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Leon Valley stinks and has zero charm IMO. I've lived in the downtown area for 3 years and have had zero problems with the homeless/sketchy people. As SMU has stated, wait till you visit Austin and see their homeless population. The city is going to move a lot of bus stops to the western edge of downtown to get a lot of these "sketchy" looking people away from the center of downtown.
Wow, it sounds like you had a very odd experience here. While I live in Boerne, I spend most of my time in Northwest and North Central San Antonio along with downtown, Southtown and the Pearl. I haven't seen as much crime or been approached by homeless people as much as you were over the entire last year or two. Maybe it was just strange coincidence. I travel quite a bit, and compared to other growing metro areas, San Antonio is one of the safest.
Good luck in your search - I hope you see the better side of San Antonio!
Every city I've lived in in the US, I've seen a homeless "problem" in the downtown areas. But, I use "" because the only problem I see is for those who are actually homeless, not me as a resident. I've lived near downtown for 10 years now, walk downtown all the time, and I've never had a problem. Most people would appreciate the police presence and activity.
It's also a high tourist city with lots of drunkards downtown, which is another reason for high police presence.
btw - if you were homeless, would you rather be homeless in a Minneapolis winter or a San Antonio winter? Santa Barbara, CA, a place of very low crime and extremely high rents, also has an enormous homeless population. Not surprisingly.
As a 35 year resident that has also lived and traveled all around the country, I think you have an accurate impression of SA. SA is a major retirement destination for military retirees as well as middle income retirees from around the country. The run down look can be attributed to a lot of retirees and economic refugees unable to maintain their homes as well as the heat and current drought. The homeless problem is common throughout the southern USA due to mild winters. The affordability indexes are skewed a bit because 3/4 of the city is uneducated and impoverished. The nicest areas of town, including parts of Stone Oak, are expensive and somewhat overpriced in my opinion. SA has a low violent crime rate but a high property crime rate. The entire north side, including Stone Oak, has been seeing a crime wave in the past few years. What those people in HEB told you was most likely true, its been happening all over.
So much about this is hilarious that I'm not sure where to start. You think military retirees and other retirees are the problem here? We are the ONLY thing keeping this place looking anything decent. We ARE the ones with money and education. We ARE the ones who take care of our propterties. I think you need to look at the local culture to find your problem. But don't worry; I'm leaving in a year and can't wait to leave this blast furnace behind- and will be taking my six-figure income with me. Comments like yours only run off decent folks.
So much about this is hilarious that I'm not sure where to start. You think military retirees and other retirees are the problem here? We are the ONLY thing keeping this place looking anything decent. We ARE the ones with money and education. We ARE the ones who take care of our propterties.
That is just as ridiculous a statement as the one to which you are responding.
So much about this is hilarious that I'm not sure where to start. You think military retirees and other retirees are the problem here? We are the ONLY thing keeping this place looking anything decent. We ARE the ones with money and education. We ARE the ones who take care of our propterties. I think you need to look at the local culture to find your problem. But don't worry; I'm leaving in a year and can't wait to leave this blast furnace behind- and will be taking my six-figure income with me. Comments like yours only run off decent folks.
How humble and modest! Don't let the door hit ya where the good lord split ya.
I posted awhile back looking for recommendations on places to live in SA as i have an opportunity to move there for work.
I wanted to share some of my thoughts on the area and see if you folks that live there can shed some light or correct my impressions.
We stayed in the contessa hotel downtown on the riverwalk. Downtown is very busy as expected. But i was taken aback on the amount of homeless folks in the downtown area. We ate at the whataburger on the corner of commerce i think it was? the first day since it was the first place we spotted when we left the hotel. In the 15 mins we were in there i think we saw three homeless folks come up and clean through the street side garbage can.
Later that day we walked around the area of the riverwalk up to the rivercenter mall etc. In the hour and a half or so we were walking around i think we got approached 3 times asking for money or to buy someone food and at least once by some rather rough looking guy asking us to buy some tacky looking purse i swear he produced from under his shirt.
The next day we took the rental car and drove around some neighborhoods looking at some of the houses the realtor had given us. Most of the morning we were up in the leon valley area. The thing that struck me about this area was that the houses themselves were mostly nice looking but the area itself looked a bit run down. not sure how to explain what i mean by that, just a general impression. In the 3 hours or so that we were around that area i think we saw police have people pulled over doing car searches and the occupants had hands on the hood 2 or 3 times i beleive? We also saw a car pass us that looked like someone had shot the gas tank area with a shotgun.
We worked our way up to the stone oak area. I think i was on evans drive or stone oak parkway? It was a curvy road that went down a hill. This area was very pretty and was pretty much exactly what i was looking for. But of course once we looked at the rent costs..... We stopped at an HEB in the area and ended up chatting up some locals. At which point we asked about crime in this area and they mentioned that someone in their gated community was assaulted a few weeks ago and they had all had their cars broken into in the last year.
Later that night, maybe around 730, i ventured out of the hotel again on foot and within 30 seconds i saw police hauling someone into a paddywagon and maybe 10 mins later i got chatted up by someone who was rather pushy and kept trying to get me to go into this courtyard/alley type area. Thankfully a bike cop came by and i flagged him down 'asking for directions' and the person that was harassing kind of disappeared.
Now I've lived in Minneapolis for a few years and frankly, i saw more police action in 2 days in SA than i saw in 2 years in Minneapolis and frankly it was a little disheartening and really gave a feeling that this city isn't that safe at all. Even the 'nice' areas evidently have issues, and to live in the areas where you would actually feel relatively safe your going to be paying 1800k + rent.
Are my impressions of SA really accurate or did i just have a bad experience?
I'm from Texas. I have lived in Illinois & California. I've had good & bad
experiences in all these places .
It's not the locations but rather some of the negative people
that you had the misfortune to come across.
And they can be found anywhere not just here.
I moved out here from Orange County but I've lived in other cities/states/countries before so I'm definitely not one of those people who can't handle life outside of California. On my initial visit, everything seemed great but after being here a few months, I just don't love it and would agree with the majority of what you said. I'm in Stone Oak which is fairly pretty and relatively safe, but I pretty much avoid leaving the area as much as possible. I've even encountered some reverse discrimination (racist comments towards me) in other areas of town which shocked me. I also feel like the majority of areas inside the city are run down and sketchy. I live on Evans and the first thing the manager said when I moved in was to make sure I don't leave valuables in my car because it might get broken into. Uhhhhh ok? I don't leave anything in my car anyways (other than a club on the wheel, after moving here) but it wasn't reassuring to hear as a young female living alone. Although I guess that sort of thing can happen anywhere, to be fair. Very predominant Hispanic culture, like very predominant. And that's ok, given the history, just not what I was expecting. I feel like a little bit of a minority at my school but generally everyone's nice so it doesn't matter. Lots of homeless/generally sketchy people downtown... I pretty much don't go there if I don't have to. I'm finishing up some transfer credits at a community college in a fairly ok area (originally planned to transfer to a university here) but the college sends out "crime alert" emails every few weeks and recently, an especially long winded message about being careful walking to your car at night. Ummm?? It's weird because people don't seem to find that odd, whereas nowhere I've ever lived before has had that at their schools. And it's not because they aren't as vigilant as the schools here, they just legitimately don't have the crime in the first place. Mind you it's smaller stuff like a guy following a girl on campus or people looking to steal your iphone, but still. A lot of people in my area have talked about property crimes like you mentioned, although I'm not sure if that's all hearsay or what the exact situation is because I haven't experienced it. I encountered some sketchy gang looking guys in a Walmart parking lot once, but that was it. I just ignored them and walked very quickly to my car and locked the doors when I got in and drove away. I think "safe" is entirely subjective and largely depends on what you're used to. I find it very middle/low income here. Just my opinion. Very brown, very hot. Lots of traffic congestion too in certain areas. My mom flew down recently to visit me and although she had a good time, she remarked that it was very different from the SA she had seen on tv (a show about the river walk/cultural stuff) and very different from how she imagined it. I think SA is a great city for some and has a lot to offer, but definitely has some down sides too. Honestly, I'm glad this thread is painting a broader picture, because I wish I had read more like it before I decided to move here. Understandably, a lot of residents jump to defend SA if anyone says anything slightly negative (which is totally fine cause everyone's entitled to their opinions, and I think it's awesome that SA residents are passionate about their home!) but it also kind of painted the city in a different light than I was expecting. I did the majority of my research on this board and couldn't find too much of the negative because no one seemed willing to talk about it. Or I guess maybe if you grew up here it's just normal and they don't notice. As a newcomer, these are just my impressions.. Not looking to offend anyone but I want to give my honest perspective to the poster. On the plus side, I will say the majority of people I've encountered here have been very kind and friendly, truly down to earth folks who would give you the shirt off their back.
That "run down" look that's hard to put your finger on is right on target. A lot of the city looks like that, and translates into a certain feel that you will have here, and that will not go away if you are from the north. People who are from the South, or who are San Antonio natives, will have a hard time figuring out what you mean by that, but it will always bug you. To me, it's the opposite of the "crisp" orderliness of things that you see in northern and more high income cities.
I know exactly what you mean, it's hard to put into words but you described it/reasoned it out perfectly
I moved out here from Orange County but I've lived in other cities/states/countries before so I'm definitely not one of those people who can't handle life outside of California. On my initial visit, everything seemed great but after being here a few months, I just don't love it and would agree with the majority of what you said. I'm in Stone Oak which is fairly pretty and relatively safe, but I pretty much avoid leaving the area as much as possible. I've even encountered some reverse discrimination (racist comments towards me) in other areas of town which shocked me. I also feel like the majority of areas inside the city are run down and sketchy. I live on Evans and the first thing the manager said when I moved in was to make sure I don't leave valuables in my car because it might get broken into. Uhhhhh ok? I don't leave anything in my car anyways (other than a club on the wheel, after moving here) but it wasn't reassuring to hear as a young female living alone. Although I guess that sort of thing can happen anywhere, to be fair. Very predominant Hispanic culture, like very predominant. And that's ok, given the history, just not what I was expecting. I feel like a little bit of a minority at my school but generally everyone's nice so it doesn't matter. Lots of homeless/generally sketchy people downtown... I pretty much don't go there if I don't have to. I'm finishing up some transfer credits at a community college in a fairly ok area (originally planned to transfer to a university here) but the college sends out "crime alert" emails every few weeks and recently, an especially long winded message about being careful walking to your car at night. Ummm?? It's weird because people don't seem to find that odd, whereas nowhere I've ever lived before has had that at their schools. And it's not because they aren't as vigilant as the schools here, they just legitimately don't have the crime in the first place.
Really? Either you went to some incredibly isolated schools or they just didn't bother. On all the campus I've been (outside TX), such alerts were standard place.
As for Orange County, I know it very very well, and schools there have just as much crime as any here.
Quote:
Originally Posted by taraox
Or I guess maybe if you grew up here it's just normal and they don't notice. .
Just a datapoint, but Nope. I grew up in SoCal, have lived all over the country as well as a number of cities abroad. I moved to SA as a single woman in my 30s. I am NOT a native. There is a lot I don't like about San Antonio, but, at least where I live, it's great. While my neighborhood is a mix of low income folks as well as multi-6-figure earners, of all education levels, I actually feel much safer here than I ever have in Orange County, CA. Stuff happens from time to time, like any big city, but I am comfortable walking home at night, for example (tho I wouldn't be in Stone Oak - just because people don't do that there).
I am sorry you have found it not to your liking. It's not for everyone (and if I lived where you're living, I wouldn't like it either), but this is not a defense. Merely offering a counter argument when people suggest that only natives can possibly like it here. Those of us non-natives can see what's wrong, but have enough experience to either deal with it, or address it head on.
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