About the San Antonio, Alamo Heights and Boerne, Texas Area 
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San Antonio
The country's eighth largest city, San Antonio is a vibrant and colorful mix of Native American, Mexican, African-American, Deep South, cowboy, and German pioneer culture and tradition. Fiestas, rodeos, cultural celebrations, historical reenactments, art and sporting events and more express the energy of this exciting multicultural city, and the local restaurant scene has everything from fajitas to French Cuisine-stopping off at Cajun, Tex-Mex and Soul Food along the way!
History and cosmopolitan progress coexist peacefully in San Antonio, where historical buildings, missions, and monuments are maintained for the benefit of all and museums are world-class. Everyone knows about the Alamo with its moving relics from the Republic of Texas and its fall, but San Antonio's close to twenty million yearly visitors also enjoy many additional pioneer and cultural museums in the city, including the Witte Museum, and the excellent San Antonio Children's Museum.
The San Antonio art scene is thriving, with many superb galleries showcasing works from a full range of ethnic and artistic heritages. The San Antonio Museum of Art has one of the best collections of Mexican folk art and contemporary Latin American art in the world, and the McNay has good post-impressionist and Native American collections. The San Antonio Symphony is arguably one of the nation's best, and local theater companies are first rate. The Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center hosts Hispanic dance, music, literature and drama, and The Carver Community Cultural Center's stellar yearly season includes performing groups from around the world, and top African-American artists.
The city's famous Riverwalk district has over three miles of shops, restaurants and nightclubs spread out along the cobblestone streets that border the San Antonio River. Quiet and park-like in stretches, and busy in others, with cafes, shops, and outdoor dancing and events, the Riverwalk is always a nice place to walk. Music is everywhere, from the sounds of a top Tejano band, to jazz, to country and western and more, and the sparkling river may be enjoyed by boat. The Market Square-the world's largest Mexican market outside of Mexico-is also well worth a regular visit.
With its year round sunshine and hot summers, San Antonio is a city of outdoor pursuits. Rivers form an arc around the city's northern border and residents enjoy canoeing, tubing, and white water rafting. There are several State Parks nearby, and National Parks, many of which contain historical missions. Backenridge Park is a 433 acre refuge in the heart of the city and the San Antonio Botanical Garden has a wonderful collection of regional flora. The beautiful Japanese Tea Garden is an island of calm is the bustling city, and the Downtown All-Around Playground at Hemisfair Park is a great place for kids to make friends. The state's most magnificent show cavern, Natural Bridge Caverns, is also the city's own.
The San Antonio zoo is one of the world's best and most comprehensive, and SeaWorld San Antonio is the world's largest marine life adventure park. Some of the city's many golf courses have also been rated among the worlds greatest.
Locals like their sports, and enjoy rooting for their top teams, which include the San Antonio Spurs, San Antonio Rampage of the International Hockey League and the San Antonio Missions minor league baseball team.
Just in case you needed to hear any more, San Antonio has top schools, an excellent university, and a wide range of good hospitals and health care facilities, including the renowned University Health System. The economy is thriving; the weather is always fine, and the housing market steady. San Antonio is quite simply a fantastic place to live!
LOCATION
San Antonio is found in Bexar County, Texas, about 80 miles south of Austin and about 200 miles due east of Houston. Due to its central location and historical importance, San Antonio is exceptionally accessible to the rest of Texas, and to neighboring Mexico to the south and Louisiana to the east.
Key freeways and interstates feed into San Antonio from north, south, east, and west, intersecting with the city freeway system at convenient intervals. The wider San Antonio region is connected by a series of concentric freeways and interstates that encircle historic downtown San Antonio, including I 410. These freeways are joined by the highways and interstates coming in from the four directions, which include I 35 from the southwest, I 37 from the southeast, I 10 from the east, Highway 281 from the north, and highway 90 from the west.
Alamo Heights is about 4 miles from downtown San Antonio and Boerne is about 30 miles away.
TRANSPORTATION/AIRPORTS
San Antonio is easily accessible by air, car or train. The San Antonio International Airport is about 8 miles from downtown on Highway 281. Most of America's airlines are represented at the airport, which has flights to destinations across the nation and the globe.
Amtrak has two routes through San Antonio, one that runs east to Miami and west to Los Angeles, stopping at cities along the way (this runs three times a week), and another than runs to Chicago and back.
San Antonio has a good public transport system. The VIA Streetcar is a fun way to travel; an open air, authentic reproduction of the city's original, the streetcar travels four routes to downtown locations.
The City of San Antonio website has a "trans guide" page where locals may check out current traffic conditions and incidents, as well as issues relating to public transport in the city.
BRIEF HISTORY
Originally named "Yanaguana," ("refreshing clear waters") by its Native American inhabitants, the banks of the present day San Antonio River have long been the site of human settlement. Spanish explorers and missionaries came upon these peoples when they arrived in 1691, and they named the river after Saint Anthony, whose feast day it happened to be.
Father Antonio Olivares founded the actual city of San Antonio in 1718 when he established the Mission San Antonio de Valero there. In time, this adobe building became the famous "Alamo"; site of the famous 1836 battle in the Texan revolution against Mexican control, where just 189 defenders held out against a mighty Mexican army for thirteen days.
The earliest Spanish settlers were mostly soldiers and their families, but over time an infrastructure developed to support them. San Antonio became the capital of the Spanish Province of Texas, and the new seat of government expanded exponentially. After Texan independence, San Antonio continued to grow into the lively cultural and economic center that it is today.
ABOUT EDUCATION
San Antonio has three school districts, the San Antonio Independent School District, the North East Independent School District, and the Northside Independent School District. Each district is responsible for a large number of elementary, middle and high schools. The San Antonio Independent district is the city's oldest and most central with some schools celebrating centenaries. San Antonio's award winning School for Excellence in Education (k-G12) has gained national recognition for its results.
San Antonio has a wide range of private schools as well; most of these are sectarian.
The renowned University of Texas at San Antonio has three campuses across the city and is an exemplary provider of access and opportunity for historically disadvantaged students. The University of Texas Health Science Center offers training in medicine, nursing, dentistry, pharmacy, public health, and biomedical sciences, and the San Antonio College offers a wide range of job and career training. There are several theological schools in San Antonio as well.
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Alamo Heights
Alamo Heights is a pretty town full of historic homes and cultural diversity. Built long before the large housing subdivisions that surround San Antonio, Alamo Heights has a small town charm that has remained largely unchanged over the years. Civic pride in the community and its identity has lead to careful urban planning, and the pretty downtown area is currently undergoing sensitive restoration and improvement. According to the City mission statement:
"Alamo Heights will continue to be a vibrant village in which to live and work by protecting and enhancing its native beauty, promoting its special sense of community and providing excellent city services."
Alamo Heights is an interesting combination of old and new. You'll find small stores that have belonged to local families for generations, and you'll find upscale clothing and department chains. There are small local diners where you can sit outside and chat with passersby and there are elegant restaurants that draw visitors from the surrounding area. You'll enjoy traveling to nearby San Antonio for work, to see a play, catch a game, or have a fun night out, but you'll have a real piece of home to come back to.
LOCATION
The town of Alamo Heights is on the northeastern flank of San Antonio in Texas' Bexar County. Just east of Highway 281 which runs south to downtown San Antonio and north into Austin, Texas, Alamo Heights is readily accessible to the rest of Texas because of its proximity to the network of highways and interstates running north, south, east, and west out of San Antonio.
Downtown San Antonio is about 4 miles south of Alamo Heights and Austin is about 75 miles north.
TRANSPORTATION/AIRPORTS
The San Antonio International Airport is right next to Alamo Heights on Highway 281, and offers flights to cities across America and the world.
Amtrak has two routes out of nearby San Antonio, one that runs east to Miami and west to Los Angeles, stopping at cities along the way (this runs three times a week), and another than runs to Chicago and back.
BRIEF HISTORY
The Alamo Heights area was initially sold to private ownership in 1836, and the parcel changed hands several times before coming into the ownership of the Brackenridge family in the eighteen-sixties.
In 1897, George W. Brackenridge, sold Fernridge-the family estate-and 200 acres of land that included the springs of the San Antonio River to the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word. The present-day Incarnate Word College is on the boundary line between San Antonio and Alamo Heights, and Fernridge is preserved by the sisters as a museum.
The settlement of present day Alamo Heights dates back to 1890, when the Alamo Heights Land and Improvement Company of Texas purchased a land parcel from the Brackenridges and began to develop it. They built a private waterworks and laid out streets, but the distance from San Antonio meant that growth was slow. By the turn of the century the company was going bust and other investors began to take an interest. The oldest parts of town, including the Loop, Madeliene Terrace, and Montclair, were built during this time.
The coming of the automobile changed the fortunes of Alamo Heights dramatically as it made it possible for workers to commute to San Antonio while their families lived in smaller, more community minded and less expensive suburbs like Alamo Heights. Alamo Heights continued to grow and was incorporated in 1922.
ABOUT EDUCATION
The Alamo Heights Independent School District administers an early childhood center, two elementary schools, a junior high and a high school. The district's emphasis on community input and technological advancement provides an excellent practical education for its students.
Alamo Heights also has several Christian daycare centers and schools in a range of denominations, and the University of the Incarnate Word.
Additional universities are close at hand in San Antonio, including the University of Texas at San Antonio and the University of Texas Health Science Center. There are several theological schools in San Antonio as well.
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Boerne
It's surprising to find somewhere as lovely as Boerne so close to a major city like San Antonio, but that is just what the town's residents and many visitors have done. Boerne (pronounced 'Bernie') is an intimate, mostly German community named after Ludwig Von Boerne, a German who inspired his country folk to immigrate to despite never coming there himself.
In the heart of the beautiful Texas Hill Country, Boerne is surrounded by creeks, parks and natural areas, and has wonderful walking trails, caves, waterfalls, and rivers to explore. The "Cave Without a Name" is a wonderful spot to visit, with stalagmites and stalactites aplenty. The Cibolo Wilderness Trail is just one among many, and traverses creek, marsh, wood and prairie lands and includes an exciting "Dinosaur Trackway". The Guadalupe River State Park covers almost two-hundred acres and includes the river, deer, coyotes, foxes and armadillos; visitors may fish, swim and hike.
A falconer's ranch is just outside town, and several superb lodges offer bass and trout fishing and a range of good hunting in season (needless to say, the dining is top-notch too). Visitors come from all over to see the bats in the old railroad tunnel every August and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department offers informative tours.
Boerne itself has several lovely parks and some top golf courses, one of which, Tapatio Springs, was rated one of the top five in Texas. Boerne City Lake is a beautiful picnic spot and offers superb bass fishing. Hiking and biking, or "Volkssporting" as it is known in this German pioneer town, is popular in Boerne, which has a comprehensive trail system.
There are lots of events throughout the year in this community minded town, many of them agricultural in nature, including the Kendall County Fair and Rodeo and the antique tractor show. Locals also love their historic cars, with several classic car and motorcycle meets throughout the year. There are plenty of art events in Boerne too, and antiquing events, and a fair number of cultural festivals, like the annual Abendkonzerte summer concert series in the park, which celebrates Boerne's largely German cultural heritage. Residents enjoy the chance to dance the polka in the park to the old style German sounds of the Boerne Village Band (the band is the oldest German band in the country and the oldest in the world outside of Germany).
Residents of Boerne are proud of their heritage and it's not unusual to see a farmer in lederhosen at a town parade! Many long standing local watering holes are also German in theme, like the acclaimed Dodging Duck Brewhaus, which has its own award winning beer and serves excellent German cuisine.
Historic Buildings in Boerne include the Kuhlmann King Historical House, which is open for tours and is decorated each Christmas in the style of the period, and the San Antonio Rose Palace which offers a range of equestrian and kennel events and rodeos.
The Boerne Community Theatre keeps its town entertained, and the Agricultural Heritage Center & Museum offers visitors a tour through the town's agricultural and cultural history.
Antique shops line Main Street and the surrounding area, and twice a year Boerne hosts antiquing events.
Boerne enjoys year round sunshine and the residents of this community minded town make the most of it!
LOCATION
Boerne is in the heart of the Texas Hill Country, some 30 miles north of San Antonio on I-10. The County seat of Kendall County, Boerne is readily accessible to the rest of Texas because of its proximity to the network of highways and interstates running north, south, east, and west out of San Antonio.
Route 46 runs west/east through Boerne connecting I-10 with Highway 281, which is about 20 miles east of Boerne and also runs south to San Antonio.
TRANSPORTATION/AIRPORTS
Boerne's nearest airport is the San Antonio International, which is about 26 miles south. The airport has direct flights to most major national centers and some world centers. Amtrak also operates two separate routes out of San Antonio. Boerne Stage Field takes non-commercial flights (crop sprayers and the like).
BRIEF HISTORY
Boerne was first settled in the mid-nineteenth century, by German immigrants, who set out to farm the hill country. Many local events today pay homage to this history, and it is not uncommon to see farmers in lederhosen in town parades. The Boerne Village Band was put together in 1860 by local Karl Dienger, and local musicians have been playing in it ever since. Even during the rigors of the Civil War, locals kept the band together, playing in barns and doing much to console their community. In 1988, the band was recognized by the Federal Republic of Germany for its contribution to the German heritage in Texas and America, and given new traditional German music and a magnificent tenor horn. Acclaimed as "the Oldest Continuously Organized German Band in the World outside Germany Itself," the Boerne Village Band continues to play old-style German music to the local community today.
ABOUT EDUCATION
Boerne has 4 elementary, 2 middle, and 1 high, schools, administered by the Boerne Independent School District, which also runs youth alternative facility. The Hill Country Montessori School caters for kindergarten through twelfth grade, and there are several additional private schools in Boerne, run by Christian denominations. The Boerne Area Christian Homeschoolers are a supportive and cooperative group.
There are several state and Christian universities and colleges in the wider San Antonio region, including the University of Texas at San Antonio, the University of Texas Health Science Center, St Mary's University, and the University of the Incarnate Word.
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To take much of the guesswork out of your consideration about whether a particular property is a good investment, you can check on the actual selling price of similar homes in the neighborhood.
Some sales information, such as the selling price, the financing terms, and the transaction dates, is public information. Your real estate agent will have record of all recent sales. You can find out how properties have been appreciating, based on actual sales, rather than from the neighbors (they could be wrong!). Driving by comparable homes can give you an idea about how they compare with the property you are considering. Your real estate agent may have seen these homes and can give you additional information to help you make a decision.
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| Q |
Which law allows a person to give another individual up to $10,000 a year without any tax consequences?
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| A |
The Federal Gift Tax Law allows both parents to give a child (or anyone) $10,000 each in one year. |
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