San Antonio small town feel? (Houston, Laredo: construction, live, military)

[MustermannBB]

San Antonio for being in the top 10 largest cities in the US, does have small town feeling to it. Or let's say from all the cities in the top 10 SA has the biggest small town vibe. But compared, as others have pointed out, to actual small towns it of course does not.

[Chaka]

Originally Posted by MustermannBB

You mean on the one on S.Flores? I really liked that area or the potential it has. It together with Southtown.Art-Dirtrict and all the new river improvement projects could make that entire area into something pretty great.
South after the tracks would have get cleaned up a bit perhaps... in some areas anyways.
But overall it was a fun place to be and could be something special in the future.

Yes, the SoFlo market.
The area is already pretty great. Now the only affordable housing options are South of the tracks, and that's already looking good.

[Chaka]

Originally Posted by rynetwo

Does anyone care to explain the comments about lacking vision and disdain for outside views?

IME, comments from city management types (not Sculley, lower level management), who, when they propose something another city has already done, and you say "Let's look at how X city did it. What worked, what didn't." The response is, "No, we don't need to look at anyone else. We're San Antonio!" (or Texas, the same applies at the state level)

When a writer pens an article about San Antonio, if they're not born and raised here, comments along the lines of "You're not from here, your opinion doesn't matter."

Even political candidates get in on that "The city doesn't need people not from here telling us what to do." (Hypocritcally, said by people not actually born here but who, for whatever reason, believe their longevity means more than others').

The city has a horrible problem of refusing to look to other cities and learn from their experiences.

And I'm not talking about tacos.

[pacific_trader]

After having lived in Houston for almost 3 decades, but grown up in SA, yeah, it definitely has a small-town feel. Not like Gonzales or Seguin or Shiner, places I spent a lot of time in my youth, but the fact that you can drive from the East side to the West side during rush hour in about 15 minutes says a lot. Austin is the same way. Houston is such a spread-out mess, it's very annoying sometimes.

[CyVaquero]

Originally Posted by ranchodrive

Compared to Buda, Texas... no!

Compared to New York...yes!

That's my thought - SA doesn't feel anything like the top 15 largest metro areas in the U.S. but does feel like the other top 20-30 which is right where it sits.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...tistical_Areas

[bolonyokte]

small town feeling, hummm well as of now, water rationing and getting caught when its not your day, and meters to shut your utilities at certain times and gas prices at the pump sometimes, and toll roads for regulating traffic when it was never a problem, little things do mean a lot, so small town/my town feeling left long ago and didn't even leave a forwarding address.

[ranchodrive]

Originally Posted by pacific_trader

After having lived in Houston for almost 3 decades, but grown up in SA, yeah, it definitely has a small-town feel. Not like Gonzales or Seguin or Shiner, places I spent a lot of time in my youth, but the fact that you can drive from the East side to the West side during rush hour in about 15 minutes says a lot. Austin is the same way. Houston is such a spread-out mess, it's very annoying sometimes.

Took almost an hour to leave Dallas.

I was driving a fast speed Porsche which made it possible
to get on the right lane quick otherwise I'd still be circling the Dallas freeways.

In that sense, SA has a small feel to it
in that you can pretty much go from
one end of town to the other.

But as far as the way folks drive & text,
that's a universal stupidity that all cities
have whether big or small!

[Me331]

Originally Posted by Chico210

Hello,

To those that live in San Antonio do you think that with all the growth San Antonio still retains the small town feel and mentality that it is well known for? And do you think it will always retain that feel no matter how big the city grows?

IMO... No. I have lived here on and off for most my life. There was a day this might have been true. Between traffic/crime/rising cost of living and at times seems to be uncontrolled growth. Not anymore.

[dhsa]

One example of small-town feel, inside Loop 410:
Leaving downtown Friday night at 6:30 driving up Broadway and turning onto Austin Highway, traffic is nothing, apart from (e.g.) the 281 entrance points on Josephine and Hildebrand. Plenty of gaps with no traffic for 30+ seconds.

OTOH few who own a working automobile will walk to get where they're going, even if it's just 3 blocks away.

[ranchodrive]

Originally Posted by dhsa

One example of small-town feel, inside Loop 410:
Leaving downtown Friday night at 6:30 driving up Broadway and turning onto Austin Highway, traffic is nothing, apart from (e.g.) the 281 entrance points on Josephine and Hildebrand. Plenty of gaps with no traffic for 30+ seconds.

OTOH few who own a working automobile will walk to get where they're going, even if it's just 3 blocks away.

I ride my 1950s bicycle to go to H.E.B. for small items.


This gives me a small town feeling riding in the neighborhood!