There are about 2500 living units in the CBD - half of those are low income or senior living. This is all OK, but what we need is 10,000 plus units in the next ten years, including workforce housing, to create an energized downtown with plenty of locals providing color and flavor. That volume will get us a full fledge grocery. And a school to bring families into the downtown mix. And corporate offices that can count on an educated workforce that can walk to work. And housing for both the CEO’s of those corporations, and the clerks.
Tourists will continue to come for the River and the Alamo, but we will truly endear them to our city if they have more choices where the locals hang out. As a tourist elsewhere, I'm hungry for that idiosyncratic local non-brand that provides a special experience and adventure which I cannot find anywhere else.
In case you didn't see another posting with reference to the latest on the River North master plan, here it the site:
http://downtownsanantonio.org/rivernorth.html