Chris, bit of a hatchet job you did on the city we love and have lived in for almost 15 years. I get it though, you didn't have enough time and it's why the lens was focused on the one neighborhood you were in.
For reference, the farther out loop is 1604, the inner loop is 410. The charm of San Antonio will not be found walking around a single neighborhood, but instead by enjoying Alamo Heights, The Pearl, The Riverwalk, Downtown, Southtown, Castle Hills, Stone Oak, the East side, Southside, Helotes, Hollywood Park, Medical Center, and many other neighborhoods.
And that's just it: it's a mid-size to large city, but is comprised of many neighborhoods, each with its own flavor and own distinct style. It's the capitol of South Texas, and from your review, you just shit all over it with a dystopian description.
So many emigrate to San Antonio from smaller cities in South Texas, fulfilling their dreams of living in a larger city with greater access to healthcare, shopping, transportation, good jobs, and entertainment. It's also an immensely affordable city for the middle class who've not been priced out of homeownership by $700,000 condos and townhomes.
You spent a day in an area of town most locals never trek to and then extrapolated it to our entire city. Sorry dude, you missed a great town. HMU when you're back :)
Yes, the dogs! I ride a bike everywhere I go, and I've done it all over the US, but San Antonio is the only place I've ever been chased by not a single dog but a whole, feral-looking pack of them. That said, 20 years ago at least, the bus system was surprisingly good.
I’m heading to San Antonio in December for what, pre-pandemic, was an annual visit for the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. It’s a gathering of the brightest minds in breast cancer research where new discoveries are announced and applauded. I’m an advocate - not a scientist - but I always enjoy hobnobbing with the super-smart. In 2019 I booked an extra night at my hotel so I could spend some time exploring, post Symposium. My experience was much like yours - minus the bus ride. I usually like to move around a city as a resident would, but I found it less inviting than I had hoped. My saddest discovery came on a walk to look for the Lady Bird Johnson Fountain... what I found was a crumbling, non-functioning relic, overgrown with weeds. I was particularly saddened remembering Lady Bird’s vision of a better looking America. While the hope of medical advances draws me back, and spending time with great friends who share my passion for a better life for folks living with metastatic breast cancer is a special incentive, I am honestly not looking forward to spending time in SA. Trying to be optimistic...
Everything you say in this post is all too familiar. I love the pictures you capture and shared. I always thought I was creating my own sadness but it’s true as you travel through SA it’s a roller coaster. I love it and I hate it sometimes. Thank you for sharing.
I’ve lived here most of my life and the entrenched poverty we have here just never seems to budge. There are historical reasons for it, but it’s hard for me to understand how the vaunted Texas mythology continues to exist in the face of all the evidence of suffering that happens in our state.
pretty good. perhaps i missed some parts but i feel that the core of san antonio is more alive than some of what you are saying here though. i wouldn't compare it to the urban northern cities, tho it's 1,000 miles from the vigor and vitality of downtown austin.
Thanks for this window into San Antonio Chris. I have lived here for 3 years and while there is more to SA than you have described, you have also captured an essential aspect of the city that is too easily forgotten or ignored. There is a complexity to the culture here that has arisen across 300+ years and is very much regional and very different than Texas north of San Antonio - lots of intersections that are better understood on foot than by car or airplane. If you are ever in San Antonio again, I hope we can take a walk together...
This is a lot like the town I live in (Pueblo, CO), a red-haired stepchild in the state, which is so moneyed and growing. I admit, I thought Pueblo was just fast-food signs on the way to Taos or Santa Fe. It's so much more, both really heartbreaking but also full of people trying to make the town better for all (and not just the old-school families who don't want anyone to get ahead). I loved this dispatch though.
Start liking it. The lower classes have long been picked clean and what's left of the middle class is well on the way to being cannibalized, all in service of permanent war and empire.
Moving from a semi rural place in Idaho to Seattle gave me a certain perspective on the way money flows.
So many of the rural areas- for whatever reasons (debatable and irrelevant in a way)- are collapsing. The money has gone, and the response is grievous. I've been up and down the American West, and many places are in a sad, sad situation.
I wish more of the DC elected elite made it their mission to help the working class schmucks, regardless of party affiliation or party lines.
Don't get too down Chris (says she, sitting in her comfortable air-conditioned office). That photo of the church at mass was beautiful. Yesterday we made the mistake of parking our new-ish Tesla next to our table at breakfast. Our Central American host/restaurant owner remarked on it, and said "Someday." I wish I could have told him that my husband's lifelong dream was to own a restaurant, so here we were even-steven.
Chris, bit of a hatchet job you did on the city we love and have lived in for almost 15 years. I get it though, you didn't have enough time and it's why the lens was focused on the one neighborhood you were in.
For reference, the farther out loop is 1604, the inner loop is 410. The charm of San Antonio will not be found walking around a single neighborhood, but instead by enjoying Alamo Heights, The Pearl, The Riverwalk, Downtown, Southtown, Castle Hills, Stone Oak, the East side, Southside, Helotes, Hollywood Park, Medical Center, and many other neighborhoods.
And that's just it: it's a mid-size to large city, but is comprised of many neighborhoods, each with its own flavor and own distinct style. It's the capitol of South Texas, and from your review, you just shit all over it with a dystopian description.
So many emigrate to San Antonio from smaller cities in South Texas, fulfilling their dreams of living in a larger city with greater access to healthcare, shopping, transportation, good jobs, and entertainment. It's also an immensely affordable city for the middle class who've not been priced out of homeownership by $700,000 condos and townhomes.
You spent a day in an area of town most locals never trek to and then extrapolated it to our entire city. Sorry dude, you missed a great town. HMU when you're back :)
Yes, the dogs! I ride a bike everywhere I go, and I've done it all over the US, but San Antonio is the only place I've ever been chased by not a single dog but a whole, feral-looking pack of them. That said, 20 years ago at least, the bus system was surprisingly good.
I’m heading to San Antonio in December for what, pre-pandemic, was an annual visit for the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. It’s a gathering of the brightest minds in breast cancer research where new discoveries are announced and applauded. I’m an advocate - not a scientist - but I always enjoy hobnobbing with the super-smart. In 2019 I booked an extra night at my hotel so I could spend some time exploring, post Symposium. My experience was much like yours - minus the bus ride. I usually like to move around a city as a resident would, but I found it less inviting than I had hoped. My saddest discovery came on a walk to look for the Lady Bird Johnson Fountain... what I found was a crumbling, non-functioning relic, overgrown with weeds. I was particularly saddened remembering Lady Bird’s vision of a better looking America. While the hope of medical advances draws me back, and spending time with great friends who share my passion for a better life for folks living with metastatic breast cancer is a special incentive, I am honestly not looking forward to spending time in SA. Trying to be optimistic...
I can't believe I missed you at Twin Peaks! I would've loved to shake your hand. And stopping at El Potosino was probably an unexpected surprise.
Everything you say in this post is all too familiar. I love the pictures you capture and shared. I always thought I was creating my own sadness but it’s true as you travel through SA it’s a roller coaster. I love it and I hate it sometimes. Thank you for sharing.
I’ve lived here most of my life and the entrenched poverty we have here just never seems to budge. There are historical reasons for it, but it’s hard for me to understand how the vaunted Texas mythology continues to exist in the face of all the evidence of suffering that happens in our state.
I just love your commentary and photos; I think avoiding the auto travel is an important part of the mindfulness that you project. Thanks.
Some days are dark days, and some places are dark places. And it can be good to acknowledge that...
pretty good. perhaps i missed some parts but i feel that the core of san antonio is more alive than some of what you are saying here though. i wouldn't compare it to the urban northern cities, tho it's 1,000 miles from the vigor and vitality of downtown austin.
Thanks for this window into San Antonio Chris. I have lived here for 3 years and while there is more to SA than you have described, you have also captured an essential aspect of the city that is too easily forgotten or ignored. There is a complexity to the culture here that has arisen across 300+ years and is very much regional and very different than Texas north of San Antonio - lots of intersections that are better understood on foot than by car or airplane. If you are ever in San Antonio again, I hope we can take a walk together...
This is a lot like the town I live in (Pueblo, CO), a red-haired stepchild in the state, which is so moneyed and growing. I admit, I thought Pueblo was just fast-food signs on the way to Taos or Santa Fe. It's so much more, both really heartbreaking but also full of people trying to make the town better for all (and not just the old-school families who don't want anyone to get ahead). I loved this dispatch though.
Start liking it. The lower classes have long been picked clean and what's left of the middle class is well on the way to being cannibalized, all in service of permanent war and empire.
The UCAT bus system in Ulster county just became free. The government paid for more than 95% before that. But you’re right about buses and the poor.
Moving from a semi rural place in Idaho to Seattle gave me a certain perspective on the way money flows.
So many of the rural areas- for whatever reasons (debatable and irrelevant in a way)- are collapsing. The money has gone, and the response is grievous. I've been up and down the American West, and many places are in a sad, sad situation.
I wish more of the DC elected elite made it their mission to help the working class schmucks, regardless of party affiliation or party lines.
Gritty reminder. It’s important not to forget.
Don't get too down Chris (says she, sitting in her comfortable air-conditioned office). That photo of the church at mass was beautiful. Yesterday we made the mistake of parking our new-ish Tesla next to our table at breakfast. Our Central American host/restaurant owner remarked on it, and said "Someday." I wish I could have told him that my husband's lifelong dream was to own a restaurant, so here we were even-steven.