Is El Paso Pretty? (Galveston, Fort Bliss: theater, residential, rated)

[doolish1]

If every flight didn't take 1 or 2 connections I'd be happier. But the everyday living here, I have no issues.

[cuja1]

I love El Paso. I wish I could live there. It's one of my favorite places that I've visited.

[lmbebo]

Its got a beauty to it, but not something I would say feels homey to me. Grew up in South Texas and used to green yards, trees, etc. Desert and what not just doesn't feel natural to me yet. Not sure it ever will.

Things I would def love here:

A few more flights, especially to some beach destinations, i.e. direct flights to puerto vallarta or cabo san lucas.
Better super markets (HEB!, trader joes). Whole Paycheck will help a lot though.
Access to fresh seafood (mostly all frozen).
More ethnic food (korean, thai, middle eastern, ethiopian, turkish). Most sushi places serve weird americanized rolls. So far we've found Dragon Fly to have the freshest and best sushi, and we also like Sunny's Sushi.

Some more high end restaurants and shopping.

Most of all, city needs more jobs/opportunities! My wife has 2 post graduate degrees and has seen very few job postings. I think Forbes? even had an article about the lack of jobs in El Paso. Its a huge issue.

[gemstone1]

"Is El Paso pretty?"....I thought is was illegal to use 2 of those words in the same sentence....

Regards
Gemstone1

[Violet West]

there's beauty all around -- but not everyone sees it.

[painless]

Originally Posted by lmbebo

Its got a beauty to it, but not something I would say feels homey to me. Grew up in South Texas and used to green yards, trees, etc. Desert and what not just doesn't feel natural to me yet. Not sure it ever will.

Things I would def love here:

A few more flights, especially to some beach destinations, i.e. direct flights to puerto vallarta or cabo san lucas.
Better super markets (HEB!, trader joes). Whole Paycheck will help a lot though.
Access to fresh seafood (mostly all frozen).
More ethnic food (korean, thai, middle eastern, ethiopian, turkish). Most sushi places serve weird americanized rolls. So far we've found Dragon Fly to have the freshest and best sushi, and we also like Sunny's Sushi.

Some more high end restaurants and shopping.

Most of all, city needs more jobs/opportunities! My wife has 2 post graduate degrees and has seen very few job postings. I think Forbes? even had an article about the lack of jobs in El Paso. Its a huge issue.

Coming late to the party; By chance, does your wife, with 2 degrees, speak Spanish? I know it doesn't seem fair, but it is a fact. I love El Paso, but you won't go much of anywhere if you don't at least try to pick up some Spanish.

[painless]

Originally Posted by AirportFan

snip

If you can think of anywhere else where people drive worse, let me know.

Try Galveston, TX. The whole crazy driver vibe thing starts there.

[lmbebo]

Originally Posted by painless

Coming late to the party; By chance, does your wife, with 2 degrees, speak Spanish? I know it doesn't seem fair, but it is a fact. I love El Paso, but you won't go much of anywhere if you don't at least try to pick up some Spanish.

She does not and has had issues trying to learn it.

[Mass Transit user]

I've been to Galveston and I had no problem with the traffic there. And I thought it was a very nice looking town.

[HookTheBrotherUp]

I have to get something off my mind, and yes, it bashes El Pasoans, including my relatives!

So I took the wife and kids home to El Paso for the Fourth of July so the kids could spend time with their cousins and relatives. We had a blast, it was hot as well, but with the pool, and misting systems, it was great.

I also want to say I am no tree-hugger, global warming alarmist, etc. However, what I witnessed on the fourth was pretty bad, shameful actually. So the family and extended family got together to celebrate. The younger ones wanted to fire off some fireworks. Okay, no problem. We all gathered, went to the places off of Montana. Collectively, we spend over $1300 on all sorts of goodies.

There were designated places to blow the fireworks, someplace near a street called Pellicano I think.. I can't recall the street, but there were tons of people. My cousin decided to take us somewhere a little further away, off a dirt road somewhere. Fine, we get there, and find an open spot. First thing I noticed, and then recalled, is that a lot of people take their big trash there, and just drop it off. Fridges, dish washers, beds, clothes, tires, anything you can imagine.

I told my kids to not touch anything, or turn anything over because there are scorpions. As it turns out, someone did turn an old phone book over, and there were scorpions in it. Ha!

But then the fireworks start, everyone taking turns blowing things up. A lot of those family packs, etc. Everyone was coordinated, even creating a pile of expended cartons off to the side. A huge pile.

Once we blew through all of it, some four hours later, it was time to leave. I asked my cousin to give me a trash bag and I'd go start collecting things. Everyone stopped in their tracks in silence, looked at me and then my cousin, and then started to laugh. Even my cousin, who lives in Midland BTW, laughed.

They all wanted to just leave, just like that. I rode with them, so I did not have much of a choice. I tried to get people to clean up, but no one wanted to dirty their clean trucks, no one even thought of bringing garbage bags. We left a huge pile of shyt there, just like that; beer cans, beer cartons, discarded ice bags, all of it.

That was not the worse, every other group of people parked along the dirt road did the same thing! The same thing, just left all their mess where it lay. I was stunned.

I'm not saying people everywhere else are clean, they are not. But on my block in Houston, it is a tradition, after about 1:00 AM, before we all leave, everyone comes with brooms and bags. Come 07:00, you will not see so much as a wrapper, or trace that there was a party. That is an exception, I'll give you that.

Anyway, 'had to get that off my chest. It was pretty bad, embarrassing actually. On the drive back, we had to explain to our kids several times that what they saw was not good, or acceptable. If any of you get a chance to drive up there, you can tell me if it is still there, I'd imagine it is.