San Antonio, founded in 1837 by the Dutch, or was it the English. I don’t think anyone will ever know. It is renowned for being the home of both the Alamo, and the Riverwalk and unless you are standing right in front of them you would probably miss it.

Its downtown could best be described as a used car lot for the abnormally large parking lots, and other then bringing your relative to see these attractions you could live your whole life without needing to go downtown.

See San Antonio is a unique place in America. It is home to one of the largest Hispanic populations in the U.S. of A. and except for the few multi-colored overpasses, you would never know that there is any Hispanic influence on the city. Yes, there is Fiesta in April, one of the largest festivals to commemorate the Hispanic culture, but the city has never thought about building an urban fabric that represents its culture.

Unfortunately San Antonio has become a suburban city, made up of highways, and sprawl. The residents voted against mass transportation, and even high-rise buildings, but have no problem with building highway interchanges almost 15 storeys tall. They have spent over a billion dollars on highway improvements in the previous years, and have yet to find the answer to its congestion problem.

I doubt there are any numbers to back this up, but San Antonio is home to the most big-box stores per square mile. The term ‘Super Wal-Mart’ takes on a whole new meaning here. I was just in one and kept thinking to myself ‘get me out of here’. They need an air traffic controller to guide fellows out of that parking lot. The only benefit to those stores is that no matter what the brand or product, they will accept anything you bring back to them. I haven’t had to buy toothpaste in a year.

But there are quite a few nice places in the city. Not all of it is bad. Some of my favourite spots are as mentioned, the Riverwalk, Houston Street, and the Hill Country. (Texans are very creative when naming there land.) But I hope the city takes on the challenge that is facing most American cities and develop a character all on to their own. The backbones are there, you just need to recognize it.