As I recall, the town was remarkably clean, & most houses very well taken care of.
Yeah, this is the reason I would say San Antonio over Huntsville if I was single. But you can get to a big city if you are looking to just get away. Nashville and Birmingham are only are only an hour and a half away and Memphis and Atlanta within 4 or so. Plus I hear UAB and the hospitals in Birmingham have some top notch facilities there if that may be a concern.
Although I don’t have details like Audrey Levins, and as a native of San Antonio, I must really recommend it. (And yes, I was there during the ‘great snow’ of 1984) I haven’t been back since '96, but I hear (from family) that the whole place has greatly increased. The Riverwalk has been well-developed, the ‘Death Loop’ 1604 has been heavily industrialized, and just lots of progress in general.
IIRC, I recently read an article from Forbes that San Antonio (and please, don’t call it ‘San Antone’), is that based upon the great economy from the military is that San Antonio is one of the ‘best retirement safe cities’ in the nation.
And to repeat: IT’S TEXAS!!!
I live in Houston. He’s not lying. (I love Houston, but oh wow! The Hill Country? Plus San Antonio?)
Also Texas doesn’t have a State Income Tax. It does, I believe, have higher sales tax than other parts of the country.
All right, I spent almost all of last week traveling to both San Antonio, and Huntsville, so I thought I should give a report. Tuesday and Wednesday were San Antonio, but I got in late and didn’t get to travel too much, but it wasn’t too bad getting around although the airport, hotel, and job site were all on 410, so I didn’t have to do too much navigating. I did get lost on the way back to the airport, or rather, I would take the exit that said “airport”, and I could see the airport, but then I’d be heading off away from it. There’s like 9 highways around the airport, and finally after the third try I was able to get back to the car rental place. My main impression is that San Antonio is BIG. I was a little concerned that the cable in the hotel had a channel devoted to the traffic cameras :eek:
Huntsville was Thursday and Friday. Thursday morning I hadn’t heard from the person, so I gave her a call, and she said I was supposed to be on a plane. Turns out she had written my email down wrong, and sent the itinerary to the wrong place. Got things rescheduled, and got into Huntsville late that evening. Again not much time to look around, but Huntsville is a lot smaller, and easier to get around in (as an aside, Topeka, KS is the biggest town I’ve ever lived in, and I currently live in a town of about 450 (yes you read that right) outside of Topeka). One thing I noticed was that everyone took the opportunity to try and “sell” me on Huntsville (kind of like the Huntsville people in this thread :)) I liked Huntsville, and didn’t need any selling, but I did spend the last hour or so being driven around mainly through the UAH campus, and the research park. They put me up in the Marriot by the space center, so my 7th floor room overlooked the Saturn 5 rocket, and the space shuttle.
San Antonio had great weather, 60s and 70s (on the way back to KCI, the pilot reported “current temperature 21”). In Huntsville, you would have thought the world was ending the way people talked, it was maybe 30 degrees, not too bad, but I gathered that normal was about 10 degrees warmer.
So overall, like much of this thread, it would still seem either town has lots to recommend it. San Antonio has the traffic and construction drawbacks, but warmer weather, but since I kind of liked the company and job in Huntsville better, that’s the way I’m leaning right now.
Thanks for everyone’s comments, I really did appreciate them.
GES
One of my clients is in Huntsville, he should be on the relocation committee, he keeps trying to get me to move up there. According to him, since it is all defense contractors, they have one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country. And unless you are a complete rubberhead, getting a job is easy as pie.