san angelo - would we fit in? (West, Italy: apartments, rentals)

[coffeebean]

My husband was offered a transfer to the San Angelo area. I've been reading on the web and here for information, and I don't feel swayed in ether direction. My big concern is if we would fit in, or have a hard time with the move.

We are a family with four kids ranging from baby to 8. We homeschool and do not vax. We are middle of the road people who lean maybe a tad toward liberal, and practice attachment parenting. We have a child on a special diet, so is it difficult to come by organic food? is there specialty stores for this?

We are coming from a midwestern town that makes it living off manufacturing and construction, and houses and income here are pretty level and average 37,000 per median family. Our current town has about 60,000 residents as well, and about 80,000 if you include the connecting town. So I think the living may be similar?

And what about renting of property? Our stay will be 1-3 years, so we will be looking to hopefully rent a nice townhome, is there any? Where would you suggest looking for rentals that would fit a family?

Lastly will we fall over with culture shock? And is there a decent rock station?

[ChristieP]

I haven't lived in San Angelo for a long time, but I am a proud ASU graduate! San Angelo is a BIG retirement community, it has a lot of college students, and also a decent-sized Air Force base. There are quite a few young families there, too.

San Angelo is a pretty conservative place. VERY Republican, even at the university. You might get some really odd looks in public for the attachment parenting, and some older people there would be horribly offended if you breast fed in public.

I would think you'd have a difficult time finding a lot of organic food since there are mostly only Wal-mart Supercenters and 1-2 HEB supermarkets there. I can't think of a single specialty food store. Most people in San Angelo like red meat and potatoes, and Mexican food!

Also, since you do not vaccinate your children, they will be at a MUCH higher risk of communicable dieases since San Angelo is close to Mexico and gets a lot of migrants. I know Whooping Cough is becoming a big problem in rural West Texas due to it being brought in from Mexico.

There are VERY few townhomes in San Angelo. I can only think of a couple of developments and they were all owned, not rentals. There are lots of apartments, but you want to avoid places where there are a lot of college kids due to the noise. Rental houses are somewhat easy to come by except when the college crowd is trying to find housingin the late summer! Since public schools are not a concern to you, you can live on the North side of town (Lakeview area). The schools there are not very good, but it is a nice part of town to live in. One of my college roommates' families lived there and it was nice and quiet.

Good luck!

[Rathagos]

I appreciate the insights that ChristieP offered, but I have to strongly disagree on some points. I'm sure I'm taking some of them wrong, so it's not a slight at all on ChristieP, but a different perspective.

I've lived in San Angelo for almost 10 years now (except for two I did in Italy right before I retired from the Navy). I am originally from California. I consider myself an Independent with left leanings, although I normally voted right because of the military support.

You are right about where the "middle" income is for the city. I think last I saw in 2006 it was $37,500.

The city is split conservative and liberal. There are a LOT of lower-income manual labor people, as well as a large medical community. There is also a good size school (college) demographic. All those communities tend to be left-leaning. Most of the older people here (oil-money retired) and upper middle class people that lean to the right. What's the saying? "Everyone is born a liberal and dies a conservative." People when younger normally don't have money, so they vote to whatever gives them less taxes and more entitlements. As people grow, and they learn to manage money and even get some to put away for retirement, they start to lean to the right.

I would agree about the specialty stores. I've seen things in the stores around here (super Walmart, Sam's, H-E-B, etc.) that have some organically-marked items. But, since I don't look for them specifically, I can't answer. I know there is an Asian store, and there are plenty of local Mexican stores. But I don't know about organics.

My wife is a nurse at a pediatrician's office, and she disagrees with the Whooping Cough analysis. It's true that there is a resurgence of it in America, there is no overwhelming consensus that it's about to become pandemic in San Angelo. In fact, there have been VERY few cases that their office as seen (obviously she can't give me numbers, etc. because of Hyppa). In any case, the vaccine given for protection of WC is not 100%. What the big issue in San Angelo is (because of the proximity to Mexico) is Hepatitis A.

As ChristieP said, there are few townhomes in San Angelo. Tons of apartments and even some houses in various areas of San Angelo. I disagree with moving to the northside, though. Especially if your children are not vaccinated because they will be at a greater risk since a larger population of Mexicans/Hispanics and lower income families live on the north side. It's not a racist issue, its that the Hispanic and lower income families often do not have the financial means to get medical coverage; therefore, have a higher chance of carring communicable diseases. You are at risk anytime you don't vax, but combine that with moving into an area predominantly with a larger portion of people who don't seek regular medical attention increases the chances for your children becoming ill, even just visiting those local neighborhood stores.

If you have any specific questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

Good luck!

Rath

[coffeebean]

Thank you for all the responses, we have turned this position down and are continuing our search for our next home. It seems San Angelo is just too isolated among a few other things to make it a good home for us. I really appreciate all of the insight, it helped to know more of an area we have never visited.