Frustrated from San Antonio and looking for your advices (Dallas: appointed, homes)

[Zedon]

Hello everyone, My wife and I w\o kids moved recently from Tel Aviv to San Antonio and so far we are very disappointed with the city. we used to walk a lot in Tel Aviv and found out it's not even a possibility in this city.
the only walkable area is downtown which means homeless people, ghetto and tourists that come to see the river... besides? there is literally nothing in this area, also it feels like too much up and coming area.
Anyways now we looking forward to move out of here hopefully to find a more interesting place to live in (which means for us more urban area than suburb), we basically looking for a place that feels more youth than old, more urban than suburb, more type of Manhattan (in our case Tel Aviv ) than a 5 acres of ranch and in general we prefer to live in a building.
A friend told us to try uptown and downtown dallas ans downtown austin as well.
can you help us with recommendations about neighbourhoods\cities to look for in texas?

Thanks a lot!

p.s. currently budget is not an issue

[ChristieP]

The problem with Texas is that very few areas are walkable simply because our cities were built after cars became popular, so things are much more spread out. Also, it's so darn hot here in the summers that people don't want to walk outside from late May through mid September!

Uptown Dallas may have what you are looking for, but there will still be some homeless people. Unfortunately, that's part of the landscape here.

[cBach]

Originally Posted by ChristieP

The problem with Texas is that very few areas are walkable simply because our cities were built after cars became popular, so things are much more spread out. Also, it's so darn hot here in the summers that people don't want to walk outside from late May through mid September!

Uptown Dallas may have what you are looking for, but there will still be some homeless people. Unfortunately, that's part of the landscape here.

Tel Aviv is hot in the summer and people walk there! I hate how the heat is always used as an excuse in Texas when there are giant cities that are walkable that are even hotter than Texas cities. Have you ever been to Israel in the summer?

The fact is that America just simply has a different culture than Europe and the rim of the Mediterranean due to Hollywood, cheap oil, and plentiful land. The city of Kansas City is bigger than London, Paris, and Madrid combined in square miles. That's in the cold Midwest. Our sprawl has nothing to do with the heat.

[cBach]

Originally Posted by Zedon

Hello everyone, My wife and I w\o kids moved recently from Tel Aviv to San Antonio and so far we are very disappointed with the city. we used to walk a lot in Tel Aviv and found out it's not even a possibility in this city.
the only walkable area is downtown which means homeless people, ghetto and tourists that come to see the river... besides? there is literally nothing in this area, also it feels like too much up and coming area.
Anyways now we looking forward to move out of here hopefully to find a more interesting place to live in (which means for us more urban area than suburb), we basically looking for a place that feels more youth than old, more urban than suburb, more type of Manhattan (in our case Tel Aviv ) than a 5 acres of ranch and in general we prefer to live in a building.
A friend told us to try uptown and downtown dallas ans downtown austin as well.
can you help us with recommendations about neighbourhoods\cities to look for in texas?

Thanks a lot!

p.s. currently budget is not an issue

Dallas is not really walkable and you'll have the same homeless population and not many people on the streets. My brother lived downtown and it's kind of dead.

Austin has what you're looking for but it's very expensive.

Your story is the truth as it happens to many from Europe or the Mediterranean area where cities are interesting and walkable. The sad truth is that in most of America we prefer to drive. It's the way it is and I'm surprised you didn't do research before coming here.

My advice is to try to adapt with the culture that is here rather than trying to find the culture you had back in Tel Aviv. So if you like to walk, find some nature trails (there are plenty) in the hill country and explore nature.

[KathrynAragon]

Originally Posted by cBach

Tel Aviv is hot in the summer and people walk there! I hate how the heat is always used as an excuse in Texas when there are giant cities that are walkable that are even hotter than Texas cities. Have you ever been to Israel in the summer?

The fact is that America just simply has a different culture than Europe and the rim of the Mediterranean due to Hollywood, cheap oil, and plentiful land. The city of Kansas City is bigger than London, Paris, and Madrid combined in square miles. That's in the cold Midwest. Our sprawl has nothing to do with the heat.

The average temps in Texas in the summer are significantly hotter than the average temps in Tel Aviv in the summer. So let's just get that fact straight before we go any further.

https://weatherspark.com/averages/32337/Tel-Aviv-Israel

San Antonio TX Average Temperatures by Month - Current Results

The supply of suburbs is because of the demand for suburbs. We don't have the same culture as Europe or Israel or any other country and that's OK. Not saying that we do everything better than other countries or that they do everything better than we do - I like aspects of every culture and country that I've ever visited. But Americans have historically loved their bigger lots, bigger homes, bigger suburbs and that's why we have so many of them.

Land has been more plentiful and less expensive here than in Europe for hundreds of years. That's the main reason for the more spread out way our cities and towns have developed. But here in Texas, the heat IS one additional reason we probably won't see a huge increase in "walkable cities." It's excruciating to walk from the grocery store to the car across a skillet of a parking lot in August anywhere in Texas.

[KathrynAragon]

OP, if budget is not an issue, and you can move to any city - why are you determined to stay in Texas?

[joqua]

Originally Posted by Zedon

we used to walk a lot in Tel Aviv and found out it's not even a possibility in this city.

"...it's not even a possibility..." is a rather inane statement.

Not sure what exactly you are wanting to walk to, and have no idea how Tel Aviv differs, but here is just one of several web sites that offer trail systems maintained by the city of San Antonio Parks and Recreation dept:

Greenway Trails

[cBach]

Originally Posted by KathrynAragon

The average temps in Texas in the summer are significantly hotter than the average temps in Tel Aviv in the summer. So let's just get that fact straight before we go any further.

https://weatherspark.com/averages/32337/Tel-Aviv-Israel

San Antonio TX Average Temperatures by Month - Current Results

The supply of suburbs is because of the demand for suburbs. We don't have the same culture as Europe or Israel or any other country and that's OK. Not saying that we do everything better than other countries or that they do everything better than we do - I like aspects of every culture and country that I've ever visited. But Americans have historically loved their bigger lots, bigger homes, bigger suburbs and that's why we have so many of them.

Land has been more plentiful and less expensive here than in Europe for hundreds of years. That's the main reason for the more spread out way our cities and towns have developed. But here in Texas, the heat IS one additional reason we probably won't see a huge increase in "walkable cities." It's excruciating to walk from the grocery store to the car across a skillet of a parking lot in August anywhere in Texas.

Okay, do you want to compare some other cities? Cairo, Egypt is walkable with many bazaars and it is comparable in heat.

[KathrynAragon]

Originally Posted by cBach

Okay, do you want to compare some other cities? Cairo, Egypt is walkable with many bazaars and it is comparable in heat.

No, because I already addressed the walking issue. And the OP is from Tel Aviv and seems determined to live in a city in Texas. So no need to discuss other cities in other parts of the world.

[cBach]

Originally Posted by KathrynAragon

No, because I already addressed the walking issue. And the OP is from Tel Aviv and seems determined to live in a city in Texas. So no need to discuss other cities in other parts of the world.

Even parts of Spain are as hot as Texas. For instance Seville has an average high of 97 in the summer hotter than average of 96 in San Antonio.

Yet Seville is very walkable.

Heat is not the issue. It's culture.