City Beat

Austin overtakes Dallas on ranking of America's best performing cities

"Look at that, honey — it's the third best performing city in the U.S."

Photo courtesy of Austin Art Alliance

A new study into America's best performing cities reveals that, once again, Austin is one of the country's top spots for jobs.

The annual report, which was released on January 24 by the Milken Institute, an independent, California-based think tank, studies economic expansion of 200 American cities who "create jobs and prosperity with their policy choices and their industrial, workforce, and innovation assets."

The study then uses indexes from job creation, wage gains, technological developments, and characteristics unique to each city to rank each region in terms of economic health.

Austin-Round Rock
Austin-Round Rock landed in the No. 3 spot, climbing six places from last year and unseating Dallas-Plano-Irving, which fell to No. 5. As far as its highest performing growth metrics, the Austin region ranked fourth for job growth and fifth for wage growth.

"A remarkably consistent high performer, the Austin-Round Rock region has now claimed a spot in the top five for nine of the last 10 Best-Performing Cities indexes, earning the top honors in 2009 and 2013," said the release.

As the study points out, Austin's technology sector is booming, accounting for more than 103,000 jobs in the region. Those positions — and the wages that come with them — lead to an increase in consumer spending, especially among Austin's booming bar, restaurant, and hospitality sectors.

Another attractive quality, says the study, is Austin's reputation as a university town. Forty-five percent of Austinites over 25 have at least a bachelor's degree, and the presence of graduate schools like The University of Texas at Austin's Dell Medical School point to advances in both the education and innovation sectors.

But, of course, with the sweet comes the sour. This boom has (as we know all too well) led to an increase in housing costs and disproportionate distribution of economic opportunities. As the report points out, the success of City of Austin policies to address these issues will ultimately determine the city's future (and its future ranking).

Dallas-Plano-Irving
As mentioned, the metroplex took a teensy tumble in 2018, falling two spots to No. 5.

"Although the metro did not place in the top 10 for any of our growth metrics, the combination of a robust and diverse high-tech industry and solid growth in jobs and wages across all the one-year, five-year, and short-term job growth measures reveals the broad-based vitality of the Dallas-Plano-Irving regional economy," boasts the report.

And while it didn't nab a top 10 spot for any growth metrics, Dallas did walk away with another important superlative. Between 2012-17, the Big D added 14,000 management positions, the most of any city in the U.S.

Dallas also ranked second for professional, scientific, and technical service jobs added in that same time period.

San Antonio
At No. 32, San Antonio-New Braunfels made a shocking drop in 2018, falling 13 spots from last year.

Like Dallas, San Antonio didn't land in the top 10 for any growth metrics, but the city made good showings in high tech GDP growth (17th), job growth (28th), and wage growth from 2011-16 (31st).

Where the region didn't fare well, however, was in job growth over the past 12 months. The report ranks San Antonio a dismal 125th out of 200.

Elsewhere in Texas
Cities across the Lone Star State popped up throughout this year's list, ranging from Austin and Dallas' high highs to Beaumont-Port Arthur's low lows.

College Station-Bryan, No. 22
Waco, No. 61
McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, No. 68
Fort Worth-Arlington, No. 70
Lubbock, No. 86
El Paso, 113
Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, No. 119
Laredo, No. 136
Killeen-Temple, No. 159
Brownsville-Harlingen, No. 167
Corpus Christi, No. 188
Beaumont-Port Arthur, No. 191

Rounding out America's top five best performing cities were Provo-Orem, Utah (No. 1); San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, California (No. 2); and San Francisco-Redwood City-South San Francisco (No. 4).

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Self-driving Roller Coaster

More self-driving cars expected to roll out in Austin for 2025

Photo courtesy of Waymo via KVUE

Various brands offering self-driving cars are on-and-off in Austin.

Expect to see more self-driving rideshare vehicles, also known as robotaxis, on Austin roads next year.

Robotaxi company Waymo, which you may have already seen on Austin's roads, is partnering with Uber. At some point next year, customers will be able to use the Uber app to call a self-driving ride.

Austin-based company Avride is in the testing phase and plans to roll out its robotaxis next year.

Currently, Volkswagen ADMT and Amazon's Zoox are in the testing phase in Austin, while Hyundai's Motional is in the mapping phase.

Last year, robotaxi company Cruise paused operations in Austin after the California Department of Motor Vehicles revoked the company's permits to operate driverless vehicles in the state. And last week, General Motors said it would no longer fund the company because of the time and resources needed.

This way of getting around has come with its safety concerns and issues. The city is tracking those concerns. According to the Transportation Department, the problems span from blocking the roads and parking in front of people's homes for weeks with lights beaming through their windows, to actual wrecks.

Since July 2023, robotaxis have been involved in 75 incidents. Only 21 of those incidents happened in 2024. It's important to note that Cruise has not been operating in Austin this year.

Since July 2023, driverless rideshare vehicles have been involved in 22 near collisions, eight collisions and seven instances where driverless taxis ignored directions from the Austin Police Department (APD).

According to the data, at least four of those Austin police incidents happened in recent months. The issues varied from driving through police checkpoints, to malfunctioning and getting stuck at an APD road closure near pedestrians, causing safety concerns.

A Waymo spokesperson said their vehicles have gesture recognition capabilities, which they've been training APD officers on using.

As the report shows, sometimes it does not work and Waymo said it is working to improve that. The spokesperson said that as of just last week, Waymo's First Responder Program has been independently verified by TÜV SÜD, making Waymo the first autonomous vehicle (AV) company to receive third-party validation for our emergency response protocols. They also said the data to date indicates the Waymo Driver is already reducing traffic injuries and fatalities in the places where the company currently operates.

Read the full story and watch the video at KVUE.com.

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