Tales from the south.....

My neighborhood lies in the south side of San Antonio. It’s located at the intersection of Zarzamora and Hutchins’ street. A mile north along Zarzamora is I-35 and a couple of miles south are loop 410. Botch highways are vital in traveling around in the city. The neighborhood itself is in city limits, but only by a couple of miles. My neighborhood is on the south side of town, but leans to the west. The neighborhood is comprised of working middle class families. A few are upper middle class and a few are lower middle class. The majority of people take care of their homes. No one really leaves their yards not maintained and most of the homes are really nice. Albert Uresti who tried to run for congress last November lives a couple of houses down from me. His brother is Carlos Uresti represents the 19the district. The block is made up of blue collar working families. The majority of families have been here for a while. Families leave their homes to one of their kids and etc. The racial makeup is about 75% Hispanic, 20% White, and 5% other. Although there is a bunch of families with middle aged parents, there are also a good number of elderly people here. The elderly here don’t normally live by themselves, but rather with their older kids and their families. My block is a street away from Hutchins elementary and five minutes away from Palo Alto (which is very convenient for me).

Just 2 miles north of me is SW Military Dr, one of the busiest major streets in San Antonio. Along military is Southwest General Hospital, South Park Mall (which houses Macy’s, Luby’s, and J.C. Penny’s), Target, Home Depot, Best Buy, and every fast food restaurant imaginable. There is no development around here because of 2 reasons. One there is no open land to build and the other is we pretty much have everything that commercial markets can offer. This neighborhood is close to 2 major highways, so it’s easy to get around town. There are a lot of stores nearby which accounts for a lot of traffic making the streets congested during the day. This also accounts for it being a little noisy at times. Being so close to a major street, highways, schools, and stores has its disadvantages. At night especially during the weekends you can hear a lot of police sirens and ambulances. I lucked out because my school is a five minute drive from where I live, but this isn’t the case for my work and friends. I work at Air Force Village 2 which is off of highway 90 and loop 1604. This far considering it takes about 30 minutes to get there. My friends live off of West Ave and loop 410; this is also quite a drive because it is 20 minutes away. Needless to say I don’t go out unless something is happening for sure instead of chilling in their living rooms doing nothing.

For me though this neighborhood has been good to me. I have only lived here since January 2005 and I only did that because of school. I have close ties here because my grandma lives across the street so I know everyone here before I moved in with my sister. Even with that said I still feel like this neighborhood is a transition point in my life. I am not done searching, learning, and experiencing myself or life. Maybe I never will so that’s why I feel like progressing and moving forward. I hope to go to a university when I am done here and I hope to move out of my sisters too. So I will keep looking and progressing until I find a career and a place called home.