Quote:
Originally Posted by Boquillas
(Post 3972164)
UTSA Blvd ends at Babcock. Always has, always will. The street running through the College Park subdivision is UTSA Drive. I grew up on UTSA Drive and Foothills Court (the first street in the subdivision). There are already idiots tearing through that subdivision at dangerous speeds. No houses front Hausman. Let them race down Hausman all they want. They can widen Hausman. They can't widen UTSA Drive, unless they plan on ripping out people's driveways. I know the subdivision is suburban sprawl, and far be it for me to be a NIMBY, but there's plenty of other access to the property...
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It looks like there wont be any access to the athletics complex property through the College Park subdivision. You've mentioned that your parents live there, and no one anticipated the growth of UTSA in facilities and students but I've always had a problem with neighborhood residents being upset that there is a university in their neighborhood, when the university was there first (not that you indicated this, but I'm taking this as an opportunity to step up on my soapbox for a bit). You'd be better versed about when construction occurred in the CP neighborhood than I would. I have a buddy who owns a house on Prairie Lace (I think that's the name) and it looks like it was built mid-late 1980's (at the earliest). It could be some homes pre-date the 1976 construction of the central UTSA campus. In that case, they or others have legitimate concerns about the university moving in and dramatically altering the makeup of the neighborhood, and might have chosen to purchase elsewhere had they knew what was on the horizon. Your folx might have no problem with the university as a neighbor. But I take issue with others who move into one of the newer neighborhoods that have sprouted up around the campus and busy themselves with complaints about the traffic, noise, people, etc. affiliated with the campus. It begs the question; WHY DID YOU BUY THERE? UTSA hasn't been hiding all this time. It's highly visible physically and culturally in San Antonio, and almost everyone here knows someone who attended it at one point or graduated from it. They had to know what they were in for, and if they didn't, it's their fault for not exercising due diligence. I've always checked out traffic patterns and flows near apartment complexes before I signed a lease. I marked the Ranch at Shavano Park (on 1604 between NW Military and Bitters) off my list of potentials when I realized there was no back access to the complex from NW Military and if coming from the west, I'd have to pass it and drive to Bitters Road, turn around and head back on the access road to get to the complex, additional 3 miles in total. I couldn't imagine doing that all the time, especially if I had to piss or was in a hurry. It's like people who buy a home on a creek because of the tranquility and then demand the taxpayers do something about flood control when the creek rises and their home floods.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Boquillas
(Post 3972164)
...the UTSA car culture has been coddled long enough. ... The idiot kids living in Las Colinas and the Oaks and all the other complexes are still driving to school for crying out loud....
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I did want to jump in on this point though and correct an inconsistency in your comment. In 2005 the university added a 'resident' parking permit, and limited on-campus residents with vehicles to the 'resident' permit. A 'resident' permit is only valid for parking in designated spots near the residential complexes, and prohibits residents from parking in all other lots (except at night when a student might not feel safe walking to the library or other area of campus.) This ended the practice of on-campus residents driving to a parking lot closer to class. And as residents, they are prohibited from purchasing a general parking permit.
Additionally, all students now pay a semesterly fee of $20 to fund the shuttle system that runs on-campus and circulates to apartments around campus (including Las Colinas). I always see many students riding these routes as it would certainly be faster to wait 15 minutes for the shuttle and get dropped off at the door of a building than it would be to drive to campus search for parking and walk to a building. If you have class during peak hours, the closest lot (Lot 5) for general parking is usually full, and you'd have to park in a remote lot and wait for that shuttle, making it a big waste of time to drive to and park on campus if you live in a complex with shuttle service. I also see a lot of students walking to/from their apartments (Las Colinas, Alpine Park, Maverick Creek, Chase Hill) when I'm stopped at the light at 1604 and Chase Hill Blvd. So it's no longer accurate to say students on or near campus still drive to campus for class. As noted above, those living on campus couldn't do so even if they wanted to because of the permit system.
Many who have a past familiarity with UTSA arent aware of how much it has grown, developed, matured and changed in the last decade and make statements based on dated personal knowledge. The most common misnomer is that it is 'just a commuter school'. That may have been the case circa 2000, but people are surprised when they learn how wrong their blanket statements are and how different the current campus environment is from years past:
1) Between 60% to 65% of students graduated from high schools outside Bexar county (i can dig up the data if you want, but I've spent too much time on this post already)- UTSA students are no longer the kid living at home with mom and dad getting some basics out of the way.
2) The increase isn't just students that were deferred enrollment to UT. There are about 1,500 of these students per class, but at the conclusion of the two-year deferment period, 2/3 of these academically strong students (who could have gotten into any other university in the state) decide to remain on and graduate from UTSA.
3) Most telling, UTSA has nearly caught up to it's flagship UT-Austin in percentage of on-campus residents, with almost 13% at UTSA and just over 16% at UT. The breakdown is UTSA with 28,533 enrolled, and 3,647 living on-campus, making it 12.8% residential. UT-Austin has 48,754 enrolled, with 7,847 living on-campus, making it 16.1% residential. See the THECB residential data at
http://www.thecb.state.tx.us/reports/PDF/1722.PDF
Clearly, the area around the UT campus is more dense with housing than the area around UTSA, and a much larger percentage of UT students live within walking distance to the campus than at UTSA. But when people make the claim that UTSA is just/still a commuter school (commuter being students living off campus and traveling to the campus for class) it's simply no longer the case, especially when the percentage of on-campus residents is just 3% behind UT-Austin. I don't think anyone of good sense would accuse UT of being a commuter school.
Say the UTSA campus is architecturally unappealing, say it's easy to get into (although this is changing, albeit incrementally), say it's graduation rates aren't impressive (they have improved, significantly in the last few years), or say it doesn't fund research at the flagship level, but don't say it's a commuter school like this is 1996.
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