Dry Cities (Houston, San Antonio, Austin: sales, houses, buy)

[anabolina]

I'm moving down to Pasadena in a month or so and am trying to decide where to live. Are there any dry cities in the area? I wasn't thinking about this until the town I'm currently working in voted to go from dry to wet. Meh... I simply prefer dry cities, but will make do with a wet one if absoutely necessary.

[tstone]

Aside from parts of Brazoria county, there have never been dry areas around Houston, as far as I know anyway. And I think they recently voted against being dry. There might be a couple more, very small areas that are dry that I'm not familiar with, but nothing like you'd find around DFW. Things are a lot more lax here.

Sounds like you'll love Spec's... grocery store sized liquor stores spread all over town - city & suburbs. Houston, like Austin and San Antonio, is definitely a city where you can get your drink on. (And your smoke on, but that's another topic for another day. )

[jfre81]

Parts of the Heights are dry (dating from when it was a separate city almost 100 years ago) and I know of one small town on 146 that either is or was dry. Shoreacres maybe? Has no impact really.

[ZeroTX]

There's no impact of "dry" cities around here. The next city is 1/4th of a mile away, and they sell liquor there, hehe.

[anabolina]

Bummer. I just hate seeing those ghetto liquor stores everywhere and going into grocery stores with huge alcohol displays really sucks.

[tstone]

Originally Posted by anabolina

Bummer. I just hate seeing those ghetto liquor stores everywhere and going into grocery stores with huge alcohol displays really sucks.

Welcome to America!

And the liquor stores aren't really ghetto, unless you're in the ghetto, and the big Spec's stores are as nice & clean as a good grocery store. They cell chocolate & cheese and have a walk-in humidor.

Ever been to Chicago? 2 story grocery stores, with the top floor a big liquor store. They don't sell anything more than 15% wine here in grocery stores.

Dry areas only mask a larger community problem. People are going to drink whether or not it's on display.

If this is a big problem, I'll let you know that there are plenty of strip clubs, bath houses, Asian spas, porn/toy stores, and smoke shops scattered off all the freeways in the entire city, with huge display signs (and a few billboards) to boot. Before coming here, you should probably ease up and not worry so much about what other people do.

[jimboburnsy]

I suppose I could understand how someone would not want to be around liquor stores and be subjected to "alcohol displays" but that's a tall order around Houston.

After spending a considerable amount of time in Smith County and Parker County (both dry) I can understand how you would grow accustomed to it. One thing that you don't see much of in dry counties is panhandlers, assumedly because you need to be within walking distance of a liquor store.

[sxrckr]

No. This isn't DFW (thankfully).

[dcoolbro]

It's dry in Pearland where I live, which is part of Brazoria county. You can still buy wine, beer, and light alcohol in the grocery stores, but not on sundays before noon. If i need alcohol i usually get it after work in clear lake. It's certainly not a ghetto liquor store since its down the street from the Space Center.

[jfre81]

I thought I heard they relaxed the goofy liquor laws in Brazoria County.

It's still not as bad as where I lived for awhile in North Carolina. There were liquor stores, but only state-run ABC shops that only sold liquor and wine. For beer, you could only get it at certain convenience stores that had a restaurant in the same building (like a Subway or Burger King) and the selection there generally left a lot to be desired. They voted to allow selling beer at grocery stores a few months before I moved back home.

All alcohol sales are prohibited on Sunday before noon in Texas.