Palestine Texas! Many Questions. (Houston, Dallas: living, pine, education)

[TX_AGGIE13]

Well, I lived in Palestine for about a year in 2005. I actually liked the place. It's big enough not to have to run to Tyler, Houston, or Dallas every week, but small enough to have some elbow room. I agree that Brookshire's is the best store in town as far as grochries. It's the cleanest, but Wal-Mart is better priced. There is a very nice YMCA facility there with aquatics facilities as well. Ethnic food is kinda out unless you consider Mexican, or Texas BBQ ethnic...lol. The roads are nice, and there are a good number of fast food places as well as a decient number of ok restaurants. The terrain is nice, mostly flat with some out of the East Texas norm hills north of town, and many many trees. The prison system as said before is the largest employer, but it's a few miles out of town in a small community called Tennessee Colony, you can map it. Also the Wal-Mart Distribution Center outside town is a large employer, and there are many local ranchers in the area. The town its self has many old unique buildings, and would be a beautiful place if someone were to come in and revitalize some of it. Lake Palestine is a nice lake, and there are many other lakes within a short drive. I don't know much about the school districts. I lived in one of the older homes in town that you are talking about. It was built in the 20's then another section was added in the 40's. I absolutely loved the home, and trees, and the hill I lived on gave me a great sense of privacy. I never witnessed any crime although I was aware of it. The local PD at the time might not have been much help to others, but the one time I talked to them they were extremely nice. I also never had to visit the local hospital, but for a town the size of Palestine it was more than sufficent. I play alot of golf, and as someone else mentioned there is a nice course, but it is small, and the only one. The housing opportunities in Palestine for me are deffinately worth the few other things that might not be "great" to others. There are many gorgeous older homes, and not all of them are backed up to undesireables. I will say to anyone considering relocating to anywhere to take a trip before doing so. Also the mowing that everyone mentions isn't that bad when you can hire someone for $20 to do it for you...lol. If you fly in to visit I suggest Love Field, or Bush Intercontinental. DFW for me driving to Palestine is on the far north side of Arlington making the traffic messy. You may be able to get a plane into Tyler, but you will probably pay the price. Also Shreveport has a nice airport that isn't too far. Property taxes in relation to most of the US are unbeatable, and im a licensed Real Estate Salesperson.

[PalesteenNative]

Palestine is a nice looking town at a glance until you try to make a decent living there. I drive to Tyler 2 to 3 times a month to go to see my doctor. The Tyler Doctors are professional and the Palestine Hospital has ran most of the best Doctors to Tyler and tothe prison. I go to Tyler because my medication is exactly half price at QVC drug store in Tyler. I even to go there to get my hair cut because of being butched too many times in Palestine and the price in Tyler pays for my gas to go there. The drive to Tyler over lake Palestine 30 miles away is a nice site to see. Most every lake in Palestine is private owned and you can not swim in the city lakes. It is hard to find a lake close to fish in because most of the lakes are on private property. The YMCA is a very nice place to go but I am not into swimming in community swimming pools because of the children swimming with dirty diapers like in most public swimming pools. Brookshires is the cleanest grocery store in town and the highest priced but it is worth the cost and type of people there. Krogers has low prices and slow check out lines and it is not a clean store. Wal Mart has low prices but most of the groceries have a expiration date one month after you buy them. The best restaurant I like is the Chinese resaurant on the loop and El Toro is OK. Little Mexico is little more than tv dinners with very uncomfortable wooden picknick style tables without any seat cushions, not good for the old or disabled in pain. Churches Chicken is one of the nastiest places to eat, it seldom has soap or paper towels in the bathroon where the cooks also have to wash their hands after using the toilet. I used to eat there until I counted over 100 flies inside on the windows and cooks coming from outside the building and into the kitchen and start cooking without washing their hands. And Palestine does not require employees to wear plastic gloves to handle food in restaurants while serving food. Taco Bell I have seen them drop food on the floor and pick it up and continue to prepare it to serve. I have seen a lot the 50 years I lived here. I hope to move to Tyler soon as my house sells. The terrain is mostly hilly not flat at all and it cuts down on gas mileage but very nice to look at. The prison is the largest employer and only 10 miles from town and Wal Mart is the second largest employer hiring most employees part time, 32 hours a week or less so they will not be qualified for benefits like the few that are full time employees. Palestine has a small handfull of railroad employees, it was a big railroad town at one time with a passenger train I once rode as a kid to Houston to visit grandma. It was a memory to remember that will never be here again. Palestine was supposed to have most of the railroad jobs that are now in Omaha Nebraska, I was told the mayor back then sold out the job contract that held the jobs in Palestine to Omaha Nebraska. Palestine once had 3 Opry houses and many nice mom and pop stores long ago. Yard mowing is a full time job and not good if you have allergies but you can pay 20.00 per hour to have it mowed, there are a lot of hispanic lawn services but they do not work cheap like in the 1980s and require you to buy their dinner on top of hourly wages. The roads that are very good are the state highways that route through Palestine, the city roads are nothing like they were 30 years ago. A truck will hold together a lot better than a car on the city roads. The Police usually have 2 full time Police cars on the road full time and the County Sheriff has 2 full time cars covering the entire county. The city spends a lot of money on monuments and pays the mayor up to Dallas city standards but our city is much poorer than Dallas. Palestine was larger than Tyler Texas at one time and now Tyler is 108,772 and Palestine is now 17,598. It tells a lot about the people who were running the town. A lot of businesses have went to Jacksonville because of problems with the Palestine city council and Mayors. Palestine was considered for the state capitol at one time. And Fort Houston was here at one time. As Palestine was overwhelmed with hispanics White Flight took place and the white people whe could afford to move to the country moved to avoid the different type of community styles of painted houses and crime. Enjoy it is still better than living on a Mexican border town. Enjoy drinking the Neches river drinking water and run down streets. The Mayor gets raises that should be spent on city intrastructure. The city has made an industry of building a bigger jail for income, so that is the future of Palestine. I am glad to see a College is finally being built, but the prison pays the teachers more so the prison will continually get the best teachers over the city college. Enjoy Palestine.

Originally Posted by TX_AGGIE13

Well, I lived in Palestine for about a year in 2005. I actually liked the place. It's big enough not to have to run to Tyler, Houston, or Dallas every week, but small enough to have some elbow room. I agree that Brookshire's is the best store in town as far as grochries. It's the cleanest, but Wal-Mart is better priced. There is a very nice YMCA facility there with aquatics facilities as well. Ethnic food is kinda out unless you consider Mexican, or Texas BBQ ethnic...lol. The roads are nice, and there are a good number of fast food places as well as a decient number of ok restaurants. The terrain is nice, mostly flat with some out of the East Texas norm hills north of town, and many many trees. The prison system as said before is the largest employer, but it's a few miles out of town in a small community called Tennessee Colony, you can map it. Also the Wal-Mart Distribution Center outside town is a large employer, and there are many local ranchers in the area. The town its self has many old unique buildings, and would be a beautiful place if someone were to come in and revitalize some of it. Lake Palestine is a nice lake, and there are many other lakes within a short drive. I don't know much about the school districts. I lived in one of the older homes in town that you are talking about. It was built in the 20's then another section was added in the 40's. I absolutely loved the home, and trees, and the hill I lived on gave me a great sense of privacy. I never witnessed any crime although I was aware of it. The local PD at the time might not have been much help to others, but the one time I talked to them they were extremely nice. I also never had to visit the local hospital, but for a town the size of Palestine it was more than sufficent. I play alot of golf, and as someone else mentioned there is a nice course, but it is small, and the only one. The housing opportunities in Palestine for me are deffinately worth the few other things that might not be "great" to others. There are many gorgeous older homes, and not all of them are backed up to undesireables. I will say to anyone considering relocating to anywhere to take a trip before doing so. Also the mowing that everyone mentions isn't that bad when you can hire someone for $20 to do it for you...lol. If you fly in to visit I suggest Love Field, or Bush Intercontinental. DFW for me driving to Palestine is on the far north side of Arlington making the traffic messy. You may be able to get a plane into Tyler, but you will probably pay the price. Also Shreveport has a nice airport that isn't too far. Property taxes in relation to most of the US are unbeatable, and im a licensed Real Estate Salesperson.

[TX_AGGIE13]

Another thing that im sure your smart enought to know is that when asking questions about small towns you always hear how bad it is from those who do, and have lived there. Especially the small towns with "Good Ole' Boy" politics. This is just the nature of life in these places, and you do not have to be on that side of the ball. I grew up in one of these places where everyone had something to complain about, and it was always the worst place on earth. Then there were the 10 to 20 % of the locals who did enjoy the community, and became pro active in the local political scene, which I must say is very easy to do with much of any education at all. Palestine has some issues, but what place doesn't? I have also lived in Palestine, but have not been confined to living there for 50 years without first hand knowledge of what it's like in other environments, and I can tell you Palestine has many many greats also! I am not preaching to you Palestine, I really think you should take a trip down and check it out for yourself. Maybe go when there is some sort of community function one night, or attend a church or something so you can get a feel for the people as well. Good luck with whatever you decide.

[Mark-Tyler is Special]

What - ahh, this is PALESTINE, Texas not pronounced as in the Mid-East, forum?

[GayleTX]

Somebody needs to study their geography.........

[TX_AGGIE13]

Lol...you gotta admit though that was pretty funny. I hope they weren't serious.....

[MissyAKATink]

You guys have explained Palestine pretty darn well. My mom moved there 15 years ago, actually Neches a small town next to Palestine, but they do their grocery shopping in Palestine and their entertainment like movies and dining in either Tyler or Jacksonville. My stepdad commutes an hour to Tyler daily and he doesn't seem to have a problem with having a good paying job and driving the distance to live on a pecan orchard in the country.
I don't think citrus will grow, but everything else will....my mom has every vegetable you can think of and tons of fruit trees like plums,peaches....even blueberry bushes, blackberries and so on. And her flower gardens are to die for......it helps the plants in the summer when it is so darn humid there....but some months like August when it was over 100 degrees the plants had to be watered twice a day for a half hour or more to keep things alive.
But its a great place with 2 lakes close by, the best state of the art medical in Tyler and very down to earth people. And yes most of East Texas is pines.....where im from in North Texas theres slim to none trees and no humidity... a huge difference in only a 2 hour drive.

[killer2021]

Wow a person who actually wants to move out to the sticks. I am planning on buying a place out there +/- 30 miles from palestine. It is almost the perfect location if you ask me. Very rural (I like privacy), the homes are cheap, the land is cheap, about 150 miles to all 3 major metro areas and plenty of recreation to your hearts delight.

My main plan is to work in the metro area and rent a cheap apartment close to work and then drive on the weekends to my estate. Best of both worlds. High income, plenty of jobs in the metros and cheap cheap home/land in the rural areas. =)

Here are the exact distances from Palestine to the other metro areas:

austin = 199 miles
dallas = 112 miles
houston = 165 miles

which equates to more or less a 3 hour drive.

[TX_AGGIE13]

Don't forget Shreveport, not as big, but another metro with upwards of 400K, and even closer....

[Randy Gibson]

As for as dining out for sea food, you can go to Krogers or Brookshires, or where ever and buy your own fish. You can then take them to Mario, the manager at Don Jose’s and he will cook them for you. I usually get sea scallops from Krogers. The folks who run the meat market at Brookshires are very nice about getting you any kind of fish you want with a little advanced notice. I always take enough for Mario to eat as well. For a small fee he will make you an amazing meal. He used to work at the Blue Goose on lower Greenville in Dallas so the man really knows his way around a piece of fish. He’s also an artist with a rack of ribs. Just because something isn’t one the menu doesn’t mean he won’t fix it for you. I love that kind of personal service

Also Palestine now has a water bottling plant, Mountain Pure Water. We offer a superior product at a very competitive price. We do custom labeled bottled water, so for the price of a couple of business cards you can put a custom labeled bottle of water in someone’s hand that has all of your company info on it. You can check out our web site, but it only shows our Little Rock Plant. You can find our Palestine Plant through the Palestine Area Chamber of Commerce. We're located in the Willow Creek Business Park.