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Location: Central Texas. Wait, I mean South Texas. Actually, both Central and South Texas
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The poorest cities in America are in the Northeast and Rust Belt. Nowhere in Texas (not SA, not even the RGV or El Paso) can compare to places like Camden, New Jersey, Chester, PA and Johnstown, PA (my hometown). Some of the poorer areas of these cities are more like developing countries rather than anything else in America.
Sure San Antonio has some low income areas, but Dallas and Houston have plenty as well.
Austin is just in a different category right now. More like Coastal California than the rest of Texas. You might be happier there (in Austin or Coastal California).
You should be thankful for what we have here. Your criticism of San Antonio is trivial and unwarranted.
The poorest cities in America are in the Northeast and Rust Belt. Nowhere in Texas (not SA, not even the RGV or El Paso) can compare to places like Camden, New Jersey, Chester, PA and Johnstown, PA (my hometown). Some of the poorer areas of these cities are more like developing countries rather than anything else in America.
Sure San Antonio has some low income areas, but Dallas and Houston have plenty as well.
Austin is just in a different category right now. More like Coastal California than the rest of Texas. You might be happier there (in Austin or Coastal California).
You should be thankful for what we have here. Your criticism of San Antonio is trivial and unwarranted.
For some reason I feel like I had heard the RGV had the most poverty in the country, but I can't find any articles that say so. Maybe I'll find it some time soon. OP has made several trips to the Austin forum and has identified that his income is too low to make it in Austin. Currently our 1/1 apartments average about $1100 a month. While I could find something cheaper it's not going to be in a so/so area and be very old. (Maybe like one of the cheaper Medical Center apartments).
For some reason I feel like I had heard the RGV had the most poverty in the country, but I can't find any articles that say so. Maybe I'll find it some time soon. OP has made several trips to the Austin forum and has identified that his income is too low to make it in Austin. Currently our 1/1 apartments average about $1100 a month. While I could find something cheaper it's not going to be in a so/so area and be very old. (Maybe like one of the cheaper Medical Center apartments).
Yes for a while Brownsville,TX was considered the poorest city in the US. But I'm sure violent crimewise it's nowhere near somewhere like Camden. Yes I'd like to move to Austin but I don't think I can make the income for it, especially since I have childrens.
Once again I would not believe the numbers you have read because,
Guess what many are here Illegally. The Govt. or otherwise polling is very inaccurate with estimates.
I can personally attest the the amount of immigrants that are here is much more than you might
believe. Much,much more than may be imagined by the Govt. or think tanks. We might have one of the largest population of entry level, compared to the entire population of the city.
I would not believe every stat that you read. I have seen proof of what I read.
If you don't believe this, it is your matter. TO begin with San Antonio grows the fastest and has lesser
populations than the tree biggest cities. I have been on a construction site here, a large one, where upon
glancing up to look around where there were fifty or sixty people representing all trades from brick layers
to electricians to carpenters.
In my naivete I was shocked, everyone has disappeared! Within seconds I was alone. Every man to the last
did not have any papeles with him. You've no idea , really. I used to believe in stats. conerning immigration numbers. I stopped long ago. Displaced workers? OMG Where fifty or sixty guys went I don't know. Hiding
inside the immense project buildings.
Dad had two houses built lately.
Every last worker in both instances was here illegally. To the last. Dad used to talk to them. I rarely work
in San Antonio but years ago before I retired I had a place in the conversion of the cement plant \ limestone quarry into the golf course there called the quarry for another example. That was a complete mess.
There was a private military school for boys there which my Dad threatened me with when I was twelve and my grades in school precipitously dropped. We demolished it to build the quarry.
One morning, the project manager said to me "Go an speak to the guys in charge of land balancing,( the excavating contractor). This place was strange and full of water, very very, dangerous, with precipitous
cliffs all over which had to be changed to make room for the mall and other details, the minutia of which I can not recall anymore. Imagine my surprise when the excavation had hired hourly very some talented heavy equipment operators, guys from H.B. the largest contractor of any in the city, which has contract work; internationally. A huge concern it is, in the very sense of that word.
There was a glitch in the fundamental operations of the erection of this giant tribute to the spending of money that is, The Quarry. Not only was it partly built with illegal labor, who knows the true percentage
of whom did have a legal status, perhaps a majority. I have seen it.
The guys that Zachry had sent over to assist in the insanely dangerous work at the Quarry did not speak one single word of English.
I had been voluteered and so sent over to assist with the " breaking in " of these guys. It was insane
and although these guys were experts at what they did , they could not even read engineering stakes which
project engineering depends so completely upon. I had not an idea, because these guys were so not even legally supposed to be here, that I was not told by anyone what had to be done that morning.
I had to take them all off their machinery and explain what the -flat wooden three foot stakes- indicated in engineering abbreviations of what needed to be done- what the surveyors had written in permanent marker upon as instructions. I was so astonished.
Complete green horns in terms of what to do, not how to do it, but what to do as indicated by engineering. These are but very tiny examples of the entire picture. There is no way to keep track
of this number, it is silly to believe mostly innacurate estimates . We are very close to the border. There is a building boom on here so it is far worse a problem than Trumpus thinks even. Or. Even you.
Build that wall!!!
These guys many times have familia here, and I think, nay know; that many contractors
have a direct mainline into Mexico, into- a labor pool of talent and there so there is steady influx of people to the City. This goes on everywhere but moreso here than any place I have ever witnessed. It is atonishing how many people do the actual work here in south Texas. Not east Texas , not North Texas, here. When someone is needed the message is sent south and a man is sent.
Just like Indeed.com. it is.
I perhaps may have revealed too much, the primary excavating contractor at the golf course was
I believe Longfellow out of Chicago, they work world wide installing only golf courses.
So you see, kid, you are posting misinformational statistics on a message board, essentially.
This city has always had a far larger percentage of Hispanic people , indeed we are famed for
this, notoriety. Guess what? The entry level immigrants- keep their presence secret.
Stat. Numbers are only an inaccurate estimate. At best.
The underworld of labor talent and immigrant traffic always has existed here. From time immemorial.
Because of the springs at San Pedro, people have always come.
Build it and they will come- from the old Kevin Kostner film. A city was built at the site.
So with a large immigrant population, Sanitary Sewer River City Rocky, there will always be the accompanying "Shanty Town" that goes along with it. Thus it has always been. Have you any idea about the River Walk Water downtown yet, Rocky? Figure it out.
The Irish used to differentiate between Shanty Town Irish and Lace Curtain Irish. Lace curtain Irish
wait til' after noon to take the first nip off the bottle.
Exactly like in the northeast where the Irish, Italian, etc. intake occurred long ago. Here it is a permanent condition. A lower income area. IT is not discriminitory, it is basic fundamental economic truth. You don't get it.
You should have seen us before. Kid. We may never catch Dallas or Houston. That is alright with me.
It is crowded enough already.
Need more? More information can be had upon request.
However go on ahead and believe as you like. It is best that way. Keep on, keeping on Rocky.
Are you surely, a newcomer to the Alamo City?
Ok...
I can guarantee you that the poverty in San Antonio has nothing to do with immigration.
I can also guarantee you that Austin, Dallas, and Houston have a higher proportion of immigrants as their population.
The poorest cities in America are in the Northeast and Rust Belt. Nowhere in Texas (not SA, not even the RGV or El Paso) can compare to places like Camden, New Jersey, Chester, PA and Johnstown, PA (my hometown). Some of the poorer areas of these cities are more like developing countries rather than anything else in America.
Sure San Antonio has some low income areas, but Dallas and Houston have plenty as well.
Austin is just in a different category right now. More like Coastal California than the rest of Texas. You might be happier there (in Austin or Coastal California).
You should be thankful for what we have here. Your criticism of San Antonio is trivial and unwarranted.
You're right Dallas and Houston also have rough areas but for some reason I feel like San Antonio is more apathetic or more hopeless. The rough areas of Dallas and Houston are more surrounded by wealth as a whole and I guess therefore a little more ambitious.
I salute you, because you are absolutely true in what you, my friend, have written. I have traveled these cities of the rust belt and those are some extremely rough cities, you wrote of. I know this kid knows only to type and enter. No practical experience. Even the criminals here are amateurs and maybe even cops will enter the illegal fray.
Inner city politicians of the northeast can be just as bad as the criminals. S.A. is squeaky clean in this aspect also.
I have never, ever seen the equal of the poverty of those cities in the northeast, with the exception of parts of San Antonio which I can recall vividly from childhood. Ramshackle dwellings intermingled with a nicer house, here and there.
That entire area immediately west of downtown was razed. I know because I returned after many years of absence and looked to where the old house used to be. A brick home sits there now.
I have a book, I think I still have... but in a historical study of the Mexican American culture of north America, San Antonio,tx was singled out as having had the only third world living conditions ever to exist in the United States. On the west side.
This above guy don't get this.
Civility is due all here at the forum. It is fun to see what people can enter though.
It is into these conditions of poverty that I was born, on Vera Cruz st. here. I was born long after those living conditions which I quoted above from the book, were gone. However it, was , still a place of great poverty even when I was born. On San Antonio's west side. Indeed, I was not brought home to a house when I was born but instead to a converted old pecan shelling factory where workers were paid subsistence wages during the great depression, laboring over nuts. Maybe it is where the nationally famous pecan sheller's strike occurred. I don't know and Dad doesn't either.
A narrow small rectangular building it was with two side doors and with a lean- to look because- The roof only sloped downward to one side, corrugated. Enough room in the back yard for a small storage shed there was. This was my maternal family's dwelling.
We moved away but can recall cousin Rudy taking baths in a wash tub in the living room of the old house. The water heated over a stove. The indoor plumbing for the bathroom was included in a tiny lean-to structure attached to the backside of the House.
Pictures of San Antonio's famed west side can be viewed in The Library of Congress online @
Life during the Great Depression- I think it was. I believe I found them under that set
of pictures. I was quite surprised to see Old San Antonio pictured there. It was really bad back then.
I lost track during my absence of thirty five years from the City. It ain't the place it was thirty years ago, this is sure.
With the exception of the Alamo I scarcely recognized the old home town when I returned. It is a polished place far removed from what it once was.
Dad was drafted during the Korean Conflict and this move by the Govt. changed all our lives forever. Through several generations.
Through, becoming a huge success, and with travel Dad changed we kids, culturally, abruptly, in one generation. I still have not forgotten though, the city as it was before.
This city is home. My immediate relatives, one generation back, were completely different
people. They are gone but I remember their ever smiling faces very well, though.
Chicago is an amazing city, the magic mile is an incredible sight. I have been through Pennsylvania,
and New York and Ohio to name a few.
Even though I love this City, Miami will always beckon. Paradise in the lower 48 it is.
Pittsburg has since remade itself from the rust belt cities you mentioned. It was a total economic mess after the steel mills were shuttered
Diversification of the economy caused the transformation of Pittsburg.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bigben1234
The poorest cities in America are in the Northeast and Rust Belt. Nowhere in Texas (not SA, not even the RGV or El Paso) can compare to places like Camden, New Jersey, Chester, PA and Johnstown, PA (my hometown). Some of the poorer areas of these cities are more like developing countries rather than anything else in America.
Sure San Antonio has some low income areas, but Dallas and Houston have plenty as well.
Austin is just in a different category right now. More like Coastal California than the rest of Texas. You might be happier there (in Austin or Coastal California).
You should be thankful for what we have here. Your criticism of San Antonio is trivial and unwarranted.
Apathetic, as another poster mentioned already, is the perfect way to describe San Antonio
The city as a whole has a very 'we didn't have it, so why should they' attitude. It's why the younger gen needs to stick around and drive that attitude out (or wait for it to die off).
Apathetic, as another poster mentioned already, is the perfect way to describe San Antonio
The city as a whole has a very 'we didn't have it, so why should they' attitude. It's why the younger gen needs to stick around and drive that attitude out (or wait for it to die off).
What?
Amenities the millennial population dig are rapidly expanding in the city:
High end restaurants with variety
Craft Cocktail bars
Brunch spots
Urban living
More green space
Better shopping
Jobs next to urban living (Credit Human, Bank of America, and Jefferson Bank are all moving to the pearl ears with thousands of jobs moving down there)
San Antonio does not have as much wealth as Austin, Houston, or Dallas to act like things are changing is ignoring facts.
Ah so. So this guys entire beef, issue if you like, is that he is essentially in competition with the immigrant entry level population here in the Alamo City.
No wonder. The fog is lifted. Things are improving slowly....as things do here.
One should stay in school just as our parents cautioned us to. It is more competitive than ever it has been out there, so one needs any advantage at all that can be found.
Even if the country is at full employment. Amazon announced a $15.00 hourly minimum wage yesterday.
River City Rocky you need go where the money is. Here ain't the place.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ashbeeigh
For some reason I feel like I had heard the RGV had the most poverty in the country, but I can't find any articles that say so. Maybe I'll find it some time soon. OP has made several trips to the Austin forum and has identified that his income is too low to make it in Austin. Currently our 1/1 apartments average about $1100 a month. While I could find something cheaper it's not going to be in a so/so area and be very old. (Maybe like one of the cheaper Medical Center apartments).
Ah so. So this guys entire beef, issue if you like, is that he is essentially in competition with the immigrant entry level population here in the Alamo City.
No wonder. The fog is lifted. Things are improving slowly....as things do here.
One should stay in school just as our parents cautioned us to. It is more competitive than ever it has been out there, so one needs any advantage at all that can be found.
Even if the country is at full employment. Amazon announced a $15.00 hourly minimum wage yesterday.
River City Rocky you need go where the money is. Here ain't the place.
There is no immigration to San Antonio, that's a myth.
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The Govt. or otherwise polling is very inaccurate with estimates. 
you like. It is best that way. Keep on, keeping on Rocky. 
Intolerance in San Antonio,
