Texans VS Californians (Dallas, San Antonio, Austin: property taxes, homes, condos)

[nativeDallasite]

Originally Posted by HappyTexan

ND..you need to just let it slide by and don't let it eat you up.

I don't lose much sleep over it HappyTexan, but I will voice an opinion if one is solicited.

I hear it too down here in Austin area. It's actually worse in the smaller surrounding cities. Pflugerville has a single library, which over the past 10 or so years, has grown from being in a residential home to having it's own building with about 10 times the number of books. A few weeks ago I was in HEB food shopping and the folks behind me were complaining about how we only have "a single dinky library and why back home you'd never see this". The "back home" irked me..like they don't consider themselves residents here (I've seen them at school picking up their kids so I know they live here).

I turned around and said.."isn't our library great ? It's grown so much in the past few years and now you can find whatever you need there". That shut them up good..and the guy in front of me chuckled.

I used to live in Austin...I know exactly the kind of people you mean. Y'all get it worse down there because the Californians seem more attracted to Austin than to DFW. I feel for you dude, I really do. Used to be I'd go to Randall's and the parking lot was full of California license plates, and they'd be in the store complaining that the avocados "sucked" and that the fish wasn't fresh enough. Then they'd point and laugh at the wine selection, and say stuff like "What?!?!??! They don't even have <insert name of obscure Napa Valley vintage here>, what a bunch of hicks!"

I feel ya.

[HappyTexan]

I don't think it's mentioning where you came from. I think it's the comparison and the complaining that get people upset.

[nativeDallasite]

Originally Posted by HappyTexan

I don't think it's mentioning where you came from. I think it's the comparison and the complaining that get people upset.

Yup, exactly. I don't care if someone moves here from Massachusetts, Michigan, Florida, Oregon, California, etc. It's a free country. However...if all they're going to do is gripe, gripe, gripe...they shouldn't expect us to just sit there and listen to it with a smiling face.

[blueskies49]

Originally Posted by nativeDallasite

I'm not unwelcoming to out-of-state transplants; both of my parents are out-of-staters who were brought here by their carpetbagger parents in the 1950s from Illinois and Connecticut. So...clearly I don't hate out-of-staters in general. I do mercilessly tease my father for being from Illinois; he has lived in Texas since 1951 and it annoys him to be reminded that he wasn't born here and isn't a native. He loves Texas, though, and so did his parents. They embraced it with open arms and became as Texan as you can be without having been born here. So did my mothers' parents...one, a Connecticut Yankee to the core, the other the daughter of Polish immigrants. They not only loved Texas, they were well familiar with its history and could put a lot of natives to shame with their vast knowledge not only of Texas history and geography but of native plants, flowers, birds, and animals.

I dislike the out-of-staters who come here and expect us to change to accomodate them. I dislike the ones who get here and do nothing but complain, complain, complain about how Texas isn't like California and how everything in California is so freaking great. Either shut it and try to make do, or leave. I get tired of hearing that ***** everywhere I go, and I mean *everywhere I go*. "Oh my gawd, there's like...nothing but barbecue and steak here. What do you do if you're a vegetarian? What kind of effed up HICK place is this?" I'm not even exaggerating. I heard that little soliloquy yesterday, from a young woman with a very heavy California accent.

Plenty of people come to Texas and contribute positively to the culture and economy, both from other parts of the USA and other parts of the world. Those people are fine by me. It's the ones who come here and expect us to change our behavior to suit them and who do nothing but ****** that irritate the living hell out of me.

Oh, gosh, I think alot of us feel that way, ND! Texas is obviously not California, why do they feel the need to compare the two states and then complain to no end about Texas? I would never do that if I were in another state, at least within earshot of the natives, it is so freakin rude! I just don't understand that meanness.

Originally Posted by KimK

Thus is the reason that when I travel the state of Texas, I make little mention of my roots! I am beginning to think that we Californians should have walled up our state in about 1960 and prevented the hordes from coming to my homeland, ripping up every citrus tree they could find, paving over that which didn't move and building up on the ocean front so that it was no longer possible to see the surf. Oh, and by the way, lets have wall to wall cars every summer in Yosemite. I don't think it is because we love tofu. I think it is a way of saying, Hey, lets try something different, albeit with less tact.
Oh, and by the way, you can ask my mother about the dust bowl emigrants who traveled to California en masse to try to survive. They moved to the suburbs called Bakersfield.

Oh, yes, the Okies and Arkies and Texans. That's why there was something of a Southern flavor there for awhile. But your statement about walling up your state in 1960 intrigues me. Why 1960? Where did the others come from and was it at that point that CA had alot of transplants?

[worldlyman]

I have been a Hoosier, Floridian, Texan and Californian. My time in Indiana was the for the first nine years of my life. Later, it was pretty much ping-pong between the latter three places. Currently I'm a Texan who just came back to Houston a few days ago after a year and a half back in Florida.

I loved California after four fun years there but never really became "Californian." My definition of that is more attitude. I do have my personal political peeves with Texas but still love the state for what it is. For me, about 3/5 or slightly more of Californians have condescending attitudes about Texas, attitudes which have been expressed in this thread.

There are two folks whom I went to high school with in Houston who later moved out to SoCal. Both became "Californian." One went to L.A., the other in San Diego. The one from San Diego came back to Houston to live and complained about the "lack of raspberry iced tea in restaurants and In N Out Burgers." The one in L.A. had to come back after her aunt and uncle sold their house in Thousand Oaks. She always goes on about L.A.'s perceived superiority over Houston...though in truth, Houston is about as good (and bad) as L.A...just on a leaner scale.

Houston has its own variants of Rodeo Drive (relevant to those who have that kind of material desire). Rodeo Drive is for the tourists from Iowa and Paris.

Houston has its own version of Melrose, Robertson and West Santa Monica Blvd. thrown into different areas like the Heights and Montrose.

Houston has its own high Asian super corridors like L.A.'s San Gabriel Valley...

I could go on but I like the fact that H-town,while sprawled out like L.A., is more CENTRIFUGAL rather than centripetal. Houston's arrangement seems to veer into the center of coolness (Inner Loop). I love L.A. and everything but to dwell into negative comparisons with Houston is pointless. Houston is still one of the top cities of America and certainly from a city lover's view offers a heck of a lot more than the Tampa's, Indianapolises, Nashvilles, Jacksonvilles, Sacramentos and San Diegos of the USA.

These buddies of mine though lived stress free with family out in SoCal, in those nice suburban houses; one did nothing but surf and generally talk about the glorious weather, the other is a Hollywood day dreamer looking for that big break.

On the other hand, my wife and I, with decent jobs as a nurse and lab records tech, struggled MIGHTILY in SoCal. We lived the "real life" and found that while there were some loveable things about San Diego, we knew the overall quality of life was MUCH BETTER in Houston. And Houston as an eccentric big city blows San Diego out of the water. So I get a chuckle in Houston's higher quality and lower prices compared to what really is a have and have-not tourist trap called San Diego.

[Lakewooder]

San Diego is really kind of boring after a couple of days. Of course they would never believe that!

[ladysrodgers]

Originally Posted by Lakewooder

My sister lives in CA and she lives on a lake with an active social set, so everytime I'm out there I get these fishing expedition questions about Texas. I think every one of them has been on the internet searching for houses all across Texas - they make sure it's a mini-mansion first (as ND said) then they look at the price. They tend to go for the most expensive ones because they think they are going to get so much more for the same price instead of looking at 'lesser' homes - then they complain to me about high Texas property taxes. I really don't get that mindset. Also a lot of them think we still lynch people.

They are mostly very nice people their ways just seem a little strange to me. I have some other friends in Palm Springs and I always kid them about their '20 questions' for each waiter before they can order food. Another time they went into a 15 minute discourse on how 'fung shui' changed their lives. I finally had to just interject, "I think y'all are full of s**t!).

And for every story you mention about Californians, we could mention one about how weird we think Texans are.

Get over yourselves.....good Lord.

[blueskies49]

LOL!! You're probably right, ladysrodgers.

[nativeDallasite]

Originally Posted by ladysrodgers

And for every story you mention about Californians, we could mention one about how weird we think Texans are.

Get over yourselves.....good Lord.

We don't really care how weird you think we are as long as you don't move here and gripe incessantly about how Texas isn't California.

[txstate]

Mayor Wynn of Austin is making sure Austicali, Texas becomes a reality. Californians are only ones who can afford those condos overlooking the Colorado.