IRS data from 2009-2010 shows that Bexar county (San Antonio’s core) is losing some people to neighboring Guadalupe county (Seguin) and Comal county (New Braunfels). “IRS data highlight overall population gains”, Jennifer Hiller, San Antonio Express-News, June 8, 2012.
How will this trend affect San Antonio in the long run? Christine Drennon, Associate Professor of Urban Studies at Trinity University, “suspect[s] the move means a brain drain for Bexar”:
“For people to afford to leave the city and go into suburbs, they have some social and financial capital and probably some political capital,” she said. “They know the better places to educate their kids.”
Likewise, she suspects that people moving into Bexar means a brain drain for other areas, especially Laredo, Corpus Christi and El Paso.
“It’s the bright lights of the big city,” she said. “I think we’re getting some interesting, entrepreneurial young people from impoverished communities,” Drennon said. “We’re losing our own middle class, the established, probably professional class, to the surrounding counties.”
The data also show that San Antonio has a net loss to Travis county (Austin) and to Montgomery county (The Woodlands).
Would improving education choices in San Antonio’s core have an impact on migration patterns?
