SAN ANTONIO │ City and Metro Off-Topic Thread

[kingkirbythe....]

H-E-B beats out Amazon, Walmart as top U.S. online grocery retailer in new research

https://www.expressnews.com/business/local/article/H-E-B-top-online-grocer-17274554.php

H-E-B narrowly bested Amazon and its Amazon Fresh subsidiary — as well as its chief rival, Walmart — as the top U.S. online grocer in a new study from dunnhumby.

The U.K.-based customer data science firm said San Antonio-based H-E-B edged out the online behemoth in a “near statistical tie” in its new eCommerce Retailer Preference Index.

“H-E-B’s impressive performance proves that it’s possible to compete and win against Amazon when it comes to grocery e-commerce,” said Grant Steadman, dunnhumby’s president of North America. “Their success offers mid-size and regional retailers a roadmap on how to succeed online.”

[kingkirbythe....]

San Antonio Missions delivered $165 million economic boost last year as visitation increased

https://www.expressnews.com/business/loc...ssions-165-million-economic-17279345.php

Visitors flocked to the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park in 2021, pumping an estimated $165 million into the local economy, according to a new report from the National Park Service.

An estimated 1.3 million people visited the park system, which includes Mission Concepción, Mission San José, Mission San Juan and Mission Espada. That was up nearly 17 percent from 2020 and 4.2 percent from pre-pandemic 2019, according to an analysis conducted by economists at the park service and U.S. Geological Survey.

Visitation peaked in 2009 at 1.56 million.

...

San Antonio also draws many visitors from Houston, Dallas, Austin and other cities in Texas as well as Mexico because it’s within driving distance. That may have boosted visitation at the missions compared with parks that draw guests from farther away and require more investment of time.

[kingkirbythe....]

Expert explains why you're seeing so many hawks in San Antonio this summer

https://www.mysanantonio.com/lifestyle/a...-divebombing-nesting-summer-17277075.php

If you've been looking up at the sky lately, or even driving along Bandera Road (like me), you might catch the beautiful sight of a hawk soaring through the air. While hawks are plentiful in Texas, they are mainly active during early summer as they begin the nesting season.

And, yes, sometimes they display predatory behavior and divebomb yards looking for food. However, Jessica Alderson, an urban biologist for Texas Parks and Wildlife, told MySA that it's rare and unlikely. But, in the case it happens, she provided some tips on how to coexist with the huge bird.

[kingkirbythe....]

It may be a Big Pig, but its trail through San Antonio is still hard to trace

https://www.expressnews.com/news/local/article/Big-Pig-building-San-Antonio-17280776.php

For a few years now, the King William Association has been researching the Big Pig, currently located on South Presa Street, the site of one of the last Pig Stand locations, No. 24. My specific quandary is I cannot find a picture of the Big Pig when it was located at the Pig Stand No. 29 on Broadway, not where the current Pig Stand is located, but the location slightly south before the interstates 35 and 37 interchange was put in. I have two 1958 photos from UTSA Special Collections that are aerial black-and-whites, but I cannot see the Big Pig. I have spoken with the current owner of the Pig Stand on Broadway and she confirms when she started work there as a carhop, the Big Pig was there when the Pig Stand was a few hundred yards south. But she does not have any pictures. So, I was wondering if you have any photos of the Big Pig on Broadway.
Somewhere out there, someone knows something. A small, pig-shaped building was constructed according to a patented design. It was put to some use and then it was moved. And seemingly, no one saw it come and go. Really? It’s a building that looks like a pig … with a door and windows. The whole point of programmatic architecture is to get attention for whatever’s inside the representational structure — and no one showed off the pseudo-pig, when it was new or when it was moved? Not in photographs, news coverage, local legend? No one saw the pig rolling down city streets?

This is not this column’s first pass at the pig. That was published July 9, 1995, when the Southtown neighborhood association was gearing up to move it from the parking lot of an ice house at East White and Roosevelt avenues to what was then Pig Stand No. 24, 801 S. Presa St.

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The King William Association is raising Feed the Pig funds for another restoration and possible move. To donate, visit www.ourkwa.org/big-pig. To share memories or photos of the peripatetic pig, contact this column.

[kingkirbythe....]

San Antonio's oldest park holds one of the coolest little mysteries

The truth will send a chill up your spine.

https://www.mysanantonio.com/lifestyle/t...n-16304755.php?IPID=MySA-HP-CP-Spotlight

If I've met you, there's a fair chance I've worked in the fact that I love San Pedro Springs park into our casual conversation.

There's the beautiful pool, the robust history, and the strong , double-wide cypress trees with more rings than even the most celebrated NBA dynasty (i.e. they're really old).

I love to walk its perimeter, retreat to its quiet steps to drink coffee and attempt to read. I love eating tacos alone in my car in the parking lot, enjoying a picnic with friends in its shade, and watching crawfish scuttle under rocks, over slow-bubbling yet still active springs that once provided the area a viable water supply.

One time I even saw a kid give his pregnant dog a bath there, and I'll tell you what, even the dog was having a great time!

However the matter at hand is a question of the park's history. Every time I venture out to the park, I pass this moss covered, dank, preternatural....cave?

I was never sure what to call it. The stand-alone rock formation literally resembles an alive creature from a far-off lagoon. There's vegetation decorating its body like barnacles, and on one side, there's a little wrought-iron gate. Is it a cave...prison? However it is also surrounded by a little moat of water and a ring of concrete seating, perfectly molded to ones —. My friends and I have contemplated the matter since high school, and since there's no evident plaque or information on it readily available, the origin of the formation was left unknown.

[theOGalexd]

Has anyone else wondered why they haven't moved Camp Bullis yet? I can't say I know anything about how that would go about happening but it seems like it would solve a lot of traffic issues on 1604 (expanding Wilderness Oak/Borgfeld out to I-10) and be good for development instead of having housing developments go further north and narrowly along I-10.

Just seems strange that there's a giant 100 y/o military camp in the middle of the fastest growing part of the city and it doesn't seem like it wouldn't be too hard to move it out towards Kerrville since it's basically just open land.

[Spoiler]

Originally Posted by theOGalexd

Has anyone else wondered why they haven't moved Camp Bullis yet? I can't say I know anything about how that would go about happening but it seems like it would solve a lot of traffic issues on 1604 (expanding Wilderness Oak/Borgfeld out to I-10) and be good for development instead of having housing developments go further north and narrowly along I-10.

Just seems strange that there's a giant 100 y/o military camp in the middle of the fastest growing part of the city and it doesn't seem like it wouldn't be too hard to move it out towards Kerrville since it's basically just open land.

I’m glad they’re not moving for many reasons but one big reason is: recharge zone.

[theOGalexd]

Originally Posted by Spoiler

I’m glad they’re not moving for many reasons but one big reason is: recharge zone.

Isn't Stone Oak/La Cantera/UTSA on that?

[Spoiler]

Originally Posted by theOGalexd

Isn't Stone Oak/La Cantera/UTSA on that?

The more land that's developed over the recharge zone, the more important it is to preserve the remaining undeveloped land.

[kingkirbythe....]

San Antonio’s Eisenhower Park almost didn’t happen. Here’s how it was saved.

https://www.expressnews.com/news/local/article/San-Antonio-Eisenhower-Park-creation-17286067.php

Eisenhower Park — the beautiful, rugged recreational oasis visited by hundreds of people daily — almost didn’t happen.

A group of determined men and women passionate about serving youth came together in the 1980s to help secure the hilly, rocky 317-acre park’s future and save it.

This week, the city is installing signs at the park’s lookout tower, grassland restoration area and main park trailhead highlighting the park’s history and the work the Harmony Hills Optimist Club did to save it from possible development.

“The history of this park will forever be interwoven with the Harmony Hills Optimist Club and its stewards who continue to care for it,” reads a statement from the San Antonio parks department.

In 1972, the federal government deeded the city land adjacent to the Camp Bullis training reservation. But initial plans for a partnership with the San Antonio Zoo to develop an exotic animal refuge never came to life.

[forward looking]

And. A great point to make, Spoiler. Asphalt and concrete pavement
and concrete storm drains do not make ecological common sense for the City.
Things are bad enough now without cutting off even more storm runoff from our greatest asset, the great Aquifer beneath our feet.
As Ben Franklin stated, No one worries about water until the well runs dry.
In the State of Michigan the government has stepped in on this type of activity around the Detroit area. If. A company is responsible for the destruction of a wetland within the property boundaries of a proposed site, well, this company has to create a wetland somewhere else in the State, of the same size to replace the one they will destroy. These costs all must be contained within in the cost of the development. Else, no contract.
Not that Michigan is short on water but the wetlands were disappearing in the southern part of the state, over time. Migratory fowl and all sorts of native animals live in or depend on, these wetlands.
I haven't seen a Horned Toad in years, around here, in San Antonio. Maybe the toads have retreated outside the suburbs like humans.

Originally Posted by Spoiler

The more land that's developed over the recharge zone, the more important it is to preserve the remaining undeveloped land.

[LSPaul]

Originally Posted by forward looking

I haven't seen a Horned Toad in years, around here, in San Antonio. Maybe the toads have retreated outside the suburbs like humans.

Well, that (urban sprawl) is part of the problem for the Horned Toad but it's mostly the displacement of their primary food source, Big Red Ants (don't see many of those anymore, either), by the unwelcomed immigrant, the notorious South American Fire Ant. Also, the fire ants have infested the toad's nests where they feast on their eggs.

(Source: https://www.texasmonthly.com/being-texan/texanist-horny-toads-gone/ )

[forward looking]

Well I'll be on nature's relationship between the Horned Toad and big red ants. As a kid I remember all the items in the link to the Texas monthly about these animals. I never put a Horned Toad in a Red Ant Mound and watched a Horned Toad feast on big Red ants because I did not know they ate Red Ants.
I had no idea these Red Ants were the food source for the fierce looking little lizard and is the reason behind their disappearance. I may have heard about this and forgot about this fact because it does sound vaguely familiar, I must admit.

I'll tell you what we did for amusement in the woods. Take a stick and poke it into a fire ant mount and then take the long stick, which by this time is filled with swarming ants and then poke this same stick into another species of ant nest. The Big Red Ant or the black ones. Then, watch an ant war begin and see the battle. Zero fatalities. They grab each other and violently tussle, then within ten minutes the mini ant war is over. As though they had a pre-war treaty for no fatalities. The (invading) party of ant troops then travels home.
I never did this, but two of my boys sure thought it was very funny when I showed them this ploy. Ants are the only species other than humans which wage wars.
Also, you are right in this too, because when I think about it, I don't see the Red Ant nests any more either, LSPaul. Probably the result of Fire Ants, too. So...the Big Red Ant is gone now, along with the Horned Lizard.

Originally Posted by LSPaul

Well, that (urban sprawl) is part of the problem for the Horned Toad but it's mostly the displacement of their primary food source, Big Red Ants (don't see many of those anymore, either), by the unwelcomed immigrant, the notorious South American Fire Ant. Also, the fire ants have infested the toad's nests where they feast on their eggs.

(Source: https://www.texasmonthly.com/being-texan/texanist-horny-toads-gone/ )

[JACKinBeantown]

Originally Posted by LSPaul

Well, that (urban sprawl) is part of the problem for the Horned Toad but it's mostly the displacement of their primary food source, Big Red Ants (don't see many of those anymore, either), by the unwelcomed immigrant, the notorious South American Fire Ant. Also, the fire ants have infested the toad's nests where they feast on their eggs.

(Source: https://www.texasmonthly.com/being-texan/texanist-horny-toads-gone/ )

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[kingkirbythe....]

Free flip-flop themed Chancla Fest taking place in San Antonio on Friday

Activities will include a chancla-throwing contest and flip-flop themed art projects.

https://www.sacurrent.com/arts/free-flip...-place-in-san-antonio-on-friday-29302394

The San Anto Cultural Arts Barrio Block Party will return this Friday after a two-year hiatus. This year’s party is themed after the oh-so puro chancla — indeed, the event is even called Chancla Fest.

Chancla Fest will feature flip-flop-themed activities such as a chancla-throwing contest and chancla-inspired art projects. “Xicano roots fusion” band Los Nahuatlatos and youth DJs from the AM Project digital arts and music program will provide the tunes.

San Anto Cultural Arts, locally known as SACA, is a nonprofit that works to "foster human and community development through community-based arts and engagement," according to the organization's website. Its annual summer block parties highlight its mission by focusing on the Alamo City's "creative spirit."

Entrance to the all-ages event is free. It runs 6 p.m.-10 p.m. Friday, July 8, at San Anto Cultural Arts, 2120 El Paso St.

[kingkirbythe....]

For $2.7 million, a King William national historic landmark is for sale

https://www.expressnews.com/business/rea...al-estate-national-register-17290271.php

Now on the National Register of Historic Places, the house at 332 Adams St., is among a number of historic homes in one of the earliest suburbs of San Antonio. It’s on the market for $2.7 million.

[kingkirbythe....]

20 useless facts about San Antonio you can use to impress out-of-towners

https://www.sacurrent.com/sanantonio/20-...t-of-towners/Slideshow/29310745/29316299

When playing tour guide for visiting friends and family, there's plenty of culture and history in San Antonio to draw from. But sometimes you want to take things up a notch.

To that end, we rounded up these quirky and lesser-known facts about the Alamo City, covering everything from cryptozoology to the world's largest tamalada. They're guaranteed to impress your out-of-town visitors.

[kingkirbythe....]

A San Antonio visitor was looking for places to kill time. Reddit users offered these suggestions.

https://www.expressnews.com/news/local/article/San-Antonio-reddit-kill-time-17290125.php

[kingkirbythe....]

Pickleball Giant sets up shop in Northside San Antonio

https://www.mysanantonio.com/business/article/pickleball-store-san-antonio-northside-17293364.php

A new business is taking a swing at San Antonio's pickleball scene. Pickleball Giant, a retail store with a demo court, is now open on the Northside.

Owner Robert Wood, a self-proclaimed "addict" of the sport, tells MySA that pickleball stores are hard to come by. Some tennis-focused stores might sell a small inventory of products, but much of the pickleball-related shopping is done online, leaving out the opportunity to try out a player's strike point or seeing how the handle of a paddle feels. Wood says the demo court is equipped with a ball machine and staff is able to guide customers through the inventory, allowing customers to try out the paddles.

The store launched its soft opening less than a month ago. The official grand opening is planned for August.

[kingkirbythe....]

San Antonio home used in film ‘Lost Angels’ starring Beastie Boys’ Ad-Rock hits the market

https://www.expressnews.com/business/rea...ost-angels-san-antonio-home-17296834.php

The 1989 film “Lost Angels,” starring Ad-Rock of the Beastie Boys, was filmed all around San Antonio, and now the house from the movie is on the market for $990,000.

The four-bedroom house at 2503 Morgans Ridge St., on the North Side, is where Ad-Rock, whose real name is Adam Horovitz, made his Hollywood debut as Tim “Chino” Doolan.

The film, directed by Hugh Hudson, is about a 16-year-old from a broken home in Los Angeles who is sent to a private psychiatric hospital after an encounter with the police turns violent.

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While the 3,944-square-foot home has undergone several remodels since 1989, it still features the same pool a car plunged into in the film, according to the listing by Heidi L. Moyer with Amy Kolb Real Estate LLC.

“No animals or pools were harmed during this filming,” Moyer said in the listing.

Built in 1979, the three-and-a-half-bathroom home was constructed by Don and Frances Strange, one of San Antonio’s top caterers. It was meant as their "dream home," Moyer said in the listing.

A decade after the home was built, Hudson used the home's living room and primary suite for “Lost Angels.” He chose other filming locations in San Antonio to double for the mean streets of a Los Angeles barrio.

“Despite a decent debut performance by Beastie Boy Adam Horovitz as a troubled youth and a sleepwalk job by Donald Sutherland, ‘Lost Angels’ lost out at the box office,” wrote critic Larry Ratliff.