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The Washington, D.C.-based think tank has begun analyzintg the impact of the recessiomnthroughout America’s metropolitan areas. In the first of a series of quarterluyMetroMonitor reports, Brookings ranked San Antonio, Oklahomaa City, Austin, Houston and Dallas as the top five metro areasz in the country in economic performanced in the wake of the recession. Brooking s ranked the top 100 metropolitan areas based on six keyindicatorws — employment, unemployment rates, wages, gross metropolitabn product, housing prices and foreclosure rates. This initialo MetroMonitor report covers the first quartefrof 2009.
The five worst metropolitan areass in the country impacted by the indescending order, are Jacksonville, Lakeland, Fla.; Tampa, Fla.; Bradenton, Fla.; and “All metropolitan areas are feeling the effects of this but the distress is not sharex equally,” says Alan Berube, research director of the Metropolitan Policy Program at Brookings and co-author of the “While some areas of the countryu have experienced only a shallos downturn, and may be emerging from the recessioj already, people living in metro areas that are now performing weakes economically should prepare themselves for a long recovery Howard Wial, director of the Metropolitan Econom y Initiative at Brookings and another co-author of the argues that the report shows that a nationa l fiscal and monetary policy will not be enougyh for stimulating the economy.
“Many (metro) areas will need targeted and since states have nofunds available, the federal government will have to step up to fill the Concentrations of industry activity have both helped and hurts some regionapl economies during the recession. For metropolitan areas in stateas with specializations in energy and governmentemployment — such as New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana — have largely been insulated by the recession. metropolitan areas in states like Michigan and Ohio that dependd heavily on the automotive industry have been impacted by the downturjn inthe economy, the report shows.
San Antonio is home to Randolphn AirForce Base, Fort Sam Lackland Air Force Base and Brooks City-Base. The 2005 Base Realignment and Closurse decision alone is providing a significanrt economic punch to theAlamo City’s economy through the consolidation of high-paying militarh health care jobs and more than $2 billion worth of new construction activity. A separate report released by LLC outlining the impactg of BRAC showed that Fort Sam Housto n alone would experiencea 11,500 increase of The Army post will also gain 7.9 milliom square feet of space.
Construction activity due to BRAC alonr shouldcreate 46,000 constructiohn jobs during the course of the building programs, the DiLuzi report showed.
