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.
I spent most of my childhood on San Antonio’s West Side. It’s where my parents both grew up and where, in high school, they met and fell in love. I’m grateful that they raised me in a part of the city with so much culture and history. Being so tapped into my family roots and Hispanic heritage allowed me to embrace all those parts of me and played such a big role in who I am today.
One thing that was missing from my Westside community, though, was access to green spaces and proximity to nature. I find that being in touch with the natural world really feeds my creativity, so when I set off on my own, I looked for a place that could offer me that.
My Westover Hills apartment patio overlooks a lovely wooded area, and the nearby Hyatt Regency Hill Country Resort also offers some beautiful scenery. One of my favorite things to do is just walk around the neighborhood to take it all in. My neighbors are all very friendly and we share words of encouragement as we come across each other on our walks.
If I’m not out for a walk, I’m either shopping or working out. The Alamo Ranch shopping center and The Shops at Dove Creek both offer a variety of retail options. At MADabolic studio at La Cantera, I’ve found a wonderful fitness community. As someone who has struggled with my weight and body image issues since I was young, it was difficult to find a gym where I felt comfortable and not judged. MADabolic has been so welcoming and the coaches so encouraging, and I’m glad to have found a community there.
It’s also nice to live near many of my dearest friends, my chosen family, and to be able to get together for dinner in the neighborhood to catch up and feed off of each other’s energy. Some of my most cherished memories in my neighborhood have been the times I’ve spent with my family and friends.
I’ve lived in this area, which many in San Antonio know as the SeaWorld area, for over 10 years now and it’s been fascinating to see it grow so quickly. Everywhere you turn there’s a new apartment complex or a new shopping center or something in development. The recently opened North West San Antonio VA Clinic provides much-needed health care services to veterans in the area. Additions like this are great for the community, but rapid growth in the area also raises concerns for residents about what it will mean for traffic congestion.
As this area continues to grow, I hope we can address the issues of traffic and speeding cars coming into the neighborhood off the highway. And I hope we see more community spaces. I love crafting, so you’ll see various arts and crafts supplies and tools around my apartment, along with projects in various stages of completion. It would be amazing if we had a community center where people of all ages could work on arts and crafts and other creative endeavors while engaging with one another. Expressing myself through art gives me a sense of peace and has allowed me to connect with so many people in San Antonio’s amazing art community, and I would love to see that for my neighbors, too.
