San Antonio | Deep In The Heart.

[HOT ROD]

I agree, please feel free to start a SA thread and contribute to OKC development if you find lessons we could learn from SA.

Also, please don't be too offended by the folks who heartedly defend OKC - it's just the residents are very proud of OKC and what they've accomplished. In fact, this trait isn't something you would have noticed even just 15-years ago, when OKC residents themselves didn't have anything good to say about their own city. Dramatic change now and I'd chalk it up to HUGE satisfaction of their accomplishment AND future. I

don't think anyone on here means any harm against any other city but they definitely will defend OKC which is not a bad thing (just as you're defending SA).

Cheers!

[josh]

Seriously dude, SanAntonioTalk.com. That's where you want to be. You are on the wrong forum.

You ask a totally subjective question. Moreover you ask a totally subjective question that can only end with you getting your feelings hurt. "Why don't people talk about San Antonio when they talk about all the great Texas cities? We're just as good as blah blah blah." That's like the ugly girl asking "you guys are flirting with all the cheerleaders, why don't you ask me out instead?"

San Antonio is home to the Alamo, a small building where a handful of white people were overrun by a horde of Mexicans. Nobody talks about San Antonio because everyone thinks its still that way. It's not hip and cool like Austin, it's not a sprawling metropolis heavily identified with Air and Space and oil like Houston. It didn't have it's own soap opera like Dallas. Instead it has a million Mexicans.

You asked why people don't talk about it? That's why. That's the perception. You can argue as much as you want. That's still the perception. And that's why no one talks about it.

Edit:

That came across just a little bit harsher than I intended it. San Antonio is probably a great place. Of course I went to college with a guy from San Antonio and he was a dick. But it's in that same situation that OKC is in. It's going to get very limited attention from people outside of its area. It is not sexy. It is not high profile. Oklahoma's equivalent to San Antonio is Lawton.

Great job not reinforcing any Oklahoma stereotypes.

I will ignore you from now on and probably block you if this forum has that function. You make yourself, your city and your state look bad.

If you want people to continue to think Oklahoma is full of narrow- minded bigots, you succeeded.

I'll let you wallow in your own ignorance. But the sad part is, you've probably never even been outside the state lines of Oklahome, and if you have it's probably to Dallas.

P.S.

Oklahoma's equivalent to San Antonio is Lawton?... This is too pathetic to even laugh at.

I would ask what college you went to, but I doubt you're even out of high school.

[hoya]

Great job not reinforcing any Oklahoma stereotypes.

I will ignore you from now on and probably block you if this forum has that function. You make yourself, your city and your state look bad.

If you want people to continue to think Oklahoma is full of narrow- minded bigots, you succeeded.

I'll let you wallow in your own ignorance. But the sad part is, you've probably never even been outside the state lines of Oklahome, and if you have it's probably to Dallas.

P.S.

Oklahoma's equivalent to San Antonio is Lawton?... This is too pathetic to even laugh at.

I would ask what college you went to, but I doubt you're even out of high school.

The truth hurts, doesn't it?

Apparently Oklahomans have a stereotype for being mean on the internet.

Click on my name above where it says "participating member". Click "view profile". On the left hand corner you'll see a grayscale box where it says my name again, followed by a blank picture since I don't have an avatar photo. The third line down will say "add to ignore list". Click that. You may then happily ignore me.

[josh]

SAN ANTONIO







Recent rankings and acknowledgements





Neighborhoods and Districts

DOWNTOWN
































SOUTHTOWN













































































RIVER NORTH






























THE PEARL/LOWER BROADWAY

To be continued...

[josh]

I started a thread in Other Communities.

I intend to start off by giving a photo tour of some of the neighborhoods and districts of San Antonio. Then I'll begin to post about the developments happening in and around the city.

[josh]

The truth hurts, doesn't it?

Apparently Oklahomans have a stereotype for being mean on the internet.

Click on my name above where it says "participating member". Click "view profile". On the left hand corner you'll see a grayscale box where it says my name again, followed by a blank picture since I don't have an avatar photo. The third line down will say "add to ignore list". Click that. You may then happily ignore me.

What truth? Your ignorance? Your bigotry? Your juvenile mentality?

[Pete]

Guys, get back to discussing San Antonio in a respectful way, otherwise I am going to completely close this thread.

[bchris02]

I agree, please feel free to start a SA thread and contribute to OKC development if you find lessons we could learn from SA.

Also, please don't be too offended by the folks who heartedly defend OKC - it's just the residents are very proud of OKC and what they've accomplished. In fact, this trait isn't something you would have noticed even just 15-years ago, when OKC residents themselves didn't have anything good to say about their own city. Dramatic change now and I'd chalk it up to HUGE satisfaction of their accomplishment AND future. I

don't think anyone on here means any harm against any other city but they definitely will defend OKC which is not a bad thing (just as you're defending SA).

Cheers!

One thing I think OKC could have learned from San Antonio and still could in some ways is canal-front development. Everything on the river walk in San Antonio seamlessly interacts with the canal while Bricktown's canal seems to be completely neglected. I would like to see existing construction retrofitted to create more canal integration.

[Bellaboo]

My good friends wife was almost mugged twice in 2 days in San Antonio a few years back. A couple of teenage kids tried to yank her purse from her, first time on the street in front of the Alamo, and the other was over by the Hemisphere tower.

That's the impression they came back from SA with......

And no offense, but the downtown skyline just doesn't measure up to the other major towns in Texas......not even Ft Worth. Go back and take a look at your photos and you'll see.

[bchris02]

Does San Antonio have height restrictions or something? Austin's skyline was pretty pathetic until they removed the restriction prior to building the Frost Bank Tower.

[PWitty]

Josh,

I apologize if my posts last night offended you. It is never my intention to make enemies anywhere I go, especially on here. I just felt like any response I gave was awarded with a snarky personal remark back about the opinions I viewed. I was also a few beers in when I came back on and saw your replies, so that may have contributed to my annoyance.

I also wanted to clarify why I brought up SA's history and demographics. I probably didn't lay it out as clearly as I should have from the beginning. My entire point was that from a young age (grade school) children learn about the Alamo and all the Spanish/Mexican history that SA has in it's past. Because of this I think SA is unfairly labeled as being a very Hispanic-oriented city. My point in bringing up the demographics was that if someone who has never actually been to SA looks at those, they're going to only reinforce to themselves that their stereotype is correct. In their mind, not only does SA have a lot of Spanish/Mexican history but they also have a heavy concentration of people who come from Hispanic families, so the city must still revolve mainly around Spanish/Mexican culture. That is all I was ever trying to say.

Hopefully that is a little clearer. I never meant to say anything negative about San Antonio or the people who live there. I have only been their once, and I enjoyed it, but I never really got to leave the DT area by the riverwalk and convention center. I was only trying to explain the perception of SA I get from people who have never actually been there.

[bchris02]

Despite the lack of a strong skyline, San Antonio is excellent at street level and has a very strong sense of place. It would be cool if they were to get a tower or two to make their skyline more recognizable.

[Bellaboo]

Despite the lack of a strong skyline, San Antonio is excellent at street level and has a very strong sense of place. It would be cool if they were to get a tower or two to make their skyline more recognizable.

That's it right there......nothing to distinct with their skyline. Maybe some day that'll change.

[Mississippi Blues]

That's it right there......nothing to distinct with their skyline. Maybe some day that'll change.

They have a pretty substantial building proposed. It's not huge, but it's nice for San Antonio.

[josh]

Was my thread at Other Communities merged into this thread?

Why?

[Mississippi Blues]

Was my thread at Other Communities merged into this thread?

Why?

The posts in the Okc boom thread were merged into your San Antonio thread.

I like what you're doing though with showing off San Antonio. UrbanNerbraska does the same with Lincoln & Omaha & Spartan does it with Cleveland & I've considered doing one on Atlanta, but it'd take forever since Atlanta is huge & something new is announced every other day, literally.

[Plutonic Panda]

HA! I hear you with the Atlanta thing. I thought about doing the same thing with Dallas as I keep up with their development very closely and they literally have a HQ relocation or some massive development announced like every week. Literally since the Stage Center Announcement their has already been 2 30 story buildings proposed and a new high-rise residential tower is in the works in Uptown. Crazy stuff. It'd take forever to type down what is already going on and by the time I would be done, there would 20 more projects to write about lol

[dmoor82]

I LOVE how my OKC boom thread was merged into a San Antonio thread!!!! I just LOVE IT!!!!!! lol

[Mississippi Blues]

I LOVE how my OKC boom thread was merged into a San Antonio thread!!!! I just LOVE IT!!!!!! lol

Your OKC boom thread turned into an argument about "the real" San Antonio. Lol

[Mississippi Blues]

Dp

[HOT ROD]

nice pics of San Antonio. Keep 'em coming!

I have never been but it looks like a nice place if a bit of a tourist trap that happens to be a major city. Does appear to be an inland San Diego.

Why does Charles Barkley rat on SA girls and the city?

[Snowman]

Why does Charles Barkley rat on SA girls and the city?

He needs something to fill airtime, where it is better to ask forgiveness every once in a while verses being boring all the time; he has joked on multiple occasions about being from Birmingham, Alabama he can't really say to much about any other cities/states depending on which one he put his foot in his mouth over.

[Mel]

My memories of San Antonio are faint and mostly of Lackland A.F.B.

[Spartan]

San Antonio is simply overshadowed by Austin and doesn't get as much love from the media. You are right though. Personally, I think San Antonio has much better infrastructure than Austin and could be a much larger city without growth being choked off.

What better infrastructure does SA have?

[Spartan]

By prominent downtown core, do you mean specifically the skyline?

Because aside from that one trivial aspect, downtown San Antonio is probably the most active downtown in Texas. From workers to tourists to locals. They're all downtown, from sunrise to sunset and longer.

Also, this may not be known here, but in the last two years, nearly 2,000 housing units have been added to the urban core and nearly 1,000 units are under construction or proposed now.

There is also a yet to be proposed 800 unit mixed-use development (multiple towers) planned for the Pearl area. The developers have talked about it but have yet to officially "propose" it.

Then there's the over 1 billion dollars in public investment currently going on in downtown, right now.

These four projects are planned or under construction:

VIA Modern Streetcar ($280 million)
Hemisfair Park redevelopment (180 million)
San Pedro Creek redevelopment (200 million)
San Antonio Convention Center expansion (350 million)

The VIA streetcar will be up and running by 2017.

The Hemisfair redevelopment will add 20-acres of park land to downtown as well as turn a seldom used area into a mxed-use neighborhood.

The San Pedro Creek redevelopment will basically give downtown San Antonio two "Riverwalks", this one on the west side of downtown. The actual Riverwalk was expanded two miles to the north, this extension is called the Museum Reach.

I could also include the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, which is currently under construction with a fall 2014 opening planned. That cost $210 million.

Also, it was announced yesterday that H&M, PF Chang's, Yardhouse, Margaritaville and more are adding locations to downtown. Are part of the redevelopment of the Joske's building, which will also see a mixed-use tower component.

Okay, great. That's not out of line with development in downtown OKC, and wouldn't compare very favorably to downtown Cleveland. Stick to bragging about the climate in South Texas.

On a side note, this thread has been a humorous read, almost a worthy replacement for ou48a's post-Bedlam meltdown that I was deprived of