San Antonio | Deep In The Heart.

[Plutonic Panda]

No, not at all! I was just thrown off by all the exclamation points. I agree that SA has some awesome, awesome areas. That area towards the end with all the different colored apartments and the rail running through it looks amazing. I would love to live there!

I agree. I wonder how many different places like this exist in the US.

[josh]

Here's is a map of the eight areas I have so far covered.

Click on the image for a larger, more readable version.

• Downtown
• Southtown
• River North
• Pearl/Lower Broadway
• Monte Vista
• Olmos Park
• Stone Oak
• Far northwest side/La Cantera

[PWitty]

That's perfect!

[josh]

Thanks.

I was planning on doing this regardless but your request hurried the process. lol

I have a few more areas I want to cover.

[HangryHippo]

Thanks.

I was planning on doing this regardless but your request hurried the process. lol

I have a few more areas I want to cover.

Josh, the area toward the end of your last photo set with the rails running through it, is there actual rail service in that area of SA? What are those tracks used for?

[Plutonic Panda]

duplicate post.

[Plutonic Panda]

FAR NORTHWEST SIDE/LA CANTERA

This is the area I'm referring to as well as others I believe. Very cool.

It would be cool to see something like this in downtown Edmond.

[RadicalModerate]

I've only had the pleasure of visiting San Antonio once. We were only there for a couple of days. We did The Alamo (a LOT smaller than one might imagine) and The Paseo. We also visited one bar on the Riverwalk. The rest of the visit was hanging around the ex-in-laws' house (ret. Air Force). I wish we could have spent a week there as there were dozens of places I would have liked to see (other than the ex-in-laws' house and listening to my ex-step-mother in-laws' incessant bitching, griping whining and moaning in the direction of her husband).

I can't think of a single thing that I didn't like about San Antonio, itself . . . but our yearly out-of-state trip take us the other direction (toward Minnesota . . . which is also a nice place to visit.) The photos at the top were fantastic, as usual.

[josh]

Josh, the area toward the end of your last photo set with the rails running through it, is there actual rail service in that area of SA? What are those tracks used for?

It's a mixed-use development called Eilan. The rail is a trolley line that runs within the development itself. The colorful buildings you see are apartments.

[bchris02]

This is the area I'm referring to as well as others I believe. Very cool.

It would be cool to see something like this in downtown Edmond.

I completely agree. Charlotte also has several areas like that in its suburbs. I wish OKC would develop more suburban developments that are more than simply tract housing and strip shopping centers. There are countless ways to build an attractive suburban area. I don't mind suburbs and sprawl, but I wish there would be more dignified developments.

[josh]

New Braunfels (a city that's part of the San Antonio metro area and also home to Schiltterbahn) has some really cool stuff going up in its suburbs.

[Plutonic Panda]

New Braunfels (a city that's part of the San Antonio metro area and also home to Schiltterbahn) has some really cool stuff going up in its suburbs.

Thought that water park was in Galveston?

[josh]

Thought that water park was in Galveston?

The first Schlitterbahn was built in New Braunfels and is still there today. It also the one that is voted best water park in the country.

Schlitterbahn has built smaller water parks in places like South Padre and Galveston as well as Kansas City. There is also a Schlitterbahn under construction in Corpus Christi.

However, as I said, the original is in New Braunfels and consists of three separate parks. The original park is the one that earns the yearly recognition and awards.

[RadicalModerate]

Quick, honest, question: How does all of this align with New Urbanism (that apparently seems to want to cram as many people as possible into the Olde Parte o' Town) for the sake of . . . ? I would love to live and work in downtown OKC and I certainly get the list of endless downsides to Urban Sprawl yet the In-Packing of population for the sake of so doing is a concept that eludes me. (along with many other concepts).

[josh]

Quick, honest, question: How does all of this align with New Urbanism (that apparently seems to want to cram as many people as possible into the Olde Parte o' Town) for the sake of . . . ? I would love to live and work in downtown OKC and I certainly get the list of endless downsides to Urban Sprawl yet the In-Packing of population for the sake of so doing is a concept that eludes me. (along with many other concepts).

Is this a question geared towards me or is it for the other thread thread that this thread was split from.

[Dubya61]

New Braunfels (a city that's part of the San Antonio metro area and also home to Schiltterbahn) has some really cool stuff going up in its suburbs.

also, New Braunfels has one of the best smokehouses I've ever had food from.

[Stew]

New Braunfels (a city that's part of the San Antonio metro area and also home to Schiltterbahn) has some really cool stuff going up in its suburbs.

My aunt and uncle just built a McMansion in New Braunfels. Quite peculiar since they lived the last six decades in Fairhope AL and as far as I know have no connection to that area other than maybe taking the grand kids to the waterpark there.

Now what I want to know is whatever happened to Old Braunfels?

[josh]

My aunt and uncle just built a McMansion in New Braunfels. Quite peculiar since they lived the last six decades in Fairhope AL and as far as I know have no connection to that area other than maybe taking the grand kids to the waterpark there.

They probably tubed one of New Braunfels two rivers during the summer and fell in love with it.

New Braunfels will also be home to the first In-n-Out burger chain in the San Antonio metro area. In and Out will open its first San Antonio locations middle of next year.

Now what I want to know is whatever happened to Old Braunfels?

New Braunfels is named after Braunfels, Germany. That area and a lot of areas in and around San Antonio were settled by Germans.

[RadicalModerate]

Is this a question geared towards me or is it for the other thread thread that this thread was split from.

It's an open, general, question regarding possible paradigms, vis-à-vis people and where to put them, without needless conflict.
Yet it isn't rhetorical. San Antonio--as good as it was 30 years ago--is apparently even better now.
Even with all the sprawls and loops and whatnots.
Sort of an infilling of the exurbs with a urban, diverse--yet contextual--twists I suppose.

Again: I like(d) San Antonio.

[Spartan]

That is all you have to say? Really? Lol ok. You obviously have a bias towards Texas. San Antonio is better than Cleveland will ever be, imo. Cleveland is a nice city, but if you're seriously going to bash this thread because SA is a kick ass city, that's just fine. No one there will miss ya.

Help me understand what this has to do with Cleveland... Or me slighting Texas. This guy has a chip on his shoulder because we all hype the other Texas cities besides SA.

You get your panties in a wad to defend suburban places in every thread. Texas has great cities, but anyone coming on here ranting and raving about how much better SA is than Austin has to be insane. This is an urbanism forum. Not a suburban sprawl fan club, for which I agree SA would be superior.

[RadicalModerate]

My aunt and uncle just built a McMansion in New Braunfelns. Quite peculiar since they lived the last six decades in Fairhope AL and as far as I know have no connection to that area other than maybe taking the grand kids to the waterpark there.

Now what I want to know is whatever happened to Old Braunfels?

The BBQ joints were declared inauthentic and they decided to respond by making sausage and building McMansions.
The cottage industry of wadding panties also went away.

[Mel]

Does anyone else find it ironic that a SAT thread is the busiest on a OKC forum?

[RadicalModerate]

Does anyone else find it ironic that a SAT thread is the busiest on a OKC forum?

Not me.

It may simply be a matter of civic pride . . .

[josh]

Help me understand what this has to do with Cleveland... Or me slighting Texas. This guy has a chip on his shoulder because we all hype the other Texas cities besides SA.

I'm assuming it's because you brought up Cleveland first. Before Plutonic and before myself. We were simply responding to your claim.

You get your panties in a wad to defend suburban places in every thread. Texas has great cities, but anyone coming on here ranting and raving about how much better SA is than Austin has to be insane. This is an urbanism forum. Not a suburban sprawl fan club, for which I agree SA would be superior.

And if we are talking about urbanism, then San Antonio is doing just as well. As I have said countless times, more than 1,000 residential units have gone up in the urban core in the last year. Another 2,000 residential units are proposed or under construction in the urban core. The Pearl alone is currently building a 10-story 102 unit residential building and plans are to build multiple towers that will add up to 800 units.

That's just one small area of the urban core.

Heck, the condo market is heating up too. The two largest penthouses in downtown sold this year for $2.5 and $2.9 million respectively. The 2.9 million dollar penthouse sold this past week.

San Antonio had the first bike share program, San Antonio B-cycle, in Texas and now the largest bike share program in Texas. It started in 2011 and today, as I said, it is the largest bike share in Texas and the second largest B-Cycle program in the US behind only Denver. 52 stations with nearly 500 bikes spread throughout the urban core and some even go beyond the urban core. If you look at that picture, that's a ten mile difference between the northern most bike station and the southern most bike station. And more stations/bikes will be added in 2014.

San Antonio is adding a new civic park and urban transit district, with a strong focus on mixed-use develop, in the urban core.

San Antonio is adding street car to the urban core.

San Antonio is adding a medical school to the urban core.

I can keep going.

Hell, San Antonio now has the second largest food truck scene in Texas.

[HangryHippo]

I don't know what Sparty's problem is, but I find San Antonio far superior to Austin.