Opinion

Amazon should be a local wakeup call

Click ahead to see seven wild stunts from cities trying to lure Amazon headquarters. less San Antonio winning a bid to be Amazon’s second headquarters (the headquarters in Seattle is above) was a long shot. To compete, we must excel. Bowing out offers an opportunity to address all the issues that, if improved, would have made the city a contender. San Antonio winning a bid to be Amazon’s second headquarters (the headquarters in Seattle is above) was a long shot. To compete, we must excel. Bowing out offers an opportunity to address all the issues that, ... more Photo: Stuart Isett /New York Times Photo: Stuart Isett /New York Times Image 1 of / 14 Caption Close Amazon should be a local wakeup call 1 / 14 Back to Gallery

San Antonio has decided not to throw its hat into the Amazon ring — a point that has understandably disappointed some in the community.

The prospect of being home to Amazon’s second headquarters and all those six-figure tech jobs is tantalizing.

Cities have been falling over themselves to stand out — but we’re standing out for sitting out.

That’s really not such a big deal. If San Antonio had gone forward with a bid, we would have been supportive but also realistic.

San Antonio has much to offer, but our chances were slim to none. We lack the workforce, transportation and higher education opportunities that Amazon or any other tech behemoth would deem essential.

But we didn’t bid, so now what?

This moment should be treated as a wake-up call.

Forget about the merits of bidding on Amazon or not. That’s a distraction. And stop this constant hand-wringing about San Antonio International Airport, which is a convenient scapegoat.

Yes, our airport could be improved. Yes, we want more direct flights, too. But the airport is not the source of our economic development problems. It’s a reflection of our challenges. Namely an uneducated workforce, a lack of transportation options and a local flagship university that is not graduating nearly enough students.

Address those issues — and the airport will follow.

Let’s remember what Amazon wanted.

It wanted access to rail. We have no rail. We don’t even have a credible, near-term plan for rail. And we know we need one.

As a community, we are overly reliant on vehicles and roads. City and county leaders repeatedly say we can’t just build more roads to ease congestion — and yet we are still waiting for that rhetoric to morph into action.

We have to do more to get people efficiently moving in this town. It’s a pressing issue with our expected growth.

Amazon wanted “excellent institutions of higher education.”

We love the Roadrunners and are very impressed with UTSA’s new president, T. Taylor Eighmy. But we have to be frank here. University of Texas at San Antonio, our largest university, is atrocious at graduating students. Just 18 percent of its students graduate in four years, and just 36 percent graduate in six years. This is not remotely acceptable.

Yes, Trinity University is a jewel of a private school. And University of Incarnate Word and Our Lady of the Lake University serve our community well in many ways. But they likely don’t fit Amazon’s bill. Along with UTSA, none is a Tier One research university.

Not surprisingly, we lack an educated workforce. Just a quarter of San Antonio’s population, age 25 and older, has a college degree.

UTSA aspires to be that local Tier One university, and we support that effort. But like rail, it’s always in the distant, vague future. University officials have also acknowledged Tier One is a significant reach.

An Amazon headquarters would have come with significant community challenges. The addition of 50,000 more workers would have crowded roads, intensified gentrification and reordered the city in ways that are hard to fully grasp.

As the saying goes, everything that glitters isn’t always gold.

But if this community wants to be a destination for outside talent and a place that grows its own native talent, then we must be honest. To compete, we must excel. And for too long, we have not excelled on these core issues and have lagged on important indicators.