Possibly relocating to El Paso from Nebraska

[Six Foot Three]

Originally Posted by meredithmyoung

All the responses on shopping sound nice to me! Like I said I have no shopping here what so ever.. My husband says that the weather sounds like a dream compared to the very VERY chilly weather here, (ice storms, no power etc.). What about the storms? We are in tornado alley here and I know parts of Texas are. At first I was afraid to move to NE because of the storms, but they are really pretty. I could just do without the tornado part!!
I guess now comes the time for my family and I to visit the area and experience it.
When my family and I were looking at houses in the area for sale we noticed that a lot of them had pools in the backyard. Are there several public swimming pools or membership pools? I know in Idaho there are communities that share a pool for the neighborhood. Here we have some that are public and one that is membership for about $150 for the summer.
One thing that my girls think is really neat, that you can swim all year round!
Is there a grocery store in El Paso that is similar to Whole Foods? I know there is a Whole Foods in Dallas and Austin but they don't seem to have one closer. Are there locally owned "natural" grocery stores or farmers market? I googled it and found one that also is a deli??
Since the weather seems to be pleasant all year round, does that mean that if you like to garden, (like I do), you can have a sustainable garden all year?

El Pasoans passed a Qualty of Life Bonds several years back and so they have built or rehabilitated indoor pools at City Parks all over EP. I always liked the YMCA's in EP also.

My Grandparents always had a large Garden and an Oasis feel as they tons of Plants, Trees and Shrubs etc.. all over their front and back yards.

[bree~]

Swimming weather is definitely wrapping up. It starts to get hot again in March. They do have public pools in quite a few of the parks. I haven't been here long enough to speak of storms, but I do not think we get tornadoes in this area. Maybe because of the mountains? March/April can get very windy. Is was crazy windy last year. Sun Harvest is like Whole Foods (I wish we had a Trader Joes!), but there are other organic stores around town. I eat and feed my family junk, so I don't pay attention to the organic places, sorry. You will find farmers markets everywhere, especially if you head out to the west side and take a trip on NM 28/TX 20. I buy great produce dirt cheap at the roadside stands.

[Mingtha]

Originally Posted by alliswell

I totally agree with you on that one. The people, the surroundings, nothing is super "trashy". Some places are a little rough around the edges, sure. But I agree compared to other places, you don't get that feeling of "blight" or that everyone's given up. I've mentioned the children of EP before. I have lived in places where you'd be out and about and you would see just the most pathetic little uncared for creatures that would just break your heart -- always with their mother, never see a father. All they needed was a bath and a clean shirt and fed regularly. I have not seen that here in EP. In EP, it immediately struck me how much you see dads with their children - as much as you see them with moms and most of them don't have a hair out of place on their heads.

Yup. That is so true. In El Paso, you might see "blight" at one particular house or another, but not the whole neighborhood. Here in Houston there are streets and neighborhoods with house upon house in shoddy condition. What makes it worse is that people dump so much heavy trash in front of their homes which sometimes ends up sitting for months.

Most people in El Paso have the decency to take their heavy trash to a local landfill, and not have it out in plain view while waiting for a monthly city service.

To anyone who thinks El Paso is ugly or trashy, you haven't seen what I've seen here in Houston.

[meredithmyoung]

Well I think we are moving to El Paso, (90% sure). Just want to wait for the Christmas break to transfer the kids schools. We are waiting on several things. Plus, the entire family needs to visit to make sure it is a place for us to live. The thread on terrorist threats freaked me out a little! Hopefully that doesn't happen very often? I am an Obama fan and would very much like to get out of Red territory. I am a lonely democrat here.
Any last words of wisdom??
Thanks for all your advice so far.