The Where I Live series aims to showcase our diverse city and region by spotlighting its many vibrant neighborhoods. Each week a local resident invites us over and lets us in on what makes their neighborhood special. Have we been to your neighborhood yet? Get in touch to share your story. If your story is selected and published, you will receive a $250 stipend.
As a native New Yorker, it has always been important for me to live close to downtown. After more than 10 years on Lone Star Boulevard, an unexpected move last summer led me to this 1925 remodeled gem on the East Side of San Antonio, and I am all kinds of happy here.
While I miss my daily drive past the Lone Star Brewery, Roosevelt Park, my favorite South Flores coffee house Gold and the short walk on Second Saturday, I am loving all the discoveries in my new neighborhood.
For starters, my casita offered me a new landscape for my art collection. I started hanging art before unpacking boxes. Art that I normally kept together shifted to walls with new and old art, new walls made room for art that had not been hung before and I discovered that I have many pieces with the color pink, inspiring me to create a wall with lots of pink and one of my favorite pieces, “Filthy Rich” by Kristy Perez.
Art has always been a huge part of my life since I was a child. In my youth the Brooklyn Museum was my playground, filling my heart and spirit with landscapes from the Rocky Mountains to France and colors spanning centuries of beauty around the world. My position as the executive director of the grassroots all-volunteer nonprofit Contemporary Art Month, now in its 38th year, helps feed my art spirit daily, and I’m excited about this month’s events.
Another thing I love about my new casita is getting to relocate my many plants to new sceneries. My sansevieria trifasciata, also known as snake plants and pothos, are growing at a speed that makes me so happy. Living closer to the East Side’s Fanick Garden Center and Nursery is a treat as well.
I am no stranger to the East Side, as it was part of my territory during my 20-plus years as an outside sales representative in construction equipment. Still, I love seeing and experiencing everything through a new set of lenses — from the many wandering dogs I want to gather up and bring home, to the possum that drives my one-eyed chihuahua-boxer rescue Lady Ashley barking crazy in the backyard, to the unknown person who mows my sidewalk run of grass once a month for me.
A sweet bonus is my continued view of the Tower of the Americas at Hemisfair from my front porch and the rooster who terrified me when he showed up two weeks ago. He’s still a little bit scary but now has a name — Johnny Flamingo — and gets fed food from the feed store and fresh daily water even though he crows nonstop while on the fence staring into my house.
The Dakota East Side is a favorite for many including myself. I love the neighborhood family-friendly feel that Kent has created, the yummy nachos and the great staff.
I’ve secretly traded Gold Coffee for a monthly delivery of fresh coffee beans from Okay Decent — and the New Braunfels and Interstate 10 Mcdonald’s drive-thru when coffee on the run is a must. Accidentally stumbling into Tank’s Pizza on New Braunfels was a delicious surprise, and jewelry and accessories shop Son of a Sailor on Nolan Street, owned by the wonderful couple Billy and Jess, was another lovely find.
Art is everywhere on the East Side. One of my favorite San Antonio public sculptures is Spheres of Reflection by Kaldric Dow at Martin Luther King Park, and the Carver Community Cultural Center, along with ongoing performances, has a wonderful small gallery to the right of its main entrance and front foyer that exhibits shows throughout the year.
The move to the East Side was not an easy one. It was a whole lot of work getting here, but I sure am glad I found my way to this side of town. I am enjoying all that is new and all that is familiar while looking forward to all that is to come.
