cwschimpff

I am on Stone Oak Parkway often because that is where my home building company builds most of our homes. The homes there are all very nice, the shopping and medical care are excellent (a Baptist Hospital branch is actually on Stone Oak Parkway), and the street offers easy, straight access to Highway 281 and Highway 1604. However, the area is growing very rapidly, and traffic gets more and more congested every single day.

Harry Wurzbach is a conglomeration of road construction, heavy traffic, and very, very shady commercial and residential districts. I try to avoid it as often as possible – generally the only reason I travel on Harry Wurzbach is to get quickly from Terrell Hills to Highway 410. Otherwise, I try to avoid the traffic, seedy characters, and terrible roads.

Burr Road exists on the Southern edge of Terrell Hills, a “subcity” of San Antonio Texas. On the North side of Burr you can find nice middle-upper-class living with pretty homes. Most of the South side is taken up by the San Antonio Country Club, which is gorgeous to see off of your front yard. The only problem with Burr is that it is often used as a “cut through” to get from Broadway to Harry Wurzbach and back again, producing a lot of traffic (most of it “out of neighborhood”).

North New Braunfels spans from Highway 410 (to the North) to Fort Sam Houston (to the South), passing through Alamo Heights and Terrell Hills. The street has a little bit of everything, from middle-class and upper-class living to nice restaurants and grocery stores. The street is traveled heavily, however traffic is usually fairly easy to get through. Occasionally, when the city closes down Broadway for construction work or parades, North New Braunfels is used as a detour – in these cases traffic can be almost unbearable.

Eldon Road is one of the two main thoroughfares of the San Antonio “subcity” of Terrell Hills. Because the street is composed entirely of upper-class housing, and set in a small city full of upper-class homes, the street is very easy on the eyes, very easy on traffic, quite friendly, and extremely safe.

Blanco Road is one of the longest roads in San Antonio. Some parts of it are less than pleasant (mostly to the South), with low-rent commercial districts and even lower-rent housing, although as you go further North, the appearance and climate gets better. The street itself is not in the best condition, and traffic is almost always awful. However, a large multi-million dollar expansion project has already begun on the northern part of Blanco to try and alleviate some of the traffic problems.

Grandview Place runs East to West, starting on Broadway Street in Alamo Heights to the East and dead-ending just past Eldon Road in Terrell Hills to the West. The road itself is not in the greatest condition, but it’s unlikely that you’ll damage a wheel or your alignment from hitting a pothole. Homes on Grandview hold excellent resale value (Alamo Heights and Terrell Hills have some of the best resale values in the city), and Grandview is within three miles of some of the best services, from dining to shopping, that San Antonio has to offer.

Broadway is one of San Antonio’s main thoroughfares and hosts the prestigious Alamo Heights High School as well as Incarnate Word University. Some of San Antonio’s finest dining can be found on or within a block of Broadway, as well of some of San Antonio’s finest living. At the corner of Broadway and Hildebrand, a brand new VERY high-class high-rise condo tower is being constructed, and not far down the road is the beautiful Brackenridge Park.

Clementson Drive is the main road for the new Clementson Ranch subdivision, north of Highway 1604. The subdivision itself is about 75% “built out”, meaning that the appearance of construction vehicles is still rather frequent on the road. However, homes on Clementson drive retail for between $300,000 and $500,000, meaning that the existing homeowners are all upper-middle-class. Neighbors are often out on the road viewing at the construction, and are generally jovial, greeting you with a smile and a wave. The only concern at this time about Clementson Drive is the trash and dust from construction and the occasional large machine tooling down the roadway.

Garraty Road is one of the main streets in the small “city” of Terrell Hills, Texas, which lies completely inside the San Antonio city limits. Though Garraty is a main thoroughfare, Terrell Hills itself sports under 5,000 residents, all upper-middle to upper-class, and the police force is excellent (almost “too” excellent) – so the day is rare that you see speeding vehicles, accidents, or mass amounts of unwanted through-traffic. Often is the time that you will see neighbors out in their front yards watering plants, mowing the lawn, or simply enjoying the peace and serenity. Joggers and dog walkers pass by frequently, and nearly everyone will greet you with a smile and a wave.