Chicago family moving to San Antonio

[boymom87]

Originally Posted by cobolt

OP---I'm also from Chicago--grew up in the City. I've lived in Texas since 1991 and have lived in San Antonio for several years. You can direct message me with any questions or helpful hints to make your transition easier. You can find some deep dish Chicago knock-off pizza here that is meh. But you cannot find tavern-style pizza. Nor can you find a decent Italian Beef, so...that's what visits back to Chicago are for.

Welcome to Texas!

Thank you so much!! Hopefully being away from our favorites will help me lose some of this baby weight I’ve been struggling to get rid of lol.

[boymom87]

Originally Posted by txbullsfan

You are welcome.

Rush hour in Chicago/Illinois, makes rush hour here look like a cakewalk. No comparison. 55 in Illinois starts to get bad around the Bolingbrook/Weber Road exit heading north and was insane bumper to bumper to the city. Chicago coming back was insane too during rush hour. Literally hours to travel x amount of miles in bumper to bumper. When people complain about traffic here they really dont understand how good they have it in comparison.

Thank you for this! The traffic on the 55 is ridiculous as is sitting on the Kennedy at any time of day. So to hear traffic there is not the same as that is a relief.

[vater]

Originally Posted by boymom87

How is the area near Hausman and Babcock looks like it’s south of UTSA? It looks like it would put my husband about 30 minutes away from the airport with traffic.

That's my part of town and I'm pretty happy here. Hike & bike nature trails and a couple parks (Leon Creek greenway) all over the place. Quite a few college students as you can imagine. There was a trailer park nearby that the city just tore down, they're putting up new housing in that area. Good schools, Brandeis HS.

It's not a top 3 ranked high school in SA (out of 35 high schools or so) as far as academic performance goes, but it's definitely top 10. See https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/ed...-85307-tbla-25

Not too bad of a commute to the airport. 30 mins at the most, but usually 20-25 mins. Go east on Hausman to I-10, then 410 east to airport.

Six Flags, Top Golf, Shops at La Cantera (upscale outdoor mall) are 5-7 minutes away. Seaworld is 15 minutes away. You have everything you need within a 5 minute drive. HEB Plus grocery store nearby. Best grocery chain in the world.

Good luck in your home search!

Originally Posted by River City Rocky

Hope you like tacos and hearing Spanish spoken everywhere. Get ready for a culture shock.

This dude is exaggerating as far as Spanish being spoken everywhere. Maybe if you're on some parts of the South or West side of town, sure. We get a lot of Mexican nationals (mostly the wealthy ones) who go shopping on the north side of town. But other than that, mostly English is spoken. If you want a town where mostly spanish is spoken, that would be a border town like Laredo. But even then, 90% of the locals understand English perfectly well.

Not the case here in SA. Although he's right about the tacos part, two of the best taco trucks in SA actually park on Babcock & Hausman. There's also a food truck park called The Block that's 2 minutes away.

[River City Rocky]

Originally Posted by vater

That's my part of town and I'm pretty happy here. Hike & bike nature trails and a couple parks (Leon Creek greenway) all over the place. Quite a few college students as you can imagine. There was a trailer park nearby that the city just tore down, they're putting up new housing in that area. Good schools, Brandeis HS.

It's not a top 3 ranked high school in SA (out of 35 high schools or so) as far as academic performance goes, but it's definitely top 10. See https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/ed...-85307-tbla-25

Not too bad of a commute to the airport. 30 mins at the most, but usually 20-25 mins. Go east on Hausman to I-10, then 410 east to airport.

Six Flags, Top Golf, Shops at La Cantera (upscale outdoor mall) are 5-7 minutes away. Seaworld is 15 minutes away. You have everything you need within a 5 minute drive. HEB Plus grocery store nearby. Best grocery chain in the world.

Good luck in your home search!



This dude is exaggerating as far as Spanish being spoken everywhere. Maybe if you're on some parts of the South or West side of town, sure. We get a lot of Mexican nationals (mostly the wealthy ones) who go shopping on the north side of town. But other than that, mostly English is spoken. If you want a town where mostly spanish is spoken, that would be a border town like Laredo. But even then, 90% of the locals understand English perfectly well.

Not the case here in SA. Although he's right about the tacos part, two of the best taco trucks in SA actually park on Babcock & Hausman. There's also a food truck park called The Block that's 2 minutes away.

I know I was just trolling guys I'm sorry.

[tarragon]

I live in Stone Oak and I don't think the travel to the airport is that bad, it takes about 15 minutes but of course that isn't rush hour!

[rynetwo]

White man in my 30s who has lived here most of my life. Never have I had to speak Spanish nor have I been somewhere they don’t speak English.

As he was saying he was trolling.

San Antonio is what you make of it. It can be great or it can be miserable.

FYI. Look at 281 and east to Jones Maltsberger north of Starcrest. Your budget will get you in but the house will need updates.

[Azure110]

If you have lived here long enough AND spend time in the more heavily populated Spanish speaking areas, then you will occasionally find yourself confronted by Spanish speaking only folks such as an waitress at some taqueria style restaurant on the Southside. It is not big deal either, at least it isn't to me because again if you live here long enough then you can enough spanish words to get your point across.

[alwayssanantonio]

Welcome to south Texas, Hispanic friends. The sun mostly always shines here.
If you were are closer to Midway airport in Illinois it is infinitely better than O'Hare airport. I always thought O'Hare airport pretty bad, as airports go.
So you've two active teen aged boys whom like to spend much time out of doors you say ? If they move here and are outside hiking or whatever -Tell them to watch for very important fire ant mounds. Northerners can unknowingly stop and be standing on top of one of these small ant mounds only a foot across or so and these fierce little ants will immediately swarm up trousers and inflict quite a few bites all a once. As bad as bee stings nearly. There are no fire ants in Chicago so be forewarned.
It happens.

[KerrTown]

Originally Posted by txbullsfan

You are welcome.

Rush hour in Chicago/Illinois, makes rush hour here look like a cakewalk. No comparison. 55 in Illinois starts to get bad around the Bolingbrook/Weber Road exit heading north and was insane bumper to bumper to the city. Chicago coming back was insane too during rush hour. Literally hours to travel x amount of miles in bumper to bumper. When people complain about traffic here they really dont understand how good they have it in comparison.

Compare WBBM to WOAI's rush hour coverage. You won't be able to get a traffic report on the weekends on any radio station in Texas!

Originally Posted by cobolt

OP---I'm also from Chicago--grew up in the City. I've lived in Texas since 1991 and have lived in San Antonio for several years. You can direct message me with any questions or helpful hints to make your transition easier. You can find some deep dish Chicago knock-off pizza here that is meh. But you cannot find tavern-style pizza. Nor can you find a decent Italian Beef, so...that's what visits back to Chicago are for.

Welcome to Texas!

You could drive a couple hours down I-10 to Katy, west of Houston. There is a neighborhood Greek restaurant run by a Detroit transplant. He told me that he spent summers at his uncle's house in Chicago while growing up.

https://pappagyros.com

His business has turned brisk among the locals, despite being in a Shell station space (former A&W). At first I was looking for a decent gyro, unlike the ones from the national chain in the mall food court. He started serving Detroit favorites such as Coneys back last summer and added Chicago favorites such as the Italian Beef and Chicago Dog a few months ago. Eating that first Italian beef sandwich from there took me back to that snowy, winter day at Portillo's in Lisle on my last visit to Chicago a couple years ago.