Let's Talk About TYLER !!!!! (Houston, Dallas: fit in, sales, apartments)

[Visitor2007]

1) Can someone tell me about Tyler, basically anything you can think of, possitive or negative. Any nice malls, nice restaurants (any Thai, Chinese, Mexican?), hang out places for young professionals, etc.?

2) What about "bad" neighborhood to avoid due to crime, etc.?

3) Any specific apartments (1 bed/1 bath) one recommend for someone working downtown? (or does it matter if it's far away since it's a small city with probably not much traffic).

[Mark Senior]

You have probably read the four threads on the main page today.
(1) Need Info on moving to Tyler...
(2) Tyler is too conservative...
(3) Any advice on moving to Tyler...
(4) About an apartment in Tyler...

I posted a long message on Tyler is too Conservative last nite - wrote much more than the response about Tyler being conservative

Now I will try to answer you specific questions - now you see though I really like Tyler for it's relatively small size - however I just did a survey and it would be in the top three largest cities in 22 states but in Texas with many, many good sized towns it is not very large. Anyway here we go:
Oh I grew up in Tyler left to Houston for 25 years and been back 18 years so as, you can tell I've got some years on me.

One you do need to visit - where do you live now?
(1) A nice mall - lots of shopping serves about 350,000 200,000 live in the county - lots of money families here so nice shops
(2) 4 or 5 Chinese, nice steak house or two, plenty Italian and humpteen ( a bunch) of Mexican even serveral authentic ones, French, Thai, Greek, Mediteranean major chains we will be getting more, need more.
(3) Well,hang out for young professionals? - Ricks on the Square, Jakes not much that I know about - not much of a party town - private parties or go to Dallas, 1 hour plus away.
(4) Tyler has a low crime rate but with nearly 100,000 pop stuff does happen - most crime in Northwest, Northeast Tyler or around the apartments - many hundreds of units on far East end of Shiloh East of Paluxy but mainly crime there simply because of lower rent and the fact there are so many units. The Hudson or the one next to it - name? are very good for young profess. But on the West Loop - The Mansions of the Cascades is the more current "thing" all new, 40 buildings in a very upscale master planned community rents 675 - to 1100 or more for 3 bedroom 2 car garage - most have garages many 1 bedroom 1 baths
Many nice apartments in Tyler

Half the town is single/divorced They seem to hide out 100 or 200 hundred singles your age go to Green Acres Baptist Chruch if that has any interest I could tell more you about that - I'm divorced go there - Love it

If your working downtown no traffic compared to DFW but many cars on the roads many roads carry more than 30,000 cars a day - mostly 4 to 6 lane streets for that traffice count.

Well answering you questions specifically - anything else - read my post and all the others - not eveybody loves it of course that's impossible but more like it than don't - have you pulled up all the info on Tyler under city-data that you can research by state by city just by clicking - about a hundred more posts on Tyler and it gives any statistical data you could EVER want to know - even what percentage of gay people, yep 'tis true. Please let me know if this helps or you need anything else - Good luck - welcome to Tyler if you so desire Big enough for you to fit in

[Visitor2007]

Originally Posted by Mark-Tyler is Special

Half the town is single/divorced They seem to hide out 100 or 200 hundred singles your age go to Green Acres Baptist Chruch if that has any interest I could tell more you about that - I'm divorced go there - Love it

I don't understand how singles expect to mingle at churches. You go to service at say 9 am and you're out at 11 am.

[Mark Senior]

No, in almost all Baptist chruches to really be apart of the body of believers and encourage each other in the Christian walk thru life and to be more of what Jesus intended for us we study his word thru a teacher or teachers in a group called Bible study, 30 or 40 people before or after the rest of the church congregation meets for worship and to here the pastors sermon for the day. I'm really lucky to have a teacher that talks about application to our everyday actions in life of how Jesus would want us to interact with the world we live in - real stuff you can work on - it's extremely unusual if I check my watch to see what time it is, if it is, it is to see if we have enough time to finish what he's talking about. You don't really get to "know" anyone, if that is what you want to do, attending the church service only. Like in my Sunday School/Bible study group we do all sorts of activities together: Texas Ranger Baseball, Gaylord Texas Ice show at Christmas in Grapevine, outings at the lake, Shevreport Boardwalk for shopping and dinner, just take off and go to a play in Dallas or anyother of our varisous stuff in town everyother week or so. We even do "foot" exercises at Big Sandy not an offical church function - no wild drunken brawls together - some just come to chuch to find a mate 0k, ususally but not always a good place to meet someone - Singles your age meet about 9:30 to 9:45 and go to church at 11:15. Come by Sunday morning see what you think, they'll just be friendly not twist your arm to repeat stuff sign a book commiting to being at chruch 5 days a week etc. say prayers or "do" anything you don't want to do. Many people make lasting friends and hey, none of us have our life's all together and most, in the singles, don't really pretend to. Church is really not a place to show others you've got it all together as the pastor says, if you are looking for a perfect place with perfect people you need to go on down the street and good luck. Church is really a "hospital" for sinners.

Anyway, you'll have all kinds of opportunities for people trying to put real meaning into their lives, yeah it is very true some, if not alot are not there for that reason but it's not my judgement to worry about what everybody else does or doesn't do that goes to Church - I've got more than my hands full trying to deal with myself. Hope you find what you need let me know if there is anything else. Give it a try -

[waqt]

Be careful of the information that you take to heart, either through this site, or through the Chamber of Commerce websites. It is not exactly as is purported through the websites. Best thing to do, would be to visit for at least a week. It seems a lot of the info on this site and through the CC is old. We were unable to visit before we moved here, and it is much different than all the research i did said. High Property Taxes, very divided racial lines, people are very very nice and helpful and kind, but there is a very definitive class system here, not a lot of work in blue collar and they aren't looking to invest in economic development. pay rates are pretty low. The job market is very tight. We have been here for 3 months, and we will be moving at the end of the 4th. We were upper middle class folks where we came from, and we are just barely above poverty level here. We chose Tyler, based on the representations made by this site, by the Chamber of Commerce website and the many number of other resources that we researched before moving here (1700 mile move). from the Chamber of Commerce this is is a 'certified' retirement area, and the city IS catering to retirees. this is my humble opinion, so please, before you make the leap to move here, DO visit for an extended visit and check it out in person before you make the jump, if not for any other reason, than to save a little money on moving expenses.

[Mark Senior]

Tyler is not for everyone - racially Tyler is like most of the the South... As I said, you should have a job BEFORE you move to Tyler. It will be some time before Tyler will encorage job growth by using city sales tax money when dollar incentives is the only way to attract business. Which is the case for cities like Tyler that are not attached to the "hip" of a major metro area like DFW. Which just grows on itself because people come there because there are jobs companies move there because there is a large labor pool, the cycle just repeats itself as in the boom town to the north of Dallas growing tens of thousands of people each year. Now, with a new city mayor just elected in May on a platform of job growth we will now have a new emphasis on job creation - rather than reducing "city" property taxes by 60 per cent in 12 years - we will spend some money on job creation - job creation will take some time. Tyler's city property rate is the lowest - by far - at .20 percert per 100 valuation of any city over 30,000 in Texas. The school and county are just average - now, property tax apprasials are not low - that's because the STATE of TEXAS requires cities to appraise property at 95% of what they sell for - I sold realestate in Tyler for 5 years and at that time found 2 houses over appraised most under by up to 20%. So I don't know what you comparison was when you said High tax rates in Tyler. Sorry that was your experience but most all the information good and bad on these posts are accurate but your advice makes total sense - my goodness, come visit awhile before you move unless you don't have an option such as tranfer or lose your job. Sorry, for your disapointment with Tyler but again it certainly isn't everything for everyone - you most go to a larger metro like DFW for that. But, thousands have moved and stayed here in the last 5-10 years. Where are you moving too?