Here are my thoughts on Austin and why we might be leaving for SA (San Antonio: apartment, neighborhood)

[DTXman34]

Originally Posted by daisyschic

I think it's funny that I bring this stuff up to my co-worker's and they are all agreeing with me. I've even showed them this page and they completely agree with me on Austin , one lady said their primary focus here is High School football, and everything else is secondary. She said that schools in this area have multimillion dollar stadiums, why who knows. I can't even wrap my head around why a high school would need a multimillion stadium. But she says it's just the culture here and that's where they put their priorities and it shows.

I don't think prioritizing football over everything else is limited to just Texas, although I will say that it's extrapolated here. Kind of like everything else in Texas -- massively wide freeways, tacky McMansions, strip malls on every corner, etc. There's excess of many of the cons of modern day American consumerism, especially in DFW.

[daisyschic]

Originally Posted by DTXman34

I don't think prioritizing football over everything else is limited to just Texas, although I will say that it's extrapolated here. Kind of like everything else in Texas -- massively wide freeways, tacky McMansions, strip malls on every corner, etc. There's excess of many of the cons of modern day American consumerism, especially in DFW.

Agreed, but I can't for the life of me understand the need for multimillion dollar stadiums for high school football, I mean its high school football, my goodness, I mean the Longhorns are never ranked, so why put all this money into these schools. To me its just craziness. We come from a tiny town so we aren't really used to any of that, except for maybe when we would go to Columbus, which is the nearest big city close to us. But even then I don't think they ever put that much money into high school football programs and the Buckeyes is constantly ranked year after year. Maybe, if they would take all those millions and build up the infrastructure in Austin, maybe Austin wouldn't have all these traffic problems.

[HeadedWest]

Originally Posted by daisyschic

Maybe, if they would take all those millions and build up the infrastructure in Austin, maybe Austin wouldn't have all these traffic problems.

Austin voluntarily chose to have its traffic problems.

[L210]

Originally Posted by daisyschic

I think it's funny that I bring this stuff up to my co-worker's and they are all agreeing with me. I've even showed them this page and they completely agree with me on Austin , one lady said their primary focus here is High School football, and everything else is secondary. She said that schools in this area have multimillion dollar stadiums, why who knows. I can't even wrap my head around why a high school would need a multimillion stadium. But she says it's just the culture here and that's where they put their priorities and it shows.

That's a Texas-wide thing, not just an Austin thing. I went to school in San Antonio. Football has always gotten more focus than anything else at schools. The Alamodome was built to attract a professional football team and turned out to be a colossal waste of money.

I think you should try to read some threads on the SA forum so that you can realize the city has its own problems. You're going to disappoint yourself thinking the city is perfect. The violent crime rate there has recently skyrocketed, and it's significantly higher than Austin's. In the recent growth thread, you'll see locals complaining about low wages, but I have already pointed to the statistics that prove that SA has lower wages.

[daisyschic]

Originally Posted by L210

That's a Texas-wide thing, not just an Austin thing. I went to school in San Antonio. Football has always gotten more focus than anything else at schools. The Alamodome was built to attract a professional football team and turned out to be a colossal waste of money.

I think you should try to read some threads on the SA forum so that you can realize the city has its own problems. You're going to disappoint yourself thinking the city is perfect. The violent crime rate there has recently skyrocketed, and it's significantly higher than Austin's. In the recent growth thread, you'll see locals complaining about low wages, but I have already pointed to the statistics that prove that SA has lower wages.

Yea we know the city isn't perfect, but SA parks are top notch compared to Austin. We went to Pletz County Park today and it is very nice. It seems anything associated with greenway trails is extremely nice. We've been trying to go to a different park each weekend. I'm being bluntly honest the trail system in SA really is 100 times better than in Austin, We both have been completely impressed and both times we were on the trails we seen cops on the trails and they were really nice and inviting. So that is very comforting to know. We saw 4 turtles on a wood log today along the trail and we were on a bridge, we were going to try and get a picture, but even though we were about 10-20 ft above them they saw us and went in the water, I didn't know turtles were that skittish. But the water at the park is very, very clean, I'm really surprised how clean the water was, we could see all the way to the bottom, you would never see anything like that in Austin. I didn't realize how close it was to the AT&T center too, so we could park in Pletz and walk to AT&T for concerts and maybe a basketball game or other stuff from there (I honestly don't know how practical this would be, but it is something neat to think about)

However to address your concerns we know the wages are lower in SA, but we figure that if our pay would stay the same or a little higher (considering we have degrees), then we would be able to get ahead with the lower cost of living, regardless we are not going to stay in Austin. We might try Houston, but the park system in SA is something we really enjoy. However at Pletz we got the feeling that we weren't in the nicest of neighborhoods at least not in that immediate area (don't get me wrong the park was amazing and well kept), we were looking and it seems to be in an industrial district, so that is probably why. We really like Cibolo too, it seems like a small tiny town, but close enough to SA that we could get anywhere we need to relatively quickly.

But we are open to explore our options, we may even move to a Charlotte suburb in SC which has really low cost of living (were thinking of Rock Hill, SC) lower taxes and a short commute. But in reality, we have to make a living, and it seems to us that the Austin market is saturated, so we are looking anywhere we can get into having good jobs and a nice place to live.

[TXEX06]

Originally Posted by daisyschic

Yea we know the city isn't perfect, but SA parks are top notch compared to Austin. We went to Pletz County Park today and it is very nice. It seems anything associated with greenway trails is extremely nice.

Not the best area of town, but it could be nice in 10 years and real estate folks are gobbling up the area up.

Sssshhhhhhh! Everyone knows Austin's greenway trails are superior.

San Antonio is finally starting to take parks seriously.
https://www.philhardbergerpark.org/t...ridge-campaign

Phase 2: Civic Park – Hemisfair
http://spcproject.org/phase-1-design/
http://spcproject.org/archived-design-progression/

[KathrynAragon]

Originally Posted by daisyschic

Both times we visited SA we never had any problems, plus looking at the job openings I have yet to run into one that prefers you to be bilingual.

Have you got a job there yet?

And how would you know if they PREFER you to be bilingual. It's either a prerequisite for a job, or it's not - but in any part of Texas, being bilingual in Spanish and English is ALWAYS a quality and can set you apart from other equally qualified candidates who aren't bilingual.

Sorry, but it's just the truth. I worked in the professional placement and staffing industry in Texas (including doing lots of training in San Antonio and Austin markets) for nearly 2 decades and being bilingual is considered a serious asset in just about any position in just about any city or town. And it stands to reason that the higher the percentage of Spanish speakers in any given area, the better an asset it becomes.

[KathrynAragon]

Originally Posted by Gunion Powder

Sure, there are lots of Texans who have experienced life elsewhere and still choose TX above all else. I'm one of those people.

But, I've met even more who I'd say simply aren't cultivated or well-travelled enough to really know any better, and you can bet they've got some knee jerk response on hand for anyone who dares to question the fixed loyalty to their state. Some people are entirely too sensitive about their stomping grounds.

Besides, I refuse to believe Texans are always on our best behavior when in other places. We do our fair share of bragging as well. Par for the course. Last I heard, Coloradans can't stand us.

I can vouch for that. I was standing in line at an exhibit in Colorado a couple of years ago, minding my own business, acting perfectly politely and normal, and I suddenly heard two women who seemed to be locals talking very loudly and rudely about the state - that's right, then entire state - of Texas and it's inhabitants, in a very negative and frankly, low brow manner. I doubt seriously that they knew a Texan was listening to them show their arses and act so unbecomingly and low class, but yep, there I was, thinking to myself, "Baby, if you're the quintessential Coloradan, I can understand why you didn't like Texas - you were definitely outclassed."

[Johnhw2]

Originally Posted by daisyschic

Agreed, but I can't for the life of me understand the need for multimillion dollar stadiums for high school football, I mean its high school football, my goodness, I mean the Longhorns are never ranked, so why put all this money into these schools. To me its just craziness. We come from a tiny town so we aren't really used to any of that, except for maybe when we would go to Columbus, which is the nearest big city close to us. But even then I don't think they ever put that much money into high school football programs and the Buckeyes is constantly ranked year after year. Maybe, if they would take all those millions and build up the infrastructure in Austin, maybe Austin wouldn't have all these traffic problems.

We all have flaws relax.

[radiolibre99]

Originally Posted by KathrynAragon

I can vouch for that. I was standing in line at an exhibit in Colorado a couple of years ago, minding my own business, acting perfectly politely and normal, and I suddenly heard two women who seemed to be locals talking very loudly and rudely about the state - that's right, then entire state - of Texas and it's inhabitants, in a very negative and frankly, low brow manner. I doubt seriously that they knew a Texan was listening to them show their arses and act so unbecomingly and low class, but yep, there I was, thinking to myself, "Baby, if you're the quintessential Coloradan, I can understand why you didn't like Texas - you were definitely outclassed."

There's a girl I know who moved from Colorado to Texas a few years back and she hasn't stopped complaining about Texas and bashing everything in such a crude manner. She's there for work but many of us grew tired of her constant superiority complex. I don't what beef some Coloradans have with Texans. It might be all the Texas tourists that visit, maybe some act crude, idk but her attitude was just so crass and classless.