What do you love/hate most about San Antonio? (Houston: renting, food)

[artsyguy]

Friedrich Wilderness Park Friedrich Wilderness Park - San Antonio - Reviews of Friedrich Wilderness Park - TripAdvisor

[artsyguy]

Government Canyon State Park: TPWD: Government Canyon State Natural Area

[JNA]

Originally Posted by muratd

Is it pretentious trying to live a quality life and surrounding yourself with nice things?

It is when they spend their time saying how government needs to be spending more for "social" programs while hypocritically spending their money on themselves rather than others as is common in most of these "sophisticated" cities.

[iam143]

Originally Posted by knittingguy

I just moved here with my wife from upstate NY. We moved here mainly because of my wife. She is a Texan and she has family members living in San Antonio.

1) Hate the "friendliness".
As far as I am concerned, "being friendly" is just a nicer way to say that someone who is nosy and talks too much. Is it too difficult for people to just mind their own business?
2) Hate the slow turners!!!
I don't understand why people have to take forever to make a turn. Just turn!!! How difficult can it be????!!!!
3) Hate the slow drivers!!!
Just step on the gas pedal!! In my not so humble opinion, the 99% of the so called "traffic jams" will disappear if those slow drivers who are causing the traffic jams would just simply drive faster!!! At least, that's my experience. Whenever I am on 1604 or 410, as soon as the slow moron drivers move away, the traffic jams are gone.
4) Idiot turners!!
Come on, you have your own lane!! Just make your turn. Why do people have to wait till absolutely no cars before they can go?!?! They have their own lane!!!!! Plus, if you have enough space, just go; can people drive a little more aggressively please???!!!!
5) San Antonio is extremely slow-paced!!! To me, San Antonio is like a retirement community, where people are just enjoying their slow-paced lifestyles. I am only in my early 30's. I am at the age where I want to and should be competing with others. When I am at my retiring age, I may think about living in San Antonio; but for now, this is not the place where I want to live in. As fas as I am concerned, those people who tell people to slow down are just people who have no skills to compete with others and just try to come up with excuses to comfort themselves!

I am glad that my wife is loving her life in San Antonio. I want my wife to be happy. But I am going insane every second living in San Antonio. I probably need professional help before I go crazy here, or at least, before I do anything stupid that may harm myself or others. I cannot take it anymore!!!!

you and me both!! im counting down my days...hopefully she catches on to how you feel. . .

I love....
hmmm...the weather in the winter
the riverwalk and tourist attractions...
no state taxes

I hate...
the small town menality...
the fact that NO ONE is ever on time FOR ANYYYYYY of my appointments...
the pay here job wise....
the fact that you dont need to be educated to have certain jobs...
that most people I know or work with have at least 2 jobs....
you need a car to get basicly anywhere.....
if your car was to break down transportation sucks so your just screwed!!
the humidity....
sources for entertainment are highly limited for certain demograhics. .

[L210]

Originally Posted by artsyguy

SXSW cost hundreds of dollars for mediocre rock and electro bands. I'll take Fiesta and Dia de los Muertos festival over that any day.

Some people prefer those artists over the mainstream mess that's always on the radio. Many bands started by playing SXSW and later got record deals like Katy Perry.

[JuneOf48]

Originally Posted by muratd

Along with Treshold, Design within Reach and more. End of an Ear and Waterloo records are also in Austin. Rooms to Go and Shanky (or similar) for furniture and target and wallmart for music in SA. They have among many others SXSW in Austin and we have the glorious taco fest called Fiesta here.
SA is about mere existence, Austin is living.

Well, a pretty good textbook example of "pretentiousness" is telling someone that they "merely exist"--rather than "live"--because they don't have "discerning" tastes that can only be satisfied by a certain set of "exclusive" establishments, in either the economic (e.g., Design within Reach) or the cultural (e.g., End of an Ear) senses of that term. (Nothing against End of an Ear--I've seen a good show or two there.)

By the way, Spider House has horrendous food, and is only good for staring at people. (As is the case with so many other Austin locales.) My Austin girlfriend, as well as my Chicago parents, were just in town for a long weekend. We had amazingly good drinks and eats at The Monterey, Luke, Il Sogno, Mon Amis, and taquerías that actually know how to make tortillas. (Not a one can manage that in Austin--I've been searching for the past few months--and yes, I know the city well: I have an apartment off of S. Congress and I've been spending many of my weekends there for the past two years [mainly for the sake of the girlfriend and a few other good friends--if it weren't for them, I'd gladly spend 99% of my time here].)

Don't get me wrong--I like Austin--but it's overcrowded, overhyped, and filled with people who think they're better than everyone else. That's one of my favorite things about San Antonio--we get sick of those people's whining soon enough and get rid of them as quickly as we can! Thankfully, it's not too hard. . . .

[Dopo]

Originally Posted by JNA

It is when they spend their time saying how government needs to be spending more for "social" programs while hypocritically spending their money on themselves rather than others as is common in most of these "sophisticated" cities.

If I ask our government to spend our money helping people in need I can't buy things for myself?
How does that make sense?

[JNA]

Originally Posted by Dopo

If I ask our government to spend our money helping people in need I can't buy things for myself?
How does that make sense?

I love capitalism so no problem with individuals deciding how to spend their own money. That's the point, though. Let's stop asking government to take more money from citizens and allowing more freedom in how money is spent, including giving to causes. It's much easier to care when asking others to pay more taxes - tougher to make the personal sacrifice of our own wealth. Coming from a "progressive" city, I've seen the mentality - ask not what I can give, ask what others can give.

[Rejoicer]

I've lived in many states (Air Force) - and I liked most of the places that I lived at, but there was always something that I didn't like about the place.

I lived in Virginia - worked in DC - and I loved that there were four distinct seasons. You actually had a spring and a fall. There was snow, but not so much as to make you sick of it. I loved the foliage - especially in Spring.
What I didn't like was the commute into DC, the traffic, and the taxes.

I then lived in Alabama. The weather was not so bad, it was a little colder than Texas, but very similar in other respects. They have huge trees, which I liked, and I loved my job with Agriculture. The people are super friendly, will talk you to death, even when they don't know you. What I didn't like was the "racism". People assume that everyone feels the same way and they share with you their true feelings, which most disgusted me as this included Christians from my church.

I then lived in New Hampshire. That has got to be the most beautiful place - almost like living in a Christmas Card scene, especially in the winter. There were country roads that meandered about, beautiful foliage, and quaint buildings. The people were not so friendly, a bit standoffish. I never made friends in the neighborhood, had to rely on my church family for friendship. But even the people at church don't visit each other much or invite you to dinner like they did in Va, Ala and Texas. I didn't like driving in the winter, the roads were always icy and you couldn't tell where the lanes were - black topped hwys, very hard to drive on. I drove into Mass to work, and the drivers were awful. If you didn't do 75 on the hwy they shot you the bird and went around you, even on the shoulder!

Then we moved to California. I had always thought California was so pretty until I found out where we were going to live - Lancaster! That has got to be the armpit of California. It is in the middle of the Mojave desert - my drive to Edwards AFB was like 27 miles, and all desert. It was hot (107) in the middle of the day, then it would drop to around 40 at night! The people are friendly, like in Texas, and they don't judge much. You see mixed marriages everywhere and no one seems to mind (that would raise eyebrows in Ala). The fun part of living there was that it was like 1 hrs drive to Wrightwood (I think that was the name) of a town in the mountains where you could ski. It was only about 1 1/2 hour to the beach in Malibu, and you could drive up to Tahachapie, a little mountain town with quaint little stores.

I was glad to get back to Texas. San Antonio is my home, but I now live in the Hill Country - about 20 miles from the outer rim of San Antonio. I do my shopping in San Antonio, as well as dining out and movies. I love the Mexican food in San Antonio, have never found any other place that comes close to it. I like the Riverwalk, but it has gotten so busy with all the tourists. The weather is good. It gets pretty hot and we don't have a spring season, it has reached 95 degrees already and we are just in April! The people are pretty friendly. I wouldn't live anywhere else.

[dpurozac]

what about jobs for a truck driver thinking of moving there?