SAN ANTONIO │ City and Metro Off-Topic Thread
 

So the Fantastic Four movie is a bomb, did anyone see it and like it?

Now that's off topic. :) I haven't seen it, but this is the third Fantastic Four movie (with the other ones being in 1994 and 2005) and they have all seem to suck. This Marvel franchise can't seem to get off the ground. The title of this thread is the "City and Metro" off topic thread, so these posts will probably get deleted because they are too far off topic for this off topic thread.

You're so right. I feel Fox should just hand them over to Disney.

But yeah, I saw "off topic" and jumped at the opportunity to talk about something else! lol

They need to stop doing so many comic book movies. I haven't gone to the theater in a while, but F4 didn't entice me enough to go.

Hats off to Sirkingwilliam
 

Thank you, Sirkingwilliam for solving this "off topic" issue!

And I know I won't post on this thread.

Booooring!!:cheers:

Time to End Annexation?
 

San Antonio has been following the practice of growing the tax base by annexing newer developments, as opposed to working on improving the inner city and creating an environment that raises property values.

In my opinion, this encourages sprawl making the city more difficult to manage, shifts investment to the outlying areas where the city ends up footing the bill for inadequate infrastructures.

On the other hand, it did allow the city to make some decisions (mostly not the best) on recharge areas and prevent a development close to the Bracken bat cave.

Would it be better for the city to be smaller with suburban communities, or should they continue annexation?

I think it's great that San Antonio can annex so much developed land. Most cities can only wish they could capture more tax base. The areas that get annexed are going to end up with suburban style development anyway. So it's best that San Antonio can collect the property and sales taxes. Plus, there's no reason why San Antonio can't develop a denser urban core regardless of what goes on in the areas getting annexed.

I think the city should stop annexing for now. I understand the idea behind it (more tax base, get people who use city's resources but don't pay for it), but I don't want to see the city become as big as Houston or Phoenix.

One thing I would like to see more downtown is some good, new retail. Fortunately RiverCenter Mall is adding some new stores and fixing the building up, but as a downtown that has a large tourism sector, you'd think there'd be more options. I also think that creating a synergy with the right shops/restaurants/bars/clubs can make downtown the kind of place more locals would want to be even if there is a new high rise or not. If we make it our go to place, national and local developers would only have to pursue it (more demand for downtown living).

Skw
 

We're simply not going to agree.

While HDRC is the most high profile example, there is sense of historical preservation, which I'm not against to a point, that seems to stifle, not necessarily development DT, but the scale of development. I'm not necessarily referring solely to height, but I do like skyscrapers.

Some of our most modern buildings were either built thirty years ago, or are outside the urban core, and some of the more recent buildings don't look very modern, especially as time goes by.

The HDRC may be seen as a hassle to developers, but San Antonio has many other more influential factors that can be associated with the lack of development in our urban core. What amazes me is how a city which was touted as one of the most unique cities in the U.S. prior to the 20th century is now viewed as lackluster by many people today. The fact is many of the cities oldest and most cultural neighborhoods were razed during the 20th century. These policies left only the bare-bones of the area's culture and urban fabric and this created many of the problems we are seeing today for our "lackluster" city. The city and it's people are finally realizing these mistakes and by rehabilitating the San Antonio river, San Pedro creek, and Hemisfair park maybe locals will move back in. While the city may never recover it's lost culture and urban fabric, I am optimistic for our future. San Antonio is just an old rebel that runs on it's own time.

Very well said. Thank you.

http://www.sacurrent.com/Blogs/archi...opens-thursday

Looks downtown is getting its first rooftop bar and my new favorite bar. Perfect location too. It's at 9th and the riverwalk, in that new office building.

Interesting little blurb in an article about a pizza joint re-locating
http://www.sacurrent.com/Blogs/archi...pizza-classics

...not sure what that means except that some type of development is planned for this area. The old address was "2110 Broadway St, San Antonio, TX 78215" which is about a block north of the Mosaic, across the street from the old Buttercrust bakery.

I caught that too, I logged on to post it in fact, but you beat me to it!

About 6 months ago the pre-fab metal warehouse building and two broken down houses behind Pizza Classics were demolished, which took up half of that block. I assume this purchase is related to that demo.

BCAD says it's owned by NORTH ALAMO PROPERTIES LLC. Seems like not enough land for a "high rise", but who knows?

I wonder what they mean by high rise. I'm assuming they are using that entire block if it will be from 15-30 stories, which, again, is an assumption on my part of "high rise". I also understand that just about anything over 5 stories could be labeled a high rise in that area. Looking forward to hearing more about it.

I really hope more density comes to Sunset station and Dignowity Hill. There is so much opportunity of making it a very Williamsburg, BK-esque area. I am an Urban Studies major going to school in NYC currently, originally from SA, and just want to see the type of development that's going on in Brooklyn start happening in SA. It is all very doable and easy development. As long as SA focuses on keeping diverse communities and not let gentrification get out of hand, because I am in favor of gentrification to an extent, then Dignowity Hill, Sunset station, Southtown, Lavaca, Near west side, Tobin Hills, and South Broadway could all become walkable neighborhoods with new, modern, unique living & working options. Seeing that rendering of what Sunset station could look like excites me because it is very doable. SA just needs to bucker down and start thinking a tiny bit bigger with the living options. They could easily start developing infill projects that go 8-12 stories comfortably and start building up a little more instead of just filling in. The city has the capability and demand enough to start thinking a bit bigger. Loving checking this and seeing my hometown change but hope the success continues and steps it up a bit.

I was in Nashville this past week and walked by their convention center. It's really a nice building. Here is a link to their photo gallery: http://www.nashvillemusiccitycenter.com/photos
That will give you an overall feel for what is there

Just for comparison:
Nashville :leek:
http://cmsimg.tennessean.com/apps/pb...-Center-events

San Antonio :dunno:
http://static.panoramio.com/photos/o.../122284499.jpg
...but think of the energy savings without windows, and they can use the wall to show movies!
:grumpycat: "beauty and happiness are overrated"

Nashville's CC is much nicer looking, and Nashville has some excellent entertainment options, but they don't have a River Walk to provide as much of a unique experience to visitors.

It's apples and oranges.

One was built from the ground up whose design started from scratch while the other is an expansion whose design had to play off an already established look.