Boerne should live up to its higher potential 

Boerne is an amazing city/town and should be living up to its full potential; unfortunately it is falling short.

I grew up in Boerne and moved my freshman year. Imagine my surprise when I came home years later and there were new buildings, new subdivisions and new chains swarming our little town. Other small German towns use the idea of being a small town to promote themselves. The offer the idea of resisting change, and still being a traditional small town to draw the tourist. Fine, Boerne went a different direction. Well then Boerne needs to be smart about it.

So then you get the Christmas celebration. You have Dickens, German Christmas, Cowboy Christmas and what ever else you want to call it. Its a great thing. It brings in people from all over the state and load Main Street with tourists looking to spend money. I live in San Antonio, and no one I know has ever heard of this festival. I also come down and run a booth during these weekends and have to hear people complain. They have all heard of our “Dickens” celebration, but in reality there is not much about it that has to do with Dickens. The store owners don't dress up, which many tourist come looking forward to. The advertising for these weekends are ridiculously lacking. I know people all over the Hill Country and San Antonio and barely any of them have heard of Boerne, let alone a Christmas event. So when I tell them to come down and listen to live music, see performances, see decorations, eat to their hearts contentment and enjoy what Boerne has to offer, most of them respond by saying, “How do you get to Boerne?”

In the last few years San Antonio and Boerne have grown so close with land being bought up and developed that you almost can't tell the difference. And now, with The Rim becoming so big and new overpasses going up, the distance is almost developed the whole way. Soon enough you won't be able to tell when you've left San Antonio and reached Boerne. Just like Helotes. So instead of surprising San Antonio locals with the idea of Boerne being the place to visit why don't we inform them. Why don't we advertise better? Why don't we make it bigger and better? Why don't we spread the word, and why don't we live up to our full potential? If we advertise as Dickens then people should be dressing up, should be decorating accordingly and the city should do more than just a few horse carriages. I get the San Antonio Express every day and read it usually 6 out of 7 days of the week and I hardly knew anything was going on in Boerne, and I was going to work there. The Parade brought people out in force, but many were very disappointed that the store owners weren't dressed up and that the parade weekend was seemingly the last weekend. So many people in Boerne act like the event is over after the parade weekend but the reality is that the next two weekends are going to be big shopping days also, so why not advertise as such.

Boerne is a great city with a few short comings. Soon it will be almost swallowed up by construction and development en route from San Antonio, and the only option is to make it so memorable that it doesn't just become on another section of a big city. Sure it may always be called Boerne, but what will make it stand out to Tourist rather than just calling it the Way-North-Side of San Antonio. Boerne could be so more than Helotes and other small areas of S.A. So please, people and marketers of Boerne, make it better. Make Boerne better. Make it worth the trip. Impress people so much they want to come back next year and not find another small city that stayed small. If we are going to grow up and develop and improve Boerne, then make it seem so. We can't stick with the small town mentality if we are growing so fast. Times are changing, our city is changing, our world is changing, tourists are changing and we can't just stay the same.

Scott Walden
San Antonio