Learn em- living in San Antonio.

 The wife and I are contemplating moving to San Antonio. She does vacation rental cleaning, I do appliance repair. 

 What is the absolute worst about San Antonio, what is the absolute best, and would you live there again if you lived there in the past? 

Nobody in San Antonio eh? Interesting...

It's hot. Damned hot. Drier than Dallas/Ft. Worth. Good food, Tex-Mex, real authentic Mexican food, real Texas BBQ. Lotsa money, some tech, still an awful lot of oil/gas related money too.

That's about all I know, having not lived there, but visiting friends.

River Walk area is cool. As mentioned, lots of good food, but I’ve only visited. 

I’ve never been there. Only know of the river walk. Somebody will be along who lives/lived there. 

It's a dry heat - pleasant to work outside even in July, so long as you aren't walking through frigid indoor areas. Texas water bottles are sold at H-E-B and hold two liters. The great driving roads are north of the city. Southwest edge of the city, down by Lackland AFB, is frost-free some years. 

I lived on the northwest side of town around 2009, so a lot has probably changed.  That side of san antonio and the north end have a pretty good music scene, lots of shopping, and lots of restaurants.  Basically the place is "Austin Jr".  I would recommend looking near Loop-1604 on the northwest side of town for housing (around UTSA).  It was nice but not overly expensive.  Of course there are plenty of other places that are nice as well, but that's the easiest to reference.

Good:
LOTS of autocross and trackdays to be had in the area.  SPOKES and SASCA are both autocross organizations, and when I was there SASCA had an amazing venue at the SBC center (where the spurs play).  I think they're at "Blossom" now, which is at a school parking lot.  I've heard rumors of people bending their strut rods, but have never run the place myself.  Of course the Texas mile and Road America are nearby and you can always drive to Austin for more seat time if needed.

The hill country is nearby.  From San Antonio drive out highway 16 (bandera boulevard) to Bandera (small cowboy and ranch hand town), grab a big breakfast from the Old Spanish Trail restaurant and drive the twisties until you hit Kerrville.  It's a HOOT!  Once you reach Kerrville, you can either turn around and do it again, or follow Highway 10 back into town.

San antonio was nice in a lot of ways when I was in my mid-20s and livin it up (not so much now that I'm in my late 30s).  The Rodeo, Fiesta, and the music scene were lots of fun.

The San Antonio missions are something you HAVE to see.  Beautiful spanish architecture right in our own back yard.  I've never seen their equivalent in the US (Not a big fan of the Alamo).

Life is easy.  San Antonio is a big city that never felt like a big city to me.  it's hard to explain but that's something I really liked about the place

San Antonio is Austin Jr really.  (but a bit less progressive)

The bad?  The traffic.  San Antonio is growing way faster than the infrastructure can keep up with.  Highway interchanges get pretty damn clogged during rush-hour, and there is near constant construction on loop-410 and some of the other highways.  I'll also add "egos" to this list, as I'm from small town Washington state and when I was in Texas the near constant ego competition was something I'm definitely not used to.  I felt like anything I had (truck, sports car, etc) was going to be challenged by about damn near everyone.  It got old fast.


ninja addition:  YupIdidit lives in San Antonio, I think.  And M4ff3w lives in Austin.

Thank you! This is good info. I feel what you mean about “it’s a city, but not really”, I lived in Portland, OR for awhile back when it felt that way, now it’s just a ripoff of Seattle. And gross. Really, really, gross. 

_ said:

Thank you! This is good info. I feel what you mean about “it’s a city, but not really”, I lived in Portland, OR for awhile back when it felt that way, now it’s just a ripoff of Seattle. And gross. Really, really, gross. 

Oh perfect.  That reminds me then:  Up north we use pier and beam foundations, where in San Antonio they use concrete slabs.  This was completely new and out of the blue to me.  I've grown up on construction sights, and being able to crawl under my house to fix plumbing and wiring issues was just something I took for granted.  In San Antonio, if you rip up your carpet, there's just a concrete slab.  That's it.  It blew my friggin mind.

The other drawback is, the ground is soft so the slabs crack and the houses shift.   This problem is amplified by the fact that some of the developers in town are tossing up houses as fast as they can with little regard to longevity.  I would very much recommend that you rent rent rent unless you were ABSOLUTELY SURE you wanted to buy.  I just don't have the same faith that property in SA is going to appreciate the way it does up north.  In fact, I often expect the exact opposite to happen.

Hungary Bill said:

I lived on the northwest side of town around 2009, so a lot has probably changed.  That side of san antonio and the north end have a pretty good music scene, lots of shopping, and lots of restaurants.  Basically the place is "Austin Jr".  I would recommend looking near Loop-1604 on the northwest side of town for housing (around UTSA).  It was nice but not overly expensive.  Of course there are plenty of other places that are nice as well, but that's the easiest to reference.

Good:
LOTS of autocross and trackdays to be had in the area.  SPOKES and SASCA are both autocross organizations, and when I was there SASCA had an amazing venue at the SBC center (where the spurs play).  I think they're at "Blossom" now, which is at a school parking lot.  I've heard rumors of people bending their strut rods, but have never run the place myself.  Of course the Texas mile and Road America are nearby and you can always drive to Austin for more seat time if needed.

The hill country is nearby.  From San Antonio drive out highway 16 (bandera boulevard) to Bandera (small cowboy and ranch hand town), grab a big breakfast from the Old Spanish Trail restaurant and drive the twisties until you hit Kerrville.  It's a HOOT!  Once you reach Kerrville, you can either turn around and do it again, or follow Highway 10 back into town.

San antonio was nice in a lot of ways when I was in my mid-20s and livin it up (not so much now that I'm in my late 30s).  The Rodeo, Fiesta, and the music scene were lots of fun.

The San Antonio missions are something you HAVE to see.  Beautiful spanish architecture right in our own back yard.  I've never seen their equivalent in the US (Not a big fan of the Alamo).

Life is easy.  San Antonio is a big city that never felt like a big city to me.  it's hard to explain but that's something I really liked about the place

San Antonio is Austin Jr really.  (but a bit less progressive)

The bad?  The traffic.  San Antonio is growing way faster than the infrastructure can keep up with.  Highway interchanges get pretty damn clogged during rush-hour, and there is near constant construction on loop-410 and some of the other highways.  I'll also add "egos" to this list, as I'm from small town Washington state and when I was in Texas the near constant ego competition was something I'm definitely not used to.  I felt like anything I had (truck, sports car, etc) was going to be challenged by about damn near everyone.  It got old fast.
 

Agree with all of this, and I currently live here.  
 

As far as the racing scene goes, both SASCA (local San Antonio autocross club, not SCCA-affiliated) and Spokes (Austin SCCA) run in San Antonio at the River City Community Church parking lot - older surface but not abrasive; and occasionally at the horse racetrack parking lot.  Some of the personalities in SASCA are hard to deal with, but you can just show up and run your car for fun and ignore the nonsense.  Spokes sometimes runs out at the drag strip, which recently repaved their parking lot.

Traffic is pretty bad, but not Washington DC bad.  It's pretty congested - I recommend a nice smooth jazz mix on your commute.

If you do move out here, hit me up!

In reply to FIYAPOWA :

to be clear, Spokes has a lot of SCCA members in it. But it's not SCCA sanctioned in any way. 

In reply to Hungary Bill :

Dirt nerd alert.  It isn’t that the soil is soft (that could be the case), but the troublesome issue is highly expansive clays that are near surface in Central Texas. When they get wet, they swell and produce insane pressures (swell) that are highly damaging to lightly loaded structures (houses).  When they get dry, they shrink causing voids.  Huge problem that costs 10s of thousands to mitigate.  Your average stick builder doesn’t understand this and puts a turned down slab right on the black clay.  

To the OP: I lived in Austin in 2008 and loved it. Really like San Antonio as well.  The local music will spoil you.  Same with Tex Mex. I spent most of my weekends floating the Guadalupe river while I was there. Times were different for me like Hungary said, 20s, living it up. Not sure how much fun I’d have there in my current life chapter (small kids). Good luck.

I've lived here for two years coming from southern California and Virginia before that. 

San Antonio is a very easy city to live in. I don't particularly care about the food here but everything else is good. What I love the most about it is that it's easy to drive to any side of the city in reasonable time. The traffic isn't as bad as the big cities on the west coast. 

I agree with Hungary Bill on living on the northwest side but I also recommend the northeast side outside the 1604 loop (where I live) and the stone oak area on the most north side. This place is growing fast but the real estate is still reasonable as long as you don't want land lol. Property taxes are high but no state income taxes.  

When you're ready to look further into it let me know. Vigo also lives here and he helped me out when I moved here. I think he might be a native. 

chaparral said:

It's a dry heat - pleasant to work outside even in July, so long as you aren't walking through frigid indoor areas. Texas water bottles are sold at H-E-B and hold two liters. The great driving roads are north of the city. Southwest edge of the city, down by Lackland AFB, is frost-free some years. 

This E36 M3 isn't dry heat. This wet booty crack humidity heat in July! I lived in 110 degree summers that were dry and it was less miserable than 95deg with humidity here in San Antonio. 

I have only visited friends who live there but my cumulative total days spent in the area is now over a week, therefore I am an expert!

The Alamo is tiny and not as cool as in the movies. River walk?... Meh. Freeways are mostly 2 lane and yes the traffic can suck during heavy commute times. Random the beer garden/food/music/play park mashup thing is really cool. It's in Boerne. Deer are freakin everywhere. People are friendly and not as stereotypic Texan as I feared. Somewhat cosmopolitan. Hey who's baggin on Portland anyway!?

Man, you guys got me feeling all nostalgic.  I had an hour left at the desk before the weekend and I just finished listening to Randy Rogers and now I've moved on to Robert Earl Keen (Corpus Christi Bay).  Just like that, I'm 25 again in my red FC with the windows down on a cool summer night.

Those were some darn good times

If you do get to the Alamo, be sure and check out the basement. 

yupididit said:

I've lived here for two years coming from southern California and Virginia before that. 

San Antonio is a very easy city to live in. I don't particularly care about the food here but everything else is good. What I love the most about it is that it's easy to drive to any side of the city in reasonable time. The traffic isn't as bad as the big cities on the west coast. 

I agree with Hungary Bill on living on the northwest side but I also recommend the northeast side outside the 1604 loop (where I live) and the stone oak area on the most north side. This place is growing fast but the real estate is still reasonable as long as you don't want land lol. Property taxes are high but no state income taxes.  

When you're ready to look further into it let me know. Vigo also lives here and he helped me out when I moved here. I think he might be a native. 

Mega helpful! Thanks! I’ll let you know if/when we get. We live in Bend right now. Talk about a fast growing city with a poorly designed infrastructure. Everywhere you go the roadways are archaic. And yet, expected to funnel over 200,000 people. The idiot government puppets dump all the money into the off-road bike paths that no one uses (because cyclists would rather share the road with 3,000lb “unguided” missles), instead of fixing or expanding the already congested roadways. 

Sparkydog said:

Hey who's baggin on Portland anyway!?

On multiple occasions, walking downtown PDX, I’ve been met with human feces. It didn’t used to be that way. 

Hey speaking of hobos, what’s the homeless sitch in SA? 

_ said:

Sparkydog said:

Hey who's baggin on Portland anyway!?

On multiple occasions, walking downtown PDX, I’ve been met with human feces. It didn’t used to be that way. 

Hey speaking of hobos, what’s the homeless sitch in SA? 

You'll see them downtown. But, not a lot of them. 

_ said:

yupididit said:

I've lived here for two years coming from southern California and Virginia before that. 

San Antonio is a very easy city to live in. I don't particularly care about the food here but everything else is good. What I love the most about it is that it's easy to drive to any side of the city in reasonable time. The traffic isn't as bad as the big cities on the west coast. 

I agree with Hungary Bill on living on the northwest side but I also recommend the northeast side outside the 1604 loop (where I live) and the stone oak area on the most north side. This place is growing fast but the real estate is still reasonable as long as you don't want land lol. Property taxes are high but no state income taxes.  

When you're ready to look further into it let me know. Vigo also lives here and he helped me out when I moved here. I think he might be a native. 

Mega helpful! Thanks! I’ll let you know if/when we get. We live in Bend right now. Talk about a fast growing city with a poorly designed infrastructure. Everywhere you go the roadways are archaic. And yet, expected to funnel over 200,000 people. The idiot government puppets dump all the money into the off-road bike paths that no one uses (because cyclists would rather share the road with 3,000lb “unguided” missles), instead of fixing or expanding the already congested roadways. 

All the major highways and roadways are getting upgraded right now. It's kind of annoying but at least they're planning along with the increasing number of people moving here. 

_ said:

Sparkydog said:

Hey who's baggin on Portland anyway!?

On multiple occasions, walking downtown PDX, I’ve been met with human feces. It didn’t used to be that way. 

Hey speaking of hobos, what’s the homeless sitch in SA? 

Making my way downtown, walking fast
Feces passed and I'm grossed out...

A friend of mine from growing up is in the military and he's been station a few places (northern California, NC, San Antonio) and he told me once San Antonio was his favorite of the bunch.