San Antonio Sucks.

They suck big. I hate them right now. Don’t they realize how big a championship would be for our city? Don’t they know that it’s our turn? That it’s our time? That we all are witness?

I don’t think they got that memo.

Here’s lots of proof of their suckiness that I collected while at the AIA convention there back in early May:

San Antonio Botanical Gardens:




The Alamo:



The “River” walk. I put river in quotations because to a Cleveland girl this is not a river:

This is a drainage ditch with umbrellas around it. It’s literally 3-5’ deep, and the only “traffic” on it is tourist “barges” like this one:


No freighters, no rowing club, no pleasure cruisers, no fireboats, no tugs, no fishing boats, no dredging boat… and once a year they drain it and bulldoze the bottom. So not a river. It is pretty, though:

Wait no, I mean they suck. A lot. Hate them.

And their claim that each concrete room of this hotel was lifted into place complete with furniture:


And their Texas Ice Houses:


And their random fountains:

And the very pretty Mission San Jose:







Actually most of this isn’t even original to the mission – it was rebuilt as a WPA project back in the 1930’s – which even though they got a lot wrong when they rebuilt it and pretty much made stuff up as they went along which is like the biggest no-no in preservation. But it is now protected as much as a WPA site as it is a Mission. I think Preservation politics like that are very interesting…aaaanayways…

Speaking of politics check out the crowd that was lined up to hear Al Gore (the keynote speaker for the convention) speak:

I was at the front of the line so I scored 3rd row center seats! This is how close I was to the podium he stood at:

Can’t get anymore rockstar than that! I was too nervous to take pictures during his speech b/c they were strictly forbidden and I didn’t want to get kicked out. Luckily the guy sitting directly in front of me was a little more of a rebel. I gave him my card and he emailed me this:

Awesome!

So yeah. San Antionio Sucks…..But there’s always next year, right?