The Ten Best Cities for Families - Austin #2

You want the best for your family, and that includes great schools, affordable homes, low crime rates, plenty of jobs, and lots of parkland. So we crunched more than 8,000 bits of data in 84 categories to determine this year's top places to raise kids. 

1. Washington, DC

2. Austin, TX

It's no surprise that Austin kept its second-place ranking from last year—it's a way-cool progressive city in a warm and sunny climate. City pools stay open year-round, and the bass are always biting at Town Lake.

The self-proclaimed Live Music Capital of the World, Austin also hosts the annual South by Southwest music, film, and interactive festival. It's a mecca for innovators—Michael Dell launched his tech company here—and Samsung, Google, and Facebook all have offices.

With an abundance of pediatricians, 27,000 acres of parkland, and plenty of farmers markets and food co-ops, Austin is a well-rounded, healthy hometown.

To read the entire Parenting.com article, click here.

Texas Engineering Solutions, LLC Becomes Certified Minority-Owned Business Enterprise (MBE) with COA

On January 12, 2011, Texas Engineering Solutions (TES) became certified as a Minority-Owned Business Enterprise (MBE) and is now eligible to participate in the City of Austin’s Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprise (MBE/WBE) Procurement Program.

Attaining MBE certification is an important milestone in our company’s long-term growth plan, and as a newly certified MBE (Hispanic), we will actively participate in the City of Austin’s procurement process. A civil engineering firm with extensive experience in land development and public utilities, TES will work with the City’s Small and Minority Business Resources Department (DSMBR) and our engineering partners to provide quality, value engineering services for our clients and the community. For more information about TES and our qualifications please contact Stephen R Delgado, P.E. or Hank Smith, P.E. at 512-904-0505.

Home Builders Induct New President, Board of Directors

Long-time Member Hank Smith Takes over Top Position

Austin, Texas (November 1, 2010)

New leadership for the Home Builders Association (HBA) of Greater Austin will take office today, guiding the 57-year old organization through the next year.

Hank Smith, PE, Principal of Texas Engineering Solutions, a development and engineering firm, will serve as President. Smith has been a HBA member for more than 10 years. During his tenure, he has held several HBA leadership positions including President-Elect in 2010; Home PAC Chair in 2009 and 2010; Board of Directors member; Executive Committee member; Home PAC Trustee; and Vice President of Government Relations.

“My goals include continuing the membership and educational benefits that were implemented by immediate past President Steve Zbranek while also working in cooperation with the five counties and 30 cities that are in our HBA service area. We want to continue to be a resource to help guide growth and development as the new housing market recovers in our area,” said Smith. Smith will also work with the new board to build a “Benefit Home” in the West Cypress Hills subdivision with a share of the proceeds to benefit Dell Children’s Hospital.

Smith grew up in Austin and graduated from the University of Texas with a degree in Civil Engineering in 1984. His wife of 28 years, Georgia Smith, has worked for the Austin Independent School District as a teacher for several years and currently teaches special education at Boone Elementary School. He has three sons: Greg, who has a degree in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Texas and a masters degree from Northwestern University in Bio Technology; Adam, who has a degree from the University of Texas in Mechanical Engineering and currently works for General Electric while pursuing a masters degree in Engineering from Georgia Tech; and Wade, who is at the University of Texas pursuing a degree in Mechanical Engineering.

When not working and raising his family, Smith enjoys restoring cars and motorcycles in his garage as well as playing golf with his sons. He attends St. David’s Episcopal Church downtown where he and Georgia were married in 1982.

America's Most Recession-Proof Cities

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The "Keep Austin Weird" campaign must have worked, because the Texas capital is among the country's oddball cities that bucked the downturn.

In fact, Texas cities starred on the new list of recession-proof metro areas, with six of 21 spots, according to MetroMonitor, a quarterly report released by Brookings Institute's Metropolitan Policy Program.

In fact, all but five of the 21 leading cities have economic output levels that top records set just prior to the recession.

"Most of these cities have some general characteristics in common," said Howard Weil, author of the report and a fellow at the Metropolitan Policy Program. "They didn't experience huge housing bubbles followed by a crash, and their economies weren't rooted in the auto industry."

Weil added that a number of cities are also government centers, like Austin, where job cuts have been limited and spending remains healthy.

Gross metropolitan product, a broad measure economic activity, has surged the most in the nation's capital. In first quarter of 2010, the economy in Washington D.C. expanded by 6.3% from its pre-recession peak. Austin also touts considerable growth at 5.3%.

"We've seen a significant increase in government spending since the start of the recession, and even though it has been spread throughout other parts of the country, some of that extra spending stays in the D.C. metro area," Weil said. "But if government hawks succeed in cutting spending, we could see the growth in Washington slow down."

Meanwhile, as unemployment rates climbed higher in every major city across the nation during the recession, the jobless rate in Austin only rose to 7.1% in March 2010 from 3.5% three years earlier. During the same period, the U.S. unemployment rate spiked to 9.7% from 4.4%.

"We have a stable base of employment with the University of Texas, one of the largest universities in the country, and the second largest state government with 65,000 employees," said Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell.

Similarly, job losses were muted in Austin, as employment in Texas's capital city dropped by 2.3% from its pre-recession peak through the first quarter of 2010.

Leffingwell said that a decade ago, Austin worked to attract high-tech companies, and while some manufacturing jobs in the sector have since diminished, companies are still expanding their workforce, including Samsung Electronics, which recently announced a $3.6 billion project that boosts the company's payroll by 500 permanent positions.

And during the last two quarters, Austin welcomed job growth, adding nearly 8,000 new jobs during the period and increasing payrolls by more than 1%. Augusta, Ga.; Jackson, Miss.; Dallas; and Honolulu also posted similar gains.

"We've worked hard to diversify our economy and are aggressively targeting companies focused on renewable energy, medical technology and digital media," Leffingwell said.

Earlier this year, Texas invested $1.4 million through its Texas Enterprise Fund to lure Facebook into opening its first office outside of Palo Alto, Calif., in Austin. The social media giant opened the office last month and is actively hiring for its online sales and operations team. Facebook said it plans to hire over 200 employees in Austin over the next four years.

Meanwhile, further south, McAllen, Texas, which also made the top 21, has been boasting job growth for the past four straight quarters, and employment in the city has only declined by a modest 1.1% during the recession.

Houston, another Texas city, is included among the recession-proof metro areas for enjoying the smallest slide in housing prices at just 0.5% through the first quarter of 2010 compared to three years earlier. Austin followed close behind with a 0.6% dip during the same period. 

To read the entire CNNMoney.com article, please click here.