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Thursday, January 8, 2015

Kerrville - Land of 10,000 Geezers, Meth Labs and Rehab Centers

I’m working on a paper where I will use census data to prepare a table comparing the populations and economies of Kerr, Harris and Travis counties. I got the idea from a reader’s comments suggesting that a big problem here is that we produce nothing, the population is old and stodgy, and won’t invest the money to create an economic base that encourages young, educated people to live here or stay here. As he or she wrote,

“Here is one headline you will never see in the KDT. ‘Google to open R&D center in Kerrville…..as the young engineers and scientists crave the Hill Country lifestyle.’ Conservative centers like Kerrville and its soul mate Hobbs, act as centrifuges, spinning off the real talent, and leaving behind the lighter elements. The smart young ones get out of conservative areas as soon as they can, never to return. The remainder settle in forever.”

There’s a lot of truth to this. My daughter graduated from Tivy HS in to top 10%, went to UT and graduated, and took a job with a real estate development company in Houston.  She lives in the Museum District, has a steady boyfriend, also a UT grad, very bright and ambitious, and they have their choice of hundreds of good restaurants, music venues, and professional sports teams to see play live. Now that I think about it, none of her friends she went to school with here came back. They are in Houston, Dallas, Austin and so on. I don’t want her back here. I miss her terribly and wish she was closer, but there is nothing here for her.

When I’m in Houston or Austin, there is an energy in the air, and there are young people with ambition and talent, making things, or providing real services that add value. What do we have in Kerrville? Houston has the biggest medical center in the world, Rice University, NASA just down the road, refineries, and it is of course the center of the world wide energy business.

Kerrville has - - - a lot of game ranches, rehab centers, senior citizens, and, frankly in my honest opinion, way too many lawyers who are like a pack of jackals and buzzards that fee off what others produce.

I do like some of Fox News, especially Megyn Kelly, but I’ve noticed that most of the ads are targeted at old people, for products like adult diapers, and meds for erectile dysfunction, COPD, itchy/bruisy skin, etc. One they run incessantly is for a pharmacy that features a couple of old geezers checking out the walking canes and skin bandages.  Really, really depressing.

More later when I figure out how to use Excel.




1 comment:

  1. I couldn't agree with you more. Kerrville is a stagnant cesspool of dead end jobs, crooked judges, cops and city council members, shoddy health care providers, ans a few " Elite" Citizens that hide behind their money and think the laws don't pertain to them The young ambitious bright citizens leave and never come back. It really is sad that such a beautiful place is so corrupt and close minded.

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