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We live 30 miles south of San Antonio in Pleasanton and I have lived her all my 65 years. We are 25 minutes from S.A. southside shopping, 45 minutes from S.A. airport, on the northern edge of the Eagle/Ford Shale oil boom. Many new employment opportunities in retail, construction and service related industries. Floresville, our neighbor 25 miles to the east, is also a nice place to live.
Pleasanton is a good place I think and my family is from there.....like rwr said the Eagle Ford is booming but it wont last forever....save for a rainy day....that's my advice but it may be hard to find a place to live.
Westerntraveler is correct in saying the Eagle/Ford Shale won't last forever, but my friends," in the know", say that the underlying Pearsall Shale has the potential to make the Eagle/Ford look like a drop in the bucket. Unless the EPA ( a.k.a. global warming scam gestapo) find a way to shut it down, this area should prosper for many years to come. No guarantees, but a pretty good bet.
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Originally Posted by Westerntraveler
Pleasanton is a good place I think and my family is from there.....like rwr said the Eagle Ford is booming but it wont last forever....save for a rainy day....that's my advice but it may be hard to find a place to live.
(I also posted this on South Carolina's and Tennessee's thread)
Okay, first let me say I have read alot of threads from people asking the same question. However, I am now more confused!
I have never lived out of state as an adult. So I am nervous and excited. Please give me suggestions on areas to settle down in. Please be direct and understand I am not familiar with this part of the country.
Info: married with 4 biracial children.
I like most all music
I am very much a homebody, but I do like to get out with the family
We like going to the movies and restaurants
Good schools are super important to us
low crime rate, that's why we're moving
low cost of living, we'll be living off DH retirement income
I like the country feel but close to the city
I don't want to drive more than 20 mins to shopping (grocery, target, wal mart)
I don't want to live in an area that is overrun with ghettoness or intolerance.
I like the water, but just don't want to live too close to it.
A place where I can feel safe to let my children play out front.
Easy access to medical facilities
A lot to ask but I want to be as specific as possible.
Weather is important, but not the end all and be all. No frequent tornadoes please.
Also, my son wants to join the reserves, Air Force reserves so being within an hours drive of a base would be good.
Thanks
I lived in Texas for five years and traveled all over... you will have a rough time finding everything you seek. Here's why:
"low crime rate, that's why we're moving" - Texas has crime problems. I can't explain why without being pilloried by the free-speech-hating liberals on this forum, but suffice it to say... Texas has crime problems whenever you're in a town of any appreciable size.
"Good schools are super important to us" - Texas has problems with its public schools. I taught in a public school for one year and that was enough for me. The state has unrealistic expectations of what can be accomplished with the kids that the public schools get, with what little resources are provided to teachers. That being said, you could probably find a "diamond in the rough"... good luck.
"I don't want to live in an area that is overrun with ghettoness or intolerance." - Texas is full of both. I don't mind intolerance as I am a decidedly intolerant person myself... but I never liked what you termed "ghettoness". I can assure you that you will find "ghettoness" EVERYWHERE in Texas except in small towns that appear frozen in time for decades... simply because the people who cause and create "ghettoness" live in Texas in higher proportion than they do in any other state in the union, and they seem to like flocking together in groups of appreciable size. You are going to be extremely hard-pressed to find an area that is NOT "ghetto" and NOT "intolerant". Non-ghetto areas are populated by older conservative folks who tolerate NOTHING. Ghetto areas are tolerant but they're also ghetto.
"No frequent tornadoes please." - You can avoid tornadoes in Texas but the areas that are the best "on paper" according to your other desires for a place to live, are found in the part of the state that is more susceptible to tornadoes. Texas has a wide variety of climates. The northern part (the "panhandle") is the land of extremes. They get tornadoes, drought, snow, 110 degrees in the summer, 0 degrees in the winter, etc. The western part ranges from desert to mountainous... it gets the least rain and therefore (in my opinion) is the least scenic. As you go from west to east, it becomes more and more rainy. Near the Gulf Coast at the Louisiana border, they get TONS of rain and you never hear about that area being in a drought... but of course they also get hurricanes and humidity.
Beyond that, the rest of the things you seek should be easy to find and/or not a problem for you.
I'll say this about Texas. The towns are very compact. If you want to live out in the middle of nowhere, you can find that within your desired 20-minute drive to shopping centers, as long as you're not in one of the huge metropolises (Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio, and Austin). Each town is a cluster of houses and businesses, and then when you get outside of the city limits, it's an immediate shift to a sparsely developed rural area.
You seem to have a fairly good idea of what you seek. I'm telling you that you will not be able to find all of it in Texas, so therefore you will have to prioritize. Start with "proximity to an Air Force base" and go from there. Any military base will give you a town that has all of the services you seek, but also a crime problem... however, they too are fairly compact towns so you could find something "one or two small towns away" which will still provide you with proximity to services as you desire.
Westerntraveler is correct in saying the Eagle/Ford Shale won't last forever, but my friends," in the know", say that the underlying Pearsall Shale has the potential to make the Eagle/Ford look like a drop in the bucket. Unless the EPA ( a.k.a. global warming scam gestapo) find a way to shut it down, this area should prosper for many years to come. No guarantees, but a pretty good bet.
Thanks Im more skeptical.....they said oil prices would increase in the 80's but we all know how that turned out.However I must admit that this is a technology driven boom and not a price driven one like the 70's and early 80's. Texas probably has hundreds of years worth of oil....we just need the price of oil to stay high.
I don't know if you have made your decision yet. But I have lived in Texas for 11 years and the South all of my life. Texas is a 'different' sort of place. At first I enjoyed the friendly, outspoken people that seemed more confident than other areas I have lived in in the South. But there is also an overwhelming sense of pride that Texans have that is warranted to some degree because of their history but yet it is taken way 'overboard'. I actually left and started a new FB page because I was tired of seeing posts of "Texas should secede from the US", etc. Financially, yes it has it advantages but there are other things to consider. A larger progressive city like Austin or San Antonio would probably be your best bet. You have to also look at the news and see 'politically' what has been going on in Texas. It seems like many are trying to block Obamacare and there is much conservatism here so it depends on your political beliefs and how you feel about that. The people here are very nice and friendly but for several reasons I am looking to move out of the state to another one that has better avenues of social services because of a difficult situation I am in. The best of luck in your decision.
I'm sorry. I didn't really cover your basic questions. Many of those could be found in any number of the cities to chose from in Texas. I thought maybe you might want a different 'point of view' of my experience living in this state.
(I also posted this on South Carolina's and Tennessee's thread)
Okay, first let me say I have read alot of threads from people asking the same question. However, I am now more confused!
I have never lived out of state as an adult. So I am nervous and excited. Please give me suggestions on areas to settle down in. Please be direct and understand I am not familiar with this part of the country.
Info: married with 4 biracial children.
I like most all music
I am very much a homebody, but I do like to get out with the family
We like going to the movies and restaurants
Good schools are super important to us
low crime rate, that's why we're moving
low cost of living, we'll be living off DH retirement income
I like the country feel but close to the city
I don't want to drive more than 20 mins to shopping (grocery, target, wal mart)
I don't want to live in an area that is overrun with ghettoness or intolerance.
I like the water, but just don't want to live too close to it.
A place where I can feel safe to let my children play out front.
Easy access to medical facilities
A lot to ask but I want to be as specific as possible.
Weather is important, but not the end all and be all. No frequent tornadoes please.
Also, my son wants to join the reserves, Air Force reserves so being within an hours drive of a base would be good.
Thanks
Twenty five years ago, as a newly single mother of four biracial kids, I moved from the military lifestyle to East Texas to be closer to my parents, who had moved here long after I was grown (from Georgia).
Texas is different from any other place I've ever lived, and I've lived all over the world, and spent much of my life living in the Deep South.
It took me about six months not to start screaming in horror every morning - but in retrospect I realize that part of my problem was that I didn't like my entire life situation. In other words, a big part of the problem was me. However, Texas really was a culture shock for me at first. It was so much more rural than what I was used to. I wasn't used to the Hispanic influence. I had never seen so many pickup trucks in my life! People actually wore, as "real" clothes, cowboy boots and hats. There was country music everywhere. Wow.
Of course, none of those things are "bad." They were just very different. To me, even East Texas (which I now realize is a very "southern" place overall) seemed like the wild, wild West. But as I settled in, and came to grips with my new life, I realized that this place wasn't so bad. Then one day, I realized I was happy. Then one day, about two years later, I realized I loved my adopted state - and I still love it to this day.
I raised my kids in Tyler, which is a city I can't say enough positive things about. It's a beautiful small city of about 100,000, sort of the hub of northeast Texas, and it's two hours from Dallas and an hour and a half from Shreveport. Big enough NOT to be provincial. Prior to moving to Tyler, I lived in a small town outside of Tyler. To be honest, I wouldn't recommend that to anyone with biracial kids. I think that even today, twenty five years later, small rural towns are full of small minded people. No one was actually aggressive toward us - no crosses burning in the yard, no sort of attacks (not even verbal), but I just didn't like the mindset of the people there. I moved my kids to Tyler precisely for that reason, and they fit in very nicely there. We had absolutely zero problems as a biracial family there. Also, the schools were good.
Which brings me to your list.
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I like most all music
- You're in for a treat. The Texas music scene is diverse and dynamic.
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I am very much a homebody, but I do like to get out with the family
- Plenty to do in Texas!
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We like going to the movies and restaurants
- The food scene in Texas in general is amazing. That's one of the first things I fell in love with in this state. Best Tex Mex food I've ever had. Also, there are several really huge metro areas in the state, and the diversity of ethnic restaurants is impressive. Heck, I live near Longview now - a town of about 60,000 - and even Longview has a lot of ethnic restaurants and small, ethnic grocery stores.
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Good schools are super important to us
- Someone earlier in this thread was complaining about the Texas school system, but once we moved to Tyler, I had no issues with the school system. Every town is different, even schools within the same district will differ. Just do your homework before you move. There is no doubt in my mind that you can find an area with good schools.
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low crime rate, that's why we're moving
- City Data is a great resource to research crime rates. Someone was talking about the crime rates in Texas earlier too, saying "Texas has a lot of crime." That's a huge blanket statement to make. Texas has some gigantic metro areas - more than any other state - and that is going to be reflected in the crime rates. But there are many, many very safe and quiet towns and cities in Texas.
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low cost of living, we'll be living off DH retirement income
- You may want to avoid the huge metro areas and focus on some of the smaller cities (not necessarily small towns - small CITIES) in Texas. Waco, Tyler, Longview, Midland, Wichita Falls, etc
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I like the country feel but close to the city
- This nice balance is easily found in many smaller cities. Personally, I really like Tyler because it's large enough to offer a lot of amenities, but it's still two hours from the DFW area - close enough but far enough if that makes sense.
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I don't want to drive more than 20 mins to shopping (grocery, target, wal mart)
- Once again, a small city sounds ideal.
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I don't want to live in an area that is overrun with ghettoness or intolerance.
- Once again, a small city sounds ideal. Big enough but not too big.
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I like the water, but just don't want to live too close to it.
- Texas has lots of beautiful lakes and rivers and an extensive coastline - but it's such a huge state that you can easily avoid falling into a body of water! LOL
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A place where I can feel safe to let my children play out front.
- Small city.
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Easy access to medical facilities
- Small city.
A lot to ask but I want to be as specific as possible.
Quote:
Weather is important, but not the end all and be all. No frequent tornadoes please.
- I have lived in Texas for twenty five years. Every year we have multiple tornado watches and warnings. Never had one iota of tornado damage to my personal property, but a massive tornado did do significant damage to Fort Hood - and my housing unit - back in the late 1980s. No significant injuries, however. But you're talking about Texas - we live in Tornado Alley. For some reason, some areas seem more prone to severe weather than others. The DFW area springs to mind quickly. I've lived in northeast Texas for decades now and had zero tornado damage to any property.
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Also, my son wants to join the reserves, Air Force reserves so being within an hours drive of a base would be good.
5. Band of the Gulf Coast, 531st Air Force Band, Fort Worth, TX
6. Texas Air National Guard Headquarters, Austin, TX
Good luck - hope this helps! Personally, I am SO GLAD that I moved my family to Texas! I love this state. And I was just telling my very Texan husband the other day how appreciative I am of how Texas welcomes transplants. This state welcomed me and my kids with open arms and we proudly identify ourselves as Texans now.
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Eagle/Ford Shale
