Actually, I've been living here longer than I did in the Northeast. I've actually adapted pretty well (miss some of the stuff from New York City, but I've gotten over it). The reason this annoys me so much is that they are constantly trying to promote themselves as a big city, then do stuff like this. As someone who originally lived in the Northeast, I see this stuff, and know exactly what people are thinking when they see it, as I thought the same thing when I first moved down and saw the local news. They are trying desperately to attract business to the city, yet when others are on the outside looking in, they see this stuff and it just shoots them in the foot. Trust me, VulcanRider, with over 1.1 million people, it has been a long time since people can leave their doors unlocked. There is gang violence pretty much every day. However, I also rode down the street two days ago, passed by the bar near my house, and saw the normal crowd of people who ride horses into town from one of the farms or ranches near the outskirts of the city (and I live well inside the city limits). Even though I am in a middle class neighborhood smack in the middle of the city, I wake up every morning to a rooster one of the neighbors has. Thus, it ends up being this "hodgepodge" of big city and small town, and no one seems to be able to lead it anywhere except in circles. The harsh reality is that they are a big city, and everyone is trying to get respect as a big city. However, when the signals that they are showing everyone is stuff like that broadcast (and it is still a major news story today, last I saw on the news this afternoon), all they are doing is shooting themselves in the foot. Of course, actually fixing their education problems would go a long way to help bring in the business that everyone is clamoring for. But if everyone is so eager down here to see the city grow and for businesses to move in (mostly because they want better job opportunities, just like everyone else would like to see in their communities), showing stuff like this so prominently and treating it like the city council had been murdered doesn't help (for those who do not know, the Pearl Brewery is an old, run-down brewery that hardly employs anyone anymore; it has never been large, and even finding someone that drinks Pearl beer (even inside the city) is hard to find).
I guess it just gets under my skin, because I like living here (sorry about the impression that I do not like it), but there are times I just want to tell these people that they are just screwing themselves repeatedly (and every time they lose some business to another city, they immediately go on this self-pity trip, with all kinds of questions about why they get no respect). As the old saying goes, image is everything. Listen to Lisle and Hahn on the local rock station
99.5 KISS. They have a webcast of their station, including the morning show. They simply repeat exactly what I am stating here (one is from another state, but has been here over 20 years, while the other was born and raised in San Antonio). I just hate to see them burning themselves like this, especially considering that there is a ton of potential here (plenty of land for growth, major crossroads for both highway and rail, plenty of resources, etc.). I could understand if they were screaming about the businesses moving in, and wanted it to return to the way things were. But everyone is clamoring for just the opposite, then wonder why businesses look elsewhere. It's stuff like this that creates the impression among those businesses that this is a "podunk" city, and thus it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.