[Eug]

I'm sitting in the airport killing time now and have nothing better to do (except to check on Apple keynote updates), so I'd share one of my few pix from my trip to San Antonio.

The one little culture shock for me on my visit to Fuddruckers was this.



Some tour guide I ran into says the entire downtown tourist area is now on camera. Apparently there is a fair amount of gang activity in San Antonio. That's not a surprise, but nonetheless I was a little surprised to see that some restaurants actually felt they needed no-unlicenced-gun warnings in the downtown core. It makes me wonder how much of the clientele are carrying licenced guns, and how much more of the population carries unlicenced ones.

[Shaddim]

Gun carriers with permits are a good thing. It's even better if they don't conceal them, just have the holster out so other people can see it. Helps cut down on the people who carry illegally.

[mduell]

Originally Posted by Eug 

I was a little surprised to see that some restaurants actually felt they needed no-unlicenced-gun warnings in the downtown core.

It's not the restaurant's decision, it's a Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission regulation.

Sell alcohol but it's less than 50% of revenue? No unlicensed concealed firearms.
Sell more than 50% of revenue in alcohol? No concealed firearms.

I was most amused to see the latter sign at an airport bar, where the only people with firearms would be working cops, pilots, and FAMs.

[finboy]

Strangely, I feel extremely safe when I'm in San Antonio. I've never seen anything suspicious on the RiverWalk, and given how many people are there you'd think that would be common. Panhandling, nope.

[quesera]

I hope your visit was enjoyable. I live and work in inner city San Antonio, fairly close to downtown, and while gang activity and vandalism are rampant in our neighborhoods, I've never been directly affected. I don't know how we compare to the problems of other metro areas, but I do think Texas gun culture, legal and illegal is a bit scary.

[finboy]

Originally Posted by quesera 

but I do think Texas gun culture, legal and illegal is a bit scary.

Wow, so do some of the thugs I bet.

[Eug]

Originally Posted by mduell 

It's not the restaurant's decision, it's a Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission regulation.

I didn't see it posted in most restaurants I visited, but then again, most of the ones I visited were associated with hotels.

Sell alcohol but it's less than 50% of revenue? No unlicensed concealed firearms.
Sell more than 50% of revenue in alcohol? No concealed firearms.

Interesting, although that is rather arbitrary. Can you have unlicenced concealed firearms if you go to a diner with no booze?

Originally Posted by finboy 

Strangely, I feel extremely safe when I'm in San Antonio. I've never seen anything suspicious on the RiverWalk, and given how many people are there you'd think that would be common. Panhandling, nope.

Well, like I said, the tour guide said that much of the RiverWalk area is now covered by security cameras. What I didn't mention is that he went on to say that any violence that occurs, happens outside the RiverWalk area. I did see some panhandling (although it was from guys walking around, not sitting on the sidewalk). There were also lots of guys in white uniforms asking for donations to some chaplaincy group. I gave them some even though I'm not religious, just cuz they were so polite.

Originally Posted by quesera 

I hope your visit was enjoyable. I live and work in inner city San Antonio, fairly close to downtown, and while gang activity and vandalism are rampant in our neighborhoods, I've never been directly affected. I don't know how we compare to the problems of other metro areas, but I do think Texas gun culture, legal and illegal is a bit scary.

I didn't venture outside the RiverWalk area, being the tourist that I was. However, I will say that when I did get towards the edge of the RiverWalk area, the people walking around got a lot more colourful shall we say. "Colourful" is fine, but sometimes it's difficult to differentiate colourful from shady, and I say that as someone who used to dress very "colourfully" back in my university days. It reminds me of my buddies from school who went to visit California (and Clint Eastwood's Carmel-by-the-sea) and got nasty stares in stores they visited, and in fact many had all their big burly guys in the back come out and stand there to watch over them. They couldn't figure out why until about the third store, when they realized it was because they were all white guys with punk T-shirts, and a couple of them had shaved heads. I guess there was a problem around there with hooligans in general, and the store owners just assumed they were Nazi punks. (These were benign guys who in a small crappy punk band.) My buddies mentioned they were a little surprised by all the negative attention, and then mentioned they were harmless Canadians, and suddenly everyone was all friendly again.

The point of this though is that back home in Canada, few cared much how they looked, presumably because the chance of bad things happening was much lower than in certain parts of the US. Obviously they would have gotten second looks in a 5-star hotel or something, but on the street in a busy area, not so much. I will say I felt VERY uncomfortable in the Orange County, CA bus station, as I did in parts of Oakland. OTOH, I never felt that way in Manhattan. There's the Orange County grungy look that made me feel uncomfortable, but the Manhattan grungy look just seemed natural for poor students or whatever.

P.S. Las Caranias has great food and very good service. Definitely not for an inner city budget though. I wish I had had more time to research the restaurants better, to find some authentic Mexican diners or whatever. Most of the RiverWalk stuff was tex-mex, and maybe not so good tex-mex too.

P.P.S. On the plane back from San Antonio I was reading the complimentary USA Today. It seems San Antonio has the highest credit card debt per capita in all of the US, at well over $5000 per credit card (and that's not counting store credit cards). It didn't have the highest arrears rate, but I would imagine it's still pretty high. When pay is high and credit card debt is high (like in parts of Michigan), arrears tend to be low. However, when pay is low (like in San Antonio) and credit card debt is high, arrears tend to be high.

[mduell]

Originally Posted by Eug 

I didn't see it posted in most restaurants I visited, but then again, most of the ones I visited were associated with hotels.

AFAIK they all have them and they're required to be conspicuous, but some are more conspicuous than others.

Originally Posted by Eug 

Interesting, although that is rather arbitrary. Can you have unlicenced concealed firearms if you go to a diner with no booze?

There's no TABC regulation at establishments that don't sell booze. Other state laws still apply.

[Eug]

Originally Posted by mduell 

AFAIK they all have them and they're required to be conspicuous, but some are more conspicuous than others.

Oh. Maybe they had it behind the bar or something, to obscure it. Or maybe they just "forgot" to post them. I could see posh restaurant owners catering to tourists not wanting that to be so easily seen.

Nobody else I showed that picture to at the conference had seen that sign before either.

[finboy]

Sounds like you enjoyed the trip, though, right Eug?

San Antonio has some cool stuff. Esp. the Alamo.

Recuerde el Alamo

[Eug]

Well, I spent most of the time in a dark conference room listening to boring talks.

The RiverWalk part was fine and had some pretty good restaurant food, and as has been said, it was quite safe. Aside from the slight rain the first day the weather was great too - ranged from about 45F to 80F. So yeah, I enjoyed myself. I wouldn't have wanted to stay longer in that RiverWalk area though, because there wasn't a whole lot to do. If I had had more time to kill I would have gone elsewhere in Texas I think.

And yes of course I also visited the Alamo... For me the best part were the sheriffs watching the store. They were just like on TV with the dark shades and cowboy hats. At first I thought they were just dressed up security guards, until I saw their big firearms.

[Eug]

Oh and I almost forgot. Ouch, went to the bank today to cash in my leftover US$. They're buying US dollars at CAD$0.945. So I only got about CAD$121 back on my US$128.

I guess the good news is that I betcha the iPad 2 in Canada will be priced very close numerically to the US pricing.

[ghporter]

Compliance with the "voluntary exclusion" (and statutory exclusion) signage is often spotty. The law states minimum letter size, requires high contrast colors and gives required verbiage, but lots of places just wing it. This of course means that their exclusion has no legal weight. Hospitals, on the other hand do a pretty good job of getting the signs right. And the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission is very strict about the signs-suggest that you make more money off the sale of alcohol than 50%, and TABC will do a pretty thorough inspection of your books...

No, it's not a particularly rough place, with the exception of some parts of town with historically low incomes and high crime rates.

[quesera]

Originally Posted by Eug 

P.S. Las Caranias has great food and very good service. Definitely not for an inner city budget though. I wish I had had more time to research the restaurants better, to find some authentic Mexican diners or whatever. Most of the RiverWalk stuff was tex-mex, and maybe not so good tex-mex too.

La Mansion del Rio, where Las Canarias is located, is the original site of my wife's university, I believe. We haven't been to Las Canarias (we're a little afraid of tourists), but we hear the brunch is exceptional.

Thanks for the concern about our "inner city budget" but I assure you, we do okay. If all else fails, we can just put it on the credit card, after all.

Next time you're in town, try to hit the Landing for great traditional jazz, Southtown for funky eclectic art galleries and restaurants such as The Monterrey and The Liberty Bar, or the Pearl complex for La Gloria ( a take on Mexico City street food) or Il Sogno (Italian from the seriously lauded Andrew Weisman.) The Pearl, a former brewery, has been redeveloped along with the new Riverwalk Museum Reach (across the street from where I teach). Further out, but still inside the loop is Silo (Chicken fried Oysters!!!) which is also close to the remarkable McNay Art Museum.

Better yet, let us know when you are in town again. We'd love to host you on a tour of the best of San Antonio.

[ghporter]

DO go to Las Canarias. It's fabulous, and if you avoid "tourist" times (and "drunk college guys" times on the Riverwalk) it's wonderful experience. My wife and I stayed at La Mansion del Rio for an anniversary many years back (we lived in Austin at the time), and the staff at the restaurant made our dinner a wonderful and memorable experience. A couple years ago we had reservations at "some other place" here in San Antonio, and "the other place" was...well horrible-they seated us next to the kitchen and ignored us for 45 minutes, so we left. We called Las Canarias and asked if they could get us a table that evening-the maitre d said "we'll get you a table, come on down!" We parked in the hotel lot and went to the front desk to ask how to get to the restaurant. One of the housekeepers, a lovely lady of about 90, guided us there, giving us a history lesson about the hotel on the way. It was again a wonderful experience.

I highly recommend the place. They are reliably "good to customers," and they've treated customers that way for decades.

[Eug]

Originally Posted by quesera 

La Mansion del Rio, where Las Canarias is located, is the original site of my wife's university, I believe. We haven't been to Las Canarias (we're a little afraid of tourists), but we hear the brunch is exceptional.

Thanks for the concern about our "inner city budget" but I assure you, we do okay. If all else fails, we can just put it on the credit card, after all.

Next time you're in town, try to hit the Landing for great traditional jazz, Southtown for funky eclectic art galleries and restaurants such as The Monterrey and The Liberty Bar, or the Pearl complex for La Gloria ( a take on Mexico City street food) or Il Sogno (Italian from the seriously lauded Andrew Weisman.) The Pearl, a former brewery, has been redeveloped along with the new Riverwalk Museum Reach (across the street from where I teach). Further out, but still inside the loop is Silo (Chicken fried Oysters!!!) which is also close to the remarkable McNay Art Museum.

Better yet, let us know when you are in town again. We'd love to host you on a tour of the best of San Antonio.

Yeah I wasn't referring to you specifically. Anyways, if I had known about its brunch in advance I would have gone there instead of just Tony Roma's at the River Center food court.

Thx for the invite. However I prob won't be back for several years.