Misconceptions about Texas's border towns? (McAllen, Allen: standard of living, restaurants, most dangerous)

[Foamposite]

Originally Posted by malcorub16

Homes

Laredo = Wood structure houses with perched roofs and a front yards...if its in the hood a chain-link fence around the front yard and if not, no fence around the front but a wooden back yard fence.

Nuevo Laredo = Block houses with flat roofs and no front yard per se, but a front garden or front patio that is enclosed with an iron fence and gate. Wealthy Mexicans love the dome or even a roof top patio (which I wish we had more of here in the US)

Thank you, that's a difference I noticed but didn't know how to put in words exactly.

Nuevo Laredo definitely looks more urban

[LocalPlanner]

Overall, Laredo feels like either semi-generic Texas suburbia (the more affluent NE quadrant); a low to moderate income blue collar Texas town with a Hispanic sheen (most of the rest of the non-downtown area); or a unique urban zone that is at least as Mexican as it is Texan (the historic downtown).

One other thing that very much distinguishes Laredo and the RGV is that wages are considerably lower than the rest of the state, as are education levels. Historically the RGV was often considered to be the poorest area in the entire nation (and that's saying something), and I'm sure it's still close to that status.

[Foamposite]

Originally Posted by LocalPlanner

Overall, Laredo feels like either semi-generic Texas suburbia (the more affluent NE quadrant); a low to moderate income blue collar Texas town with a Hispanic sheen (most of the rest of the non-downtown area); or a unique urban zone that is at least as Mexican as it is Texan (the historic downtown).

One other thing that very much distinguishes Laredo and the RGV is that wages are considerably lower than the rest of the state, as are education levels. Historically the RGV was often considered to be the poorest area in the entire nation (and that's saying something), and I'm sure it's still close to that status.

Is there anywhere in Mexico with as high a standard of living as the RGV?

[malcorub16]

^^ That's a loaded question.
It depends on who's standard you are speaking of and what their financial situation is in their given location. There are hundreds of places in Mexico I would live in before I lived in the RGV and only if I could take my income and lifestyle with me.

Someone I know who moved from RGV to Mexico City once said it's easier to be and eat "healthy" in Mexico City because the food options and quality are better and the weather is more apt for physical fitness. RGV is oppressive humidity, big box stores and unhealthy fast food mostly. But again, it depends on your financial situation. If I have money, I would prefer to live somewhere nice in Mexico over the nicest spot in RGV, but if I am poorer I'm picking RGV because in the US the welfare system affords even the most basic needs (and comforts) to the poor which the poor in Mexico don't have.

There is a reason why the middle class and wealthy people from Monterrey mostly stay in their city versus migrating north to the RGV.

[Foamposite]

Originally Posted by malcorub16

^^ That's a loaded question.
It depends on who's standard you are speaking of and what their financial situation is in their given location. There are hundreds of places in Mexico I would live in before I lived in the RGV and only if I could take my income and lifestyle with me.

Someone I know who moved from RGV to Mexico City once said it's easier to be and eat "healthy" in Mexico City because the food options and quality are better and the weather is more apt for physical fitness. RGV is oppressive humidity, big box stores and unhealthy fast food mostly. But again, it depends on your financial situation. If I have money, I would prefer to live somewhere nice in Mexico over the nicest spot in RGV, but if I am poorer I'm picking RGV because in the US the welfare system affords even the most basic needs (and comforts) to the poor which the poor in Mexico don't have.

There is a reason why the middle class and wealthy people from Monterrey mostly stay in their city versus migrating north to the RGV.

Well yeah, but the "if I could bring my salary" is a big if. The average salary in say, McAllen seems to be higher than anywhere in Mexico even when you factor in cost of living. Yes Mexico city has plenty of wealthy people and the amenities that go along with it, but also a lot of very poor people who are much poorer than the poor people of Texas.

Almost all of Mexico has a very high murder rate as well and there generally no legal consequences for committing homicides. This is obviously not the case in the RGV.

[NigerianNightmare]

I’ve never met a person from RGV or El Paso who didn’t speak English. But then I only meet people who are under 25 from either region.

[Foamposite]

Originally Posted by NigerianNightmare

I’ve never met a person from RGV or El Paso who didn’t speak English. But then I only meet people who are under 25 from either region.

But that's the age group that matters most. Young people are the ones who show you what direction an area is going in.

Sure many of them have somewhat Mexican tinged accents, but you find the exact same thing in Northern California, Chicago, New York, and other places nobody would call "foreign".

[supfromthesite]

Originally Posted by Foamposite

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8n6YnS48CJM

Recent video of a high school graduation in Laredo, TX

I didn't watch the whole video but I stopped at several points and they were speaking English the whole time. That really goes against the narrative that Spanish is the "dominant" language of Laredo.

The only difference from a high school in say, rural Ohio is that they pronounce the Spanish last names the way a Spanish speaker would.

Have you ever been?

[As Above So Below...]

Overall the biggest misconception is that they are dangerous.

A few are, but most are not.

[homeinatx]

Originally Posted by Foamposite

Is there anywhere in Mexico with as high a standard of living as the RGV?

Really... This cannot be a serious question

The per capita income in McAllen is around 22K. The per capita income in Mexico City is 39K. The state of Campeche has a per capita income of 48K. And COL in Mexico is generally much lower than in the U.S.

https://www.oecd.org/cfe/MEXICO-Regi...ities-2018.pdf

Mexico City is the 7th richest city by GDP in the world . . . While there is not insignificant poverty in Mexico, there is a large middle class and spectacular concentrations of wealth.

A neighborhood like Las Llomas in the southwest quadrant of Mexico City is more like Beverly Hills, CA than anything in the RGV. Polanco, also in Mexico City, while newer and greener and a little more spread out is more like the upper east side of Manhattan than anything in the RGV - handful of the best restaurants in the world, world-class art museums etc.

I know Mexico but but I have not been everywhere and I can think of an overwhelming number of places with as high and nearly as many with a higher standard of living than the RGV. For starters: a good third of Mexico City, most of Campeche, nearly all of Merida (the safest city in Mexico and safer than most U.S. cities), a large chunk of Monterrey, Guadalajara, Puebla, Cuernavaca, and while South Padre is nice, the resort parts of any number of Caribbean and Pacific cities - Puerta Vallarta, the tourist trap of Cancun, then there are pretty fancy mountain towns like San Miguel de Allende.

Then there are the colonias of the RGV, some of the worst slums in the U.S. and entirely comparable to the worst slums of Mexico.

I like the RGV fine, but this is really not a fair comparison, an impoverished region of a middling state against an entire country.

But to answer your question, there are MANY MANY places in Mexico with a higher standard of living...