We need to get the HECK OUT OF HOUSTON!!!!!!!

[sevfiv]

My goodness, I must be really lucky. Never been in a gun-pulling situation in my almost thirty years here. Maybe that would change if I bought one, though...

[rkmoses]

Originally Posted by kittytoes2006

OK, sorry I've not posted in some time, but we have just been so busy with work, trying to survive here and just life in general. Some of you might remember me. We moved here to Houston because of a job promotion for myself. Took the plunge and moved from a lovely country home (sold it....dumb move) to Houston and we have despised it since we got here. No offense to you folks who are happy here. It's not the country and I really didn't realize I would miss the country atmosphere so much. Of course all the things that have happened since we've been here have a lot to do with the feelings we have for this place....the 4th largest city in the U.S. We had not been here 2 months until an older teenager rode up to our home on his bicycle and stole our yard man's leaf blower, in broad daylight. I just happened to be looking out the front window when the guy reached over into the bed of the truck and lifted it out. He rides off down the street, me running behind him in my bathrobe and hair in a towel, yelling obscenities a "lady" should NEVER be heard saying. Called the police...there is nothing they can do. Two months later....Wal-Mart (Hwy.6 & Westpark) grocery shopping, another kid walks by my shopping cart and tries to take my purse. I had it locked in with the seatbelt so the dumb thing just kept tugging on the purse hoping it would eventually end up in his hands, he tries to take off and I trip him up and he falls head first into the freezer door handle and gets a bloody nose. I personally delivered him to the security at the front of the store. Called the police...there is nothing they can do because he's a juvenile. Well, they actually DID do something....the police called his parents and his dad came out and told the police to "lock his a_ _ up, there ain't nuttin I can do wid him no mo". They took him away. December 2, 2008, (Wal-Mart again) I was pulling out of the Wal-Mart parking lot onto Westpark, I turned into the lane closest to me. The very second I pulled into my lane a guy changes lanes and ended up right behind me. He's in a real big hurry (like everyone else seems to be), he's mad because I'm not going fast enough for his taste, he tries to ram my car. When that didn't work he moves to the front and tries to get me to ram HIS car. THAT didn't work. I just mind my own business going home with my groceries. I stop at a light, he pulls up beside me, gets out and slams the butt of a handgun into my passenger window. I thought he had shot me. Called the police....there's nothing they can do. Now get this, the police officer said, "How do we know it was even a real gun"? Also, "Now if he had SHOT the gun or done any real damage to your vehicle we might be able to do something". OK, now if this same thing happened to a police officer would they not consider that this was a real gun? HOW REAL DOES IT HAVE TO GET? It was a 9 mm handgun....I SAW IT!!!! So, with all that said, I hardly even leave my home anymore. I'm scared to even walk out to my own mailbox. There was a driveby shooting 2 weeks ago just 2 streets over from us. We even heard the gun. A 14-year-old boy was shot and killed and a 16-year-old was left for dead....never heard if he made it or not. It was over a pair of SNEAKERS!!!!

And if all of the above is not enough I hated the job I was transferred here to take. We live 12 miles from the office and it took me 45 minutes to get there. Long story short, I went back to my previous job duties (my choice) and now our landlord is selling the home we are leasing. He asked if we would consider buying it and we told him NO WAY....not in this neighborhood. Does anyone know of a better place for us to move to? Robert said we need to look up toward north or northeast....preferably a country setting. I am workinf from home again now and then after work I make dolls. PLEASE SOMEONE....we need to try to find something soon as he's got a for sale sign in the yard. We want something in the country preferably, even a doublewide mobile home as long as it is clean and nicel On a lake??? Anything as long as it's not just outrageously high in rent. We are paying $1000 here now and will NOT be able to do that again. It's ridiculous. I think this man is going to have a hard time selling this home with the area it is in. By the way, the police told me each time....it's not just THIS area, it's EVERYWHERE in the Houston area. HELP!!!! SOS!!!!!

You should have stayed in "the country".

[tech2enable]

Originally Posted by Malvie

I agree, BBall Coach. I, too, want a beautiful mansion in Memorial, backing up to the Bayou (but I don't want any flooding), in a fabulous school district (resale value) within walking distance to clubs, bars, restaurants (but not where people park when they go to clubs, bars, and restuarants, and of course, no traffic whatsoever; nor do I want any OTHER pedestrians walking around anywhere near my property), and within walking distance of my office (but not where any high rises can compromise my personal privacy) and with huge trees but safe from hurricanes, all for the maximum I can afford which is $500 a month. Oh, and a personal HPD patrol car driving up and down the street in front of my house and a free burglar alarm.

My other pet peeve is the folks who move here from elsewhere and cry because there are no basements (thread a few days ago), or the city's not totally pedestrian (many threads), or because it's not "urban" enough.

I lived in NYC for 3 years and LA for one (with 2 years each in Minneapolis and Atlanta).

NYC is certainly pedestrian and urban! Yup, very much so. So you can only get what you absolutely essentially must have at the grocer's (and you have to go to the green grocer, the meat market, and the dry goods place because there's no supermarket), because you have to drag it back to your apartment on foot and you can only get what you can carry. You get to stand there to cross the street while the bus sloshes black water from the street onto your dress clothes and your Burberry overcoat while you slog through the black snow to your tiny 6th floor walkup with the view of the airshaft which is $2,500 a month, and you get to smell the guy next to you on the subway as he rambles incoherently. But hey---it's urban and pedestrian! Just don't worry what that liquid you're stepping in is---you don't need to know.

LA is Houston with a nicer, closer beach, same crime level, more traffic on worse freeways and 10 times as expensive.

Minneapolis has basements, which you need to store all your snow gear, which you need to shovel the snow so you can get into and out of your driveway.

Atlanta is Houston, but smaller and more crime-ridden, with no beach at all but a better train system (as long as you work downtown and live in the burbs). If you live and work in Buckhead (as I did), the train does you no good (except for going to Braves games) and there's no such thing as pedestrian. Well, Lenox Square Mall...

Yes, those other places also have their charms (NYC is...NYC; it's incomparable; LA is way cool; Minneapolis---well, um, ok. I moved to Mnpls for work, quickly discovered that I hated the cold weather, and found another job---in the south. Atlanta is great, but then it's very like Houston, isn't it...), but I'm always shocked when people move here expecting it to be EXACTLY like where they just left.

Anyway, rant over.

Yet another stereotype of nyc, are you confusing nyc with manhattan, most new yorkers don't live in manhattan, not all live in high rises, and some hardly use the subway.

[SpendWiselyTexas]

I've lived in some places some people would call undesirable (I enjoyed them though) such as the Bronx, Oakland, the Mission in SF. I've never experienced the amount of stress of the original poster. I currently live in Magnolia which I love. I don't have too many fears about any sort of crime here and the police are very diligent. I guess it's too far out for many people but I've done my share of commuting (SF to Stanford) and it doesn't seem much different.