunity and often we had no regional collaboration.

I mean, Round Rock didn't support Georgetown and Cedar Park in sport, Leander and so on and so forth.

And so that was a basic tenet when we started, is that we were going to work regionally, we were going to try to create that collaborative atmosphere.

And the way we've approached it is this it's a big intramural game each and every city in our five county region.

If they have a chance to be the winner of a project, they should put their best foot forward, sharpen their pencil, make the absolute best proposal.

If they get eliminated, then I'll start throwing rocks at their neighbor, because we've learned that if a project lands in Georgetown, there'll be an accretive benefit to San Marcos.

Absolutely.

You've done that.

It's again, all the region benefits.

And I think that what's so important in our conversation today is the fact that we're not doing this alone.

We have created Greater San Antonio as a partner.

Yeah, they welcomed us in.

That's right.

We have been partnering with the gain for 20 years.

And so again, in New Braunfels, we're all part of that Greater San Antonio partnership.

We are.

We can't do this in a healthy way, in a progressive way, without working together.

And we want to be a partner in this growth.

I understand the economic development groups are starting to talk together.

The chambers are talking about having a summit of chambers and under Mayor Watson have a working relationship.

What kind of structure do you think should exist?

Well, I think that, number one, we've got to ensure that we are having a broader conversation than just any one of these specific pillars.

I think it's also cultural.

Andy Brown, the county judge of Travis, as well as Mayor Watson myself.

Peter, I will be doing some exchanges that start this summer.

We really want to make sure that we're having a broader view of what we're trying to achieve for our communities specifically, but also what that will look like in terms of all of these different pillars of the Metroplex growth and planning.

One of the first places that the pressures of growth become acutely visible is in the housing sector.

There, if the production of housing, the supply of housing doesn't keep up with the growth of the economy, the demand for housing, then the result is increasing prices, unaffordability and even homelessness.

We're seeing that problem in Austin and San Antonio today.

Our leaders have to focus on making sure there's a supply of housing adequate to the demands of this mega region.

It's been a problem that we've been dealing with for about the last five years because we do see people who work here but can't live here and they're living somewhere else and driving in to work.

Where are the prices going up in the traditional neighborhoods or in new subdivisions?

Well, the traditional neighborhoods are selling for thousands of dollars more because of the you know, because of the quality of life.

They realize the new neighborhoods coming in and building much higher than what they were ten or 20 years ago.

You know, starting prices may have been 150 hundred and 90,000 there to 50 now they're three 4350.

It's amazing to me.

I talked to young people who I know to be very capable top graduates of colleges, and they're living in just minuscule apartments because it's all they can afford.

What do you think we need to be doing on that front?

So in Austin, I would tell you today we have an affordability crisis and we see as a result of that, we see inbound residents locating further and further.

We've we've shown as a city government and a willingness to look for a more efficient and more effective land use plan.

Our our permitting process is like sticking hand in a Cuisinart.

It's very difficult to get a project through, not just a commercial project, a single family resident or an affordable housing project.

They make it terribly long.

And time is money.

We need more housing.

We need more diversity of housing.

Everything can't be built on a quarter acre lot.

We have to ensure that there is affordable housing for folks who have lower incomes.

But it also means that we have to zero in on some of the deeper challenges of our community that impact housing affordability and that's wage growth and the fact that we have had very suppressed wages and low educational attainment for so long in our city.

Part of the solution to housing affordability is ensuring that we have better education, better jobs for our community.

And you're making some headway on housing affordability?

Yes, I've seen the initiatives related to tiny homes for the homeless and also just affordable housing.

So what what's your real core of your plan on housing?

Well, it's a multifaceted issue.

A whole lot of money in terms of bonds have been passed to help with affordability and reduction of production, portable housing, build more affordable housing, build more housing, period in a place that's growing and has such an impact on supply and demand.

Second is we passed a resolution to start the process of building transit oriented development along the new rail system denser, make it denser, make it more successful as the San Antonio Austin mega metro grows.

So much of our workforce, it's imperative that we have the talent that can meet the needs of the new economy.

But it's also critical to raise wages and increase family incomes and address the inequities that exist in our community.

Every leader knows that whether they're heading up a private sector company or a public agency or, as in the case of Peter J. Holt, both.

If you were ranking priorities for our city, for our region, this area of human capital invest number one.

Number one.

Number one is is is is the are education and and how we provide successful options for people to have upward mobility and to become contributing members.

And this is Austin and San Antonio.

This is the world, in my opinion.

So one of the biggest challenges when companies are looking at our region is a lack of educational attainment, specifically in the demand occupations are looking to hire for.

If you drill down and disaggregate the data, oftentimes it boils down to some of these peripheral challenges that these students and these families have with access to that education.

So we have a lot of work to do in that regard.

And I will tell you, I am beyond excited about a new program.

We want to start capturing these kids in middle school and early high school and showing them the pathways to great paying jobs, like being an electrician or a plumber or a welder, or working in the fab plant.

Tell me how you're doing all of this and at the same time addressing what have been some sensitive divisions with at Austin, African-American and Latino community.

We have to start with equity and how we want to address making sure that Austin is a place that everyone can enjoy and that can't be after you make all your plans, say, oh, here at the end, we need to we need to look at this.

Right.

Bring you in.

Yeah, it needs to be at the beginning, but the other thing is we need to look at things that are systemic that don't always get talked about.

Child care is typically the second biggest cost in most people's households, and it makes a difference on when people can work and where they can work.

So again, we're getting ready to start on another program that will help with these with these issues of equity.

I'm worried about it.

Tell me, because I don't see us being in the education system, being educated enough to keep track with the jobs that are coming from the high tech sector and others.

I think we're being left behind.

We need to make more of a concerted effort.

And what does that entail?

More money from the city government, more involvement from the school district.

School districts, school districts and public teachers are not being paid enough to stay in the classroom with the experience to teach minority children.

It takes each of us actually planning and getting involved in pushing for a workforce development, demanding and asking for an equal share, a decent share of economic growth for working people.

It's been said the way to bring people together is to root for the same sports teams.

That could be true for San Antonio in Austin, too.

Sports leaders here are watching the development of the mega metro to see if there's an opportunity here.

There are only two professional franchises in this region, which now has about 4.5 million people, is growing by 2050 to 9 million people, which is more than are in the Houston metro Dallas Fort Worth metro area to date.

Yeah, so that's where we're headed in about 27 years.

That's all the time between now and 2050.

Only two franchises now.

Tell me a little bit how you see the region from the perspective of a friend of a sports franchise owner.

Yeah, it's interesting question, Henry, because there are some paradoxes, especially the economic indexes aren't tracking in the same way.

And so as we're seeing population growth really explode, there, there aren't the exact same tracking economic indexes.

So if you look at household income, if you look at educational attainment, if you look at, you know, just just a median salaries compared to our Texas relatives and national relatives, if you look at housing growth, if you look at educational outcomes at all levels, they're not tracking in the same growth as there is just straight forward population.

Peter Holt and the Spurs have obviously understood the significance of the Austin market and started to play some games there.

This last year I think it was four or two and this next year they got permission to pay to play more.

The organization has a lot of foresight.

They're trying to capture the market from Austin all the down to Mexico City, all the way down to Mexico City, doing a game in Mexico to let those fans know that, hey, you know, we recognize you.

We see you.

Same thing with Austin, because we do have a lot of season ticket holders that actually actually drive down from Austin to come to the games.

So the concept of a of a team that can literally be thought of as the home team for an entire region is a real concept, no question, with the San Antonio Spurs.

But it's really the South Texas Spurs.

I think it would be foolish for the NFL to pass up the opportunity to have a third team in Texas, specifically owning the Austin San Antonio Metroplex region, having a regional corridor identity.

No better way to do that than a sports affiliation That's going to make a difference.

To realize the corridor vision.

I think there is an opportunity here for a major league franchise to move in this area and be very successful, and I think it's just a matter of time before we see that happen.

The mega metro is emerging.

It's happening as we speak, and now it's up to us San Antonio, Austin and the cities between us to enter a new era of collaboration, one that is as unique as we are.

There's a lot of banter around Austin and San Antonio competing.

Yeah, right.

And and I just I just don't believe that I don't, I don't commit myself to that.

That's in my mind a scarcity mindset and and and I really believe in one of abundance.

And with abundance comes collaboration rooted in core values.

And I think one of the core values that we share in this region, in this corridor is a really strong belief in quality of life.

You're a strategic thinker, so tell me strategically how what how San Antonio is evolving, how Austin has already established its own brand, how they work together, you think, in the years to come?

Well, I would say the the one of the original thinkers of San Antonio as a region is our former mayor, Henry Cisneros.

Okay.

I would say that you've been saying the same thing about this topic for decades.

If we are stronger having them.

Austin is, of course, has a tech, a tech and government hub.

And I think San Antonio, of course, has a huge government, has a large medical center.

Cyber the cyber is we have we also have the port now automotive and now automotive.

So I think that we are stronger as a region.

This is why we are region is that we're stronger as a region.

It is in our mutual advantage I think for us to maximize the benefit of the metro region.

We need to be very intentional about how we move forward together as two distinct regions with values and culture and diversity.

And that diversity should be used as an asset and not as a deficit.

I'm a big advocate and proponent for the private sector to take the lead, but if we can together create the type of plan to articulate the vision, give us those benchmarks along the way that we need to have.

If we can do that as a business community and then invite the elected officials to help us with policy decisions, I think it would be a mistake for us to view ourselves as competitors when in reality the identities of the two cities are so different collaboratively, we can complement one another and we bring those strengths all across the corridor.

And that's when the Metroplex, I think, will begin to really take root.

So I would put you in the list of New generation leaders, Internet user with leaders.

I mean, the people who lead major institutions that are going to shape the region.

So now Elon Musk is in the equation and we have leaders of Amazon and Google in the tech sector in Austin then and biomed leaders in the university leaders, and here people like Graham West.

Yeah.

And and and others who represent another generation then HP, Zachary McDermott, Walter McAlister, Red McCombs, Red McCombs and Zachary are probably polar opposites in their styles, but what they had in common is is very high standards and a can do attitude and an incredible work ethic.

And and one of the things that I get concerned about right now, Henry, is is is falling into the trap that is divisiveness and and which can hamper this there's this inherent desire of people wanting to make positive change.

But is there any inherent competitiveness between the cities that you that would trip us up?

Well, if there's any competitiveness, it is a good natured, strong Texan competitiveness that will lead, I think, to our success.

One of the first people that contacted me when I was elected again to this office was Mayor Nurnberg.

And we have we a wonderful relationship.

So the collaboration is what I think is the focus.

I think there's some new collaboration coming.

Absolutely.

The two chambers are talking, but never have really, the two economic development organizations are starting to talk to each other.

And we have a long standing relationship with the Austin San Antonio Corridor, which we both invested in.

If there's if there's competition, it's to make us both better.

And that makes the reason it hasn't always been so.

I agree that once upon a time in San Antonio, there was a sense that keep Austin weird was in our interest.

That's great.

I think there was a sense in Austin, maybe even now, some that that city down there has got a lot of problems and an ethnic mix that's not conducive to the modern tech economy, etc.. Do you see any remnants of that?

You know, as you were saying that, I was thinking there's not much remnant of that.

It is it is that we're in this we're part of each other's a part of each other's future.

And and we need to we need to work with it that way.

So what have we learned over the last hour?

Well, one thing for sure is the inevitability of growth in the Austin San Antonio, emerging mega.

There are just too many attractions in national economic terms for it not to grow.

That is to say the land area, the growth of population, the in-migration of people, the great educational institutions, the business climate, the tax advantages.

So the question is not whether we're going to grow, it's how are we going to prepare And the time is now to prepare so that we're not overtaken by events so that we won't wake up one day and say, What happened?

How did this happen?

We have to address our transportation congestion, our housing strategies, our water systems, our power, our educational institutions are open space and natural preserves.

Hopefully this program has made us think our public officials who had major agencies, those of us in the public who have to live that future, and most importantly, our young people, they may be 30% of the population, but there are 100% of the future.

I'm Henry Cisneros.

Thank you for joining us in this Look at the future.

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