does anyone have any info about rockdale? (Austin, College Station: sex offender, low crime)

[buyacar]

i just bought a house in rockdale ( i move in next eweek) i found this little city on the internet on realtor .com while i still lived in cal while i was in the process of selling my cal home....

anyway i fell in love with the city, and when i sold my house i packed up a u-haul with my vette behind on a car trailer and headed to texas...my daughter lives in hutto texas and i have been here 2 weeks looking for a house in that area...i bought one last week and i move in next week (quick cash deal, short escrow)..............this really was kind of a impulse type thing and i don't know anything at all about rockdale except i like the trees and the country type area , i love my house (soooooooooooooooo much less expensive than so cal) ( i went from a big $1500 monthly mortagage to no mortagage at all with $ left over..)

but i have no idea what it's like in rockdale other than they have a super wal-mart with gas @ $2.04 a gal...and a few fast food places...

i am going to be in their custom car parade on local fare day on oct 18...sounds like a good way to meet some folks

anyway if anyone knows about rockdale and the folks there let me know some info please...

[Just Lookin]

Yes, I would like to know about Rockdale also. Come on Austin people lets hear it.

[AustinTraveler]

Maybe you'll get more responses if you post on the general Texas board. I had never heard of Rockdale until your post so I Googled it and it's and hour and a half from Austin.

Good luck.

[Rnelson]

Lived in Austin for 31 years and never really stopped in Rockdale. I am sure its like any other small Texas town. You will love it (:

[Spookmeister]

Only one concern there, ALCOA. Don't know too much about it but the residents hate them.

[Blaine]

To Buyacar (or anyone else who can help)...

Can anyone share their opinions of Rockdale? I found the area online as well, and will be relocating from MD sight unseen....any details or information that could be given? Is it a pretty quiet/low crime town?
I live in Baltimore, and am really hoping to find a small town where doors can still be unlocked and I can feel safe with kids playing in the yard, something that Baltimore obviously does not provide.....
Unfortunately the internet doesnt provide much information/photos/details on the town. Can anyone share their 2 cents with me? It would be much appreciated.

[Tx_Sweetheart]

So you want to know about Rockdale Texas ....

People here are generally friendly. It is a very old fashioned closed minded town.

Kirby (current mayor) is trying to change that a bit, but is met with much resistance.

The power's that be, HATE NEW business coming into town. If it doesn't benifit their pocket books.

Hence why we have so MANY mexican food resturants, a wal mart and not much else.

They recently ran out Churches Chicken and a huge potential call center with a famous computer maker people in Austin.


You are who you know, where you go to Church, and who your children are friends with, what kind of car you drive and who you socialize with. And in some circles lines can even be drawn depending on which doctor you use. Thompson or Weed/the rockdale medical clinic also known as Kings Daughter's clinic.(behind clinic pharmacy)

You only go to Richards Memorial Hospital for two reasons.

To die, or to get a quick fix for some minor ailment until you can get to your out of town doctor. BTW which should NOT be Kings daughter's hospital in Temple.

Go to Austin where it is safe.

Old family's get preferential treatment in every aspect. From Elections to the annual Miss Rockdale Beauty Pagent, cheerleading squads, drill team, you name it.

Want your kids to be tops in this town? Then you as parents better start making friends with the uppity up's. It is your social status that will determine your children's rank in the schools.

If you have older teen's, be careful, the kids are CRUEL to newcomer's or ANY ONE they don't like for whatever reason.

There have been several student's driven, to commit SUCIDE, in recent years due to the bulling, teasing, harassing. With plenty of people being aware of it happening but ignoring it as they have done for MANY MANY years.

And NOTHING has been done or changed to prevent it from happening again. and yes the students were not in the "popular" crowd.

It is a god given miracle we haven't had some episode of school shootings.


Snob hill is the area located behind the rockdale tennis courts. sager, yokley and o'kelly streets.

However that is changing a bit due to certain family's recently buidling excessively large homes behind the Vet Clinic on Hwy 79, since the rise of oil prices went through the celing, these family's prospered well.

This town has a HUGE per capita SEX offender population. Look it up for yourself on the State of Texas Web site.

Across from the Elementary school on Bowser, is a white run down house, it is where the Mayfields live. KEEP YOUR CHILDREN far far far away. These are the people that sued rockdale school system when they TRIED to get them to clean up the property because of the unsanitary condition's and critter's that breed in that place and then run towards the elementary school.

Keep some sort of lice killer on hand if you have elementary age children.

Rockdale still has a section of town called "Across the tracks" which is the area located behind Gill's shop and go. Even the cops won't go across those tracks after dark most of the time. Good reason, crack is sold by the truck load back there at Bell's Tavern. The parking lot of Bell's after dark becomes a street run Pharmacy of sorts. Anything you want.

Weekend drinking and driving the country roads is NORMAL. your teen will do this wheter you know about it or not. Its the "in" thing to do.

This is the only place I know of where you can Get drunk off your A*ss and then drive home on the back roads, have a wreck, kill a passenger.
And then be able to BOND out of jail, go to court and get community service for your "accident".

Happens all the time, if you are a rockdale native, or know the right people.


Everything pretty much closes except for the bars by ten pm. You will find your normal crowd of wanna be's there.

K.C Hall has dances on Saturday night, but the locals' call it kitty city for a reason, its nothing but drunk teenagers, trying to hook up. And for pedifiles to find their next young teen bride.

what else can I say? We call it po dunk for a reason.

And you folks moving here for the great house prices, are just silly. Wait till your property taxes go up every year, and at enormous increase's.

Yes Alcoa is the woppti do, around here. No not all of us hate them

They do provide jobs and clog up our lungs so that we can either die young or collect disability and if all else fails we can go live in the trailer park at the edge of town and live on welfare.


Welcome to Rockdale.

Oh yes, and there are several Old school Mexican Family's here, that almost get the same preferential treatment as their white counter parts and you will see an occasional truck load of family memeber of there's that are illegal, don't call INS, you will really hack them off. We love all our illegals here. They are family.

If they go, goodness, where else would we have to eat?

[Tx_Sweetheart]

Crime rate is low, their is a feeling of general safety. If there was any place to really go after dark, I would feel safe going. Except for a certain area in town I mentioned before.

yes your kids can ride bikes and play outside without worring.

Get to know your neighbor's and check the state of texas website to make sure your not living next to a sex offender. Their are many here.

But we all kind of know every one's kids. They all play togeather after school and even ride several blocks down to the sno cone place in the summer. We all look out for each other. In that sense its great.



THANK GOD we are not plauged by those housing subdivision's as other towns are.

Its all still Old neighbor hoods. And older homes



Good places to eat..

Banda's Is wonderful Mexican Food

On Friday and Saturday, Texas Fajita is amazing.
Try the El gotcha and a chicken Fajita

Best hamburger, and onion rings by far is up the road going towards Milano at the Truck Stop. They also have great fried mushrooms, and steak and eggs.

Best Bar B Q -- Poor Boy's. Try their German Potatoe Salad

Rockdale's food is about the only real thing to do around here.


Rockdale is an hour away in any direction from any real sort of Town.
Austin, Temple and Bryan College Station

Temple hospital's stink, both of them. Cameron has a better version of Rockdale's Hospital but it is staffed by people practicing to be doctor's from Temple and one really old old old old doctor that has a private practice in Cameron.

Again best choice is College Station Medical Center in Bryan or any in Austin.

Rocdale is well Rockdale. The town motto should be you are known by the company you keep. Cliche's and circles run rampant in this town. Choose wisely because not only you but your children will be labeled by your choice of friends. and it is not easy to jump circles, your past reputation will follow you.

Everyone know's everyone's business. Even if its not true, and no it won't be forgotten.


Its a great place to own a house to sleep in, if you work in Austin.

[RSTX]

Wow, Tx_Sweetheart has a lot to say. I don't live in Rockdale, and never have. I did however grow up in a very small TX town. I have concluded that most of us don't like wherever it is that we grow up. Nothing to do, someone else gets all the prefferential treatment, bad cops, bad city, etc. I'm sure she means well and believes that what she says is true. I would just say to remember that no two people see things the same way.

Oh, and the statement "Go to Austin where it is safe." is not exactly on the mark. Perhaps TX_Sweetheart would like to live in Austin, and that is great. But I would not say Austin is safer than Rockdale. Different, yes. Safer is a more difficult definition to nail down.

Nor would I agree that both of Temple's hospitals "stink".

Just too much generalization, TX_Sweetheart. I know that there are problems in Rockdale. There are problems everywhere. I'm not trying to pick on you, but to smooth over some of the more pointed assertations you present. You do give some very good specific information. I just see too many sour grapes to believe everything you say. It is hard to be objective when you grow up in a town. A family from Baltimore may find it to be a dream land. Different strokes you know.

[Blaine]

All of the information is GREATLY appreciated...even the bad with the good!
I myself grew up in "small town, america"...unfortunatelythe cost of living up here in the northeast would require me to work 5 full time jobs to move back to where I grew up! Ugh!
Im 26 and married, no kiddies yet...but am looking to in the very near future. Just waiting because I know Baltimore city is no place to raise a child...if you want them to have a childhood, anyway. I want my kids to grow up in a place where they dont have to know how evil the world is by the time theyre 4. Best place for that is sometimes podunk. Its funny how it seems when you grow up in a small town, you only dream of getting out....and once you do and see whats out there, you want nothing more then to go back. Life's funny that way.
Im a low key person, so everything shutting down by 10 am is just fine by me. Id love a little peace and quiet at night. A welcomed change from wailing sirens

Is Gills the place over near Cameron Ave? I mapquested it and see where you're talking about. I see the tracks, and I thank you a million times over for your attention to detail in decriptions, Id have never known that was a bad area....Would the bad side of the tracks be north of them near Cameron Ave/Milam Ave side, or the East 5th, 6th, 7th streets? Just trying to get my bearings of where to avoid.

Once again, I just want to say how much I appreciate all the input from everyone!