2022 in Stories

San Antonio's top 10 stories of 2022 feature a Texas legend and famous fried chicken

A still from the documentary Sir Doug and the Genuine Texas Cosmic Groove.

Courtesy of Arts+Labor

Editor’s note: As 2022 comes to a close, we're looking back at the stories that defined San Antonio this year. We've covered food and travel, and now it's time to set our sights on San Antonio at large. This year, San Antonians had fun; they gravitated toward novelty (alpacas, bowling, and a cave house) while keeping pace with the more serious world around them (strong local economies and urban expansion). Here are the 10 most-read San Antonio stories of 2022.

1. Re-released documentary explores the greatest Texas musician you've probably never heard of.Sir Doug and the Genuine Texas Cosmic Groove was available to stream again in November. "Has San Antonio lost its soul? Has Austin lost its groove? Doug Sahm is the answer," reads a recent release for the documentary ahead of its re-release and a special San Antonio screening on Friday, November 11.

2. Famous fried chicken and biscuit chain hatches 3 San Antonio locations. Bojangles, the North Carolina-based fried-chicken-and-biscuits chain with a die-hard following, plans to enter the San Antonio market over the next several years with three locations. It says it will open three Bojangles locations in Northeast San Antonio. Those franchise restaurants will be operated by Copacetic Group.

3. Affluent San Antonio neighbor named No. 7 richest county in Texas. One San Antonio neighbor was listed among the richest counties in Texas, according to data analysis compiled by Stacker. The website compiled a list of the wealthiest counties in Texas based on median household income, and Kendall County nabbed the No. 7 spot at $84,747.

4. San Antonio-area farm opens Alpaca Pumpkin Patch for festive fall fun. Located just 40 minutes southeast of Alamo City, Black Barn Alpacas is a 16-acre ranch home to 50 adorable alpacas. The ranch hosted its autumn harvest festival every weekend in October. In addition to alpaca petting, feeding, and photo opportunities, visitors enjoyed live music, carnival games, hay rides, food trucks, bounce houses, and pumpkin painting.

Black Barn Alpacas is a 16-acre ranch home to 50 adorable alpacas. Photo courtesy of Black Barn Alpacas

5. Construction begins on downtown San Antonio’s $27 million ‘central park’. On January 26, 2022, community leaders — witnessed by 200 excited area residents — broke ground on Civic Park at Hemisfair, San Antonio’s central park, marking the beginning of 18 months of construction that will result in a world-class public greenspace.

6. Charming Texas Gulf Coast community named one of the most affordable beach towns in U.S. A report from Realtor.com said a popular Texas coastal town is among the most affordable in the country. Rockport, Texas, a coastal community a little under a three-hour drive from San Antonio, landed at No. 7 on Realtor.com’s list of most affordable beach towns in the country. The charming Gulf Coast town’s average home list price was $435,112.

7. San Antonio suburb booms as No. 5 fastest-growing cities in the U.S. Estimates released May 26, 2022, by the U.S. Census Bureau ranked New Braunfels No. 5 for population growth from July 2020 to July 2021. New Braunfels' population rose 8.3 percent during the one-year period, topping out at 98,857.

8. Massive upscale bowling and entertainment mecca rolls into San Antonio. After a two-year delay caused by the pandemic, Pinstack, the Dallas-based bowling, entertainment, and dining destination, finally got the ball rolling on its San Antonio fun hub, located at 742 NW Loop 410, suite 201. The new Alamo City Pinstack is the fifth location for the company, which also has entertainment centers in Plano, Las Colinas, Allen, and Austin.

9. San Antonio home with private cave explores the market at $875,000. Originally listed in July at $950,000, the home had a pending offer after the price was slashed by $75,000 to $875,000. Aside from the four-bedroom, three-bathroom, 2,745-square-foot home, the property featured a cave discovered in 2004 when the current owners were clearing the more than two-and-a-half-acre homesite.

SA Zillow cave home The cave’s main room measures about 30 by 26 feet and contains nine-foot-tall formations. JB Goodwin Realtors

10. 16 Veterans Day specials that salute San Antonio military service members. From restaurants and coffee shops to retailers and exercise classes, CultureMap rounded up the best Veterans Day discounts for those that have served and continue to serve our nation.

Heavy Lifts

Crunch Fitness opens new 54,000-square-foot gym in San Antonio

crunch.com

Crunch Colonnade will cost $10 million to open.

Crunch Fitness is making gains in San Antonio. Now it's adding a fourth location, Crunch Colonnade, located at 10103 Wurzbach Rd. This is a huge undertaking at 54,000 square feet (about the size of an H-E-B), which will cost $10 million. It opens in summer of 2025.

The Crunch Fitness franchise is growing fast, with 460 locations worldwide and 17 slated to open over the course of the year. Surely the branding helps; members are meant to have fun at the gym. It does have rows upon rows of the standard weight training equipment, but it also offers a wide range of classes from boxing, to Zumba, to stationary cycling.

The Colonnade location specifically will offer cardio and strength training equipment, "Power Half Hour" circuit training (a proprietary system at Crunch), personal training, group fitness, hot yoga, and cycling. There's also a HIITZone training area, another Crunch invention for containing high intensity interval training activities on indoor turf.

Aside from workouts, Crunch Colonnade will also offer tanning, water massage beds, red light therapy, and a sauna. There are also full-service locker rooms — which Crunch's website says include steam rooms, towel service, and essentials like shampoo — and onsite childcare.

Memberships are priced according to the location. Crunch Fitness hasn't shared pricing information for the Colonnade yet, but the nearby San Pedro and Bandera Road locations start at $9.99 a month for basic access, and add in classes and multi-club access at $24.99 or $25.99.

Whatever the pricing structure comes out to, there are some introductory deals in store. The first 500 founding members will join for $1 and get their first month free, along with an hour of personal training, a gym bag, a water bottle, and a t-shirt. Prospective members can also enter to win a free year of all-access membership. All that can be done at crunch.com.

The gym is also hiring a large team of more than 100 instructors, personal trainings, babysitters, and more.

fitness health gym openings