I posted a thread in 'City Discussions' about television markets in the US. It includes a map of the areas with a list. I know we have some tv and radio geeks here, so have a look:
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=154837

The defunct HollyHills East Side sports complex is revived, built, and SA bids for the Olympics. Yay or nay?

San Antonio will never get the olympics for a number of reasons with the airport being a main one. The terminal is too small - the terminal will have to handle three or four times the passengers it does now. Even after the current terminal projects are complete it still is just not enough. The runways are too short, not able to handle inter-contental flights.

The Olympics will have to go to a true international city - Los Angeles, London, NYC etc...

Does anybody know where the Spurs training facility is located? I'd like to drive by and see it sometime, and can't find the address on the internet...it's probably shrouded in secrecy.

it is right by my church. go down huebner (west from i-10)...take a left on floyd curl and then the practice facility is on your right on spurs lane.

here is the google map: http://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF8&...=16&iwloc=addr

while we're at it, i am preaching at church this week on "the power of words". i am pinch-hitting for the pastor and, yes, i am going to work in a skyscraper reference. :) the TOA will be brought up...

here is the church website: http://www.gracepoint.org/Home/tabid/53/Default.aspx and directions...http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=e...3&z=11&iwloc=A

I think the other day the NFL Comissioner was here speaking, and basically said they are keeping their eye on San Antonio. We all know SA has been overlooked in the past because of the small tv market. But, wouldn't the games be shown in Austin, the Hill Country, West Texas & El Paso, and the Valley? Wouldn't that bump up the tv market a good bit?

despite proximity, any team here would still be trumped by the cowboys in all of the television markets you mentioned.

they would probably bump the texans in a few of those markets, but, honestly, i don't know that the nfl sees a huge profit to be had in drawing el paso viewers who wouldn't otherwise be watching football.

as i mentioned earlier in the thread, i did some public speaking this weekend.

for anyone who is interested, here is THE LINK. Click on "The Power to Direct".

Good points. But too, is the reason those markets are already saturated w/ the Cowboys and Texans BECAUSE San Antonio doesn't have a team???

maybe to a very slight degree.

Loved your sermon Kyle. Those were good "words" :tup:
You know every time I see ToA now I'm going to think of Titanic :(

:haha:

thanks for the kind words....

I want one. :D Take a look at the name plate between the headlights.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...an_ca_1964.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:A...an_ca_1964.jpg

Austin Motor Company

This is an Austin Metro :haha:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi..._Auto_1983.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:A..._Auto_1983.jpg

Parts of Central Texas had snow last night.

Check out number 24.

Snow pictures in Austin.
http://www.statesman.com/news/mediah...jsp?tId=136591

Parts of the Houston area is getting snow right now!

:banana:

^ Awesome.

http://wp.myweather.net/wp/?pub=fx24...t=state&loc=TX

http://weather.myfoxaustin.com/maps/...80/m0_wdt.jpeg
http://www.myfoxaustin.com/myfox/pag...dar?pageId=9.5

I'm sure most of us northern ex-Texan transplants would kill for the kind of "snow" Texas is getting right now. This is a typical winter from Bozeman:

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/157/3...c8c100152e.jpg

I'm ready to come back now.:(

That's really rare that those areas are getting snow though. Snow showers in Conroe and College Station? Those areas of the state almost never get snow. Except for North Texas around Dallas/Fort Worth, the panhandle, extreme West Texas and a few lucky spots in Central Texas, most of the rest of the state misses out. It's even 36F in Galveston and raining. They're expecting upper teens in the Hill Country west of Austin tonight. Austin is forecast to be 27F tonight.

It would be cool if you guys got some accumulation. I remember in X-mas of '03 or '04, my roommate in San Antonio went down to McAllen and they got a bunch snow, and S.A. didn't get a thing. Even Boerne had some snow that year.

I'll always remember '84/'85 though. My mom put plastic bags over our socks inside our shoes so our feet wouldn't get wet in the snow.

This is really rare! Its not even winter yet and were getting snowflakes!
Theres even a 50% chance of Galveston getting the white stuff tonight. Getting snowfall in the Houston/Galveston metro area is crazy and we had snow just four years ago!

It started to stick on the ground some last night. It was on the roof and cars and grass. Still it wasn't anything like it was last year in January when we had it on the ground for 2 days.

Texas has had some crazy snow events though. I forget what year, but Austin dipped down to -2F and there was nearly a foot of snow on the ground. Galveston Bay supposedly froze over and they had snow on the beach.

Cap from the end of 11's news this evening. Damn.
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w...eltwaySnow.jpg

Yuck, I'm getting unpleasant reminders of last winter in Kansas City. We've already had two snows in the past few weeks, so I can only imagine what Jan and Feb are gonna be like :yuck:

How crazy is this?!
 

New Orleans and parts of Louisiana has had some considerable amounts of snow this morning. Up to 2 inches or more of accumulations, and honestly some of these look like several more inches than that. It's been snowing along the Texas/Louisiana border all night. This same storm system brought sleet and snow to Central and East Texas as well. Now the snow is moving towards southern Mississippi and Mobile could be next.

New Orleans, LA Snow 34° 29.84 W 15 86%

http://wp.myweather.net/wp/?pub=fx24...t=state&loc=LA

Snow, Sleet Falls Across South La.
http://www.wdsu.com/news/18252159/detail.html

Pictures here:
http://www.wdsu.com/slideshow/news/18252271/detail.html

Some crazy snow pictures here in Louisiana!!!
http://www.wwltv.com/perl/common/sli...99296621777567
http://www.wwltv.com/membercontent/p...1-c56200e9facb

Covington, Louisiana this morning.
http://www.wwltv.com/images/slidesho...images/027.jpg
Photo source: http://www.wwltv.com/perl/common/sli...81&previous=27

this is nutty.

i haven't seen snow in san antonio since 84/85.

the two most recent snows in san antonio found me in johannesburg, south africa. then, in the year in between that i was back in san antonio, johannesburg got a huge snow event, which is even more rare than snow in san antonio!!

maybe this is the year i break the curse.

I know. It's absolutely insane to see that much snow in Louisiana's southeastern most parish, (well, one parish up from the GULF). Covington sits in St. Tammany Parish on the border with Mississippi just one parish up from the gulf coast.

Look at the map of where it is.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covington,_Louisiana

Something I've been pondering lately.....the American Southwest, its boundaries, and whether San Antonio is a physically Southwest city.

Wikipedia says the American Southwest is specifically Arizona and New Mexico (agreed), but some include Texas in there as well as some of the other states.

I personally don't support the idea that ALL of Texas should be considered in the American Southwest. So, I've been thinking about what defines the Southwest, and here's some criteria I've come up with:

-lighting
-natural cacti

On the lighting...being from North Texas, one big noticable difference to me between N. Texas and S. Texas/San Antonio/Hill Country/W. Texas is the sunlight. It's just different.

Now on to the cactus. Traveling on 281 in the Hill Country, I feel more like I'm in W. Texas than Central Texas. Also, cactus stops growing before you get to Burnet, if I remember correctly. So north of that point, I wouldn't think that I was specifically in the southwest anymore. In the West, yes, but not the Southwest.

So, what parts of Texas would you guys consider the "Southwest." And don't anyone dare say Dallas or Houston! And yes, I am insane. :)

Usually the weather in Seattle is similar to that of South Texas, just a little cooler-- not today. It's 20 this morning, tomorrow is snowy, and I'm walking to work so I don't have to deal with the stupid bus jackknifing over and over again.

Last year, I was sitting in the articulated portion (the slinky seats!) and the bus bent in half painfully like a middle aged gymnast. Some girl wailed, "THE BUS IS EATING MY LUNCH!" because the articulated part smushed her sandwich and made her yogurt explode.

I went to work smelling like Yoplait.

For anybody who's seen The Bourne Supremacy....the CIA building in Berlin looks like the Grand Hyatt. Same window design. In fact, a lot of the buildings in the Berlin shots look like the Grand Hyatt.

What is everyone's real name? Aside from Kevin or Kyle, etc...

I'll start, mine is James. We have all known of each other for years now, yet we do not really know each other on a first name basis!

Let's see if we can't expand on that request. NAME, OTHER WEB PRESENCE, WHERE YOU RESIDE, RANDOM FACT

Obviously, I am Kyle.

I have a blog: The Post-Karmic Stream

I live in the Deco District, 78201.

Ed Garza (former mayor) is my neighbor (2 houses away).

Who's next?

Cody......(cody backwards is ydoc) :tup:

I'm David. This is my rarely-updated and quite boring blog. I live in Kansas City right now but am a native Texan. I was mostly raised in SA, but was born in Amarillo.

Well, I have a myspace (then again, how many 20 year olds don't), but that's quite it with other web presences. Born and raised in SA. My dad is usually somewhere around here yet he never posts anything.

Here's a map I made showing how Texas fits into regions of the U.S.
This is based on my own travels, opinions, research, etc.
The map is open for debate! haha

Dark gray: Southwest
Light gray texture: Gulf Coast
White: South

http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/821/t...psouthwest.jpg

i'd say the gulf coast region between victorial county and louisiana border could be southern as well. galveston and houston still have a lot of southern traits.

I'm Bryan i'm 28 was born in San Antonio but only lived there a year then my parents moved to austin and have lived here since. I also have a myspace page www.myspace.com/sweetatxguy

So yep, my name is Kevin. I was also born in San Antonio. My folks had a family friend/doctor who practiced there. The doctor who delivered me was Houston Wade. We went back down to San Antonio around 1988 so my dad could see him since my dad had developed a hurnea. I got to meet him then. He passed away in 1990 I believe. We went to his funeral. I went too. I asked if I could go too because I felt like it was important somehow. Not everyone gets to meet the person who delivered them and attends their funeral. It was kind of odd actually.

I'm 4th generation Texan on my mom's side. Her family is from Wales originally. My dad's side of the family is German. My dad was born in Germany in 1951, and they immigrated to the US in 1957. I was only the third person in my family to be born in the US.

NY Times: In Austin, Vinyl Is Still Vital
 

Not all parts of the "Southwest" counties that border the "South" counties would I consider to be in the Southwest. If most of the county fell west of a straight line drawn down from the border of Tarrant and Parker county, then I highlighted that county.

This map showing the line dividing the Southwest from the South is more precise. According to this, if driving I-35 you would cross into the Southwest as you enter Williamson county. From I-10, you would cross over as you enter Caldwell county. From HWY 190, you would cross over about 5 miles west of the I-35/190 intersection.

The expression that Dallas is where the East ends, and Fort Worth where the West begins seems to be pretty much true haha...not just for cultural reasons but for geographical reasons as well.

http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/8144/txnamesmod.gif

I'm always struck by how flat it is north of Austin. Even just up the road in Williamson County on their eastern side, it's really flat. Kind of strange when you look at western Travis County just ~20 miles away. Some of the areas of Williamson County could pass for West Texas in places like Midland and Lubbock almost. Quite flat. The difference between say Williamson County and Hays County is really very striking even though they're in the same metro and are less than 50 miles apart. Even the vegetation is different. Hays tends to be more forested, rockier and hillier.

^^^ Yes, and the eastern side of Williamson county is, according to the line, in the South ;)

Its similar in the SA metro if you start in Wilson county (mostly flat) and drive 50 or so miles northwest into Bandera or Kendall county (hilly and rocky). Heck, you could even start in southeast Bexar county and go to the northwest part and see a drastic difference just within one county.

I've been lurking around this forum for about the past year and half, but haven't made any post, so this is a good of a time as any to introduce myself. My name's Tom, I'm a HS Senior, and live about an hour north of Austin. I'll be an architecture major at UT next year, and can't wait for the move to Austin :D. Interestingly enough, this forum - along with travels - is what really got me into pursuing architecture as a career, so thanks for the construction/proposal updates all of you have provided.

I'll also be going to SXSW Thursday - Saturday next week, and hopefully, I'll get a chance to check out more of the construction/newer buildings downtown.

^Welcome to the forum. Be sure to check out the the free concert at Auditorium Shores just south of downtown Thursday, Friday and Saturday. On Friday Bob Schneider and the ARC Angels will be playing there. Great place to listen to some live, free rock and roll and drool over the skyline.

Here's the schedule.
http://sxsw.com/schedule

^I'm going to as many free shows as I can since SXSW passes are insanely expensive. I'll definitely be going to Auditorium Shores on Thursday for Cold War Kids and M. Ward, will probably go on Friday too. Saturday, I'll be hanging around emo's for the free day shows and auditorium shores again. Anybody have recommendations for food downtown or south Austin?

Are you staying in town? If so, where? South Austin, particularly north of Ben White, has so many good restaurants. My favorite is El Gallo on South Congress. It's the best Mexican Food around and is reasonable. It's located across the street from Saint Edward's University. If you go on campus there's a really nice view of the skyline from up there. There's also Restaurant Row on Barton Springs Road in South Austin. There's a strip of restaurants there of all different types. It's within walking distance of Auditorium Shores, just a few blocks.

Here's El Gallo's website:
http://www.elgallorestaurant.com/

And here's the view from Saint Edward's University across the street.
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...250965EDIT.jpg

I'm staying with my cousin and his girlfriend in their apartment in south Austin, on Slaughter Ln., during SXSW and during college(would prefer a dorm, but I'd get free housing for 5yrs with them and get to come out of college nearly debt free). I'll check out El Gallo and Restaurant Row. Thanks for the info :tup:

I know where that is. My sister and her fiancee live on Slaughter.

Oh, nice. I'm not sure how long my cousin plans to stay on Slaughter since the have a tendency to change apartments every year or two. Something a little more central would be nice since he works all over Austin and his gf works downtown in the BoA building and plans to get her law degree at UT.