Waco is one of Texas most underrated cities and no one is talking about it? (Houston: train, suburbs)

[texasdiver]

Originally Posted by ParaguaneroSwag

It’s not about remembering it. It’s about knowing it happened. It’s a fairly well known event for a small city that doesn’t get a lot of attention. There’s plenty of ongoing documentation about it including a recent Netflix series. That’s one of the reason people say that Chip and Joanna did great for Waco, because it gave some national attention to a small city who the little it was known for was the Siege, some negative Baylor stories and other events mentioned above. Sure, it’s unfair that people put that on Waco when some of it was out of their control, but people are stupid.

I think if you interviewed random people in this country under the age of 40, few will have even heard of David Koresh and few will connect Waco to the Branch Davidians.

It was a seminal news moment for those of us in our 50s and older. Not so much for the youth. They had 9-11 and a lot more significant events.

It really has gone down the memory hole just like say the Rajneeshes in Oregon. Who had their own Netflix special but of whom very few young people have even heard.

[Trainwreck20]

Waco has had some bad luck with news - along with Koresh and Twin Peaks there was the Baylor basketball murder and then the football team making news for out-of-control players. In a bigger city, there is more to dilute that out, but very little news in general comes out of Waco. As mentioned above, Chip and Joanna really are pretty much the only positive thing that has made it our of the city in a 'big' way.

Had a sibling go to school at BU in the 80s, back before their 'break' with the conservative convention. It was pretty authoritarian and the town was very run-down. The improvements since then are huge in a positive way. It is apparently growing at ~1% a year, which is probably a good number for the city - fast growth is not necessarily good. The cost of housing is very low compared to other cities. I do not know the job market breakdown now, but historically it has had a lot of mid-level industry that employed HS graduates as well as bachelor degrees.

I have a college friend that moved there after he graduated and happily raised a family there (he worked for M&M/Mars, iirc). It was very much a 'family' town - very religious, very conservative, and the dating scene was pretty rough for young adults. I suppose some of that has 'improved' (depends on your point of view ) since then, but most people I know still think of it as a staunch Baptist town.

[ParaguaneroSwag]

Originally Posted by texasdiver

I think if you interviewed random people in this country under the age of 40, few will have even heard of David Koresh and few will connect Waco to the Branch Davidians.

It was a seminal news moment for those of us in our 50s and older. Not so much for the youth. They had 9-11 and a lot more significant events.

It really has gone down the memory hole just like say the Rajneeshes in Oregon. Who had their own Netflix special but of whom very few young people have even heard.

Few know David by name. Very many know the events of the Waco Siege which is what matters.

[ParaguaneroSwag]

Originally Posted by As Above So Below...

I certainly see your argument at the time of the Siege, but now Waco seems to be getting a lot of love.

I agree. That’s exactly what I said.

[tcualum]

I'm unimpressed with Waco, maybe because I'm not a Chip and Joanna fan. My son and I were there for a week for a school trip a few years ago and the only things we enjoyed were going to the Mammoth National Monument and touring the Mavbourn Museum. A lot of the city looked sad and run down and Baylor's architecture looked like someone who was impressed by "big" but didn't understand what makes architecture great and classic. Even though I went to TCU I told my son that I'd support him if he wanted to go there. He told me that after going to Waco he had no interest in going to Baylor especially after he read about the sports scandal. He was appalled by how it was handled.

Baylor does have an excellent dental school in Dallas.

[gentlearts]

There’s a show on Magnolia with Clint Harp, the woodworker we met on Fixer Upper. His show is about rescuing old barns and rebuilding them. His show also dealt with the history of the areas the barns came from. He told how the Waco River divided the city between poor black people and richer white people. It sounded like there was a concerted effort lately, to unite into one Waco.

Has this happened?

[texasdiver]

Originally Posted by gentlearts

There’s a show on Magnolia with Clint Harp, the woodworker we met on Fixer Upper. His show is about rescuing old barns and rebuilding them. His show also dealt with the history of the areas the barns came from. He told how the Waco River divided the city between poor black people and richer white people. It sounded like there was a concerted effort lately, to unite into one Waco.

Has this happened?

It's the Brazos River.

Waco is named after the Waco Indians who inhabited the banks of the Brazos.

But in any event, the river doesn't really mark the barrier between Black and White in Waco and hasn't for many decades. That was the case during segregation 50 years ago. Today East Waco (which is actually north of the Brazos River) is still poor and majority Black and Hispanic. But there are large neighborhoods that are poor and predominantly Black and Hispanic on the south side of the river as well. The wealthy white population of the greater Waco area lives largely in the suburbs (Woodway, China Spring, Hewitt, etc.) and in a few wealthy enclaves along the lake and in the SW corner of the city near the country club. Also along Austin Ave.

These days Waco's Hispanic population is larger than its Black population and yes, there is definitely a divide between rich and poor. But even the formerly White suburbs are rapidly diversifying. Not so much because poor Black and Hispanic Wacoans are becoming prosperous and moving up in the world. But because people are moving in from elsewhere.

During the 13 years that my wife and I lived in the Waco area we lived first in China Spring and then later in the Woodway area but just across the municipal boundary so we were within the city limits of Waco even though we had a Woodway postal address. Our neighborhood was actually quite diverse. We had neighbors from Korea, China, India, Pakistan, as well and Black and Hispanic neighbors. But NONE Of them were actually FROM Waco. One family was a middle class Black family who were retired military and chose to settle in Waco after retiring from nearby Fort Hood. They were originally from Virginia. Another Black neighbor was retired from the NFL and chose to settle in Waco. Our Hispanic neighbors were mostly 2nd, 3rd, or 4th generation Mexican-Americans who owned local businesses or were prosperous contractors.

So yes, there are efforts in the way of race relations. And Waco is making a big effort to redevelop the poorer parts of East Waco that were the traditionally Black parts of town. But the bigger issues are probably more economic than racial. And they cross the whole city and aren't just isolated to the formerly Black part of town. There are ongoing efforts to revitalize Elm Ave which was the former Black downtown during segregation. https://wacotrib.com/east-waco-risin...5091daa.html#6 But how do you do that without gentrification and displacement is the big question. Baylor built its new football stadium on that side of the river and there are investments by Baylor such as this: https://bric.research.baylor.edu/ which was built out of an old restored tire factory in East Waco. But it is still a pretty poor area.

[KathrynAragon]

DK and his mom (who was murdered) are buried here in Tyler, Texas.

I personally like Waco but no one asked me - LOL.

[spacecitytx]

As a native Texan, the only things I know about Waco are (of course) the David Koresh fiasco and that the 90's R&B group Hi-Five originated there (which is a tragedy all by itself).

Outside of that, I've only been through it once...in a terrible rainstorm a couple of years ago on my way to Dallas from Austin.

[Trainwreck20]

I am surprised that apparently no one associates Dr. Pepper with Waco anymore, apparently .