Is Brownsville really that bad?! (Houston, Dallas: crime, home, buy)

[TootsieWootsie]

Yes, Santeria is from the Caribbean. They believe in sacrificing chickens, humans and so forth for their services.
I doubt if this was some sort of revenge killing due to stealing land. More like a bunch of young college up to 30 y.o. voodoo worshipers/Santeria cult members who were into sacrificing.
Do not remember the students name, but was in the papers for weeks as they were looking for him for a few weeks...and then they found him burned up on some farm. It was one of those realllly horrid deaths. He had been drinking in Matamoros with his fellow Dallas student buddies, they lost him for just a few minutes and this must have been when a Santeria cult member grabbed him. It really was horrid. It was on the news so long as his family (who had some money, I think) were really searching for him.
It does not surprise me that the Americans stole land from the Mexican-Americans as I am part Cherokee...and look what they did to the Indians. This, unfortunately, goes on all over the world all the time. Look at the poor Jews that lost all in the Holocaust. I could go on and on with examples.
But, no, this was no revenge killing. Just some Santeria worshipers. The shocking thing was that the Priestess of the group was this supposedly well liked college girl, Sara Aldrete. Everyone was shocked about that including her family. Sad. Sad. Sad.

[TootsieWootsie]

Punch in Sara Aldrete on the net. The story comes up in brief in Wikipedia.

[LilyP829]

I disagree with CoastieTX. I think the Rio Grande Valley is a great place to live and while I agree Brownsville is trashy, the whole valley is not. Mcallen and Harlingen are great towns. Edinburg and Mission aren't that bad either. Brownsville is the only town in the Valley that looks like it could really be Mexico. The Mcallen, Mission and Edinburg area is one of the fastest growing areas in the nation. I'm from Mcallen and while the crime rate has gone up because of the population growth, its the cleanest town in the valley.
My reply to Tootsie. While there are people here in the valley that probably don't like caucasians are you call em, (by the way Hispanics are a white race too. We are caucasians as well) most "whites" that have lived here all their lives are equal to us, our culture is their culture. They talk with the same accent we do which is a valley accent.There is no problem with them what so ever. While other whites new to the valley have an attitude towards Hispanics and people here don't take to that kindly of course. They usually have a better than though attitude. They end up figuring out who's who here and if they want to live here comfortably they'll lose the attitude.

[melissamc]

As a non-Rio Grande Valley native who has lived here for almost three years, I can say there are good things and not-so-good things about the Valley. If you enjoy Mexican culture and proximity to Mexico, the RGV has much to offer. You can be in any of the region's border towns in less than an hour. Granted, most of the border towns are a bit on the trashy side, but you can also find good food and cheap shopping there (especially Nuevo Progreso). From Matamoros, Reynosa or McAllen, you can easily hop a bus and travel to great places in Mexico's interior -- Monterrey is an interesting weekend jaunt, San Miguel de Allende is supposed to be beautiful (haven't made it there yet) and there are many more. A company based in Harlingen (Go With Jo) also offers inexpensive tours into Mexico.

Brownsville might look dumpy in some places, and no doubt it's true that many of its residents are poor. But there's no better place to practice your Spanish or get a taste of the Mexican American culture, and I've always found it interesting. And the Mexican food is terrific. I actually like Harlingen by far the least because it's the, well, whitest part of the region. Harlingen is full of stodgy, old, white people who have lived here for generations and think they own the city, and they resist any progress or change. As a result, Harlingen has grown much more slowly than Brownsville or McAllen, and is basically culturally dead. The only things people do here for fun (I live in Harlingen) is drink at the local bar, have a barbecue or go to a football game. Brownsville is just more lively, and McAllen is more like a real city, with a variety of restaurants, an actual bookstore (yep, Harlingen doesn't have a bookstore), museums and clubs. McAllen is more metropolitan in feel; Brownsville feels more like a border town; and Harlingen is sleepy.

Two more benefits are that the cost of living is very low here, and you could get a nice house or apartment for cheap, and South Padre Island is very close (an hour from Harlingen, about 45 mins. from Brownsville). SPI is just beautiful, the food is good and the beaches are near-pristine.

Personally, I have felt very enriched by my experience of living near Mexico, but after three years I'm ready to go to a big city. The Valley is very far from a large city (nearest is San Antonio, four hours away), and that isolated feeling can get to a person. However, for people into Mexican language, culture, and a laid-back lifestyle, it's a great place. I know people who weren't from here, came here and have no desire to ever leave. So it really depends on what kind of person you are.

Regardless, I'll leave here with a certain affection for the place, and an appreciation for the fish-out-of-water experience I've had. Maybe you will too.

[JosephinLA]

Yeah, Hi there,

I am thinking to move to McAllen or Edinburg, because I am about to enroll at UTPA in Edinburg; I have never been to Texas, let alone the border-region. (I live in LA, California). Can somebody give me a general info about average rent or purchasing a home in a good neighborhood, and what kind of jobs are available there. (I teach in private high schools in LA.)
I am reading here a lot of negative opinions about safety. I am actually Northern-European; is that going to be against me?
I would also like to hear some comparison to El Paso in these respects. Thanks, and greetings from traffic-jam city!

[TexasDad]

I lived in the RGV for a few years. I too was a fish out of water. Lived in Harlingen, worked in Brownsville. I loved the area. The climate is great. There are some nice places in Brownsville, but my choice would be Harlingen. Its a great town. McAllen and Edinburg are nice as well. Don't let proximity to the border scare you. I've spent some time working in most of the Texas border towns (with the exception of El Paso). In my opinion, the Valley is the best of the Border areas. Living there was a great experience. I was definately a minority in the valley, but I agree with LilyP829. There were a few rare occasions where I got the "cold shoulder", but on the whole, race is not an issue. There's a reason the winter texan crowd migrates to the RGV every year in droves. Don't recall a fear of the Santeria cult while I lived there. Just to be on the safe side, dont get drunk in Matamoros (go to South Padre).

[5stones]

his name was Mark Kilroy and he was a pre-med student at UT. A total of 15 Bodies were dug up. very sad. It happened in 1989.
Scared the hell out of me as I was a college student then and went to Matamoros many times to drink cheap Coronas! Had a very scary situation with 4 other friends, we were drunk and offered to sample "free beers for Tecate" so we went. Followed the guy around the corner into a enclosed compound, drank 1 beer and got the hell out of there. We were LUCKY.

Anyway... Brownsville overall isn't that great. I would say it's bad parts outweigh the good.

Harlingen is a good town and would put it number 1 and McAllen #2.

[j96g]

I was born in harlingen and live in McAllen. If you are moving down here, Mcallen would be my number one pick, followed by Edinburg(it's growing pretty fast), Then Harlingen, and last Brownsville. Harlingen is good, but old. brownsville is like Mexico, not the good parts. edinburg is nice, but about 15 to 20 miles away from mcallen. What makes McAllen great is that its west neighbor Mission pop. 45000 and east neighbor Pharr/San Juan/Alamo are 5 miles away and compliment mcallen very well. You have a mall in Mcallen and Pharr, a 17 screen movie theatre in Mcallen, as well as Mission. Johhny Carrinos is Mcallen and pharr, Chilis in Mcallen and mission. As you see they compliment each other very well and it's still a small town feel if you don't want to live smack in the middle of mcallen.

[turnbun]

Is Brownsville really that bad?!

Yes, it is that bad, especially if you don't have roots there.

[yosoyway]

Have any of you who are saying all these horrible things about Brownsville been there?

I was born in Brownsville and raised there and in Matamoros. Yes it has it's bad sides, yes there is crime, yes there are drugs but what city doesn't have all these things. I have been to many cities in the U.S., most recently Chicago and I was surprised to see some parts of the city. Talk about dirty.

Brownsville is a very nice city to live and raise a family. The city is growing and it is attracting many new stores and businesses. You have South Padre Island 15 minutes away, Boca Chica beach and Matamoros.

The people are very nice and friendly. Real Mexican food. Not Tex-Mex.

That episode with Mark Kilroy was drug related and the man behind all of it was from Mexico City. He thought he could be invisible by sacrificing these persons. Idiot!! I was in Matamoros the night this happened during Spring Break. But just as there are bad persons, there are also several good persons. One night we found a girl passed out on the sidewalk in Matamoros. Somebody could've picked her up and done God knows what to her. We picked her up and took her accross the bridge and took her to the police in Brownsville. Another night, we gave a girl a ride to South Padre. And just as there are stories like mine there a many more of good persons from Brownsville that did many good things for Spring Breakers.

So to answer the original question, Brownsville is not that bad.

If you doubt my opinion, go visit it.

By the way, I now live in San Antonio and some places here are dirtier than Brownsville or even Matamoros.

God Bless.