where to live, work at randolph afb (San Antonio, Austin: apartments, lofts) - Texas (TX) - City-Data Forum

rgb123 · 05-10-2008, 08:40 PM

Hello! after a year of research and interviews...I have finally accepted a job and I am really excited to be moving to the San Antonio area! It's been a long road and I can finally start orchestrating my move! I don't know much about San Antionio, and this job came up at the last minute so I have not been able to prepare that well. I will be moving in about a month.

I visited for one day last week, got to see the riverwalk and a bit of downtown, and drove around a little (holy construction!)

Okay...here is my main question. I will be working at Randolph AFB. What are the best places to start looking for a place? Is downtown San Antionio feasible? Do people live there or do more prefer the suburbs? (I could not tell but have not seen a lot of apartment listings downtown).

Also, I have read and seen so many cool things about New Braunfels. It looks kinda awesome! I am an avid swimmer and I am getting really excited about all the water recreation possibilities!

I am 31, female, single -- and have been living in the distant suburbs for a long time and was looking forward to getting back to a city....but now am wondering if I might prefer something like New Braunfels anyway.

Any thoughts or suggestions of where to look?

thanks in advance!

firstclassflyer · 05-10-2008, 08:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rgb123

Hello! after a year of research and interviews...I have finally accepted a job and I am really excited to be moving to the San Antonio area! It's been a long road and I can finally start orchestrating my move! I don't know much about San Antionio, and this job came up at the last minute so I have not been able to prepare that well. I will be moving in about a month.

I visited for one day last week, got to see the riverwalk and a bit of downtown, and drove around a little (holy construction!)

Okay...here is my main question. I will be working at Randolph AFB. What are the best places to start looking for a place? Is downtown San Antionio feasible? Do people live there or do more prefer the suburbs? (I could not tell but have not seen a lot of apartment listings downtown).

Also, I have read and seen so many cool things about New Braunfels. It looks kinda awesome! I am an avid swimmer and I am getting really excited about all the water recreation possibilities!

I am 31, female, single -- and have been living in the distant suburbs for a long time and was looking forward to getting back to a city....but now am wondering if I might prefer something like New Braunfels anyway.

Any thoughts or suggestions of where to look?

thanks in advance!

You should really take a look at the sticky that's posted at the top of the San Antonio page. It's invaluable and will help to answer a lot of your questions. Good luck!

rgb123 · 05-10-2008, 08:58 PM

thanks...I checked it out, but didn't really see anything too specifically related to my question? There is a link to Randolph, but not really anything about where people live that work there....I'm sure I need to explore more but nothing jumped out at me.

Thanks.

Steel Man · 05-10-2008, 11:22 PM

Although New Braunfels is nice, you would be fighting traffic to/from work on I35. Living near downtown area would be easier driving as you would be going the opposite way to/from Randolph and would miss the heavy traffic. However, as you said there's not a lot of apartments there, but there are more condos/lofts being built (expensive though). You might try the Selma/Schertz areas where you can take other routes than I35 to Randolph AFB.

rgb123 · 05-12-2008, 01:51 AM

thanks, I will look into that. I know this has probably been answered before...but I am really curious...why doesn't anyone live dowtown, or is that an area that is starting to grow? Is it considered trendy or is it considered dangerous!?

Thanks. didn't realize there was traffic around new branfels, good to know.

sc hokie · 05-12-2008, 06:28 AM

I live in Schertz and work at Randolph. It takes me 15 minutes door to door, 20 with traffic, 25 if I get caught by a train (you'll know what I mean soon enough). Where I live there are several routes I can take to base, which helps with traffic or construction. If you live in New Braunfels you're kind of committed to I-35, which can get pretty busy in the mornings. I'll let you in on a little secret though. In this part of town Randolph has two rush times in the morning. From about 7:40-8:00 it gets real busy as everyone tries to get to work by 8:00. This repeats itself at 8:30-9:00 as people go to work at 9:00, plus school starts about then. Outside of those times traffic is fairly light, even on I-35. You can almost set your watch to the crowds. If you don't mind being a bit early (or late) to work, you can avoid most of the rush.

It takes me a good 25 minutes to get to the Riverwalk area, 35 by the time I've found someplace to park.

I can get to New Braunfels in 10 minutes, San Marcos in 20, and Austin in 45 (though it's more about an hour to the 6th Street area). Since I live on the Northeast side of town I'm already halfway to Canyon Lake and the hill country.

In my opinion the important factor is what do you want to do when you're not at work? If you like concerts, Spurs games, going out to eat, going to clubs/bars, then downtown might be the way to go. If you're more of an outdoors person with swimming, boating, hiking, horseback riding, then check out the Northeast side of town. Even in Schertz you won't be surrounded by outdoor activities, but they're only 10-15 minutes away, as opposed to an hour (with weekend traffic).

The Man in SATX · 05-12-2008, 06:31 AM

Universal City, Schertz, Marion, Cibilo all are small cities that would be really close to Randolph AFB... you could even live down near Converse and drive FM 78 to Randolph every morning. Are you looking for a house or an apartment to live in? If it is an apartment.. that limits your choices in those areas as not all of the cities that I mentioned have apartments... Depending on how long of a drive you want will say where you live... There are apartments in Converse that I know of... (brand new) and a little farther down 78 near Kirby that are brand new..

Congratulations on your new job and welcome to San Antonio.

As far as downtown living.. Our downtown was not set up to live in it.. there are very FEW apartments or established living areas down there...

Colokev · 05-12-2008, 06:44 PM

My husband works at Randolph AFB and we live in the Rogers Ranch area off 1604/Bitters.

LittleTPot · 05-19-2008, 11:38 AM

Hi RGB, I don't have any advice, but I wanted to let you know that I'm moving from Chicago to San Antonio this summer, too. My husband and I want to be somewhat close to downtown so that the move isn't too big of a shock to the system. We're looking into some neighborhoods inside 410, and we're definitely excited about being closer to downtown.

Good luck with your move! Won't it be a nice change after this horrible winter?