Lookin for small coastal town. (Houston, Dallas: best city, condos, crime rate)

[wanttomove]

I am looking to move to a small coastal town with a small population of 10,000 or less. A mostly caucasian population (no offense to anybody). I have searched everywhere but can not find much info about smaller towns. If anyone can tell me any good small towns please help. I am also willing to live outside of tx maybe in Oklahoma, Arkansas, and other surrounding states. But would prefer it be by some sort of water. It also needs to be a relatively safe town. PLEASE HELP!!

[ohmanon]

You might want to research the south Texas area. Some of the smaller towns with an under 10,000 population are Rockport (an art community situated around the bay), Port Aransas, about 19 miles from Corpus Christi on Padre Island (good fishing and water activities), Aransas Pass (birding), Ingleside and Portland. I grew up in that area (Corpus Christi) and still miss it. Corpus Christi, although larger, still has a small town feel and is very easy to navigate - there is also a sizeable hispanic population...a very nice city.

A few links:

http://www.rockport-fulton.org/
http://www.aransaspasstexas.com/
http://www.city-data.com/city/Ingleside-Texas.html
http://www.portlandtx.com/

[Louis Peltier]

Here is one, close to Houston and the med center but still only a pop of about 1200. Look at Danbury, Texas, 77534. I could not find a web sight but lots of hits on google.

good luck!

[Boerne resident]

I agree with the post by ohmanon, port aransas, rockport, ingleside, but they're getting expensive, so better hurry! I've seen condos advertised in that area for about $100,000..................

[FarNorthDallas]

You might try Bay City/Matagorda although the entire coast of Texas pretty much has a high Hispanic population.

[ruggedindividual]

Originally Posted by ohmanon

Corpus Christi, although larger, still has a small town feel and is very easy to navigate - there is also a sizeable hispanic population...

If by sizeable you mean that hispanic's outnumber every other race combined...sure, it's sizeable.

If you're looking for a mostly-white town, you're not really going to find it on the Gulf Coast. Santa Fe, TX is near Galveston and they're synonymous with the KKK so that's your best bet - if that's your type of thing.

I agree that Corpus is probably the best city on the Gulf Coast though. If you want the small town feeling then look into Rockport, although that's mostly a retirement community. Again though, the white man is outnumbered here but that doesn't really matter to me. Everyone is pretty friendly and gets along fine.

[Paragod28]

Tiki is a really great choice and is close to Houston. Corpus is really hard to travel to and from since they have lack of a major airport. They are a nice rural fishing village. Tiki has a website under Village of tiki island. My husband was the head of EMS there for about 2 years. Everyone is really great. Almost 100% of the homes are on the water. Way less the 10,000 and right next to Galveston so you have the convenience of large cities neraby. The fishing is wonderful.

[ruggedindividual]

One thing about Galveston (and Tiki Village), the water isn't pretty. After living there for over 20 years and now living in Corpus Christi I can say that Galveston Island's water (brown) isn't attractive compared to Corpus/Padre Island (blue-green). It's nice to still be able to see your feet when you walk ankle-deep along the beach. Can't say the same for many of the cities further up the coast.

I've never had a problem with travel in and out of Corpus Christi. Sure there's one more stop in either Houston (30 min flight), Dallas (45 min flight) or just drive up to San Antonio (2 hr drive), but that's worth the cost of living in/near a city that isn't plagued by overpopulation and its associated symptoms.

[AK123]

Originally Posted by navyvet79

One thing about Galveston (and Tiki Village), the water isn't pretty. After living there for over 20 years and now living in Corpus Christi I can say that Galveston Island's water (brown) isn't attractive compared to Corpus/Padre Island (blue-green). It's nice to still be able to see your feet when you walk ankle-deep along the beach. Can't say the same for many of the cities further up the coast.

Yes, in general the further south you get, the water gets nicer...
However, the last couple of times I was in Galveston over the last six months, the water was very blue. Especially on the bay side. I think it all just depends on the tides. And Galveston has cleaned itself up immensely the last few years.

[ruggedindividual]

Another thing, and I don't want to continue to talk negative about Galveston, but the crime rate is an issue. City-Data has the crime rate for 2005 in Galveston at 631.5 (national avg = 325.2). Corpus is also above the average at 540.4 but is significantly lower than Galveston. Also worth considering is were the 2005 figures before or after Hurricane Katrina forced many of the LA residents to flee? I've heard from family that gang activity is worse in Houston/Galveston since Katrina.

I'm only mentioning this since it was one of the concerns that the poster had when the thread was started. When I was growing up back then, my folks wouldn't let me stay in Galveston at night because of crime. It's good to hear that the city has cleaned itself up since those days. The Strand was (is?) always a fun place to spend an afternoon!