So I went home this weekend

L

Longhorny630

1,000+ Posts
I grew up in San Antonio up north of 281/1604 for those familiar with the area. Back when I was in high school (class of '05), the whole area up there was mostly undeveloped, with lots of trees and little traffic. There was some buildup at the 281/1604 intersection with some little places along the major high way, but for the most part there were lots of trees and not many lights. It used to be really nice. This weekend I finally made it back into the area for the first time since a couple months after I graduated high school, and I just about threw up from the overdevelopment of that whole area. Every empty lot, every patch of trees, everything has been paved over and some building put up. Massive apartment complexes, a Super HEB (across the street from an existing HEB which is now closed and vacant), and about 30 bars now replace what used to be a pleasant area to grow up. It was disgusting. I get that this is "progress" but I don't see having a bunch of new massive strip malls which replace older strip malls across the street creating eye sores as progress. I used to spend a lot of time as a kid playing in the woods near our house, and when I grew up I ran in the woods and on the mostly empty streets (cross training) which is now impossible as the woods are homes and the streets clogged. To top it off, they put in a drugstore at the entrance to my neighborhood not long before I left, which is now a Salvation Army Store. Faaaantastic. I can honestly say I have no intention of ever returning to San Antonio as the one I remember is gone.
 
Take a number. That's happening everywhere, and has been for years. Shame.
 
I went to HS in fabulous Converse, TX graduating in 1976 (yes, I actually remember Hemisfair 72). 1604 was basically a two lane road in the middle of nowhere. If I remember correctly, it actually faded into a dirt road as you got beyond 281.

Does anybody on here remember "Donkey Ladies"...?
 
I went to Churchill and grew up nearby. Agreed 100%. SA is growing out of control to the North and West. They are ignoring the mistakes Houston made with its no zone crazy expansion to the West too.

On top of quality of life issues- there is that whole Edwards Aquifer thing. You know, the part where SA does not usually have enough fresh water to live and must impose severe water restrictions and fine folks for watering on their 'off' days?

So, all that growth to the north should come at a decent price to the Edwards recharge zones. SA is my home- but it sadly is turning into a suburbia vomit zone.
 
welcome to every major suburb in america brother!

hell, in dallas it is damn near one city to mckinney. by the time i'm fifty it might stretch all teh way to sherman along 75 anyway.
 
I don't even bother trying to notice things in Houston (where I was born) any longer.

When I go back to Santa Fe, N.M. I see tons of changes and none of them are good. There are two Santa Fe's. The one tourists experience and then the real one but that too is fading fast.
 
I went back to Ohio
But my pretty countryside
had been paved down the middle
buy a government that had no pride
The farms of Ohio
Had been replaced by shopping malls
and Muzak filled the air
From Seneca to Cayoga Falls
 
Grew up in SA. MacArthur class of 1993. My parents live just souht of 1604. Outside 1604 was nothing back then. Not a little, nothing. We used to go to Medina Lake quite a bit and Hwy 16 to the Lake was nothing. Helotes was not a suburb. It was out there. I remember a Handy Andy out there. 1604 getting there was 1 lane each way with stoplights.

I went to Floores Country Store last Saturday night to watch Robert Earl Keen and there is no difference between Helotes and SA. Merged.
 
Austin's growth is in all four directions, San Antonio's growth is only to the Northwest, North, and Northeast - and those areas are just choked with people and cars. The south sides of San Antonio have seen almost no developement; it's like IH10 is a Berlin Wall to San Antonio's economy...
 
And yet, all of this growth is a sign of a vibrant economy.

I've been to Detroit and Cleveland and, trust me: you don't want the alternative.



But it does remind me of Joni Mitchell's song: they paved paradise and put up a parking lot.
 
I graduated from MacArthur. I remember when they built that Rolling Oaks Mall back in the late '80s and i thought who the hell was that built for. There was nothing out there.

Well they built it. People came. That mall looks like a dump now. I am sure they will build a brand new shiny one next to it, and abandon the "old" one.

The original suburbs of the 80's, south of loop 1604, used to be the "cream of the crop", shiny and new.. they are becoming slumish, as brand new shinier ones are being built farther north of 1604. Built just as cheaply, just newer.
 
It's been happening everywhere for a long time.

I grew up in the Oak Cliff part of Dallas back when there were miles and miles and miles of farm land between Dallas, Irving, Grand Prairie, Arlington and Fort Worth instead of continuous Metroplexity served by crowded roads and highways.

By the '70s, D-FW was well on the way to multicity megacontinuity in every direction.

wtf.gif


From Marble Falls, where I live now, to College Station going through or around Austin or to San Antonio down 281 is a headache of traffic and stoplights.

In 1975, I would easily drive from MF to Zilker Park in 45 ninutes or to Central San Antone in an hour and a half, but no more.

So, I stay home and watch cable TV and rent movies from NETFLIX instead.

Even Marble Falls has traffic.

whiteflag.gif
 
My family moved to Austin in 1965 too. Yes, it has grown, but not near at the breakneck speed of some parts of SA. The Barton Creek greenbelt has not been covered in homes the way it might have been. We lived in Westlake Hills and while it has grown, it's been slow and steady and even a few parts are still almost like they were when I graduated from high school in 1974.

The explosive growth in the Round Rock area is closer to what has happened in SA. I remember Round Rock leaders in the 80's loudly decrying the "Sodom and Gomorrah" that existed to the south and how their pro growth initiatives were good for the economy and area. It depends how you define "good." Some of these same people complained about having to move from Round Rock because the small town atmosphere was gone and taxes were now too high. And they couldn't see this coming?
 
Thomas Wolfe said "You Can't Go Home Again."

I think about that, metaphorically, every time I drive from Temple to Austin.

In fact, my whole Traces of Texas Photo Project is dedicated to the idea that we're losing so much.

Between 1983 and 2005, 3.3 million acres of Texas, an area four times the size of Big Bend National Park, were paved over and urbanized.
 
I lived at Tom Green condos my JR and SR year (1995-1997). I love North Campus. Never lived in West Campus. Agreed, I can see what is happening in WC moving to NC before too long. Hopefully not though.
 
Sure- but when you have an influx of people as the campus area does- at least the growth on West Campus is smart growth- e.g. vertically and with mass transit.

Contrasting this to the explosions that are SA, West Houston and West Austin. It's just a formula for bad traffic and a lower quality of life that is proven again and again.
 
Yep, it's a big problem in north SA especially on 281N. We used to live out there, but we lived in our cars all the time because of traffic. Now that we have moved inside loop 1604, life is much better. SA is actually a good place to raise a family as long as you research the school districts carefully.

I grew up in Austin, and when I graduated HS in '76, the population was about 250K. You could easily drive around town with minimal traffic. It wasn't until the early '80's that the population exploded due mainly to the software companies.
 
mebrett, what you typed is right, in theory. But that is not how it is shaking out. There are so many more people there now with, somehow, even less parking spots than before. More streets are zoned now for safety meaning that more have parking only on one side instead of both sides.

More have NO PARKING signs closer to the corners and for good reason. There were many hit and runs with bumpers and sides getting nailed.

The mass transit through there reached critical mass awhile ago. To borrow a phrase from Spaceballs, it's now gone plaid. It is flat out stupid now. There are times when students now get passed by up to 3 buses in a row, maybe 4 early in the semester, before they get one. Yes, some will just stand and wait even though they are 8 or so walking minutes from the Six Pack.

They have to run 35 foot buses through there instead of the 40's. The turns are brutal and almost impossible in a 40 footer even if all was perfect and people drove like humans. We know that won't happen there.

There are discussions as to the rational solutions for West Campus and that area.

Some include:

Somehow running a new route counter clockwise to the existing WC. Make them far enough apart to where you don't allow students to see one coming on the other route and run for it. Too many would have to be left behind or the bus runs later waiting for people.

Run something like the above but have one or both dip further south and north. Maybe a larger loop for WC but have it go furhter north and have the other one hit south of MLK.

Scrap the route all together and let them walk as they are super close and focus resources to other fast growing areas further away.

It cannot run the way it is now and with more high rises coming (one just about to open up) it only gets worse. But since the buses are already maxed out, they will run the same...poorly.

Adding more buses is not a solution as they already run so close together, spacing wise, they run together. Catch two traffic lights on the entire route and the bus behind you catches you. It's too tight with too tough of driving conditions and too many people that it borders on unsafe.
 
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