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People in AH can get to northeast baptist or methodist or BAMC in under 15 minutes. Besides who bases where they live in the off chance that they have a life threatening situation where 15 or 20 minutes is a deciding factor? Life is too short to live outside Loop 410.
I never stated ER wait time was a deciding factor, but rather a part of making a choice of where to live. I prefer getting to a hospital in under 5 minutes, no parking issue, and minimal wait time. ( and less than 2 minutes for fire dept/EMS unit location). It's the wait time once you are there that get's you, the travel time is much less of the overall time delay. And once again not a deciding factor.
But it may be difficult for you to understand that for some parents, being very close to a hospital with a child with a pre-existing condition presents a sense of comfort. I will agree with you on this....life is too short.
Well, I will give up defending Stone Oak to the nay-sayers. You have your beliefs and I have mine. I enjoy visiting my friends in all parts of the city, and look at commercialization in EVERY sector of this city, rich and poor, from King William's restaurant row to Alamo Height's Broadway's Quiznos and Cheap Cuts, CVS, Walgreens,etc, to Blanco Rd to Highway 151. You all have it but perhaps too blind to see it. SA is our city and we all chose to live here for whatever reason, and I am glad we all live where we want to live. It would be silly to live somewhere that we didn't.
Ciao.
DC, I have to give you credit, your one of the most logical/reasonable SO posters.
I think that one of the reasons that SO has such a negative connotation among natives and long time San Antonians is the attitude perceived or real that the rest of the city is looked down upon by SO residents. Most of the time we here from Stone Oakers that San Antonio is so poor, dirty, Mexican ect... we couldn't can't even bear to leave our zip code.
At least you claim San Antonio as you city, and if more Stone Oakers would take that attitude it would help relations a great deal.
OP here:
Thanks everyone for some of the helpful responses.
As with everything else...some people love it and same hate it as I suspected.
....I stated what I thought was great in an area, and those who answered me I think knew what I was talking about, so thank you!
Yes, we have 2 kids, 5 and almost 2; looking for good schools, quiet neighborhoods where you feel safe and away from "city life", and as I stated before, I am a fairly boring person, not into discovering new things, I like my old chains of stores and restaurants; which I know makes some people cringe; but it makes me personally happy.
My realtor steered me towards Stone Oak five years ago mostly using our criteria for, "an area with great public schools where mostly educated professionals like ourselves live", and I have not regretted it at all. Hardy Oak and Wilderness Oak Elementary in Stone Oak came out on top of the rankings on the below links. Our local middle and high schools are also near the top. These two schools also happen to be located in areas with lower priced homes where you might find something in your $200K range.
You'll find other similar high rankings of schools in this area, try greatschools.net. The high performing schools are no surprise or mystery. When the constituent parents are by and large college educated they will have expectations for their children. Balancing careers and child rearing is always a struggle, but I've noticed that about 25-40% of kids have a stay at home parent who is proactive in their child's learning. The rest of us make do with a concerted effort that can work. I also enjoy having neighbors which whom I can discuss college savings vehicles or have a shared lament during the last economic downturn. My third grader has been spending her summer having play dates with a bunch of her girl friends and part of their repertoire involves a bit of time for summer academic work in prep for next year. They also do this at their houses thanks to their like-minded parents. This is kind of environment I always wanted for my kids and you won't find it hard to find a similar situation - if that's what you want.
Stone Oak and its surrounding area is not the only place where you'll find a concentration of great schools. Alamo Heights is also another although it might be out of your price range. I believe Sonoma Ranch on the far northwest side and Alamo Ranch of the far west side might be similar as well as areas on the IH-10 corridor to Boerne. I'm sure there are plenty more I am just not familiar with.
Last edited by StanStelle; 07-06-2010 at 11:55 PM..
DC, I have to give you credit, your one of the most logical/reasonable SO posters.
I think that one of the reasons that SO has such a negative connotation among natives and long time San Antonians is the attitude perceived or real that the rest of the city is looked down upon by SO residents. Most of the time we here from Stone Oakers that San Antonio is so poor, dirty, Mexican ect... we couldn't can't even bear to leave our zip code.
At least you claim San Antonio as you city, and if more Stone Oakers would take that attitude it would help relations a great deal.
I have lived in Stone Oak for five years and have probably personally interacted with hundreds of people and have never once heard any disparaging remarks being said about the rest of SA (our city too) - so where did you get these perceptions from? Was it perhaps from one rogue supposed Stone Oaker on this forum whom you adopted as representative of the other 40,000 of us? I'm not a statistician, but common sense would dictate I withhold judgment from such weak data especially that coming from an internet forum. If I were to let myself succumb to similar flawed reasoning I would extrapolate that the rest of SA feels the same as the rabid bashers and therefore I would have to stop inviting my Southtown and Monte Vista friends - who feel quite at ease in my home as we do in theirs. Why don't hordes of us jump in to post rebuttals to the usual predictable handful of Stone Oak bashers on this forum? Perhaps like me the gross absurdity of some posts leaves one feeling like its not worthy of a dignified response, but if you are right then these protracted and asinine "discussions" are being used to sadly solidify sentiments in other readers as well. Ah, the great potential of the internet as a means to field views to critically weigh and consider is instead being used to narrow one's scope. You can't change a mind that is constantly seeking to validate itself rather than challenge itself - so why bother posting a response to someone who only aims to ridicule.
Stone Oak has an issue with SA being "so Mexican". Where the hell is that rolling eyes emoticon. I need a package of them for that quote of yours. I don't have any stats about the Mexican population in SO, I personally prefer "Hispanic" for myself, but my daughter's high ranking Hardy Oak Elementary has a 26% Hispanic population. Lets compare apples to apples. On greatschools.net your beloved Alamo High School has a 30% Hispanic population while Reagan High only lags slightly behind at 27%. Being that the barriers to entry into these two areas are mainly income and Stone Oak having less expensive homes those percentages will probably change soon. I personally like that my daughter has been exposed to various cultures at her school, including Japanese, Indian, Russian, Chinese, Moroccan, etc. Sampling the myriads of homemade food on their Multicultural Day is a blast.
Well, back to your other posts, especially ""..can't even bear to leave our zip code". Your mere statement of this will do more to solidify this belief rather than to "help relations" as you mentioned so I'll take a stab at a correction. I couldn't possibly state all the reasons why my fellow neighbors move out here (some of my own are in the post prior to this), but I'll be willing to bet that the education and well being of our kids has a lot to do with it - not unlike the reason any of you all chose your respective suburb or urban area. As such, it would do our kids a great disservice to not take advantage of the many educational and recreational opportunities San Antonio has to offer. At a very minimum we venture out for the following. Why put our girls in the various Stone Oak dance classes and not take them to see our own professional ballets. Our budding musicians need to and want to see the symphony. When our 2nd graders learned about American Westward Expansion, a group of us parents trekked our youngsters to the Institute of Texan Cultures to find examples for compare and contrast. Kids outvoted parents in going to the Rainforest Cafe after wards. Believe it or not our youngsters are no less fascinated by skinless cadavers or dinosaurs at the Witte than the rest of SA. We have been to the Pearl Brewery and we too find the new museum reach lacking - for now. That annoyingly loud man next to you at a Spurs game just might be my lawyer neighbor who finds it therapeutic to let out some steam with a round of boisterous cheering or it could be one of the countless other fans who reside over here.
Chain restaurants might be common over here, but not extensive and they do grow tiresome rather quickly. Be wary of what you say out loud about our neighborhood lest the Stone Oaker next to you at Le Frite, Rosario's or The Guenther House take offense at what you say.
All for now. Apologies to my fellow Stone Oaker's for any failures in minimally freeing anyone from these surprising prejudices.
I actually wasn't the one bringing up the commute to the hospital but rather the wait time AT the hospital at the Medical Center/Downtown vs. Stone Oak's hospitals. I also was talking about the price point of Stone Oak vs. Deerfield/Inwood. It is generally more expensive to live in Deerfield/Inwood/Alamo Heights - and can't get as much home for $200k as the original poster cited, as you can in SO, with a community pool. N'est-pas?
Didn't think you could pick up very much anything for 200 or under up there anymore - I thought that 250 was closer to average price for the area.
IMO I don't have any kind of problem with SO. Actually I kind of like a few of the places to go eat over there, and I hear more noise about the area coming from people living inside the inner loop than anywhere else.
Why do "faceless" posters on internet message boards feel the need to belittle others hometowns and neighborhoods? I wouldn't want to live in Green Bay, WI, but I don't belittle their residents for living there. Why can't users of this board simply accept that people enjoy Stone Oak, Leon Valley, Tobin Hills, the West Side, the South Side, Hondo, etc. without tearing them down?
Be a little less judgmental and a little more Texan. Trust me, it's easier to accept than to judge.
DC, I have to give you credit, your one of the most logical/reasonable SO posters.
I think that one of the reasons that SO has such a negative connotation among natives and long time San Antonians is the attitude perceived or real that the rest of the city is looked down upon by SO residents. Most of the time we here from Stone Oakers that San Antonio is so poor, dirty, Mexican ect... we couldn't can't even bear to leave our zip code.
At least you claim San Antonio as you city, and if more Stone Oakers would take that attitude it would help relations a great deal.
??? this is pointless...
I'm a Stone Oaker - how can I (or others) possibly put down SA when SO is part of SA??
Anyway, face to face interactions with people, I've never heard anyone bashing SO, more than likely I would hear nice remarks whenever I tell them I'm from Stone Oak...
But I do hear the bashing from this forum, and mostly from the same group of posters.. And the trend is like this - bash SO then promote Alamo/Terrel/Olmos/ or 410...
Maybe it's the difference between old money and new money. Alamo Heights/Terrell Hills etc. are less "flaunty" than the outer lying areas like Dominion, SO etc.? AH doesn't really have as many mcmansions as the other areas do. Just a thought.
Why do "faceless" posters on internet message boards feel the need to belittle others hometowns and neighborhoods? I wouldn't want to live in Green Bay, WI, but I don't belittle their residents for living there. Why can't users of this board simply accept that people enjoy Stone Oak, Leon Valley, Tobin Hills, the West Side, the South Side, Hondo, etc. without tearing them down?
Be a little less judgmental and a little more Texan. Trust me, it's easier to accept than to judge.
Best post of the thread... well except maybe for the Rush one because that is one of my favorite songs.
I'll admit that I'm not a big fan of suburban development, but that comes from growing up in suburbia (just inside 1604 in the '80's) and seeing tree after tree cut down in the name of progress. Stone Oak is arguably the best that suburbia offers, and I do see why it is desirable. The schools are good, and they have become more racially diverse over time. In fact, I believe that one of the problems in a lot of the inner city schools is the lack of racial diversity. It is my opinion that the Stone Oak of 2010 is much better than the Stone Oak of 1985 - rare that areas remain relevant or improve over time.
Again, thank you for reminding us the importance of building others up rather than belittling them.
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My third grader has been spending her summer having play dates with a bunch of her girl friends and part of their repertoire involves a bit of time for summer academic work in prep for next year. They also do this at their houses thanks to their like-minded parents. This is kind of environment I always wanted for my kids and you won't find it hard to find a similar situation - if that's what you want. 
