Anyone live in San Antonio, Texas?

[imanangel]

What can you tell me about the area?  I see there are several community colleges there, but not sure which one is best.
What areas are good to live in?

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

I did for 14 years.  It is a huge city, so where you want to live largely depends on where you work.  I worked at UTHSCA, which was on the NW side of the city and I chose a commute that was about 2 miles/10 min from work.  I also had to be quickly accessible to work as emergency contact, but even my boss only lived about 20 min away.  Traffic was bad when I got there in, but when I left it had gotten way worse.  

I remember picking up my cousin at Brooks AFB to take to dinner.  He was on the SW side of the city.  At 11 pm, and no traffic, it took me 45 min to get home after I dropped him off.  With traffic, you are looking at a 60-90 min commute.

My gym was on the N side of the city, normally a quick 20 min drive on the ring road.  When I left, that commute had doubled to the point where I was seriously considering leaving.

Traffic aside, I did love living there.  The heat gets old after awhile, but there is a lot to do and some really good restaurants.  Even towards the end of my tenure there, I was still hitting Fiesta events....not as many as I did when I first moved there (they were really pricing me out of them), but had a few faves.

[imanangel]

Thanks Mich.  I really appreciate the feedback.  

I am hoping to be able to live in the city.  I really don't know anything about living in the city there, but I love city life.  

I am actually more worried about putting my son up in student housing to go to a community college.  Yes, I know he can and should live at home, but right now he is going through a PHASE that living at home may not be in either of our best interest right now.  In other words, I may smother him.  Even though I may smother him right now, I want him to be in a safe area and close enough to be able to come home for visits or to do his own laundry.

I see a few student housing options that cater to the community colleges, I just don't know if they are in decent areas.

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

San Antonio really isn't a walking city where you are in the middle of the action.  I know of a couple of neighborhoods where you are close to downtown, but from what I remember, there were a lot of skeevy neighborhoods close and you needed to be careful which direction you went.

[Sam_2.0]

SIL is out at Brooks AFB. Never lived there, but I love visiting!

**ETA** if you want I can get you in touch with my SIL to ask about current areas that are good/bad. Just PM me on FB

[Mardi Gras Audrey]

I lived there for a few years.  For the most part, you want to stay OUTSIDE the 410 loop.  There are some exceptions (Alamo Heights, etc) but the sketchier stuff is in the loop and on the South side.  Keep him AWAY from Lackland.... that is the hood.  

Nice areas: North side, up near Bulverde, near UTSA, Medical Center, Northwest side, up near Randolph (Schertz/Converse?/etc).

If he wants to go to Community College, I recommend NVC (Northwest Vista).  It's clean, the people are nice, and the classes are easy.  I can say this much, the education in TX is NOWHERE near what it is in other states.  If he has had a relatively decent education so far, he will be blowing away the other students.