Moving to San Antonio

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AF_INT1N0

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Hey All I was thinking about moving to San Antonio.
I don't have a job just yet but have a few leads and of course moving would hinge on a job and a couple of other factors falling into place.

I currently reside in the Bay Area (by reside I mean stationed).

Anyone living in the San Antonio area that can tell me about it??


TIA
AF
 
my bro just moved there 1.5 years ago from the bay area. luckily he had a job transfer with his co ( he had just earned his MBA). i've been down to visit him, its nice. he paid 450 for a 4k sq ft house on .5 acre. you can get even more land further away from downtown, but property taxes are assessed at the county level differently than CA and if he had been a few miles up the hiway he could have gotten the same and his taxes would be about half. do your research if your going to buy. his wifes cousin lives there and waits tables and cousins wife does retail. and they were able to afford to buy a nice home. so there is jobs across all econic and education levels. the main thing is the housing and land costs compared to the bay area you will be astounded.

i keep telling to load up on the legal stuff he couldnt get here in PRK but hes slow to act so far.

he has been hunting a lot and has already killed a blackbuck, an elk and a nice 8 pt whitetail last week. as well as doves. when i flew down, we went on a pig hunt.
he never hunted once in 35 yers in PRK
 
I'm sure some current residents will chime in.

SA is a large city with a large Hispanic population. It is hot as hades in the summer, nice in the winter. Lots of good Mexican food. Very close to the Hill Country which is paradise for me and terrain wise is very much like parts of CA.

Also close to Austin, which is my favorite city in the US.

Cost of living, as the other poster said, is nothing like CA. Traffic sucks, but it does everywhere these days.

Being in TX it is pretty much a free state when it comes to firearms, especially compared to CA.

When I was there in the late 90's crime was an issue. I believe it still is.

I'd go back.
 
For shooting info, the area faq at www.krtraining.com is very useful.

Loads of matches, ranges, big box sports stores with guns and small stores. Some better than others - :D

Housing prices are great compared to the West Coast.

mysa.com - is a general site run by the local newspaper and radio station.
 
SA can be a great area in which to live, but like all sprawling metro areas, there are "good" and "bad" neighborhoods. Keep in mind that there are some strange city ordinances to be found in our land, one of which is SA's prohibition against carrying folding knives that lock in the open position. So, I would advise against carrying expensive knives there where they can be seen and confiscated. Cost of living will be much lower than in CA. I will let others with more specific info contribute here, but if not, I know some people who live there, and can dig up more info if needed.
 
Living is pretty cheap in Texas, no state income tax. Property taxes can be high. Like a previous post said, look out for that.

Fun stuff to see & do in the Hill Country.

Knowledge of basic Spanish is helpful.
 
I like San Antonio. But it is different than what you are used to in the San Francisco area. It is MUCH warmer and drier there than the bay area. Not much mist and fog around San Antonio. It is fairly close to the Mexican border and has a very large Hispanic population. Thus it has probably the best Mexican restaurants in Texas. Try the Mi Tierra Bakery & Cafe if you move there. Very close to some of the best barbeque joints in the state. It's on the eastern edge of the Hill Country that is IMO the prettiest part of Texas. The Hill Country also has a huge whitetail deer population. Texas is a gun friendly state overall though we have some funky regulations that are a legacy of Reconstruction after the Civil War. We just got the right to carry a concealed weapon about 10 years ago and some compromises were made in order to just get the law passed. Folks in other states often look at the results of those compromises and say Texas' carry law pretty much sucks compared to places like Vermont, Alaska, New Hampshire and others. They are right to as far as they go, but without making these initial compromises, Texas would not have a concealed carry law. We are working to correct the idiosyncracies caused by these compromises.

Oh, there is almost no public hunting land available in Texas as about 98% of the state is privately owned. So if you hunt, you will most likely have to lease some land on which to hunt. Deer leases costs range from expensive to ridiculously expensive.
 
Like Ala Dan,I was stationed at Ft.Sam Houston ,from June 20th to August 28,1964.Unlike him the weather was unbearably hot(up to 110 degrees).
The city at that time was laid back and pleasant.Visited the Alamo,Zoo,Riverwalk was just getting started.Downtown was laid back and sleepy and I enjoyed it that way.Mexico was for action.
They had the crazy brown bagging laws still in effect.You had to buy your liquor at a state ABC store, bring it into the 'bar"order a coke or whatever, set up, and mix it.But we managed.
Went back in 2004 and saw a city transformed.Hemisphere,Riverwalk expanded 20 fold, the Spurs, and traffic.
But one things remains.You still feel this is a small town, suddenly ,maybe against its will ,tranformed into one of America's major Metro area's.
I could live here quite easily.A short distance to great hunting area's.Cost of living is much lower than CA.
Search the net and check things out.But overall ,I think this is a fine area to live in.
 
Beware, San Antonio has some bizarre local laws regulating knives and their carry.

Sec. 21-17. Certain knives prohibited generally; exceptions; penalty for violation.

(a) It shall be unlawful for any person to intentionally or knowingly carry on or about his person a knife with a blade less than five and one-half (5 1/2) inches in length, which knife is equipped with a lock mechanism so that upon opening, it becomes a fixed blade knife.
Click to expand...

And Texas law prohibits blade length of more than 5.5 so basically no locking knives of any kind can be carried in San Antonio.
 
I've lived in San Antonio on two separate occasions. Have been here a total of 20 years now and can answer about any question you can ask I'd suppose.

Also, there is a great forum for hunting/shooting with many San Antonio members. It is: www.huntingtexasonline.com

You should give it a look. Great way to make local friends who hunt, shoot and fish.

If you have any detailed questions you can also feel free to give me a call. PM me if you'd like and I'll give you my phone number.

Tom
 
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