Southern US Journey

“Nash Vegas” | My 1 month review of Nashville

October 3, 2022 by Kenji Leave a Comment

Serpy the Wombat takes in the view of the Parthenon at Centennial Park in Nashville | Who is Serpy?

This is the seventh and last in a series of seven articles about my 9 month trip through the Southern US.

Thoughts about Nashville after a month of living there.

“New” Nashville

Of all the cities I have visited on my trip through the South, I’m convinced that no city has changed as much in recent years as Nashville.

As a visitor to the city, I had done some casual internet research and the phrase “New Nashville” kept popping up. And while I had chalked this newness up to its booming population and gentrification–something that’s happening in all the cities I visited, I don’t think I realized how these forces had truly transformed Nashville. Even after having lived in Seattle the last 12 years and witnessing firsthand the transformation of that city into a yuppie playground, I still wouldn’t call it “New Seattle”. Seattle is still Seattle, in spite of the changes. Nashville, as far as I can tell, is no longer Nashville.

So what about Nashville has changed so much that we’re calling it “New”? I wanted to get a frame of reference and so I watched Robert Altman’s film Nashville (1975) and it seemed like a smaller, more intimate city. It was a place where you might see big country stars at a local dive bar and seemed to have a lot of that grit that Memphis still has today. Today Nashville seems much more polished and cosmopolitan than it was in the past. And that “down home country” vibe that I saw in that old movie seems like a caricature of itself now–a manufactured marketing ploy.

Image of some surreal street art — Some rather

So it isn’t surprising that “Nash Vegas” as it’s sometimes called, has grown into a Disneyfied theme park version of the city it once was, even to the extent that it’s apparently become the bachelorette party capital of the US. Mainstays like the Ryman Auditorium and the Grand Ol’ Opry are still there, and you can go and seem some truly ancient country musicians playing the same music they had since the 50’s. These tidbits of Old Nashville, seem ossified, however. They’re not really a part of the city any more. It reminds me of a giant and grossly opulent golden temple built around the rotted teeth of some saint.

The small area downtown that constitutes “Nash Vegas” aside, Nashville just seems like another yuppie town that has a serious problem with gentrification. I mean, when you push enough of the original residents out of your city so that those who where born and raised there are called “unicorns” you know that the soul of the city has left and has been replaced by something entirely new.

Humid Soup full of Cars

Bridge with the word "Moist" in large ornate letters Graffitied on the side

When I visited Nashville I had some back and spine issues (daily pilates classes fixed that, thankfully) so I didn’t get out as much as I had compared to the other cities I had visited. On top of that, I had already decided to choose San Antonio as the place where I was going to live even before arriving in Nashville, so I didn’t feel as motivated to explore this city as thoroughly as I had others.

Also, Nashville in June was a thick and humid soup, and even a walk to my car drained me of all vitality. Nashville isn’t a very walkable city and you need to drive to go just about anywhere. Even when I went for a run I had to drive 10 minutes just to find a good running path from where I was.
So while I hadn’t explored Nashville extensively, I feel like I saw enough to get a good feel for the place. Overall, it seemed like a city that had grown so fast it forgot who it was.

I give Nashville, TN 2.5 stars.

Gallery

Gallery of additional pics I took in Nashville. Click to large

House with very large cactus obscuring the front of ti — Strange boat-like structure near Shelby Park

Nashville home with unique lawn decor — Strange boat-like structure near Shelby Park

Previous Stop: Memphis

Grit and grind | My 1 month review of Memphis

October 3, 2022 by Kenji Leave a Comment

Serpy the Wombat checks out the Great Bass Pro shop pyramid in Memphis | Who is Serpy?

This is the sixth in a series of seven articles about my 9 month trip through the Southern US.

Thoughts about Memphis, TN after living there for a month:

Wide Build

Those familiar with computer strategy games will generally talk about two ways to build: wide or tall. And as a city, Memphis has gone wide.

When it comes to cities, wide builds are more spread out. There might be a city center but it’s generally pretty small and sometimes ill defined. Wide builds will have a lot of suburbs, and as a result of this, having a car is generally a necessity to get anywhere. This is probably one of the reasons why (in addition to the poverty) that housing in Memphis is very cheap. Any particular house in Memphis will go for nearly 500K cheaper to a comparable home in Seattle.

On the other hand, tall builds will generally be more compact, have efficient public transportation, and have centrally located apartments around which there are a variety of cafes, restaurants, and bars in walking distance. It’s a bit more busy and a bit more noisy, but there’s usually always something interesting going on within a 10 minute walk from where you live.
As you might have guessed, I much prefer the tall build when it comes to cities, and everything in Memphis is far too spread out for me. Yes, there are some pockets of interesting culture and nightlife, but they’re tiny and often barely fill an intersection.

Even the famous Beale Street with the soft glow of the vintage neon lights advertising honkytonks and BBQ joints only extends for a few blocks and because it’s hard to find a place to live anywhere near it, my guess is that most of the people you see there are those who are ubering in or who happen to be staying at a nearby hotel.

The Weather

Memphis is smotheringly humid, with the occasional thunderstorm thrown in. No thanks.

Music City

Statue of Johnny Cash standing in front of the Church where he made his first performance

Judging by the impressive list of musicians that Memphis has produced from Elvis to Johnny Cash to BB King to Aretha Franklin, it’s certainly earned the name “Music City”.

And they won’t let you forget it. From the many local spots that take great pride in saying “Elvis ate a burger here once”, to the statue of Johnny Cash in front of the church where he first performed, to the rather humble sized Full Gospel Tabernacle Church run by pastor Al Green (yes that Al Green), walking through this city is like mainlining nostalgia for music nerds. Oh yeah, and my Airbnb had a 3 foot decal of the King to watch over me in my sleep.

In addition to this are the innumerable music venues that have a live band playing most nights if you like that sort of thing. Given that the city is so spread out though you’ll likely need to be driving or find an uber to get there. As someone who has a casual interest in going to these sorts of places, I probably wouldn’t end up going to many.

Grit and Grind

A local bartender told me that the city’s unofficial motto is “grit and grind” which I later found out originated from the days when the Memphis Grizzlies basketball team didn’t have any star players, but they did the best with what they had–perhaps more than anyone could reasonably expect.

The motto feels like a good fit for Memphis–at least when it comes to all the grit. The grit is in the busted up roads, crumbling infrastructure, and decaying apartment buildings. It’s in the impoverished and segregated neighborhoods. It’s in the orange-brown asphalt streets lined with strip malls. And it’s in the boarded-up buildings in the silent and deserted neighborhoods outside of downtown.

A lot of memphis is brown asphalt, stripmalls and chain restaurants

To “grind” is to make small gains and to tenaciously hold on to those gains. It’s about playing hard defense, and not to risk anything on flashy moves. It’s acknowledging that life in Memphis is hard, but that we’re making the most of it here.

To “grind” also means to work hard. And since Tenessee is in a right to work state, you kind of have to. Due to the cheap labor that Memphis offers, the town has attracted a lot of companies in the shipping and logistics industries. FedEx makes it home here, and even built a stadium where those grit and grind grizzlies play.

And yet, in spite of all of this industry–which one would expect would lead to greater prosperity among its people, Memphis is still one of the poorest cities in the country, with 29% of the population below the poverty line.

And you can see it in the neighborhoods. They aren’t “grinding”, but they are being “ground down”. Ground down by years of just barely making ends meet. Even in the less impoverished parts of town I couldn’t help shake the vibe of the resignation that results from years of frustration.

Condemned buildings in Memphis were a common sight

In 1968, 1300 black men working in the Memphis sanitation department went on strike after 2 of them were crushed by faulty machinery. This event crystalized the fact that the city barely enforced safety standards for its sanitation workers and it was the last straw to be added to a list of other indignities like having to live on welfare in spite of being forced to take on late night shifts without overtime.

On April 3rd of that year, Martin Luther King went to Memphis to deliver his “I’ve been to the Mountaintop” speech in support of the workers.

The next morning, Martin Luther King was assassinated at the Lorraine motel.

The demonstrations that came in the wake of this shocking event eventually forced the city to come to the table and sign an agreement with the sanitation workers. And yet, workers in Memphis still struggle to have their voice heard.

Political and Racial Tensions

“Black Lives Matter” crosswalk near Overton Square in Memphis

Memphis is now a majority black city but for most of its history it wasn’t, and politics in this town are divided strictly on racial lines. If that isn’t a source of tension, I don’t know what is.
I can only imagine the resentment that the local Trump supporters, whose grandparents once owned this town and were openly racist must feel now that the city has changed so much demographically and politically.

A bumper sticker that reads “another bright blue dot in a really red state”

As a half-Asian, I’m rarely conscious about my ethnic background, but in Memphis I felt acutely conscious of it. Never in any of the major southern cities that I had visited did I feel that I was being watched, but here in Memphis I did. It was in sidelong glances at the grocery store so fleeting that it was hard not to them chalk up to my imagination, but I felt a real discomfort here, especially in the predominately white areas.

The Black people I met, however, were quite welcoming and friendly even though I was a visitor. It was great to feel included there, especially because there were other places where I didn’t. This is a place where you truly “wear your race on a sleeve” as Memphis native and sociologist Zandria Robinson says. I couldn’t agree more.

I don’t really want to live in place where I have to do that though.

I give Memphis, TN 1.5 stars.

Gallery

A Gallery of some additional photos taken in Memphis. Click to enlarge.

Justin Timberlake and Aretha Franklin, both Memphis natives, perform in front of a historic Memphis home

Previous Stop: Asheville

Next Stop: Nashville

Fishbowl town | My 1 month review of Asheville

October 3, 2022 by Kenji Leave a Comment

Serpy visits the Biltmore | Who is Serpy?

This is the fifth in a series of seven articles about my 9 month trip through the Southern US.

Thoughts about Asheville, NC after spending a month there.

A little fishbowl of a town

Asheville is a small place, but one with an expertly curated image. It’s a fishbowl with the imitation coral placed artfully in all the right spots–so artfully you might even be fooled to think that the coral was real. There’s a small but charming downtown area that has your usual assortment of bougie restaurants as well as a surprisingly great art museum. In addition, there were a seemingly interminable amount of touristy activities available: you can go ziplining, fly over the smoky mountains in hot air balloon, and even ride a “pubcycle” which is essentially a mobile bar pedal-powered by the 10 or so beer drinkers positioned around the sides while the presumably sober guide steers the lumbering vehicle through downtown. In addition to this, there’s the ridiculously opulent Biltmore estate and the various trails that wind their way through the Smoky Mountains. Let’s just say that Asheville’s visitor’s guide has a bit of heft to it.

The Biltmore

It’s surreal to see a palatial chateau–the largest private residence in the US–nestled in the hills of North Carolina, a place whose previous claim to fame was probably that the moonshine had a good kick to it. The Biltmore is nothing short of breathtaking, and it’s a testament to the obscene wealth that the robber barons of the gilded age managed to hoard. As a I toured the grounds and estate I felt conflicted. There was a part of me that felt repulsed by the fact that no one should have this much wealth, but I could also not help but appreciate how tastefully the wealth had been applied. It’s breathtaking, and definitely worth a detour if you find yourself within driving distance.

Sleepy town

The neighborhoods in the inner portion of Asheville are quiet, idyllic rows of of brightly colored homes. Everything is quirky in a muted and tasteful way. It’s almost as though someone took a Thomas Kincade painting and decided to dial back the saturation a bit in order to be idyllic but not over the top.

Housing

The housing market in Asheville is slim pickings, at least near the center of town. I only found 1-2 homes in my price range where I’d be willing to live.

The weather

For a southern city, the weather in Asheville is temperate. I was there in April, and was surprised to find that I needed to scrape ice off my windshield one particularly frosty morning. Most afternoons got into the 70s, but it was nowhere near the kind of heat you’d see elsewhere in the South. As someone seeking out warmer climates and sunnier winters, this was not really a mark in the plus column for me though.

Blue dot in a sea of red

Asheville is a bastion of liberal politics–at least the center of it is. From what I observed, the town’s center seems very blue and the outskirts seem very red. Nearly every other house near the city center has some iteration of the “All are welcome” yard sign (A little ironic considering the wave of gentrification that pushed out many people of color in the 70s). It’s a little white yuppie/hippie haven. Hope you like muesli.

You don’t have to drive more than a mile from the center though to see large pictures of a grinning Trump with the words “Miss me yet?” in bold text underneath. Trump 2024 and “Let’s go Brandon” flags fly proudly here. Priuses give way to 4×4 trucks rather quickly. It didn’t seem like these two parts of town blended much, and I imagine that this is a source of no little tension.

Roadkill

I’ve seen more roadkill in North Carolina and Tennessee than all the places on the rest of my trip combined. Not sure what that means but it’s a weird thing I noticed.

The Food

The airbnb that I stayed in was practically a treehouse in the woods, so I didn’t eat out much. From what I saw, Asheville had a reasonable assortment of very good restaurants. The thing is–it’s a pretty small place, so you’re lucky to only have 1-2 of restaurants of any type of cuisine.

Hiking and nature

Perhaps I’m spoiled as a pacific northwesterner, but I found the natural environment of Asheville to be rather bland and monotonous. The main features I’ve seen on most hikes are slow moving creeks and hikes up hills that never get past the tree line. As someone used to climbing up mountains high enough to be able to make it to a grand ridge that seems to divide the world beneath one’s feet, I found it a little underwhelming to get to the top of a hill and to see that nothing had really changed from where I had started. It’s pretty and peaceful but not particularly unique or interesting. I saw a black bear though. That was cool.

This juvenile black bear was on the other side of a river, so it seemed pretty chill.

A staycation destination

No place is truly disconnected from the world, nor is it completely resistant to change, but the extent to which Asheville has curated their image as a staycation destination, as a place to “get away from it all” surely makes it feel that way. I can’t help but feel a bit stir crazy in places like these. Asheville might be a beautiful fish bowl, but it’s still a fish bowl. It’s a great place to visit, but as a place to live it’s not for me.

I give Asheville, NC three stars.

Previous Stop: Atlanta

Next Stop: Memphis

A city in search of its soul | My 1 month review of Atlanta

October 3, 2022 by Kenji Leave a Comment

Serpy the Wombat poses in front of Martin Luther King’s birth home | Who is Serpy?

This is the fourth in a series of seven articles about my 9 month trip through the Southern US.

I lived in Atlanta for one month in March 2022. These are my thoughts.

Bubble Neighborhoods

A weathered house in a well-to-do neighborhood in Atlanta

While I haven’t visited all the neighborhoods in Atlanta, the ones I did visit seemed like self-sufficient bubbles. Candler Park, the neighborhood I was in, had a trendy assortment of cafes, bars, restaurants and grocery stores all within walking distance from each other. While it was all very pretty and peaceful, there was also a feeling of insularity that I just couldn’t shake. It was almost as though each neighborhood was its own feudal realm and while the overlords of these neighborhoods might pledge allegiance to the greater realm of Atlanta, each neighborhood really felt like its own polity.

A gaudy neoclassical McMansion in Atlanta

This feeling of insularity became more pronounced when my regular jogs took me through the extremely well to do neighborhoods, where every other McMansion had gaudy neoclassical columns adorning them, a style which to me can’t help but evoke visions of the estates of slave plantation owners. In most cities I had visited so far it didn’t take long for me to stumble upon impoverished neighborhoods, I’m sure they exist in Atlanta as well, but from Candler park I could run 5 miles in any random direction and never come across any. Atlanta is a big city, and the neighborhoods are big too. You need to get into your car and set an intention to drive somewhere where people live differently than you. I’m certain that rarely happens.

A possibly haunted Atlanta home guarded by its faithful familiar

The Beltline

The beltline is a paved jogging, biking and running path that encircles the center of the city. Parks, restaurants and funky art installations cluster around it. Of all the urban paths I’ve found on my trip here, this would be my second favorite next to the San Antonio riverwalk. The Beltline also appears to be the one thing that connects all the disparate bubble neighborhoods of Atlanta in any meaningful way.

Social Scene

Maybe it’s the warm weather. Maybe it’s the “post-COVID” (Heaviest possible quotes here) euphoria that incited people to socialize more, but I feel as though I had met more people over a weekend in Atlanta than I had on my whole trip. I’ve been using meetup to meet with locals in each place I visit, and Atlanta had more interesting meetups than in any other city I had visited.

An ecstatic dance gathering in Candler Park

Food

A rather ridiculously large breakfast at the Flying Biscuit Café in Candler Park

I had the best biscuits and the best grits I ever had in my life in Atlanta. I also had some incredible tikka masala curry with buffalo mozzarella. The number of restaurants are unfathomable here, and while I’d say the food in New Orleans is better, the food in Atlanta has more variety. One innovation I found particularly interesting were these yawning complexes that I can only classify as “Yuppie Food Courts”. These were very large buildings with food stalls serving Sushi, Cuban Sandwiches, Falafels, and like. Some of these complexes were less food focused and more booze focused and because it was sunny Atlanta and not rainy Seattle, there was a generous amount of outdoor seating. These places were packed, and it wasn’t unusual to see the dedicated parking structures for these complexes completely full.

A City in Search of its Soul

When I talk to people who are critical of Atlanta, or who compare it to other cities they’ll say that that Memphis, or Asheville, or Seattle has a soul, which implies that Atlanta doesn’t have one. I think this is overly harsh, but I also think there is some truth to it.

A city has soul when there are defining characteristics of that city that sets it apart from other places. There is a human energy to the place that transcends the humans who created. It makes it more than just a place where people congregate and live.

One of the most important ingredients of a city’s soul is the reason that people decided to settle there in the first place. In Ancient Egyptian cities the floodplains on the Nile provided a reliable source of grain. In New Orleans it was the shipping gateway from the ocean to all the many tributaries of the Mississippi river reaching deep into the heart of the North American continent.

Atlanta had no such reason. It just so happened that Atlanta was the spot where some major railroads intersected. It’s almost like a child grown in a test tube from two parents who had never met.

As cities go, Atlanta is still very young, and I get the sense that it doesn’t know what it wants to be when it grows up yet. As the birthplace and home of Martin Luther King Jr., it has distinguished itself as a important place in the history of Civil Rights–work that continues to this day, and while the birth home and Tomb of MLK are very special places, they almost feel as though they are removed from the city–as though the Atlanta of today can’t lay claim to them just yet. Perhaps it’s because the work he stood for is so far from being completed.

Martin Luther King Jr. and Corretta Scott King’s Tomb

There are other elements to Atlanta that hint to a burgeoning soul: the vibrant rap scene, the very active media and film industry, and the ongoing fight for equity that we can see spearheaded by those who have carried on MLK’s torch. All of these have the potential to leave an indelible mark on the soul of Atlanta. We will have to wait and see.

I give Atlanta 3 stars–at least for the moment.

Previous Stop: New Orleans

Next Stop: Asheville

This city won’t ever drown | My 1 month review of New Orleans

October 3, 2022 by Kenji Leave a Comment

Serpy the Wombat poses in front of St. Louis Cathedral | Who is Serpy?

This is the third in a series of seven articles about my 9 month trip through the Southern US.

Some thoughts about New Orleans after living there for a month

The Food

A crawfish boil at a NOLA home with Gochujang and Gochugaru to add a korean twist

Of all the cities I visited, New Orleans has the best food. The food is greasy, flavorful, spicy and comes in generous portions. While I did have a few mediocre meals here and there, they were few and far between. For the most part, the cuisine in NOLA is legit. I imagine that in a place that has more bars per capita than any other city in the US, there is fierce competition. Perhaps the only complaint that I have about the food was that nearly all the good breakfast spots had a line out the door.

A Benson Boogie from Heard Dat Kitchen: Blackened fish with grits and shrimp with “crawdat” cream sauce

French Quarter

I didn’t like it. Some of the old buildings were beautiful but for the most part it was swarming with drunk tourists. This irritation might have been exacerbated by the fact that I had quit drinking last year. I think that maybe if I visited in a less busy time of year I would have liked it more. The buskers in the French Quarter are top notch though. They’re really great.

The worst driving experience

In my month there, I could count at least 3 busy intersections where the traffic lights were essentially not working. GPS is unreliable as a form of navigation in this city because you’re more likely than not to turn into a road completely blocked—turning around a corner to see a wall of traffic cones and an 500ft long stretch of dirt with an idle backhoe is an all too common experience. Potholes are a perpetual fact of life in the city, and I can only laugh when I hear Seattleites complaining about potholes in my feed. NOLA roads are like swiss cheese, not to mention the fact that some of them are peppered with glass and rubble. I’m sure Discount Tire makes a brisk business in this city.

Magic

To me, magic is a two part cocktail consisting of equal parts beauty and mystery. And I am almost certain that by this measure New Orleans has more magic than any other city in the US. It’s really hard to come up with another word that ecompasses this feeling. When you see Mardi Gras Indians swagger through the streets blocking traffic as they waved their befeathered and rhinestone studded costumes that they had spent the whole year sewing just to show off on a single day—that’s magic.

Track by Dr. John celebrating the Mardi Gras Indians

As each tribe encountered the other on the streets they proceeded to engage in mock battle which some historians think might derive influence from mock battles from certain tribes in the Kongo. No one really knows though. All you can see is the result of cultural alchemy—ancient traditions blending in such a way to create something new and breathtakingly beautiful, but also still ancient and venerable. The legendary and quintessential New Orleans song “Iko Iko” seems to have a nonsensical chorus but some historians have attempted to map the syllables to Louisiana Creole French, while others believe it may be West African in origin. No one knows for sure though and it’s this sense of mystery that I find pervades the whole of the city.

Unhealed wounds

For a city that is majority African American, the very center is marked by a monument to Andrew Jackson, an owner of over 300 slaves. He is lionized here because he kicked the ass of the British during the war of 1812 thus “saving” the city. But really he was saving it for the rich slave owners who ran the place. Even now there are tours of plantations where one can pay to see magnificent southern estates built off the backs of slaves as well as to gawk at the slave quarters. While I do think it’s important to remember the horrors of the past, paying a private tour company to visit these places strikes me as morally dubious.

Stark inequality

I arrived in New Orleans one year after the destruction of hurricane Ida. I was in the central city, a predominantly black neighborhood lined with shotgun houses. I was on one of the main streets, Jackson St (seriously, his name is everywhere here). As soon as your turned on to one of the side streets from Jackson, it was obvious that the destruction hadn’t been completely dealt with. Street corners were piled with rubble.

Rubble piles were still everywhere a year after Ida

Many houses were abandoned and others had their roofs replaced by a stretch of blue tarp. However, as soon as I stepped out of the neighborhood I could see that some places were cleaned up quite nicely. The garden district, with its flamboyant southern mansions built in the style of the old plantation estates were not far. Their roofs were intact and the street around them were pristine.

Anne Rice’s former home in the Garden District

Neighborhood Music

The first thing I noticed about new Orleans is how everyone loves to play their music loudly here. In several cases I’ve seen folks bring their stereo system out on the front porch to blast their curated selection into the streets. Additionally, it seemed like 1 out of every 5 cars did the same as they cruised on by. You’d think this would be irritating but the music was often so good that one could hardly complain. I’m certain that loud noise complaints are a rare thing in most neighborhoods.

Disaster and Decay

New Orleans has no shortage of missing roofs, buildings with peeling paint, and twisted iron fences. When hurricanes and floods sweep through the city with increasing regularity I can understand why one might let things go. Why rebuild and repair when chances are you’ll be doing the same thing in another 5 years?

“Love Your City”

When walking through the streets one day I saw a sign that said “Love Your City”. To me, this sign was an admonition. New Orleans can’t survive without people loving it as much as they do. The city is beset with a staggering number of problems, from the swiss cheese roads and power outages, to the displacement of folks who have lived in NOLA for generations. To cap it all are the projections that the only portion of the city that will not be underwater by 2050 will be the French quarter—meaning that the majority of places where people live will be underwater. In spite of all these problems people stay, even if “staying” means clinging to the fringes of the suburbs outside of New Orleans proper where they can still afford rent. They stay because they truly love their city. And how can you not? I think the fact that so many people still stay in spite of all of it is an incredible testament to how precious it is.

While staying here I heard a song, “This City” by Steve Earle that sums up the spirit of “Love Your City” incredibly well:

This city won’t wash away
This city won’t ever drown
Blood in the water and hell to pay
Sky tear open and pain rain down
Doesn’t matter ’cause come what may
I ain’t ever gonna leave this town
This city won’t wash away
This city won’t ever drown

Although I’ve been giving star ratings for each city I visit, I found it difficult to give one to New Orleans. It’s a place of contradictions and there are as many beautiful things here as there are ugly. Should we just add up the good and bad and come to an average? If so, I give New Orleans 3.5 stars. However, I wouldn’t disagree without you if you gave it five stars. In fact, I think you might be right.

Gallery

I probably took more pictures in New Orleans than anywhere on my trip. Click to see full size.

Some coneheads lawn art. A sign nearby reads “Beldar for Supreme Leader”

Previous Stop: San Antonio

Next Stop: Atlanta

A city that found me | My review of San Antonio

October 3, 2022 by Kenji Leave a Comment

Serpy the wombat poses in front of the Alamo | Who is Serpy?

This is the second in a series of seven articles about my 9 month trip through the Southern US.

I spent one month in San Antonio in January 2022. These are my thoughts.

The Riverwalk

This had to be my favorite feature of San Antonio. On hot days, you can descend downstairs and walk along the San Antonio river winding its way through the city as you pass by cafés and restaurants. Palm trees arch overhead providing shade, as do the the tall buildings that embrace it from both sides. I could probably spend half a day in a cafe watching the riverboats and passersby.

The Pioneer Flour Mills on the San Antonio River

If you head south and away from the the heart of the city, the river grows wider, and you can actually follow it for miles to places like the Spanish missions. It’s also less crowded, so you can bike or run for miles as you follow the river through the many parks along the path.

In homage to a Paris tradition, couples commemorate their love by placing a “love lock” on a bridge over the riverwalk

The Weather

The San Antonio riverwalk in January. This day was roughly 70 degrees.

It was not what I’m used to coming from Seattle. It ranged from near freezing to 75 degrees in the same day. That said, most days I could expect to enjoy a sunny day in the afternoon and go for a run by the riverwalk. I understand the summers are rather brutal, so I’d probably have to run in the morning and take shelter during most of the day. At night it’d cool down enough to go downtown in short sleeves. All in all, I think I’d be cool with it.

Housing

I went on Zillow and from a cursory look I saw housing prices are definitely going up here (as they are everywhere), but it’s certainly nowhere near as crazy as it is in Seattle ( or nearby Austin, for that matter).

Cats

I didn’t see many neighborhood cats in Arizona where I had traveled from (perhaps they were all indoors because of coyotes?), so as a cat lover it was nice to see many friendly neighborhood kitties where I happened to be staying.

A kitty greeting I was fortunate to capture as I was walking through the neighborhood

Road Mattresses

After a month of driving around, I found the roads easy to navigate and rarely stressful. I was told Texas drivers were aggressive but I don’t remember getting tailgated or honked at once.

While the roads are generally pretty navigable, there does seem to be a trend of people dumping mattresses and other furniture by the side of the road. Anecdotally I’ve heard there are lots of issues with drunk drivers, meaning the later you go out the less safe you might be. Also, San Antonio really needs to get on repainting its traffic lines.

The Food

Chilaquiles at Panchos And Gringos, a great breakfast spot near where I stayed in San Antonio

You can’t turn a corner without finding a Mexican restaurant, and all of them I went to were above average by my reckoning as a Northwesterner. I especially loved that I could get chilaquiles, huevos rancheros and breakfast tacos practically anywhere.

Rooftop cocktails at The Moon’s Daughters. San Antonio can do swanky too.

While the restaurants in Seattle are wonderful, it’s increasingly started to feel like the dining experience in many places, from the lighting to the fonts on the menu have been meticulously crafted by a marketing team, resulting in a strange uniformity where one swanky cocktail bar seems interchangeable with the next. Although there are some places like this in San Antonio, I feel like many dining spots have retained their humility and their souls—places where the focus is on the food alone and not an overproduced “dining experience”.

On the bougier side of things, here’s a chicken and hong kong style waffle at Best Quality Daughter

Purple Town

San Antonio is moderately liberal, with 58.2% voting democratic in the last presidential election. I saw as many “Refugees are welcome” yard signs as I did trump signs and “Thin Blue Line” flags. Something interesting happens when your neighbor has completely different views as you—it becomes increasingly difficult to dehumanize them as the “Other”. In a purple town, it is easier to recognize the humanity of those who think differently from you.

Close to Austin, but not too close

Austin is less than an hour and a half from San Antonio, so I paid the city a visit over the weekend. To me, Austin felt a lot like an over-the-top amusement park where every restaurant and music venue goes out of its way to express some form of quirkiness. I had fun while I was there—but it didn’t feel like home to me. That said, it’s a nice perk that Austin is nearby. It’s a place that I wouldn’t mind visiting often, but not a place where I’d like to live.

History

In San Antonio, reminders of its history are everywhere, and lovingly preserved. It’s hard not to feel delighted to walk through a neighborhood full of brightly colonial revival houses. In fact, many houses in the neighborhood I was living in were over 100 years old. This means that if you move into one of these houses, prepare to spend your life maintaining them. Also, you’ll need to get a permit for any external changes to your home, otherwise you’ll be slapped with a fine.

In Seattle, where development proceeds at a blinding pace, it’s easy to feel untethered. That cafe or dive bar where you used to hang out are gone: replaced by a high rise condos and office buildings. The places where you used to make memories have vanished, leaving you to feel as though the world is passing you by.

The inside of the old Pearl Brewery, converted into a gorgeous cocktail bar

San Antonio, a city that radiates from the Alamo at it’s very center, is all about preserving its history. This can be a source of comfort, as it gives you a sense that time isn’t just racing past you and will forget you after you die. However, it can also be a source of pain, as I imagine it would be for a person whose ancestors were slaves who sees a beautiful homestead house perfectly preserved and the only thought is: someone who looked like me was forced to work there against their will.

Texans love their history, but it’s a history that is, at its center, jingoistic. It’s dedicated to perpetuate the mythos of their state’s greatness, while ignoring the racial violence and genocide that is very much a part of the state’s history too. So I feel both comforted and uneasy when I find myself in these historic places. If anything I am reminded that the comfort I enjoy now is due in no small part to the suffering of those who came before me.

Revisiting San Antonio in Summer 2022

Of all the cities I had visited on my trip through the southern US, San Antonio felt the most like home to me. It most certainly has its problems and I’m certainly concerned about climate change and impending water scarcity (San Antonio gets its water from the Edwards Aquifer, a limited resource).

Fresh tortillas at HEB are a wonderful thing I discovered when returning to San Antonio

After visiting several other cities, I decided to revisit San Antonio in the summer of 2022 to see if I could handle the heat and I found that I could handle it pretty well. I’m not sure what it is but 90 degrees just hits differently here. I walked downtown for about 30 minutes in mid summer and found that the slight breeze and drier air made the heat all the more tolerable. Also, shaded areas are perfectly comfortable for someone like me who prefers warmer weather, even in midday. Mornings are cool enough that I can go running by the river, and the evenings are cool enough to enjoy a warm evening on a bar’s terrace or patio.

A summer evening in San Antonio at the Paramour

The riverwalk is still my favorite feature of the city but my enthusiasm is tempered by the mediocrity of most of the restaurants that line it. Many of them are chains and seem to provide the lowest common denominator of a dining experience. They mostly churn through tourists who likely just stop by these spots for the sake of convenience. I still enjoy walking along the river in the mornings and evenings though.

After wandering the country for the better part of a year, I chose San Antonio as a place to live because it just clicked for me. The city has its problems, to be sure, but as someone who has chosen to live here, I feel more motivated to get involved and help fix those problems in what small ways I can.

The funny thing was, I almost didn’t visit this city at all. I had an airbnb booked in Austin and the lady who rented out the place asked me if I was sure I wanted to visit Austin in January as it’s “too cold” and there was “nothing to do here”. I decided then to try a city I knew nothing about and that was San Antonio.

Saint Anthony of Padua, the city’s namesake, is the patron saint of lost people and things. Perhaps I didn’t find the city, but instead the city found me.

I give San Antonio, TX four out of five stars.

Previous Stop: Tucson

Next Stop: New Orleans