Who thinks downtown needs some MAJOR rennovations (Houston, Dallas: living, restaurants)

[urbsan]

i also may want to point out that king william use to be in the same boat. my parents moved into a house there in 1987 and now the value of the house has almost tripled and trust me they have done many necessary renovations to the house. They saw the neighborhood for its potential and didnt feel it necessary to worry about its rep back then.

[SweethomeSanAntonio]

Originally Posted by GWhopper

"Slums of King William?" Never heard that before."
Have you ever been to the area between Carolina and Florida streets? Have you spent much time behind the old Victoria Courts? There is an original Pig Stand down there off (I think) South Alamo. It's really cool, they have this 16 foot pig that I think was once a drive-thru or walk-up window. If you have spent any time in that specific area, could you identify a home or a property that you would personally feel comfortable raising your family in?

That area is Lavaca, not King William.

[metalfish]

Why are you guys so eager to label everything slums and feel your better than teh people who llive there. I know several people who live off florida street and they are very decent people.

[SweethomeSanAntonio]

La Cascada condos are 300,000's -1,000,000 price range. I would say they are either sold out, or pretty close too it. Not all the new devlopments are high end. Look at the 14 story Vistana Apts, UC. What i have read, they are going to be affordable.The demand is there regardless if all S.A's fortune 500 companies don't relocate downtown. Austin(Round Rock) has one F 500 company and it's not downtown. Austin is building away. Most jobs in downtown Austin are government jobs, and are above average paying jobs. You don't have high paid CEO's running around the CBD. Again, they are building away, aiming on attracting more residents, regardless if they work there or not. The same for San Antonio. San Antonio's downtown has so many attractions for the locals to enjoy, is enough to attract new residents. Furthermore, I'm not saying attracting higher paying jobs won't help spur even more residential. It's not going to damper what we see going on in downtown, Alamo City.

The company I work for is based out of Seattle. The owner called and was asking our office about the Riverwalk. Apparently he is investing on some new timeshare condos, that will be developed in 2008. He didn't give us all the specifics, but said it was going too be big time. He wanted a lil input from his San Antonio branch.

[Primo]

When I say the Slum's of King William...it is an affectionate term. It is an oxymoron. I guess it is a Nortside word. I hear "The Slums of Sonterra" a lot...meaning..one smaller garden home neighborhood that still bears the name Sonterra...but isn't in the estates area or the Enclave. I have heard this used in the Dominion referring to the non-estate developement within the Dominion.

[CelesteDF]

Originally Posted by Primo

When I say the Slum's of King William...it is an affectionate term.

LOL - before I left SA for DC, I lived in what we jokingly called the "slum" or "Baja King Wlliam"... little 2 and 3 bedroom bungalows on the "other" side of Alamo Street. Today these houses are going for $250K and up, even when they're not fully renovated. I love urban renewal but, boy, the price tag can be hard to swallow!

[Insomniac]

All I think about when I read Slums of King William is the movie Slums of Beverly Hills. Really good movie.

[SweethomeSanAntonio]

Originally Posted by Primo

When I say the Slum's of King William...it is an affectionate term. It is an oxymoron. I guess it is a Nortside word. I hear "The Slums of Sonterra" a lot...meaning..one smaller garden home neighborhood that still bears the name Sonterra...but isn't in the estates area or the Enclave. I have heard this used in the Dominion referring to the non-estate developement within the Dominion.

The way you have been describing San Antonio, one would think differently.

[GWhopper]

Originally Posted by SweethomeSanAntonio

That area is Lavaca, not King William.

Really? You may be right, but the King William district has some kind of involvement there. My church is actually in that area and we did a major restoration project back in the 1990's. In addition to having to work to with the State and Local historical societies, we had to also run our plans through the King William historical society, or whatever its called, to get their approval. And for years we participated in the King William Festival (we don't do that anymore, it got to be too much work too close to Easter and hard for us to find volunteers)

Maybe its a "suburb of the slums of King Williams"?

[Primo]

Gang Brawl Spills Into Downtown Streets
Sun Dec 30, 7:08 PM ET


Several units of the San Antonio Police Department were summoned to Rivercenter Mall Saturday evening for an unusual response call.
A number of suspected gang members ? police said more than 150 ? began accosting passersby and tourists near the mall entrances around 10 p.m.
Also causing problems for responders were more than 20 people fighting in the middle of the street.
?I don?t think we have ever seen this many at one time,? SAPD Sgt. William Lowery said. ?There was over 150, and as we moved them along to get them out of the street ? we see about 20 or 30 of them fighting in the middle of the street.?
Various SAPD units, as well as Park Police and mall security, all worked together during the fracas and several suspected gang members were arrested, but nobody was injured during the fighting