moving to Palestine Tx have a few question (Houston, Austin: low income, fit in)

[beesunderglass]

will be re-locating to Palestine husband works for (walmart dc) originally from alabama but was transferred to Indiana 2 years ago and now looks like finally we can get out of cold country and get back to where life is normal friendly people and warmer weather, never have been to Texas could someone please tell me the areas to stay away from or where we should look, will need to rent at first would like to live in county not much of a city dweller, but would like to have high speed internet, kids are grown so school is not a concern, Palestine scares me a little cuz of the crime rate, (only know what I've read on different forum) don't mind having to drive a bit to shop, just looking for peace and quite without a neighbor looking over the fence. I've read weather is alot like alabama? mild winter,tolerable summers, lots of rain and no snow? any one have links that could help, thanks for any advice

[Sunderpig2]

It's a decent area, but kind of low-income, low-outlook. There's not really much going on there, and there seems to be a lot of poor people around, just..... existing. That's probably where the high crime rate comes from.

It's decent also landscape-wise. Probably not "lots of rain" though, if that's really important, like you indicate. It's not Portland, or even Houston for that matter. And last year - possibly a new trend - there was a horrible drought in Texas. Palestine is somewhat in the middle of all that affected area. Lots of dried-up lakes and ponds, etc. The area is still behind where it should be.

And if you move to Texas, and want to live even in the countryside, you never know if some nasty industry will come in out of nowhere, and set up shop (leading to issues with pollution, noise, etc.) It can happen anywhere unfortunately. Maybe if you got lots of land, whereby you could insulate yourselves from that risk, just in case.

Good luck.

[Aggie]

Back when, Palestine was the Big City in East Texas ... when the rail road was King. Palestine was a major rail yard complete with 'round-house.' But it has seen a decrease in population since its heyday. It's only 50 miles to Tyler, an easy hour, which is now the Queen in East Texas. Excellent medical facilities, restaurants and varied shopping.

OPINION: East Texas is 'Old South' in many if not most ways ... physically, culturally, socially. An Alabama boy is going to fit in just fine. ( My kin are from just south of Palestine and I've lived in the area also, and I lived in South Carolina for 27 years <g>) The area gets about 40 inches of rain, on average, and, like the Southeast has a humid climate. Click here for a climate summary.

Just a guess but your best buy for a little ground outside of town may lie south towards Elkart?

Good luck to you and yours!

[ChristieP]

Originally Posted by Sunderpig

It's a decent area, but kind of low-income, low-outlook. There's not really much going on there, and there seems to be a lot of poor people around, just..... existing.

A lot of Palestine's issues are caused by its major employer/industry: Texas Department of Corrections. There are several HUGE maximum-security prisons in the area and a lot of the locals work there as guards, etc. You don't have to worry about convicts escaping (VERY rare, and when it happens, they are usually caught quickly), but just the general demographic of people who work in the corrections industry doesn't tend to be...upscale. The other big industry there is the railroad, which has similar issues.

Palestine is not a BAD place. There are some gorgeous historic homes, and the Dogwood Festival every spring is a lot of fun. It is a pretty place with rolling hills and big trees. The summers are hot and miserably humid, but fall and spring are gorgeous.

If you're looking for better schools, definitely look at Cayuga, Elkhart, etc.

[EasilyAmused]

I have a hunting land 20+ miles to the East in Rusk. Lot's off "country" between it and Palestine. We enjoy the slow pace of the area, the dense forest, solitude and lack of crime. Lot's of rolling hills just west of central Rusk, we even have a few vistas that look like foothills.

No doubt the area has a "poor" feeling to it if you are coming from more urban areas. But the people are good people.

Try Baby J's BBQ when you are in Palestine. The place is not much to look at, but the BBQ is amazing.

[beesunderglass]

thank-you, and we will try the bbq, it has been soooo long since we have had good bbq, looks like if we stay around Rusk or elkhart we might be ok can't wait to move, here in indiana, the snow is piling up, and the "wind chill" new word we've learned during our stay is -2

[heather.lynn1022]

My family might be moving to Palestine soon...any advice on apartments that aren't strictly low-income?

[danielsholly]

Don't move here I have lived here my whole life it's where my family is from I wouldn't recommend this place to anyone the homes are decent priced and very affordable thats bc most people make around 20000 year...people are friendly, great historic landmarks, but that's it no job opportunity a lot of low income families a million churches a lot of hypocrites, crooked cops and judges ect, miserable summers, drugs let me say drugs again... Meth it's a huge problem here everywhere you go you will see a dope head .Walmart is the only store to go to unless you wanna drive an hour to Tyler nothing to do for the children or adults you have your occasional festivals which are okay... This town will drain the life out of you crime is awful drugs again are ridiculous I'm moving out of state first chance I get this town is uneducated most grow ups are drop outs around here and the schools aren't why they used to be..

[doctorjef]

Originally Posted by Sunderpig

It's a decent area, but kind of low-income, low-outlook. There's not really much going on there, and there seems to be a lot of poor people around, just..... existing. That's probably where the high crime rate comes from.

It's decent also landscape-wise. Probably not "lots of rain" though, if that's really important, like you indicate. It's not Portland, or even Houston for that matter. And last year - possibly a new trend - there was a horrible drought in Texas. Palestine is somewhat in the middle of all that affected area. Lots of dried-up lakes and ponds, etc. The area is still behind where it should be.

And if you move to Texas, and want to live even in the countryside, you never know if some nasty industry will come in out of nowhere, and set up shop (leading to issues with pollution, noise, etc.) It can happen anywhere unfortunately. Maybe if you got lots of land, whereby you could insulate yourselves from that risk, just in case.

Good luck.

Apropos of that description, here's my Palestine story from the late 1990s. I was spending the night in Palestine before going out to one of the big prisons in the middle of nowhere nearby in order to do a psychological evaluation of a convict pursuant to his attorney's motion for a writ of habeas corpus (long-shot legal maneuver). I was killing time on a summer's evening, driving around residential areas of the town. I was driving through what appeared to be an old middle/lower middle class neighborhood with lots of trees and quite pleasant. I was driving a 1986 BMW 535is. A group of children in a front yard saw my car as I drove down the street, got all excited, were calling to their mates, pointing, jumping up and down, etc. It appeared they'd never seen such an exotic motorcar. By contrast, in Austin where I was living at the time, there was a bimmer for every pocketbook, including los mojados, who I sometimes saw driving around in what amounted to falling-apart BMW jallopies (and there were plenty of lower end used car lots that sold some horrid old specimens).

[Mark Senior]

It's a four lane highway to Tyler. Maybe you could live about 25 miles Northeast toward Tyler just on the other side of Frankston. You would be 10-15 minutes to all the South Tyler shopping and restaurants etc. Just a thought.