SAN ANTONIO
Welcome to the Alamo City! ounded in 1691 by Spanish missionaries, San Antonio became a military garrison in 1718, and was settled by white settlers in the 1720s and 1730s under Austin’s colonization program. It is most famous for the legendary Battle of the Alamo in 1836, when the Mexican General Santa Anna, seeking to curb the aspirations of the Anglo Americans who had claimed San Antonio from his brother-in-law, wiped out a band of Texan volunteers. San Antonio’s claim to be the “birthplace of the revolution” was borne out by its role during Texas’ ten subsequent years of independence. After the Civil War, it became a hard-drinking, hard-fighting “sin city,” at the heart of the Texas cattle and oil empires. San Antonio is now the seventh largest city in the U.S., but it retains an unhurried, organic feel, thanks to a winning combination of small-town warmth, respect for diversity and a self confidence rooted in its own history. San Antonio has major interstate freeways leading into it from every direction. The city is surrounded by two loops, Loop 410 and Loop 1604. All freeways lead into the central business district, which is linked directly to the airport by expressway. Downtown travel is a breeze on the VIA Streetcar, an open air, authentic reproduction of a rail streetcar, which traveled the
streets of San Antonio more than 50 years ago. Four streetcar routes to downtown locations include the Alamo, the Spanish Governor’s Palace, La Villita, Sunset Station, the Southwest School of Art and Craft, the Institute of Texan Cultures, the King William Historic Distric area and downtown shopping. Convenient access to all routes are available from the downtown street car station on Convention Plaza. One of the city’s top-level professional sports teams is the San Antonio Spurs of the National Basketball Association. The San Antonio Spurs have called the Alamo City home for the past 43 years. Over the last 18 years, the Silver and Black have enjoyed a tremendous amount of success on and off the court. Since Tim Duncan joined the team in 1997, the Spurs have captured five NBA Championships and have posted the best regular season winning percentage of any team in the four major sports (MLB, NBA, NFL, and NHL). During that time, San Antonio has posted the NBA’s best record five times (1998-99, 2000-01, 200203, 2011-12 & 2013-14) and has won eleven division titles. The Spurs organization has been named the best franchise in professional sports three times (2003, 2005, 2014) in the annual ESPN The Magazine Ultimate Standing survey (each year the Ultimate Standings ranks every professional team in a
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formula using analysis of team financial data combine with fan feedback in which over 30,000 fans judge teams by eight fac tors including players, bang for the buck, owner ship, and stadium experience). The Spurs are led by head coach Gregg Popovich, who has been at the helm since 1996 and is the longest tenured coach in the four major sports. Popovich is one of only five coaches in history with five-ormore NBA Championships (along with Red Auerbach, Phil Jackson, John Kundla and Pat Riley). Popovich enters the 2015-16 season with a career record of 1,022-470. San Antonio is expanding and giving the residents what they are asking for. The city is currently constructing multiple amateur sports facilities and also creating a dedicated performing arts venue. The city spent $4 million in county funds to develop and build the new Dolph and Janey Briscoe Western Art Museum on the River Walk. The urban core and the East Side are being overhauled to encourage new development in those areas, creating more businesses and a safer environment in which to live and work in. The Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce has worked hard on these projects and many others, such as the build ing of Freeman Coliseum, over the past few decades and has plans for many more renewal undertakings.
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