I do...I'm a teacher, and on the south side too! I will touch the future of San Antonio Mr.Joshua so that maybe one day it will be referred to as a Great American City in a forum such as this one.
Those days are just around the corner!

I just looked at the Vidorra webste http://www.vidorraliving.com/homepage.htm
It looks like the two tower condo project is no more. Sadly the building has taken a massive blow to it's original and modern concept. It has been reduced to one tower very square and with no real modern archectural components.(Probably due to the San Antonio Historic and Review Design Commission.) Leave it to them to keep San Antonio looking "OLD" and in the past. It's gives the impression that San Antonio does not have the capabilities to keep up with the times. This building will never stand out, it will just fade away and blend into the landscape of Metro San Antonio.

I would check out the Quarry. It is the site of an old quarry where they also made cement. The factor was turned into shops, the quarry itself was turned into a golf course, and the area around the quarry was turned into mostly single family residential. You can easily get to it from downtown by taking 281 north. As the freeway curves past the zoo and park, you will soon see the Quarry on the right side.

I just looked at the Vidorra webste http://www.vidorraliving.com/homepage.htm
It looks like the two tower condo project is no more. Sadly the building has taken a massive blow to it's original and modern concept. It has been reduced to one tower very square and with no real modern archectural components.(Probably due to the San Antonio Historic and Review Design Commission.) Leave it to them to keep San Antonio looking "OLD" and in the past. It's gives the impression that San Antonio does not have the capabilities to keep up with the times. This building will never stand out, it will just fade away and blend into the landscape of Metro San Antonio.

The Big XII Championship Game in football will be played at the Alamodome on Dec. 1, 2007. San Antonio had previously hosted the game in 1997 & 1999.


San Antonio Business Journal: S.A. scores 2007 Big 12 Football Championship game

The city is expected to have 24 medium-size conventions this year, compared with 34 last year. The number of huge conventions, or groups needing more than 3,000 hotel rooms in one night, is down by one to eight this year.

I'm sorry that you feel that way Mr. Kheldane, you couldn't be more wrong. However, if ALL you're going to do is make comments about people's responses in this forum and you don't really have anything intelligent to say about the issues concerning San Antonio, then maybe you should stick with the Tennessee forum. Otherwise, how do you think the final four is going to help the city economically?

LOL! Based on your puerile responses, you have "pride", and nothing else. Get with the program...

Your obviously not from San Antonio. We have pride here. Professional or Not.

It's always sad to see someone who claims to be "professional" resort to personal attacks. Sad, and interesting to see the emotional reaction to an argument they have no capability to challenge intellectually.

Wonder what "Great" city your from?

The San Antonio City Council on Thursday approved a 10-year, 100 percent tax abatement worth $20.7 million and voted to provide $5.2 million from the CPS Energy economic development fund. That money will pay for electrical infrastructure for a 470,000-square-foot complex that will be nearly as big as the Alamodome.

Microsoft's data center, housing tens of thousands of computers, will be a place "where the Internet lives," said Mike Manos, senior director of Microsoft Data Center Services.

Watch out, in a short time Houston population will eventually pass Chicago

Chicago makes Dallas and Houston both look like Mayberry and I live in Houston.

Thanks for the remarks, Mr. txstate. People have boasted and debated what makes a city "great" since Athens made snide remarks about her Peloponnesian neighbors. So it continues today. This forum specifically asked if "San Antonio will ever take its rightful place as one of America's Great cities". I'm glad I have the permission of a genuine "professional" to try and discuss the question in an open forum. Thank you.

If you must know, I live in San Diego, California (Del Mar to be exact). I was born and largely raised in Washington DC, went to Law School in Chicago and worked in New York for 7 years .... so I know a bit about the "big cities". But I digress. I have family in San Antonio and like the city very much. I sincerely apologize if I offended your civic pride or touch a raw demographic nerve. Were we talking in person, I would happily buy you a puffy taco and cheap, watery Lone Star beer to make your hurt feelings go away.

I spent last year working and living in what may be called a rival city - Jacksonville, Florida. I also have done work in another similar city, Tucson. Of all the "up and coming" cities I have been to, I really have a very bullish outlook for San Antonio. It has a great quality of life, and I think is on the path to significant and sustainable economic growth. It is simply a nice place to live, and an affordable one to boot. For once, the growth is fueled by factors other than civil service or the hospitality business. It is difficult to become "one of America's Great cities" on the backs of hotel workers and government clerks.

Don't get your feelings tied up with how many "tall buildings" your downtown has. Or how many sports teams you might have. If you do, you will always be disappointed with where you live. Take solace instead that San Antonio is a unique and nice place to live - a relatively large city with a small town feel. If you have not lived elsewhere (and I am guessing you have not), you don't realize how good you have it. Believe me, it is far better to be a "well kept secret" than a sprawled-out community with no soul or center. No monorail, or NFL hurricane sale, or anschluss with Austin will add to what makes San Antonio good. If you really want to improve your city, do something to reign in the idiotic advocacy groups that block the developers who could employ even more existential South Side professionals. Play some golf on the North Side. Encourage a relative or neighbor to finish school. And stop the mind-numbing comparisons to other Texas cities. Revel in what you have.

First of all let me just say that you are entitled to your opinion all you want.
Second of all I happen to be a professional who was born and raised on San Antonio's South Side and YES we do EXIST. Is San Antonio really meant to be compared with Dallas, Houston or Austin?

Dallas and Houston would never come close to rivaling Chicago, and well New York would just blow Dallas and Houston out of the park. How's that for comparison. Wonder what "Great" city your from?

My semi-professional opinion?

San Antonio will remain somewhat unique demographically. It is a nice city, land is cheap, weather is warm and taxes are low (being part of Texas, after all). It is also a city bereft of any "magnet" university or community of scholarship, which is a tremendous factor on keeping white-collar workers within the city.

San Antonio will never be Austin, nor vice-versa. The assets San Antonio brings to bear are primarily geographical (nice weather) and an abundance of cheap, semi-skilled labor. Cities like Dallas and Houston reached the critical mass of becoming "world class cities" long ago, and the metro population of Dallas alone (6 million at 2006) is nearly 4 times that of San Antonio. Houston and Dallas are also growing at faster rates. Don't think that they will be "rival" cities - they are closer to rivaling Chicago than San Antonio

I think San Antonio will follow a path similar to Charlotte, NC - an emergence as a city of some corporate importance in the shadow of a far larger regional city. San Antonio is experiencing the development of the "high class" service and retail institutions that are needed to cater to a white-collar elite. New, nice, big houses are going up everywhere (and are DIRT CHEAP - a married couple of teachers in San Antonio could live like a married couple of doctors in most East Coast locations). A non-union, low-educated labor pool provides an excellent resource for mid to low-level service and industrial jobs, which will lead to further growth. Let's make no mistake, though - the future of San Antonio will always be the Northside.

In most parts of the country, car factories are located in blue-collar, gritty locations or poor, rural locales. I am sure the Toyota plant will do much to alleviate the poverty of the South Side (some of the worst in the US), but let us remember it is still a FACTORY job, and factory neighborhoods are not high-growth areas or desirable locations to live. While we can all applaud the creation of thousands of jobs, let us not assume that the South Side of San Antonio will be transformed to Highland Park. It just might make the average house price there peak above $75,000.

I will also say that San Antonio has an inept city government, somewhat hostile to business and growth. Unfortunately, almost everything and everyone in the San Antonio area is within the San Antonio city limits, which puts development projects at the mercy of interests and representatives in downright socialist city districts. Most cities have pliable suburbs that one can build in (think Round Rock, Irving, Katy etc.) - San Antonio does not. Everything that might come to pass must be scrutinized by self-pitying citizen's groups like COPS. It is hard to set up shop amongst a group of Guevarra-esque bomb throwers and community college intellectuals who have the ear of their councilmen.

I think the future looks great for San Antonio, but it will not have the explosive growth or affluence of Austin, and will be nowhere near the status of Dallas or Houston - and that is not a bad thing. For those of us who have lived in truly world class cities, the feeling of something smaller and friendlier is often quite desirable. If you truly desire corporate wealth or name-in-the-news, move to Houston. If you want a nice place to live that will have all the trappings of a large city, stay in San Antonio the next 20 years......... provided you don't kill anymore resort plans.

The complex will also have a large game room, two VIP auditoriums for adults 21 and older, and a mezzanine level with outdoor as well as indoor seating.

Evening ticket prices will be $8.50, the same amount Santikos charges at most of its other theaters, Cieplechowicz said.

Team members began filing into the area of the unveiling around 9:30 a.m. after arriving at work three hours earlier. They hammed it up for the grove of news cameras that seemed evenly divided between Japanese and North American media.

A Toyota-built robot got things started with two trumpet solos and a wave to the crowd.

"I think this will be the beginning of Toyota's incursion into the last domestically owned segment in the market," said Karl Brauer, editor-in-chief of the automotive comparison Web site Edmunds.com.

Edmunds has already dubbed the 2007 Tundra the most significant vehicle of the year, even though consumers won't find them at their local dealership until February.

There were 2,043 residential units downtown, most of them rental units, when the Downtown Alliance last counted in May. An additional 530 units were under construction and 1,174 were proposed.

That's not quite enough to meet demand, said Lisa Schmidt, a real estate agent with Phyllis Browning Co. who specializes in the downtown market.

Redevelopment plans afoot for downtown mall

Web Posted: 10/04/2006 04:55 PM CDT

Amy Dorsett
Express-News Staff Writer

Hoping to convert Rivercenter mall into a luxurious destination for shoppers, diners and visitors, its owners today will unveil an aggressive redevelopment plan that would bring an old-fashioned look to the downtown landmark popular with vacationers and convention delegates.
One of the most dramatic changes would restore grandeur to one of the oldest parts of the mall's facade along Commerce Street, bringing back the windows and brick familiar to past generations of shoppers of Joske's of Texas.


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(John Davenport/Express-News)

Under a plan being unveiled today, a sight not seen in San Antonio for generations will reappear — the original facade of the Commerce Street side of the old Joske's of Texas building. It was hidden years ago by this layer of concrete and fiberglass.

File Photo/Express-News

Joske's building around 1970



On the Web
Rivercenter Mall
City of San Antonio Historic Preservation
Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp.
Talk Back: What do you think of restoring the Joske's facade?


The original facade was built in 1909 and has been concealed by an art deco veneer of concrete and fiberglass for decades.

New York City-based Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp., which purchased the mall in spring 2005, has made application with the city to get conceptual approval for the three-phase plan, which includes the addition of five-star restaurants and a high-end hotel.

The request will be considered by the city's Historic and Design Review Commission, which meets at 3 p.m. at the Development and Businesses Services Center at 1901 S. Alamo St.
City staff is recommending the high-profile project be sent for review to the commission's Architectural Committee, which would make recommendations to the full commission at a later date.

Frank Valadez, managing partner of SA Partnership Architects, which is working on the project, said he's excited about the old Joske's facade being restored on Commerce Street.

That storied department store closed about 20 years ago. A Dillard's store occupies the first two floors of the old Joske's, and the top two floors — about 200,000 square feet of retail space — remain vacant.

Valadez, a native of San Antonio who has fond memories of shopping at Joske's, said the modern facade will give way to the old storefront.

"We're going to restore the original Joske's facade," he said. "The brick and windows and doorways are on there, intact — they've been mothballed by fiberglass."

Valadez said the project would evolve over years in three phases, with the first step being complete next fall.

Phase 1 would see the addition of five-star restaurants, including more outdoor seating.

Phase 2 focuses on the redevelopment of the Joske's space, including finding tenants for the two upper floors.

Phase 3 calls for a hotel where the Commerce Street garage is now; the garage would be relocated to the northeast corner of the property.

While the deal hasn't been finalized, Valadez said the hotel would be a five-star property, such as a Four Seasons or Ritz-Carlton. The mall is within walking distance of the Convention Center and Alamodome and already includes the city's largest hotel, the San Antonio Marriott Rivercenter.

"There's a lot of interest," Valadez said of the hotel property.

Barry Lustig, senior vice president of real estate for Ashkenazy Acquisition, wouldn't reveal how much money his company plans on investing in Rivercenter, but did say the project was a high priority.

"We firmly believe in San Antonio. We believe in San Antonio's future," he said. "It could rival some of the best cities around the nation."

Though the city's shopping identity is firmly rooted in North Star Mall, and more recently in the upscale Shops at La Cantera, Valadez said Ashkenazy leaders think San Antonio needs more.

Lustig "feels San Antonio is one of the greatest cities and doesn't have the shopping that the city deserves," Valadez said.

Lustig said Ashkenazy is in negotiation with several companies to open in Rivercenter.

"San Antonio is one of those markets that is truly one of a kind. Downtown will prosper beyond people's beliefs very soon," he said.

More retailers and opening dates have been announced for The Rim. Best Buy and Old Navy have already opened, JC Penny opens October 1, October 9 - Target, October 19 - Bass Pro Shops.

Other October openings include: Michaels, Cost Plus World Market

November: Palladium Theater, Ross, DSW, Famous Footwear, Lowe's, Justice, Jared The Galleria Of Jewelry, Red Robin

Next year: Babies "R" Us, ULTA
San Antonio Express-News: A host of grand openings: Store by store, The Rim is coming online at 1604 and I-10

In the next 30 to 45 days, he said, there will be several more retailers announced, including another anchor for a 100,000-square-foot store.

United Airlines will be adding daily service to seven new cities out from San Antonio International Airport through treir United Express and Trans States Airlines.

Service will begin on February 23, 2006 with twice daily flights to New Orleans and on March 3, 2006 with daily flights to Colorado Springs, Kansas City, and Omaha and twice daily flights to Albuquerque, Oklahoma City, and Tulsa.

San Antonio Business Journal: United Airlines adds seven new nonstop flights from San Antonio

Nonstop flights to Tulsa, Okla., Oklahoma City and Kansas City ended earlier this summer, Prossen said. The nonstops to Albuquerque, N.M.; Colorado Springs, Colo.; New Orleans; and Omaha, Neb., will end Sept. 20.