We didn’t want your heart in San Antonio anyways
So this Austin Intern, Steven Stein, decides he wants to bash San Antonio on his blog. After only one weekend visit and viewing less than 1% of the city, he thinks he knows San Antonio. Let me just counter some of his comments:
1) His comment: San Antonio’s much-ballyhooed River Walk reminded me of the Los Angeles River — and that’s not a good thing.
My comment: How does the LA river remind you of the SA river? Take a look sir. Can you guess which one is which? Water seems to be the only similarity.
2) His comment: The river — if you can even call it that — looks likes a cup of coffee with a few packets of sugar dumped in.
My comment: I’m sorry, what? I think these were just filler words.
3) His comment: The river is encased by concrete walkways that are lined with restaurants that serve the same variation of mediocre Tex-Mex.
My comment: Where did you go and how can one determine this on only one weekend stay? First, the Riverwalk is not the only area with restaurants downtown. Additionally, there are plenty of other restaurants outside the Tex-Mex variation such as: Boudro’s, Paesano’s, Landry’s, Texas Land and Cattle, County Line and plenty more. Anyways, don’t tourists come to San Antonio for our Tex Mex food? Of course they do! It’s like going to New Orleans and saying “All I saw was Cajun food everywhere.”
4) His comment: The tour boats that pass by every few minutes are filled with people who look unhappy, which is understandable, since these poor souls actually spent money to tour the river.
My comment: Does it really look that unpleasant? I think this beats those gigantic 2 story tour buses trying to go through overcrowded cities.
5) His comment: The smoke expelled by the boats is welcome, however, since it masks River Walk’s many other unpleasant smells.
My comment: Now, you’re just making things up.
6) His comment: When you exit River Walk, things don’t get much better. The streets of downtown San Antonio are filled with people who think high fashion consists of wearing a tattered Spurs shirt that doesn’t quite cover their expansive bellies.
My comment: I am not sure if you are aware or not but San Antonio is home to the NBA Champion Spurs. Fans do sport their team’s colors. And talk about high fashion. Austin seems to think that flip flops, cargo shorts, UT shirts and torn baseball caps is high fashion. I used to live in Austin and I love the city but if you are going to hate on SA, I will hate on Austin. Expansive bellies? Maybe it is inappropriate but this is an American problem, why just pick on San Antonio? This has nothing to do with the culture of this city.
7) His comment: Even The Alamo, an attraction I had looked forward to visiting for years, disappoints. I appreciate the history of The Alamo — I grew up idolizing Davy Crockett — but it’s hard to take this history seriously when there is a Häagen-Daz next door.
My comment: What are you expecting? That the Alamo is going to be the same as it was back in the 1800’s and the area around was going to be untouched? This is the core of our city, we have built around it just as Chicago or New York has done so. So what, we have Haagen Daz and they have Starbucks? What’s there to take seriously? You get a nice cold ice cream after a long walk on a hot day.
San Antonio is a great city and spending one weekend here doesn’t give one enough time to criticize this city. It’s like going to San Francisco and seeing Fisherman’s Wharf and writing about how terrible the city is.
If you are visiting San Antonio and need advice on where to go, let me know.