With Frost Bank’s new tower and the shift of city offices to its old building, now dubbed City Tower, downtown offices have emptied out.
San Antonio was the only large city in Texas to not make this year’s top 100 best cities list. Credit: Shutterstock / Filipe Sanchez

Three Texas cities ranked on an annual list of the world’s 100 best metro areas, so congrats to the Lone Star State.

However, the bad news is San Antonio isn’t one of those three.

On Tuesday, global consulting firm Rosonance released its annual 100 Best Cities list. Rosonance works in collaboration with research partner Ipsos to analyze metrics for global metropolitan statistical areas with populations of at least 1 million to determine which are best at attracting tourism, retaining prime-age talent and fostering business formation. 

The dataset also includes metrics such as the number of company headquarters, nightlife details and outdoor recreational experiences. 

Houston was the highest-ranked Texas city, landing at No. 58, followed. Dallas followed at No. 78 and Austin at No. 87. 

Houston received high marks for its large number of corporate headquarters and busy port, while Dallas was praised for its rapid growth and airport. Austin was commended for its high labor force participation, economic output and business ecosystem. 

Even though San Antonio is larger city by population than both Dallas and Austin and has plenty of history and charm, that didn’t seem to matter.

Oh well. Perhaps that new basketball arena will finally put us on the map and make us a global city. Isn’t that what they keep telling us, anyway?


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Michael Karlis is a multimedia journalist at the San Antonio Current, whose coverage in print and on social media focuses on local and state politics. He is a graduate of American University in Washington,...