Quote:
Originally Posted by starvinggryphon
I'm totally with you friend! It seems that too often on this forum myopia or homerism lead to unfair exchanges where insight is mistaken as some sort of attack... and some of this stems from a limited world view. I do always appreciate your comments because you speak from experience having lived in other large cities and have seen for yourself a level that SA has not reached but can attain with proper leadership and planning. I believe that intelligent criticism is healthy and not hurtful. As a world traveler I quickly became aware at how lacking San Antonio was in many areas though I never would have understood this had I not experienced what other urban areas are like. That being said I'm hopeful for my hometown because it seems to me that San Antonio is in the embryonic stage of a building boom similar to Austin 20 years ago... and if our neighbor can develop the way it did we are also capable.
You're absolutely right about first floor retail... and no one in an auto-centric city will ever grasp this until you live in a dense urban core where walking distance to the grocery store or coffee shop determine where you choose to live. Also I would never choose to live on the 1st floor unless it was in a brownstone where the 1st level is almost always several feet above street level (like some apartments on the same block as the Vidorra that got it right). Constant street noise a few feet away from your bed gets old very quickly and you never notice how much people honk until you can't make it stop.  |
I currently live in Chicago and speak from experience as well. I also pointed out facts. Maybe some people don't
want to live on the first floor fronting the street, but many people
do because that is what is affordable for them. Having ear plugs, gated windows or fences, and eye masks are a godsend. The simple fact of the matter is that in urban environments, the majority of street facing buildings are residential or residential related on the first floor, let alone the floors immediately above them. And just because you are walkable to a grocery store does not mean that you don't also stand a good chance of living on a first, second, or third floor apartment unit, brownstone, rowhouse, loft, or whatever that experiences all of the same annoyances: cars and light and people and noise right outside your window.