San Antonio RFI (relocation)

[MTP]

Hey All

Me and Mrs. P are contemplating moving to San Antonio. We are currently in 'discovery phase' and I thought I'd post here to hear what the resident experts say (not looking for legal & financial advice, but really interested in your opinion and experiences).

Bit of background:

We spent the last 3 years in the 'north of north Austin' area, really low crime and generally a peaceful place to raise a family. That said, the only thing I really appreciate about the area is the fact that I can pick amongst multiple shooting competitions / activities every weekend. There is not much else of interest to me in the Austin metro area. Real estate prices are out of control, and we are not locked in an existing mortgage.

San Antonio is appealing for a couple of reasons. Feel free to red team these, if it means I was wrong, so be it:

- loads of stuff to do as a family with young kids
- Outdoor range availability, USPSA/3 gun weekly matches are a 'go' , with multiple clubs hosting
- property prices are lower (on average. it depends on location of course). Looking specifically at the Far West side / Northwest side.
- good amount of jobs incl. federal employment. We currently work remotely and plan on doing so for the foreseable future, but I like to know Im in a place where I can easily find employment locally if necessary

The only downside we can think of is crime, compared to Williamson county. Random-ish violent crime to be specific. 'A bit worse than Austin' is all I could gather from UCR and other sources, but it doesnt mean much. Having lived as foreigners in a few not very hospitable places in the past, we are well versed in following the '3 Rules of Stupid' and we don't invite trouble at our doorstep either. I don't think the 'burbs of San Antonio are any worse than any other suburbs. Whats your take ?

Thanks!
M

[Glenn E. Meyer]

We lived in the NW quadrant for quite a few years. Around Bandera and 1604. It originally was a quiet area but over time, urban sprawl washed over us. Traffic had become when we left (2019) pretty horrible and the highways pretty dangerous, IMHO. Crime had moved around us also, with more shootings even in 'nice places'. If we had stayed, we would have probably moved farther out from the 1604 loop.

Now, we moved for personal reasons that are not relevant. San Antonio was a livable place. We had good shopping, libraries, restaurants, medical care, certainly a good gun environment. Housing prices were decent. The problem with staying in our house would have been continued urban compression and crowding with increasing crime. Look farther out would be my advice.

Good luck.

[MTP]

Now, we moved for personal reasons that are not relevant. San Antonio was a livable place. We had good shopping, libraries, restaurants, medical care, certainly a good gun environment. Housing prices were decent. The problem with staying in our house would have been continued urban compression and crowding with increasing crime. Look farther out would be my advice.

Good luck.

Glenn, thanks for sharing your personal experience. This type of no-nonsense advice is truly invaluable (and hard to come by in other parts of the interwebz). Much appreciated !

And yes, we are likely to continue looking farther out, in places like New Braunfels.

M

[HeavyDuty]

As a counter proposal, have you considered a little further north? With the exception of Killeen which is very easy to avoid, Bell County has a lot going for it.

[randyho]

Took a few days shopping when there was a chance I'd take a job at Lackland. This was over a decade ago.

A few takeaways from our time there.

• The closer to Lackland, the worse
• The further South, the worse
• Taxes are not to be ignored as the further out we went, the saner they were. We guessed those high school football mega stadiums hadn't paid for themselves.
• Want a pool, and you will. Buy a house that already has one. Rocky country is expensive to build pools on.
• F'ing fire ants!
• Finding ourselves accidentally in the middle of a reconquista march was interesting.
• The season for seasonal allergies is kinda amazing, which wouldn't be different from Austin.

Boerne and New Braunfels wound up as places we would have gotten to know better on return trips. Helotes was probably a better idea than either, commute wise.

[okie john]

My father lived in Boerne for nearly 30 years. Delightful place. I'd go there in a heartbeat.


Okie John

[HCM]

My father lived in Boerne for nearly 30 years. Delightful place. I'd go there in a heartbeat.


Okie John

It was.

It’s now become a contiguous suburb of San Antonio experiencing record growth, a significant amount of which involves California transplants. Good or bad it’s not what you remember from even 10 years ago.

Comfort (next town west /north on IH-10 is “the new Boerne.”

[HCM]

The East and West (Lackland area) sides of town are rough. The South side a bit less so.

The North side is good and “Northwest” (Alamo Ranch /Helotes) outside Loop 1604 is also good but experiencing rapid growth with all the issues that entails.

There is a significant difference in taxes between being in the city of San Antonio and being in unincorporated Bexar County. However, there is a corresponding difference in services received. The patrol folks in the Bexar County Sheriff office and Bexar county fire do the best they can, but they simply don’t have the personnel and the resources to provide a level of service comparable to that provided in the city. Pick your poison. The other issue is the city is continually seeking to annex the high growth (aka tax potential) unincorporated areas.

New Braunfels and Boerne i’ve been two of the highest growth areas in the state if not the country. If looking in Comal county I might look at Spring Branch or Bulverde.

Keep in mind that in the long-term new Braunfels and the I 35 corridor between San Antonio and Austin will eventually grow together into one large metroplex the way Dallas and Fort Worth grew together.

Just “going further out” in general is no panacea. For example, going further out from the west side and Lackland area would take you to Castroville. Castroville used to be a nice little town. However, as growth expanded out along highway 90 it brought significant crime and gang problems. Essentially too many of the west siders moved out there to “get their kids away from bad influences “ when in fact, their kids ARE the “bad influences.”

Another thing to keep in mind is that culturally, San Antonio is the northernmost point of “South Texas.” It’s a Hispanic city in terms of culture, language and population. More Tejano then say the Mexico light of the valley it if you are not comfortable with that, it will probably not be a good fit.

[Glenn E. Meyer]

That's true. Another tip about medical and dental care. Finding a primary doctor can be a pain in the butt and you have to look out for crooks who over recommend 'procedures'. The same for dentists. After going through a few rounds of that, we settled with the private patient clinics of the UT med school and dental school. They were conservative and seemingly of quality. Helped me out.

When I was in a major, survived by the grace of God accident on 1604 (a death trap road, IMHO), I contacted a lawyer (recommended by a friend - who knew the dad of the firm) but the kid hooked me up with a shyster 'medical' expert who sent me to a quack - let's DO SURGERY! I demurred after a couple of appointments. I said I wanted to go to my med school doc - boy, did the lawyers have a fit - who hooked me up with the chair of orthopedics for a rationale plan. No surgery (said it wouldn't help) - lots of PT.

YMMV but that was our medical choice. Same with the Dentist. Had a old nice conservative guy who retired, the new guy _ OMG, you're mouth will explode any day - root canals, crowns, unscrew your head and put it back on. Moved to the Dental private practice and guess what still have those exploding death for the most part.

Here - we had a go around with similar dental crooks, found a better one on the recommendation of my internist (who was a Special Forces doc, gun guy and still trains in such med). Trusted him and found a good dentist.

Wife had some GI tract issues - first guy, clown - second guy Med school doc - much better. Anyway, the UT clinics for private patients worked out. They have built two new nice buildings for the MD and Dental clinics.

My favorite LGS in San Antonio was Dury's. There may be better prices elsewhere but they were ok for some things. Academy was the best big box on prices. The Saxet gun shows were good, at least when we were there. Nagel's - the old line gun store was a rude, Fudd place. Nope.

One thing really annoyed me. It was on the way home from work, so I might stop to browse. One day, there was a soldier who was looking at Beretta 92's to duplicate his service weapon. Well, their price was about 75 bucks more than the same gun down the street or around town at Academy's. Think they would give a soldier a break - NOPE. Should I have opened my mouth - maybe - I dunno. They had a knife sale on discontinued models, I saw one and asked the old lady if they could do better. She screamed at me. The correct response would be: Sorry that's our best price. Didn't have to unleash the flying monkeys.

Same happened at the gun show once. Was looking at some pump guns - and asked if that was the best price. Screamer - so went to another table - same gun, managed to get a lower price - because the dealer was a psych major, go figure.

[HCM]

That's true. Another tip about medical and dental care. Finding a primary doctor can be a pain in the butt and you have to look out for crooks who over recommend 'procedures'. The same for dentists. After going through a few rounds of that, we settled with the private patient clinics of the UT med school and dental school. They were conservative and seemingly of quality. Helped me out.

When I was in a major, survived by the grace of God accident on 1604 (a death trap road, IMHO), I contacted a lawyer (recommended by a friend - who knew the dad of the firm) but the kid hooked me up with a shyster 'medical' expert who sent me to a quack - let's DO SURGERY! I demurred after a couple of appointments. I said I wanted to go to my med school doc - boy, did the lawyers have a fit - who hooked me up with the chair of orthopedics for a rationale plan. No surgery (said it wouldn't help) - lots of PT.

YMMV but that was our medical choice. Same with the Dentist. Had a old nice conservative guy who retired, the new guy _ OMG, you're mouth will explode any day - root canals, crowns, unscrew your head and put it back on. Moved to the Dental private practice and guess what still have those exploding death for the most part.

Here - we had a go around with similar dental crooks, found a better one on the recommendation of my internist (who was a Special Forces doc, gun guy and still trains in such med). Trusted him and found a good dentist.

Wife had some GI tract issues - first guy, clown - second guy Med school doc - much better. Anyway, the UT clinics for private patients worked out. They have built two new nice buildings for the MD and Dental clinics.

My favorite LGS in San Antonio was Dury's. There may be better prices elsewhere but they were ok for some things. Academy was the best big box on prices. The Saxet gun shows were good, at least when we were there. Nagel's - the old line gun store was a rude, Fudd place. Nope.

One thing really annoyed me. It was on the way home from work, so I might stop to browse. One day, there was a soldier who was looking at Beretta 92's to duplicate his service weapon. Well, their price was about 75 bucks more than the same gun down the street or around town at Academy's. Think they would give a soldier a break - NOPE. Should I have opened my mouth - maybe - I dunno. They had a knife sale on discontinued models, I saw one and asked the old lady if they could do better. She screamed at me. The correct response would be: Sorry that's our best price. Didn't have to unleash the flying monkeys.

Same happened at the gun show once. Was looking at some pump guns - and asked if that was the best price. Screamer - so went to another table - same gun, managed to get a lower price - because the dealer was a psych major, go figure.

The Saxet gunshows by Marbach are no more. No liberal witch Hunt, the owners finally found someone who wanted to rent the space for commercial purposes on a permanent basis.

San Antonio has a plethora of medical options. There is a large medical Center area with multiple hospitals and clinics near UTSA and the USAA headquarters campus. I know people who have used the UT dental clinic with good results.

In addition having university hospital, which is both a level one trauma center and a teaching hospital San Antonio specifically Fort Sam Houston is also one of the primary locations for military medical care. Fort Sam Houston and Camp Bullis are the primary training pipeline for military medics. San Antonio military Medical Center located on Fort Sam Houston is also both a teaching hospital and a level one trauma center. They take outside trauma patients for training purposes.

Other than the current plague of Auto burglary and theft, if you are sticking to middle-class areas, the incident of random crime is low.

If you go to the hood or events that bring out the hood rats like late nights at fiesta downtown it is what it is.


Dries is good and they currently have two locations, Adelbridge on San Pedro is also good. Your description of Nagles is accurate in my experience and unfortunately, they have gotten worse since the grandson took over.