SAN ANTONIO │ City and Metro Off-Topic Thread

[kingkirbythe....]

'We don't need to go poke that bear': Grocery chain won't expand into H-E-B's Texas territory

https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/lo...e-16736123.php

Iowa-based grocery chain Hy-Vee is currently charting an expansion into the Southern states, however, its CEO revealed the chain will be steering clear of Texas, according to the Des Moines Register.

In a statement to employees in a company video, executive Randy Edeker explained that while the company is expanding south for the first time since 2009, they'll be avoiding planting roots in the Lone Star State due to H-E-B's regional dominance.

"They’re [H-E-B] a phenomenal competitor," Edeker said. "There are lots of weak competitors out there that we just don’t need to go poke that bear, so we won’t."

The San Antonio-based grocery giant overwhelmingly holds Texans' loyalties, and boasts 340 locations across the state. Reasonably, the "phenomenal competitor" isn't the grocery chain Hy-Vee wants to go up against. Instead, the Des Moines company will vie for customers in Kroger-dominated states like Indiana, Tennessee, Alabama, and Kentucky.

Beginning in 2023, Hy-Vee plans to open doors at 20 new stores over four years. The chain did not immediately respond to MySA's inquiries about future expansion.

Hy-Vee employs 84,000 and generated $12 billion in sales at the fiscal end of 2020, according to Supermarket News' annual report.

Kroger, which is based in Cincinnati, reportedly accumulated $132.5 billion in sales at the end of 2020, across stores in 35 states, the report also shows.

A secondary competitor for the Iowa-chain will be Publix, a Florida-based company with1,294 stores in seven states that made $44.86 billion at the end of 2020, according to Supermarket News.

Outside of Texas, H-E-B only has stores in Mexico, but within the state, it hardly has any major competitors. According to market research company Metro Market Studies and the San Antonio Business Journal, Walmart continues to be H-E-B's top competitor in the state.

[kingkirbythe....]

La Zona, San Antonio's cool new place to play, is hidden away in a historic stretch of downtown

https://www.expressnews.com/entertai...e-17404749.php

The fencing will come down eventually, but the folks at Centro aren't waiting to invite people to La Zona to have some fun. Hundreds of people packed the space for a couple of summer celebrations, Tejana Summer Jam and the Nomad Music Festival.

"We don't shy from a little construction in our placemaking," said Liz Burt, director of urban activation and play for Centro.

Besides, there's something to be said for running across events in an unexpected place, which is part of much of Centro's programming.

"We want you to go and explore places that maybe you pass by or have piqued your curiosity but that you haven’t stopped, you haven’t lingered or really engaged," Burt said. "We really try to encourage people to take a chance, get on out, and once you get there, we're going to make it the time of your life."

Burt said all of the construction is helping to create a dynamic area -- dubbed La Zona Cultural -- that will include such relatively new additions as Texas Public Radio's headquarters, the nearby extension of the San Pedro Creek Culture Park and the expansion of the University of Texas at San Antonio campus. Eventually, it will include the Alameda Theater, which is being renovated.

"We’re blessed to be able to be placemaking at this moment and on the precipice of all of what’s going to really transform a very special part of downtown and our city," Burt said.

[kingkirbythe....]

Ford Parade of Lights will illuminate the San Antonio River Walk beginning this weekend

An online map shows the parade route so visitors and locals alike can find places to watch the procession.

https://www.sacurrent.com/arts/ford-...ekend-29720090

For the first two weekends of September, the San Antonio River Walk will play host to the Ford Parade of Lights.

The event will feature a procession of 10 beautiful, 26-foot-long boats filled with illuminated lanterns which navigate the downtown stretch of the San Antonio River. The colorful lanterns are a testament to San Antonio's vibrant arts and culture.

The boats launch each night at the International Center, 203 S. St. Mary's St.

An online map shows the parade route so visitors and locals alike can find places to watch the procession, whether seated along the side of the river or drinking and dining at one of the River Walk's many bars and restaurants.

Free, 8-10 p.m. Friday-Sunday Sept. 2-4 and Sept. 9-11, San Antonio River Walk, (210) 227-4262, thesanantonioriverwalk.com.

[kingkirbythe....]

This is a beautiful house. I'd live here. The ceiling mural is very cool.



$799K Spanish-Mediterranean 'jewel' for sale in San Antonio's Woodlawn Lake

The home is a mini Mediterranean escape.

https://www.mysanantonio.com/realest...n-17409911.php

This unique San Antonio abode has all the luxury amenities of a vacation-type home, including your own private Spanish-Mediterranean oasis and a spiral staircase that has a High Renaissance mural on the ceiling evocative of a mini Sistine Chapel. The four-bedroom home nestled in a neighborhood not far from Woodlawn Lake could be yours for the price of $799,000.

[kingkirbythe....]

San Antonio's surprising history, development of Roosevelt Avenue

https://www.mysanantonio.com/lifesty...e-17415118.php

San Antonio’s Roosevelt Avenue may have different meanings to residents depending on the part of town that the road runs through, but the road is pretty significant to the Alamo City all the same. Roosevelt is home to a number of local institutions and gems, but also has quite a bit of backstory for history nerds.

During a fascinating talk with former Trinity University Professor Char Miller, he said there’s more than meets the eye concerning Roosevelt Avenue. To local residents, it’s no doubt a reflection of the city’s spirit and hustle, home to beloved local gems. At the same time, Miller pointed out that Roosevelt is, in some ways, not at all reflective of San Antonio in its creation.

[kingkirbythe....]

San Antonio among the best U.S. cities for Gen Zers, according to study

A total of four cities in the Lone Star State ranked in the top 20.

https://www.sacurrent.com/news/san-a...study-29753987

Gen Z, you’re in the right place. At least, according to a recent study.

CommercialCafe, a real estate listing service, recently ranked the largest 45 cities in the U.S. on how suitable they are for those born between 1997 and 2012. And according to its survey, San Antonio, and the Lone Star State, are among the best places for this burgeoning consumer class.

The online real estate listing group ranked cities using metrics such as affordability, recreational opportunities, unemployment rates, green commuting options and current Gen Z populations.

San Antonio ranked as the No. 18 best city for Gen Zers.

A total of four Texas cities — Austin, El Paso, Houston and San Antonio — made the top 20, and both Austin and El Paso ranked in the top 10. In contrast, no city in California — a state often glamorized by Gen Z on TikTok and other social media — even made the top 20.

Atlanta topped the list with Minneapolis and Boston ranked second and third.

[jaga185]

I know I don't typically reply to your posts, but thank you for all your finds Kingkirby. Keep them coming.

[kingkirbythe....]

Originally Posted by jaga185

I know I don't typically reply to your posts, but thank you for all your finds Kingkirby. Keep them coming.

Thanks. I will.

[kingkirbythe....]

Castroville takes pride in history, culture of the ‘Little Alsace of Texas'

https://www.mysanantonio.com/lifesty...s-17412826.php

Small towns in Texas are known as delightful stops for a weekend getaway, filled with quaint attractions and some of the friendliest folks you’ll ever meet. With San Antonio’s proximity to the Hill Country, a hub for lovable small towns, we’re honestly spoiled.

But south of the Hill Country and west of the Alamo City, which is expanding at an increasing rate, lies Castroville, home to about 3,000 residents and perhaps one of the quaintest and friendliest towns of them all.

“Everybody’s friendly anywhere you go,” says Castroville City Council Member Phil King. “We only talk bad about each other.”

Castroville’s quaintness is partially thanks to its Alsatian history and culture, which is still dominant in the town today. The town is the work of Henri Castro, an empresario under the Republic of Texas who brought several families to settle about 20 miles west of San Antonio along the Medina River. These families largely hailed from the Alsace region of France, the earliest of these colonists arriving in September 1844.

Today, the Alsatian culture is still present in the town’s businesses, historic structures, and everyday life. A number of residents fluently speak Alsatian, a German-based dialect (considered a predecessor to the standard German you hear today) that also incorporates French, Celtic, and Yiddish. Others even make annual trips to Alsace.

[kingkirbythe....]

New, spooky candlelight concerts coming to San Antonio this Halloween

https://www.mysanantonio.com/enterta...P-CP-Spotlight

A new Halloween experience is coming to San Antonio this October. Tickets are currently on sale for a multi-sensory musical experience by candlelight. Candlelight: A Haunted Evening of Halloween Classics will take over the historic Josephine Theatre on October 29 and October 31.

The shows are presented by Fever, a company which produces immersive experiences throughout the U.S. Fever spokesperson Shane Peters tells MySA that the candlelight Halloween-inspired shows are the first of their kind for the city. Fever also has hour-long concerts planned as tributes to Juan Gabriel and Queen. There's also a show for the anime fans.

But Halloween season will bring in Listeso String Quartet to play 16 spooky songs by candlelight, from classics like "Funeral March of a Marionette" to nostalgic movie songs like "This is Halloween" and the Ghostbusters theme song.

"Candlelight concerts bring the magic of a live, multi-sensory musical experience to awe-inspiring locations like never seen before in San Antonio," the event page reads. "Get your tickets now to discover the spookiest Halloween inspired music at Josephine Theatre under the gentle glow of candlelight."

Tickets are $45 or $55, depending on the position of the seats in the theater, and are available online. Children 8 years old and up are permitted.

[kingkirbythe....]

Originally Posted by kingkirbythe....

This isn't an SA project, but it does involve a SA firm. So, why not.


San Antonio's Overland Partners to design 6-mile park on Texas-Mexico border

https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/lo...P-CP-Spotlight

Laredo City Council and members of a consortium group selected last week Overland Partners Architects and Able City to lead design and planning behind a new 6.3-mile park on the Texas-Mexico border.

Overland Partners presented aerial renderings of the park between Laredo and Neuvo Laredo, Mexico on the Rio Grande River and the Mexican side of the Rio Bravo on February 18, according to a news release. The United States Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar, U.S. Consul General for Nuevo Laredo Deanna Kim and Mexico Ambassador Esteban Moctezuma were also present.

San Antonio architect Rick Archer leads project to build park on both sides of Rio Grande

https://www.expressnews.com/sa-inc/a...k-17423310.php

Amid calls to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, Rick Archer is working to build a park.

Archer — a local architect and CEO of Overland Partners, a design firm — is leading an effort to draw plans for the Binational River Park, which would span 6.3 miles along both sides of the Rio Grande between Laredo and its sister city of Nuevo Laredo in Mexico.

With an estimated budget of $500 million, the project is in its conceptual phase. It is expected to include hike-and-bike trails, soccer fields, playgrounds and an amphitheater spanning both sides of the river so that visitors in both countries could enjoy the same concert at once.

The project would also conserve the “profoundly polluted” Rio Grande, Archer said. As part of it, Nuevo Laredo would stop dumping sewage into the river, and invasive species such as the Carrizo cane — a fast-growing plant — would be removed.

In February, the city of Laredo hired Overland and a Laredo-based firm, Able City, to craft the master plan. The first phase, a sanctuary for monarch butterflies, could break ground in December, Archer said.

The park will require political support from both sides of the border, and perhaps more ominously, from both sides of the aisle. But Archer is up for the challenge; he is the son of Bill Archer, who served in the U.S. House of Representatives for 30 years representing Texas’ Seventh District as a Republican.

“With my dad being a well-known Republican, I think it’s been a real advantage,” he said. “This is a nonpartisan issue. This is not about a wall. It’s about thinking differently about our border.”

The project has secured $2 million in federal funding for conservation work. Archer expects to raise the rest of the budget through a mix of public and private sources in the U.S. and Mexico. In August, he traveled to Mexico City as part of a delegation from Laredo and Nuevo Laredo to rally support among business and government leaders.

He recently sat with the Express-News to discuss the politics of architecture, the ecology of the Rio Grande and how the park could actually enhance security along the border. The following has been edited for brevity and clarity.

[kingkirbythe....]

Chinese online retailer Shein popping into San Antonio's River Center Mall this weekend

The stop at San Antonio's Shops at Rivercenter is part of company's 'SHEINTexas' tour.

https://www.sacurrent.com/arts/chine...ekend-29794143

China-based Shein, a popular online clothing retailer clouded by recent controversy, will hold a pop-up at downtown San Antonio's Shops at Rivercenter from Friday, Sept. 9 through Sunday, Sept. 11, according to a company announcement.

Over the past year, Shein has been accused of violating labor laws and stealing intellectual property from other designers — both claims that it denies. Last year, a CBC Marketplace investigation reportedly found elevated lead levels in its clothing for toddlers.

Shein's stop in the Alamo City is part of the brand's "#SHEINTexas" tour, which has so far made stops in Dallas and Houston. Despite the controversy, shoppers have been lining up to buy clothing from the retailer popularized by TikTok stars.

One shopper who attended the Houston pop-up said in a TikTok video that she waited in line for three hours and added that inventory was limited.

"I think if I were to do it all over again, I would sleep in, maybe get cute and just take pictures outside with the little photo ops and stuff versus waiting in this long line and shopping," said TikTok user @iamkandacemarie.

Shein officials said they anticipate the Shops at Rivercenter pop-up to be open 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. Sunday. However, a Facebook post for the event said store closing times are subject to product availability.

[kingkirbythe....]

A brief history of San Antonio's infamous Ingram Park Mall

Did you know there was a theater in the mall?

https://www.mysanantonio.com/lifesty...P-CP-Spotlight

Ingram Park Mall has developed a reputation in San Antonio. Good or bad, you're bound to see something go down at the Westside mall at the intersection of Ingram Road and I-410. What you probably don't remember is that Ingram Park Mall was once home to a short lived movie theater and an autograph signing session that turned into a riot.

MySA dug through public records, Express-News archives, and obscure parts of the internet to dig up the history and biggest moments behind the cultural staple during its early heyday. Despite what Ingram Park Mall is today (or what it isn't), when one of the largest retail property managers in the U.S. brought the property in 1975, Ingram Park Mall was where it was definitely at for its time.

Don't take my word for it. Here's a commercial from the 80s.

[kingkirbythe....]

Feed me: Colossal canned-food sculptures at North Star Mall will aid San Antonio Food Bank

https://www.expressnews.com/lifestyl...n-17437007.php

The exhibit has returned to the mall after a two-year absence because of the pandemic.

Canstruction also is intended to raise awareness of the fact that one in four kids and one in five adults in the community are at risk for food insecurity, meaning they do not have enough food to stave off hunger, due to a lack of money or other resources.

The sculptures, made up of thousands of cans each, were built over the weekend and judged on Monday, with awards presented in categories that included Best Use of Labels, Structural Integrity, Best Original Design, Most Cans and Best Use of Orange, the color that represents September as Hunger Action Month.

A partnership of RVK Architecture, Lundy & Franke Engineering and F.A. Nunnelly won awards for Most Cans and Best Original Design for their project Roberta the Jurassic CAN Opener. Inspired by the Jurassic Park films, the sculpture depicts a dinosaur made from green and blue cans of tuna fish and salmon biting down on a large can made from many smaller cans of anchovies.

"The theme is 'Ushering in a hungerless world,'" according to team captain Rodrigo Rivera, an architectural designer with RVK.

In the 14 years Canstruction has been held, more than 500,000 pounds of food have been donated to the food bank.

[kingkirbythe....]

Elon Musk's Starlink satellites — not aliens — lit up San Antonio's sky on Monday

Some San Antonio residents joked on Reddit that the otherworldly phenomena was actually the result of aliens.

https://www.sacurrent.com/news/elon-...onday-29848660

Some San Antonio residents reported seeing a single-file line of white lights crawling across the night sky Monday, leading some South Texas Reddit users to speculate that aliens were buzzing the city.

But, alas, it was nothing more than billionaire Elon Musk’s Starlink satellites, according to a KSAT report.

Musk’s SpaceX company launched 34 Starlink satellites from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Saturday, bringing the total number of the satellites in orbit to more than 2,000, according to the TV station.




Aliens would have been more fun.

[JACKinBeantown]

Backyard astronomy's heyday is beginning its decline (unless you enjoy looking up at satellites).

[kingkirbythe....]

Air Force software developer moves into historic San Antonio Light building

The unit works to stop cyber attacks.

https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/lo...P-CP-Spotlight

An Air Force software development unit specializing in cyberspace operations has moved into a historic downtown San Antonio building. The 90th Cyberspace Operations Squadron is now operating out of the San Antonio Light Building at 420 Broadway, which is also home to MySA and the San Antonio Express-News.

The unit will fill a 43,000-square-foot space dubbed "Shadow’s Edge" with 225 developers and staff beginning this fall, according to a news release. Those software developers will specialize in offensive and defensive tech development in support of U.S. Cyber Command, also known as USCYBERCOM, which focuses on bolstering the cyberspace capabilities of the Department of Defense.

"We are accelerating the delivery of access and payloads to build operational kill chains and break the kill chains of our adversaries," said Lt. Col. Casey “Waldo” Miller, 90 COS Commander, in the news release.

A kill chain is a military cyber defense term used to explain the steps an adversary takes during a cyber attack, allowing cyber defense to be a step ahead in an attempt to break the process.

[Keep-SA-Lame]

Is it typical for military units to lease fancy civilian office space? Keeps the civilian contractors happy I guess?

[kingkirbythe....]

Median asking price for San Antonio homes falls for a third consecutive month

Although prices and the number of home sales fell in the Alamo City, available inventory continued to increase.

https://www.sacurrent.com/news/media...month-29889579

The San Antonio housing market continues to show signs of distress as its median asking price declined for a third consecutive month.

The median asking price for homes here hit $339,200 in August, according to the San Antonio Board of Realtors' newest market report, released Monday. The local median asking price peaked in May at around $348,800.

Beyond that, nearly half of the homes on the market in San Antonio this August experienced a price reduction — a 19.2% increase from a year ago, according to Redfin.

The number of San Antonio home sales also are in decline. Only 3,272 single-family homes were sold in and around the Alamo City last month, down from 3,333 in July and a whopping 13% drop from August 2021.

At he same time, available inventory continues to climb, according to SABOR's market reports archive. The city had 9,570 active listings in August, the highest number since at least September 2020.

The slip in San Antonio's housing market comes as rates for a 30-year fixed mortgage hit 6% this week, the highest rate since 2008, according to data from housing lender Freddie Mac.

Economists warn that borrowing costs could go even higher. Many anticipate another substantial rate hike next week as the Federal Reserve continues to try to stabilize inflation, which remained stubbornly high at 8.3% annually in August.

[kingkirbythe....]

Originally Posted by Keep-SA-Lame

Is it typical for military units to lease fancy civilian office space? Keeps the civilian contractors happy I guess?

It happens a lot more than you would think.