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I think Paloma is a very interesting street because it has such a wide variety of homes. I'm not sure what area utsci was calling sketchy, but I wouldn't have any qualms about living on Paloma. We live not very far from there and haven't had a single problem ourselves, although there have been some car break-ins in the area. Also, I doubt if there are many communities in the country where you can buy/rent an affordable house within walking distance of the water. You might want to take advantage of it while you're here. ...
Thank you, Marlow, for this information. It's so hard to get valid opinions and I appreciate yours and the others' too. I totally agree about there being so few areas where a relatively poor person like me can afford to live so near the water, in an actual city.
I encourage you to drive around several areas before you make a decision, especially if you're buying. Another area you might look at if you haven't already is the neighborhood where Ocean Drive and Ennis Joslin intersect--around Waverly and Edgewater Drive. It's an older neighborhood with big lots and some funky but interesting houses. Also, across Alameda close to the Oso golf course there are some interesting areas. As you get closer to Nile Rd. I would be cautious because TAMUCC now owns what is currently a bunch of empty fields and has built one big housing thing and I don't know what they're plans are for the other land.
Oh gosh this is so depressing to hear. I'm not casting aspersions, but it says something (to me) about a community and its veterinarians, when problems are this bad.
It's not a veterinarian issue. It's a matter of irresponsible people whose pets are at the bottom of their priority list. That and poverty issues.
Thank you, Rust Never Sleeps. I will try to call him in the a.m. regarding the lead paint. I hadn't thought of it being a problem for older persons.
It's not the health issue I'm addressing.
1. It's the cost to abate should you want to renovate.
2. It can be used in your negotiating strategy.
3. It's unknown how Lb paint rules/laws may change in the future. Consider "Asbestos" which went from schools to all public buildings a few years later. A prime example is the old Nueces courthouse in CC. The city can't afford to abated it - so there it sits.
Recently a person in CC wanted to modernize her kitchen with new cabinets and granite counter-tops. Lead became an issue. Work stopped until they contracted with a certified lead contractor, unanticipated change orders and cost. She didn't have a kitchen for three weeks.
I agree, it's not about the vets here. I love Dr. Pigott at Windsor for my dog and there are many other great vets here in town. But the problem stems from unintended litters, can't find homes, they are raised outside so they eventually wander away and start multiplying. When I lived in the Alameda/Airine area I had several cats meowing on my porch every day. They can get quite loud. Don't ever make the mistake of putting food out for them, they will never leave. I have been in rentals here for the last two years and every place I've had neighbors who left animals behind. Some of my co-workers have been rounding up a few cats now and then to speuter when they have a few bucks. My current roommate adopted a 4 year old dog last year. He had not been neutered and he was heartworm positive, as are most of the strays. One shelter worker told my roommate that the average lifespan for a dog on the street is no more than 3-4 years, the time it takes to die from heartworm and flea anemia.
Like many problems in CC, a lot of it is about the transient population here. There are a few military bases, two colleges, oil field workers, and many immigrants. I've mentioned before that my take on long term improvements in CC is a problem since very few residents live here long enough to care. And the ones that do are all interconnected somehow as CC is a small town.
Marlow is correct about the area around Ennis Joslin and Ocean. I had a few professors and co-horts who lived in that area and really liked it. Look for streets like Universtiy, Palmetto,Homecrest, Troy. One of the post-docs just sold a 3/2 on University for $181k. It was recently remodeled, nice yard. Good area!
I encourage you to drive around several areas before you make a decision, especially if you're buying. Another area you might look at if you haven't already is the neighborhood where Ocean Drive and Ennis Joslin intersect--around Waverly and Edgewater Drive. It's an older neighborhood with big lots and some funky but interesting houses. Also, across Alameda close to the Oso golf course there are some interesting areas. As you get closer to Nile Rd. I would be cautious because TAMUCC now owns what is currently a bunch of empty fields and has built one big housing thing and I don't know what they're plans are for the other land.
Thank you! I will drive these areas after my next flight down there. I appreciate the help - hard to find these funky areas and hidden gems on a person's own. I really am shocked at how the real estate agents we have dealt with seem to have their own bullheaded agenda and then wonder why we don't want to use them further.
It's not a veterinarian issue. It's a matter of irresponsible people whose pets are at the bottom of their priority list. That and poverty issues.
I do respectfully disagree. I feel vets could do so much, much, much more, because they ARE dealing with low-skilled poverty people in terms of those who are letting dogs/cats breed and run. When dealing with low-skill people, you have to understand what blocks them.
It's not just money. It's things like being able to bring animals in for spay/neuter on a whim, basically. This has been done in other areas, to great result. People able to just drop off their animals, get them spayed/neutered. I might have the locales wrong, but several places in Texas and I think Arizona have had tremendous response to drop-off spay/neuters that run around 3 days to a week - they blitz the area, put up signs, people can drop off the animals. They spay/neuter on assembly lines.
To get spayed/neutered in several cities I've lived, with the free or reduced-cost certificates, it takes literally months. Even with cold hard cash, it's weeks. It takes days upon days even to get a regular appointment. Who has money for an "emergency" vet clinic when they can't get their animals into a regular clinic in a timely manner?
I can count on one hand the number of vets who make low-cost, easy spay/neuters a priority, after 60 years of going to vets across the country and working rescues.
People don't get adequate medical care, either, if they are troubled, poor, low-skill, etc. Not just a vet problem, imo, but a health field problem. And such populations (low skilled) are ZERO fun to work with.
I agree, it's not about the vets here. I love Dr. Pigott at Windsor for my dog and there are many other great vets here in town. But the problem stems from unintended litters, can't find homes, they are raised outside so they eventually wander away and start multiplying. When I lived in the Alameda/Airine area I had several cats meowing on my porch every day. They can get quite loud. Don't ever make the mistake of putting food out for them, they will never leave. I have been in rentals here for the last two years and every place I've had neighbors who left animals behind. Some of my co-workers have been rounding up a few cats now and then to speuter when they have a few bucks. My current roommate adopted a 4 year old dog last year. He had not been neutered and he was heartworm positive, as are most of the strays. One shelter worker told my roommate that the average lifespan for a dog on the street is no more than 3-4 years, the time it takes to die from heartworm and flea anemia.
Like many problems in CC, a lot of it is about the transient population here. There are a few military bases, two colleges, oil field workers, and many immigrants. I've mentioned before that my take on long term improvements in CC is a problem since very few residents live here long enough to care. And the ones that do are all interconnected somehow as CC is a small town.
Marlow is correct about the area around Ennis Joslin and Ocean. I had a few professors and co-horts who lived in that area and really liked it. Look for streets like Universtiy, Palmetto,Homecrest, Troy. One of the post-docs just sold a 3/2 on University for $181k. It was recently remodeled, nice yard. Good area!
Thanks for the information about the university area.
As to the great vets, every town has some great vets. But proactive groups of vets who make it their business to reach the animals of what I call in the post above "low skilled owners" - nope. Rare. I love my vet, too. But he and the rest of them here don't make it easy for us rescuers, and they don't make it easy on the low-skill owners, at all. When you find how vet schools teach (appalling), you find the answer as to "why" they don't take on this huge effort. Of course, with people actually dying and living with terrible health, it's not just vets. It's the medical field.
Just so you know, I DO hold the actual pet owner responsible, not the vets. Just saying I think vets can do more for the ANIMALS of these people. Ultimately, it's the owner's responsibility, but the pets are helpless unless someone steps in for them.
Location: St Thomas, USVI - Seattle, WA - Gulf Coast, TX
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Seasick, good luck with your search! Just a tip to a fellow CC area house-shopper: make sure you do look at property taxes for specific homes and get details from your lender/real estate agent re: specific insurance requirements as you shop. The home prices seem relatively low in much of the area, until you start factoring in those two pieces of the puzzle into your monthly payment. I was really surprised. It's a bummer that so much of the cost of home-ownership in CC is a monthly throwaway, not going toward our investments, especially as you say you're hoping to stay in this next house forever. Even if/when you pay it off, your taxes will be a higher regular expense than in other areas (and I'd assume you'd want to keep the insurance too, even after the mortgage is paid.) I pay less in property taxes (and waaaay less in insurance) on my Seattle area home (where the schools are much better, ironically, assuming property taxes in CC aid schools as they do in WA) than I will likely be paying on a home that is less than 1/2 its cost/value in an outskirt area of CC. Also, all homes will require windstorm insurance, many will require flood as well.
I won't speak too much more to area real estate because I'm still a few weeks out from even exploring the place in-person, but I have watched the local market, home sales, etc. like a hawk for the last several months. Obviously you saw that I was initially very drawn to the Del Mar area too. Many houses in that neighborhood are sitting on the market for quite some time, even after several price reductions. Some of this could be because it's still pretty early in the real-estate "season" but other areas of CC are not behaving this way. Homes are selling dramatically faster as you inch closer to TAMUCC, and several other areas as well. This is a big red flag that something is up with the neighborhood (high property taxes, safety issues, whatever... something is unattractive to buyers) that we're not seeing right away. The houses in that area are gorgeous and seem to have great character though, don't they?
Adding a thought to UTSCI's great list of explanations for the feral animal issues that apparently plague the area: I have never searched a rental market that is so universally opposed to renting to pet owners as the greater CC market. It makes me suspicious that this contributes to pet abandonment (though UTSCI's explanations are very likely the bulk of it, based on my current experience in the Virgin Islands, which also has a large strays problem). I grew up in a place that practically worships pets (throw a stick in any direction in the Seattle area and it will land in a dog park), so it seems totally unreasonable, plain weird, and kind of offensive to me to find that 1 of 50 places, at best, are willing to rent to pet owners. My Seattle tenants have always had pets and I've never had a problem with them (besides, just take an extra deposit for them!), so I don't get it. Anyway, that's my rant to add to the pile. That, and if CC doesn't have it already, they should implement a catch - spay/neuter - release program like we have in the VI. When shelters are full, this is still a great way that volunteer efforts can help to curb the proliferation of feral populations.
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