Waco, Texas (good)

[PanTerra]

Originally Posted by Canine*Castle

And Dallas with JFK, Ruby, and Oswald. And even J.R. Ewing. Ha!

Even Bonnie and Clyde.

[texasdiver]

My $0.02

My wife and I relocated here 5 years ago from the west coast for her career. I grew up in Oregon and lived in Portland, Seattle, and Juneau Alaska prior to Waco so it was something of a climate and culture shock.

First, Waco is a typical medium-sized city. Waco itself is a shade over 100,000 and about 50% Anglo, 25% black, 25% Hispanic as noted by a previous poster. However when you include the suburbs the metro area is more like 220,000 and the suburbs are mostly Anglo and more upscale so the city is somewhat more white than the statistics would indicate. The Hispanic population is what is growing the fastest here, more so by far than either the white or Anglo population. But the Waco area is growing steadily with big master planned developments and subdivisions popping up, especially along 84 corridor to the southwest and the China Spring area to the northwest. Lots of upscale new housing around golf courses. That sort of thing.

Second, it is the Baptist heartland. Waco is the home of Baylor University, the largest Baptist Univ. in the world and there are Baptist churches everywhere. Consequently, the social and political conservatism of the Baptist church tends to flavor the tone of everything in town. Not saying there isn't social or political diversity here, there is. But the dominant culture is certainly socially conservative and family oriented. This is definitely not Austin and it's definitely not cosmopolitan in the way that Dallas or Houston are. What you get for restaurants and shops are mostly the chain stuff you see everywhere. The same stuff you see in newer upscale developments anywhere in the US.. The truly great local places are few and far between.

Personally, if I was 32 and single I would probably not choose Waco, whether I was black or white. Primarily because I would expect the social life to be somewhat limiting. Since I'm married with 3 kids I don't worry about such things. This area is quite nice for raising families. The quality of life and schools in the suburbs is quite nice. However for someone single I think it would be somewhat disappointing. Especially for someone from elsewhere. I teach science at a local HS and I know that my school district has a hard time keeping single teachers around. And especially single black professionals. It seems they can't wait to move on to the Dallas/Fort Worth area where the quality of social life for black professionals is 100-times greater. If Waco can't keep its own single black professionals around then it might not be the most ideal place for someone from out of town. I expect you son will be making the 1.5 hour drive to Dallas for his social life on weekends. And that will get old.

Who is Waco ideal for? It is ideal for the young couple who wants to settle down in a pleasant quiet place with decent amenities, nice affordable housing, and decent suburban schools. Or the retiree who wants cheap housing, good medical services, warm weather and lots of golf courses.

Oh, and one thing Waco isn't is the Branch Davidians. That happened long before I got here but that whole fiasco took place in Elk Texas, 20 miles out of town in the middle of nowhere. And 98% of Waco residents had never even heard of David Koresh or the Branch Davidians before they saw it on CNN like everyone else. Waco just happened to have the nearest hotels and restaurants so that's where the national press camped out and reported from.

[rusty2006]

TexasDiver is right on the money. I grew up in Waco and have lived in Austin, Houston, Baton Rouge and now hail from Iowa. I can't add anything to his excellent description of Waco.

[texasdiver]

I've told him Waco Texas is the last place he should consider, it is rural and he will probaly only have correctional facilities or farms to work in.

This is far far from the truth. I drive by an enormous Master Foods/Mars candy and snack food factory every day on the way to work. Waco is almost perfectly located equidistant between Dallas/Fort Worth, Austin, and Houston so there are a lot of factories and distributors who locate in Waco so that they can service all the major markets in Texas from a single location. There is also a large Pilgrim's Pride poultry processing plant and and an even larger new Sanderson Farms chicken processing plant and regional distribution center. The Sanderson Farms plant is absolutely enormous. I don't know what federal food inspectors do, but I suspect the job in Waco would involve a whole lot of poultry.

[arrow_keys]

Originally Posted by PanTerra

Really, does that mean it has a high gay population? When I lived there we called it Jerusalem on the Brazos.

I think the implication was there was a lot of closeted activity. It was probably more of a joke than anything.

[atrain]

Don't believe the hype. Waco is a great city, if you're white. Otherwise, you will find that Waco is not just a little, but very racists. It's a good old boy kind of town. If you dig deeper into the statistics, you will see that of the small population of minorities, there is a great number of them that are unemployeed. I was born and raised in Waco, and I had to relocate to get a decent job. I have great experience and a good education. All I have is one name to mention, Jesse Washington. Do the research on this lynching and you will see what Waco's background consist of. I would suggest you bypass Waco and suggest your son move to Dallas. Good Luck!

[Lakewooder]

OK I went to SMU and hated Baylor (old Southwest Conference) even though I was raised a Southern Baptist.

But think of Ann Richards and Willie Nelson, who came from that general area -- can't be all bad!

[Lakewooder]

Originally Posted by arrow_keys

I think the implication was there was a lot of closeted activity. It was probably more of a joke than anything.

Well I know of lot of organists from there...

[PanTerra]

Originally Posted by Lakewooder

OK I went to SMU and hated Baylor (old Southwest Conference) even though I was raised a Southern Baptist.

Hmm, is SMU accredited?

Sic 'em Bears!

[Lakewooder]

Ha.. we did have some good games!

I won't tell you what we did at the bear pit!