An area transformed

Far West Side tracts have exploded with homes, traffic

Slightly more than a year ago, just before her favorite president lost his re-election bid, Michelle Bruninga, a hair salon owner in Redondo Beach, Calif., lived in a topfloor condo with an endless view of the Pacific Ocean and walked the beach every day.

But she was not happy.

Bruninga, 50, was incensed over Black Lives Matter rallies in nearby Los Angeles, a Democratic governor she terms a “dictator,” pandemic-caused business problems and, as she puts it, “decriminalized criminals” on the streets.

With a teenage surfer son in tow, she came to San Antonio to visit a friend and had an epiphany.

“I remember seeing that big Cowboys Dancehall off I-35,” Bruninga recalled. “And there was this Trump rally with so many American flags. I saw people of every race. I felt I finally saw freedom. I got out of the car and just broke down.”

On the day after Christmas, the two newly minted Texans left California, drove 19 hours straight and became part of a remarkable demographic wave breaking over Texas’ major cities.

Bexar County grew by almost 300,000 people between 2010 and 2020, a 17 percent jump in population. They included 107,000 added to San Antonio, the nation’s seventh-largest city, a nearly 8 percent increase, according to census data.

Houston, Dallas, Austin, Fort Worth and Midland-Odessa all showed similar growth.

Unlike many newcomers, Bruninga had not done exhaustive online research on San Antonio’s neighborhoods and suburban communities. No careful weighing of school performance, home values, political leanings — she just drove around, checking out the vibe.

The median home price in Redondo Beach is $928,000. Bruninga wanted something more affordable, with uncluttered hills to remind her of an earlier California.

So she joined tens of thousands of others who skipped past neighborhoods north of Loop 1604 and gravitated to the far West Side, where dozens of subdivisions have transformed the edge of the Hill Country with seemingly endless arrays of rooftops and new construction sites.

The new residents — first-time home

William Luther / Staff photographer A subdivision of homes sits beyond traffic on Culebra outside Loop 1604. Three census tracts on the far West Side around Culebra, Alamo Ranch and Government Canyon State Natural Area are the fastest-growing ones in Bexar County.