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Retirees have little vested interest in contributing to local schools since they won't have kids in them

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true, but whether they care or not about schools, they're paying taxes into them. My in-laws live in a higher end community in Austin and pay pretty hefty taxes into 2 different school systems...and their kids were in college by the time they moved there.

I'd like to add too, Bryan is a completely different animal than CS. CS seems to have more retirees and college students, of course Bryan has some not so good parts in a completely different way.

I think too more and more people are working from home. This changes the dynamic of where they can live.

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Just to be clear I am NOT anti-retiree...I hope to be one some day! But I've traveled in and lived in a lot of communities that seem to consist of well off retirees and not at all well off folks in their prime age groups, and said communities did not seem to be doing well. Quite a few places in Arizona and Florida come to mind.

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Flyrod,
I understand what you are saying especially since I lived for 5 years in St Pete Fla. but over there the oldsters were completely dominant and the entire state was designed for tourists and retirees . B/CS will always be dominated by the University and large active retiree population will NOT destroy the area like it has FLA. I left that tropical paradise 100% because of the damn old yankees!!!
A fairly well off retiree population will help bring in a lot of new health care facilities, yes we will crowd your doctors office but at least we will be speaking English and not sitting there with primitive 3rd world diseases!

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I talked to em all about the new influx of people like me heading to B/CS starting about now and they all agree that " we" will change the face of the area over the next 20 years. As my generation retires and possibly hundreds of us a year " come home" to Aggieland we will be bringing the equivalent of those six figure job lifestyle AND tax base with us. We won't be earning those six figure incomes here but we will , mostly, continue to live and spend like the " dream job" people yall have been promised. Plus we will NOT be burdening the system with school age kids, targets for the cops etc that a 48 yr old engineer would bring . If only a hundred of us a year decide to retire in Gods Country the impact will be tremendous.

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This is a double-edged sword, to put it mildly. Retirees have little vested interest in contributing to local schools since they won't have kids in them. Then there is the added strain on the local health care networks, given that retirees comprise the vast majority of patients (longer waits to see your doctor, etc.).

Make BCS more attractive for young families to start lives here, with decent paying jobs for them. A community comprised largely of temporary college kid residents and retirees does not sound healthy or dynamic in the least.

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Both of those groups are also not taking any of the jobs - but contributing to the need for jobs.

that seems like a +

Flyrod,
Serious question?
If I made you Emperor Flyrod what would you do to make B/CS more attractive to young families. It has to be humanly possible , you can't make lakes and hills appear.
I'm searching my very distant memory as to when I was young and my priorities ( besides da wimmenzs) was a job, beer, bbq and Aggie football.
In 2015 just what would make B/CS attractive to that demographic?

No regal Louis XIV flip of the hand command necessary. People are constantly relocating in search of better lives, and young people wanting to start families are not necessarily interested in mountains or lakes; they are interested in affordable housing, safe neighborhoods, good schools etc., and good jobs that pay well.

Sorry I have no imperial solutions, sadly. I just stand by my earlier comment that a demographically bottom and top heavy community isn't the healthiest scenario.

But I guess to answer your question as best I can, I would increase the stock of affordable starter houses. Maybe that's already happening (Stylecraft?) I dunno...

I moved to CS from another state and was happy as a clam there. Unfortunately, the company I worked for went bankrupt and the options for staying in CS and being employed in my field (engineering/R&D) were almost nonexistent. I applied for some jobs with the biocorridor companies and never heard a peep (now I know why). The university moves too slow compared to industry, so I wound up in a new position in The Woodlands.

I commuted for a few months, but it was terrible (this was before the improvements to 105), so eventually we moved. It killed me because I loved my house and neighborhood, and a comparable house in The Woodlands cost 30% more and double the taxes (of course, said house in CS would now sell for probably $30k-$40k more than what I sold it for; I missed the seller's market by about 9 months). I'm also about to have a 24-hour Wal-Mart shopping center within walking distance of my house

With that said, if 105 were to be upgraded, south CS could easily become a bedroom community for The Woodlands/North Houston area. People here are getting fed up with the development, traffic (on roads that were not designed to handle a fraction of the current traffic), property taxes, and enormous/highly competitive schools (The Woodlands HS just graduated almost 1000 students; the school enrollment is over 3k). I have a coworker who commutes back and forth from CS to The Woodlands and know several people who moved to Montgomery for all of the reasons I listed above.

There are lots of professionals here who work flex schedules (like 9/80), could telecommute a couple days a week, or travel a lot for work anyway (heck, there are a ton of pilots down here; if your job involves a lot of travel, you can almost live anywhere). In those cases, the commute isn't so bad...IF it was four-lane all the way to 45 or 336. There are many days I wish I could have kept my house, but 3 hours of commuting just wasn't worth it (not to mention the absolutely crazy drivers who seem to dominate on 105). There were several times when I was happy to just make it to work alive and in one piece.

Of course, be careful what you wish for...if the commute becomes too easy, you might end up like The Woodlands is now (arguably overdeveloped, too crowded, and overpriced, depending on who you ask).

Regarding Houston area commuters... Several things are happening that may effect CS in interesting ways.
The 290 improvement out to near Waller will finally start to draw more development out 290. Several big med centers and a couple of large manufacturing outfits are building now. NW 290 to CS is an easier commute than most outside the loop to downtown commutes that hundreds of thousands make now.
Also the so-called Aggie Hwy may be finished in 5-10 years and will open up the Tomball/ Spring and Woidlands area to about an hour commute to CS. I already know a few guys here that tell me that the 1-1/2 hr each wY drive MOVING is easier than the traditional 45 minute to 1hr stop n go crawl to downtown.

Good to hear I am not the only crazy one commuting to Houston. Those higher-paying jobs just aren't here in BCS... yet (hopefully).

That being said, I like living in College Station. I've lived here over 10 years, the longest I've ever lived anywhere (I was an Army brat). It's home. I just hope that it will continue to grow and sustain a more robust middle class.

FlyRod is right on all grounds.

Until Bluebell reopens and Papadeuxes is serving food, we are in a DEPRESSION!

The booming business being done at GoCo and Sonic will keep that Depression at bay!

[Insert the now-less-frequently-used smug and famous TTTH emoticon]

5-10,years for t he Aggie highway? It took them 19 years to build the 6 miles from Spring Cypress to Tomball. I'd say 30 or 40 years more likely. They haven't even begun.

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I think most of you people have no idea what a depressed or recessioned area looks like. BCS ain't one.

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Sorry, trying to win your point by saying "College Station isn't Cleveland, therefore we're not in a recession" is incorrect, and a logical fallacy. Got anything to back that up?

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Hey folks - here's a news flash. IT'S NOT HAPPENING. IT WAS NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN. It was a bunch of smoke and mirrors from the politicos and their cronies to land cush jobs at the big school. While they're hanging out at Traditions or Miramont, the town still stinks for anyone aspiring to make more than 35 - 45k a year.

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I wouldn't say that "IT WAS NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN" is a bit strong (and cynical). After all, it is kind of a circular cycle that keeps economies going (or failing): good economy -> companies arrive -> more companies creates better economy, rinse repeat, and works the same way in reverse, because I feel that if the local economy was better, it would induce more companies to come. In the past, plants in B-CS have manufactured everything from shoes to computers, and obviously College Station has grown and gotten better over the years: Post Oak Mall (as bad it is now) was a big thing back in the early 1980s, and the restaurant options have improved overall (nearly all the 1970-era restaurants were chicken fried steak-type restaurants and other cafes). We do see some major improvements over the years, and consistently the "southern border" of College Station keeps moving south. There's old timers who remember when even Southwest Parkway was the street roughly in the center of "north College Station" and "south College Station" (not counting Northgate and the campus).

For those that think things are better than they actually are, please feel free to answer these questions:
1) In the last 12 months, what new-build restaurants (including fast food) have opened? Yeah, even places like Golden Corral or Sonic. The Panda Express at the new Walmart counts.
2) What better-paying jobs are here that will convince students not bound for faculty to stay here?
3) Do you think the high-paid bigwigs (Sumlin, Sharp, and the rest) actually support the local economy and don't have their "real houses" in Houston or perhaps Austin?
4) Do you think that College Station being a "retirement village" or a "tourist town" (because that's essentially what football season) is actually sustainable in the long run?
5) When was the last "restaurant explosion" in town, and can you list the approximate years when that happened?

Even if we're discounting the closed restaurants and if the Biocorridor is a hoax perpetuated by TAMU higher-ups, had things gone okay, we'd be seeing probably more restaurants in the Tower Point area, that CVS near Lowe's would've opened up, and S/F subdivisions would be building at a far faster rate.

So, you think we're in a recession because you think we're similar to Cleveland?

Just trying to better understand your broad brush painting here.

Too be fair, Torchy's, Mad Taco, and Paolo's were kinda big deals when they opened within the last 12 months (whether they survive the Curse of the Greg D Yelp FTR remains to be seen),

The Pappadeux thing was kinda unrealistic IMO, like the predicted arrival of Central Market...

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So, you think we're in a recession because you think we're similar to Cleveland?

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Not what he's saying at all. Rather, more like "Because you have diabetes instead of cancer is not that big a reason to celebrate and cheer, regardless of whether its less awful."

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So, you think we're in a recession because you think we're similar to Cleveland?

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Not what he's saying at all. Rather, more like "Because you have diabetes instead of cancer is not that big a reason to celebrate and cheer, regardless of whether its less awful."

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Yup. I do agree that Torchy's and Mad Taco were the "big ones" of the last few years, but no, I don't think Pappadeaux was unrealistic. A large part of the break down was related to Scott & White's lethargy in moving out of the building, but they did file a plan with College Station P&D, which is I think more than Sprouts even did. After all, Saltgrass Steakhouse is kind of similar (chain restaurant with a name better than its food), and the parking lot of which seems to be pretty full the last few times I've passed it, even recently.

Would Pappadeaux be unrealistic 10 years ago? Yes. Recession or not (and there's a slowdown if nothing else), we are moving forward.

Is Pappadeaux officially dead?

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Is Pappadeaux officially dead?

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From what I have heard, yep. Just like Sprouts.

Many many road projects have fallen decades behind due to the funding mess and the diversion of our gas tax away from roads and bridges. The Leg has fixed some of this and has finally restored a lot of needed highway funding. The " Aggie Hwy" is back on the list as needed projects and is likely to be extended thru Montgomery county. Perhaps the 5 year look ahead is a bit of a stretch but 10 years is very possible.

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Is Pappadeaux officially dead?

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From what I have heard, yep. Just like Sprouts.

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Don't know why Sprouts went bad, but Pappadeaux apparently relied on S&W vacating by a certain time, which they didn't, so now the third party seller has the building. It'd be a great spot for any other restaurant, and I think one of the reasons that nothing is happening is because the economy is weak.

I guess I would add as one standard of whether an economy is booming, the number of higher-end restaurants that open up/stay in business awhile. You can count the ones in BCS on one hand, which tells me that money isn't exactly pouring into the area. Most likely we we will see places open that cater either to college kids (Torchy's) or retirees (Luby's, The Kettle, any place with early bird specials and low prices, etc.)

Someone mentioned the Woodbolt boys earlier. Doss Cunningham is a friend of mine, and I think being able to attract a lot more folks like that (successful entrepreneurs in their 20s-30s) would signal an economy that is both booming and dynamic.

At the Montgomery County Economic Outlook Symposium in February this was mentioned. The ROW isn't even done. I'll stick with 30 years on the project.

Fly,
I think you might see a slight difference in retiree lifestyles ( Luby's and early bird specials) between a bunch of retired yankee auto workers and retired Texans with University degrees.....

"Ol Ags" seem to constitute the vast majority of those Luby's, The Kettle, and early bird specials participants from what I can see.

I'm assuming they have university degrees. From here.

To put it another way, if this wave of retirees you keep going on about brings in something like a Pappas Bros. Steakhouse, then I'll be convinced.

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Is Pappadeaux officially dead?

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From what I have heard, yep. Just like Sprouts.

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Don't know why Sprouts went bad, but Pappadeaux apparently relied on S&W vacating by a certain time, which they didn't, so now the third party seller has the building. It'd be a great spot for any other restaurant, and I think one of the reasons that nothing is happening is because the economy is weak.

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The CEO of Sprouts said that he didn't like the area. He couldn't see Sprouts making it here. How he got that idea, I don't know.

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The CEO of Sprouts said that he didn't like the area. He couldn't see Sprouts making it here. How he got that idea, I don't know.

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Good market research, like the folks at Central market did years ago when they decided this was an HEB but not a Central Market community. And it was a good call, too. The modal shopper in BCS is't looking for heirloom vegetables, organic meats, a wide variety of seafood, gourmet coffees, etc.

Probably one reason why the folks running Village Foods barely even tried to make the place look even remotely appealing or interesting.

I wish Luby's would come back!!!

With this predicted wave of retirees, it likely will.

To get back to the OP... I found some data to add to the anecdotes related to restaurants and supermarkets. But I am not an economist, so take what follows with appropriate skepticism!

Via google, I found the Monthly Review of the Texas Economy from the Real Estate Center at TAMU (pdf). From that, B/CS is had the worst job growth (-0.6%) in Texas from April 2014-April 2015. But we were still at only 3.2% unemployment, which is #5 out of 26 metro areas. National unemployment was at 5.4% in April, with the usual caveats on both numbers about underemployment etc.
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I also found BLS data on employment by occupation from May 2014 as I post this. I didn't see a number for total numbers employed, but we can back calculate an estimate from the fact that 10.8% of the employed are in the education sector and there were 10,640 people employed in that. This gives over 98,500 employed out of a population of about 228K distributed over about 81K households. 21% are under 18. 12.8% are between 18-20 and almost 9% are 65 or over.

Employment isn't the only factor, of course. The textbook definition of a recession is 2 consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth. I could not find data broken down by metro area newer than 2013.