Liberal from Denver possible relo to Houston want INFO please (West: bankrupt, tax)

[UHLatino]

For affordable and safe housing in the city look at the Briarforest around beltway 8 and parts of Spring Branch. You can also look (I know ppl will hate for saying this) the Northern part of Alief. It is an area that gets a bad rep but really isn't worthy of it. I will suggest if you take this route that you put your kids in private school until they reach HS age and enrolled them in the magnet school, Kerr. I also suggested Northern Alief b/c if you go south to Asiatown where there is a very nice Buddhist Temple. You should look at areas just south of Memorial, which are pretty nice and middle-class.

Houston is strange in the sense that a very nice neighborhood and a bad one are literally one street apart from each other.

[Univ_Texas_Alum_30]

Originally Posted by Topaz

Hopefully there is a happy medium between "large, wasteful government bureaucracies" and being ranked worst in the U.S. for services to the country's most needy and vulnerable, like homeless children and disabled adults.

First of all, I don't understand why that would be the fault of the state of Texas if veterans are not recieving proper care. That is clearly a federal responsibility to take care of veterans. As such, you were not able to show any reason why veterans welfare would vary from state to state (presumably, your point was that in the more conservative states, veterans are treated more poorly). Additionally, you are advocating greater government to solve a problem caused by government. We would not have disabled veterans if we did not have a policy of perpetual war which has been continued and augmented by Obama no matter how much liberals refuse to admit that fact to themselves.

Secondly, you gave no evidence whatsoever that their are more homeless people in Texas or Houston than in other states. Presumably, there will be more because of our size, but there is no evidence that they are worse off here than elsewhere. It is governments that cause poverty and starvation by over-regulating the economy so that jobs and economic growth are stifled. By removing government regulation, you will allow for more prosperity. Again, you are advocating for more government to solve a problem created by government.

Of course, anyone who disagrees with you is opposed to veterans and helping homeless children and obviously hate kittens too.

[Sampaguita]

Originally Posted by Univ_Texas_Alum_30

First of all, I don't understand why that would be the fault of the state of Texas if veterans are not recieving proper care. That is clearly a federal responsibility to take care of veterans. As such, you were not able to show any reason why veterans welfare would vary from state to state (presumably, your point was that in the more conservative states, veterans are treated more poorly). Additionally, you are advocating greater government to solve a problem caused by government.

Not sure if Topaz was referring solely to disabled vets but there are plenty of disabled adults (because of disease or accident) who need help.

My husband is a disabled adult - qualified as a paraplegic by his neurologists, recognized as such by the government and confined to a wheelchair. Thank goodness he is of sound mind and intelligence and has a medical team that is knowledgeable because navigating the system is a bear. If you are unfortunate to miss some of those components, you would likely fall into the abyss that Topaz references. For those folks, it's a terrible place to be in.

At the same time, I cannot believe that there are so many people who have no business being classified as disabled (imo, anyway) and that's one of the areas where I find the system to be flawed.

Originally Posted by cheryjohns

Just got a message that put the whole Houston thing into perspective for me. Most here don't believe in spending money you don't have; could not care less if you are gay; old folks need to be taken care of; able-bodied people need to get a job; if the nation goes to war there better be a good reason and that hasn't been the case lately; children need to be disciplined but not beaten; people need a hand up but not a hand out; your religion is up to you (including no religion at all); whatever was your specialty dish in your homeland will be greatly appreciated at the block party; I may have missed something but I tried.

This is pretty much what we've experienced. As a liberal (from NYC AND SoCal!), moving to Houston had its moments of trepidation for me - especially when we became involved in our church and I realized that most everyone we met is very conservative. Stereotypes being what they are, I've never come across so many generous, kind and helpful people. I don't know about within their own private circles, but no one has ever questioned our politics and frankly, no one seems to care. I think the circle of people we know - liberal & conservative - fall into the mindset that CJ posted above.

[Topaz]

Originally Posted by Univ_Texas_Alum_30

First of all, I don't understand why that would be the fault of the state of Texas if veterans are not recieving proper care. That is clearly a federal responsibility to take care of veterans. As such, you were not able to show any reason why veterans welfare would vary from state to state (presumably, your point was that in the more conservative states, veterans are treated more poorly). Additionally, you are advocating greater government to solve a problem caused by government. We would not have disabled veterans if we did not have a policy of perpetual war which has been continued and augmented by Obama no matter how much liberals refuse to admit that fact to themselves.

Secondly, you gave no evidence whatsoever that their are more homeless people in Texas or Houston than in other states. Presumably, there will be more because of our size, but there is no evidence that they are worse off here than elsewhere. It is governments that cause poverty and starvation by over-regulating the economy so that jobs and economic growth are stifled. By removing government regulation, you will allow for more prosperity. Again, you are advocating for more government to solve a problem created by government.

Of course, anyone who disagrees with you is opposed to veterans and helping homeless children and obviously hate kittens too.

Google it. There is a TON of objective evidence that the needy are worse off in Texas than other states, but this isn't a research paper so I didn't include a bunch of citations. I wasn't specifically talking about veterans. I would say you just have to look at issues like the environment, food safety, and finance/banking to see what happens when too much government regulation is removed, but we should probably just agree to disagree before all our posts are removed from this thread!

[Bily Lovec]

move to Austin.
Houston has filled its quota of liberial hippies

[diablo234]

It's also filled it's quota of neo con right wingers.

[ogun]

move to lake livingston and start a revolution!

[robertrulez]

For that budget you could get a nice house in Westbury which is a very liberal and up and coming neighborhood.

[texas7]

Originally Posted by Topaz

Yes, they do. One of my colleagues at work was just mentioning the other day how she went to get her car serviced (in Houston) and the employee started ranting about politics with the assumption that she totally agreed with him. She disagreed with everything he said but since her car was being left in this guy's hands, she just nodded politely and smiled.

Lots of strangers and acquaintances in Sugar Land have launched conversations with me about religion and politics. I usually try to respond politely as I'm not itching for a fight, but I think some of these people are really lacking in insight when they assume that everyone in Sugar Land thinks just like they do. In reality, the voting results show diversity of opinion.

You know the world is full of people - all with their own opinions - and people often rant about their opinions - doesn't mean they are all trying to convert you. Some just like to express themselves, some are looking for a debate and a few others probably are trying to convert you .... but that's just the human race in any state.

[texas7]

Originally Posted by cheryjohns

Oh, and bureacrats that cut services for children and other people that deserve help should fry in h*ll (should you believe in h*ll). If you don't believe in h*ll, they should just fry somewhere, although I am not advocating anything.

I think the problem lies in determining who actually deserves help and thousands who fraudulently receive help. There aren't enough employees in the agencies that steward these kind of things to make sure those receiving help are legit.