San Antonio, Texas, is a large city full of tourists and fun. But there are plenty of reasons to not live somewhere. So, here is a list of 17 reasons not to live there.
17. Noise and Light During the Night
Because San Antonio, Texas is a massive city, the nightlife can get pretty big. That means lots of noise and bright, flashing lights at all hours of the night. This can be pretty annoying if you have sheer curtains and thin walls.
Unless you are on the outskirts of the city, you can not really get away from the bright lights and noisy nightlife of San Antonio. And even then, San Antonio is still a city so even on the outskirts, the lights and noise can still be a nuisance.
16. Tourists
San Antonio, Texas is a tourist city. There is no getting away from it unless you are living on the very outskirts of the city. Even then, living on the edge of the city does not make you immune to everything. The tourist scene within San Antonio is massive making the city feel cramped and beyond crowded.
Tourist cities also tend to be a bit more expensive because they can be. Tourists will pay up. So if you decide to live in San Antonio, there is a chance you will have to as well.
15. The Heat
San Antonio is in south Texas. That means it gets the famous Texas heat. Hot, humid summers with the temperature in the high 90s during the day and 80s at night which can be pretty brutal. While it may not be the hottest place out there, constantly being in the high 80s no matter the time of day or night can really take a toll on the body and spirit.
If the heat is something that bothers you, consider having a really good AC unit or just avoiding San Antonio, or really any southern state for that matter, altogether.
14. Traffic
Due to San Antonio being a big city, the traffic can get out of control. Especially during rush hours. This makes for long, frustrating commutes pretty much anywhere during any time of the day. Taking this into consideration could mean an extra ten to an hour of commute time depending on the location and distance you need to cross.
Forgoing a car and using public transportation is no better. Due to the traffic and bad road conditions, public transportation is significantly late at best and will not even show up at worst. So choosing to use public transportation does nothing to help with the traffic and commute time besides probably making it longer.
13. Road Conditions
The road conditions do not help with the traffic. The roads are littered with massive potholes, growing cracks, and uneven pavements. This makes for even more traffic jams and car problems. It also means San Antonio roads seem to always be undergoing some kind of construction which just adds to commute time.
Despite all of the construction and awful road conditions, it does not ever seem to get better. There seem to always be potholes, minor and catastrophic, expanding cracks, and intense uneven pavements. If bad roads are a pet peeve of yours, maybe do not move to San Antonio, Texas.
12. Garbage
Every big city has some kind of issue with litter and garbage in public spaces. San Antonio is no different. Garbage litters most streets, is strewn about in touristy areas, and seems to never end. No matter where you go, it seems there is at least one piece of garbage that needs to be picked up and thrown away.
The garbage and litter are the worst in the touristy areas and because there does not seem to really be an off-season, those areas are always full of litter. This is sad to see especially in historic areas. Overall, the amount of litter is just plain annoying.
11. Parking
Having, maintaining, and driving a car is one thing in San Antonio. Parking is another. It feels impossible to find and way too expensive. And that is if you can find a spot. The parking scene gets worse in touristy and downtown areas, which means the price for parking goes up.
It feels as though you have to pay an arm and a leg just to park for a few hours to walk around a crowded place littered with garbage. It does not always feel worth it.
Using public transportation can be a good way to counteract this, but then you have to deal with public transportation, which seems to always be late, slow, and sometimes will not even come.
10. Prices
Everything seems pricier in San Antonio. This is due to the large tourist scene. Most shops and vendors will raise their prices for tourists because most tourists will just accept the inflated prices. This is good news for the shops but bad news for residents. With everything being so expensive, especially in touristy areas and the downtown scene, going out for an evening can become stupid expensive and even possibly a luxury.
Sales tax is 8.25%
, about the middle as far as big cities go in the United States. This really is not that much in the grand scene of things, however, the already inflated prices of the city make it annoying. Especially in the downtown and touristy areas.
9. Politics
Everything in San Antonio seems to revolve around politics. With elections once every two years, one year is crazy due to the election and the next is wild due to preparing for it. Because politics are such a big deal in San Antonio, the regulations and plans for the city seem to drastically change from one politician to the next.
This makes every two years an adventure of possibly accidentally breaking laws that did not exist before. Unless, of course, you follow the crazy politics of San Antonio religiously.
The politics affect the city regulations, taxes, crisis regulations, and emergency preparedness. It can also play a role in taking care of road conditions and public transportation. It really depends on the politician and what they want to do to try and better the city of San Antonio.
8. Taxes
Property tax is ridiculous in San Antonio. It continually goes up. If you paid off a house, you might have to continue making payments just because of the property tax that keeps getting worse. This is due to the property demand and more politics.
The taxes really only become a big, fairly annoying problem the longer you live in San Antonio. The longer you are there, the more property tax you have to pay. With prices continuing to go up, this can get more than a little annoying and really expensive pretty fast.
7. Cost of Living
The cost of living is also pretty expensive. This is due to everything being more expensive, property tax, and just the high demand of people wanting to live in the city. Higher demand means companies can raise their prices because people will have to pay them if they want to live in a city. This makes the cost of living in San Antonio higher than what is comfortable for most people.
6. City Regulations
City regulations in San Antonio can seem pretty crazy. No fireworks are allowed in San Antonio. Pets are super regulated and owning one means you have to follow a lot of meticulous rules.
The city regulates when you can water your lawn. And there are other types of things that can seem pretty constraining. While it is all put in place to help keep the people safe, the city regulations can seem more controlling than anything else.
On top of that, city regulations are always changing due to the constantly changing political scene. This can lead to residents breaking regulations without realizing new ones have been put in place. The same goes for old regulations.
Residents can still be complying with regulations that no longer exist. This game of following city regulations can get meticulous and annoying and tiresome. If you are not one to follow politics and city councils, San Antonio may not be for you.
5. City Regulations in Times of Crisis
Due to San Antonio being a large city, it is hard to be super prepared in times of Crisis. During the COVID-19 outbreak, the city enforced annoying curfews. While it was all in the name of keeping people safe, it felt like the curfews were more hindering than helping.
And that is how most of their emergency preparedness feels. They do their best to keep their people safe, but due to the vast number of residents, what the city can do feels more annoying and not worth it than helping those who need it.
Just like the normal city regulations, the regulations for crisis change with the politicians in charge. New regulations come into play and old regulations leave. Staying up to date requires being in the loop with politics, the community, your neighborhood, and what is happening in the cities, states, and sometimes even the world around you. That can get annoying and a bit tiring.
4. Emergency Preparedness
Like their city regulations in times of crisis, their emergency preparedness does not really feel like preparedness. The power grid goes down more frequently than what is comfortable and becomes unable to support anyone for fairly long periods of time.
On top of that, power companies have remotely controlled smart thermostats. This happened to one of my friends on more than one occasion. The city just doesn’t feel that prepared for emergencies.
Because of this, the best way to stay prepared for an emergency is to do it yourself. That way, you will not need to rely on what the city has and what they can do. Especially when San Antonio is such a large city, there is not a whole lot they can do for everyone. They tend to prepare for the most extreme cases and leave out the medium and above ones.
3. Homeowner Association
The Homeowner association, or HOA, can be annoying pretty much anywhere you go, however, it seems to be especially annoying in San Antonio. I had a friend who lived in an HOA community. They were told to take down their red curtains because they were too distracting and had to replace them with curtains of a more neutral color.
They also had a dandelion problem and got fined big time. They once tried to park a car in their driveway with “for sale” written on the window. The car was not even there for more than 6 hours before they were told that no writing was allowed on vehicles or there would be fines. And the list goes on.
If HOA is not something you are willing to conform to, avoid it, and maybe do not live in San Antonio, Texas.
2. Health
Due to San Antonio being a big city, the smog and pollution can get pretty bad. It can get so bad that residents are encouraged to stay indoors and kids are kept off of the outdoor playgrounds. It can turn the air shades of greys and browns and prevent you from seeing the vast city landscape. The smog gets better or worse depending on the weather and tends to be worse in the winter months when there is less wind.
There have been multiple studies on the air quality of San Antonio that lead scientists to believe that breathing in the bad pollution from the city can reduce your life span. Poor air quality worsens asthma, causes pain in the chest and throat, and increases hot days.
If you are someone who is sensitive to the air around you, especially smoggy and poor air quality in general, perhaps it is a good idea to avoid San Antonio.
1. Crime
San Antonio, Texas is ranked 5th in crime in the state of Texas. In 2021, San Antonio had 10,874 violent crimes, 60,745 property crimes, 71,619 UCR part 1 crimes, and 24,917 simple assault crimes. However, violent crime is down 9.15% and property crime is up 4.39%. Making the total crime increase for the year of 2021 rise by 2.09%. The bad news is homicide has jumped up by 23%.
Overall, crime is definitely something to consider before moving to San Antonio, Texas.
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