Anthony Canino lives at an apartment complex in San Antonio’s Southtown. He likes living here because he can walk to H-E-B, the Riverwalk, restaurants and Geekdom, one of the state’s largest collaborative workspaces.
“Living right by the Riverwalk is really nice because it’s really easy to walk up and down to a bunch of stuff, Canino said. “Basically everything is walking distance.”
Southtown, as its name implies, is composed of a handful of neighborhoods south of downtown. It is comprised of restaurants, bars, shopping centers and hang out spots. Those who live in Southtown range in occupation from professionals to artists and service industry workers.
Out-of-towner Anne Sullivan-Douglas is from Katy, Texas and enjoys spending time in Southtown with her daughter.
“I like the architecture and I think this place is so beautiful,” Douglas said. “We don’t really have a lot of this in Katy because it’s new.”
Residents live in a combination of newly built flat complexes to apartments and majestic historic homes. But, it is not cheap to live in Southtown.
One-bedroom apartments in Southtown start at $1,164 for a 720 square-foot unit and $1,649 for a 965-square-foot unit.
With the convenience of so many attractions nearby, there is an additional cost to visiting Southtown: parking.
Bill Myers, a parking attendant at Eleven 0 Two Event Center and Gallery, said that residents are only allowed two permits per household.
If a resident would like to have friends or family over to their home, visitors are forced to find street parking.
Canino explains how he resolved this dilemma.
“The parking issue is a bigger issue when I let people come by . . . I had 12 people over and they were just scattered parking all over the place,” Canino said.
The big question for the residents and visitors of Southtown is whether the area will see more parking in the future.
“You can’t build a parking garage here because this is a historical area,” Myers said. “A couple of parking lots are opening up also, but it’s not enough because there are too many people.”