Houston: Mainly Conservative? (Dallas, Tyler, Cleveland: home builders, salary, taxes)

[travelguy_73]

Originally Posted by kpoeppel

I currently live in western PA, and I am generally fed up with the entitlement mentality and anti-business attitude around here. I have also lived in California, and I did not like the earth-worship/anti-development/anti-Christian attitudes there.

From what I have read about Houston, it seems to be a generally pro-business (has many good jobs, unlike western PA) and pro-development (affordable to buy a house). I have also heard there are many conservative churches.

My main concern is that property taxes seem very high, and Houston seems to be doing the "tax and spend" to fund a light rail system when most Americans would rather just drive. The good news is I see Texas has no income tax. I am also concerned about illegal immigrants, how big of a problem is that?

Hi Kpoeppel, I think you will find that there is a healthy mix of all attitudes here, in every part of the city. The attitude is more live-and-let-live than anything else. This manifests itself in a relatively low regulation local government, an easy life for developers, and acceptance (or at least tolerance) for most all viewpoints. Of course you will find people who think the government spends money on things that don't benefit every single person (e.g., rail) and those who thing the government doesn't do enough to promote civic interests (e.g., , historic preservation). This is a common thread in every city in the country, though.

And yes, we definitely have higher property taxes than other parts of the country. However, without being able to collect a state income tax, local governments have few options to raise money for education and infrastructure. Now whether it is spent in the smartest way is another story!

As for illegal immigration, whether it is a problem depends on who you ask. I believe most people here, in theory, don't favor illegal immigration. But, OTOH, even the most conservative people see dollar signs when they are hiring day laborers to trim their trees. So there isn't really a ton of agreement about what to do about the problem.

I think that you will probably find Houston to be a very comfortable place to live. No CA-style regulations, anti-business anything is rare, and there is a definite respect for people's religious affiliations.

[Willys]

There was a time when Texas was largely democrat, run by democrats with a constitution written by democrats... at least in name. A friend from NYC who moved to Houston during the major migration of the '70's laughed at me when I brought up that 'democrat' background of Texas. Friend explained that a liberal from Texas would probably be more conservative than a conservative from New York.

Not to worry tho', as the 'travelguy' states, Houston is very live-and-let-live. You've 'heard' a lot of things about Houston and Texas, probly most seem prohibitive to you but also that 'you're gonna love it'.

Don't let the heat, the humidity, the church, the nay sayers hold you back. Houston is a large, on the go, bustling metro and nothing's going to stop that. There's no room for anti-business attitude, or earth-worship/anti-development or anti-Christian. I don't know how it is today, but just last century Houston was the largest metro in the US with no zoning. You'll recognize that when you get there.

There's plenty of room for you and the way you want to live.

[SDBreaux]

Originally Posted by Willys

There was a time when Texas was largely democrat, run by democrats with a constitution written by democrats... at least in name. A friend from NYC who moved to Houston during the major migration of the '70's laughed at me when I brought up that 'democrat' background of Texas. Friend explained that a liberal from Texas would probably be more conservative than a conservative from New York.

Not to worry tho', as the 'travelguy' states, Houston is very live-and-let-live. You've 'heard' a lot of things about Houston and Texas, probly most seem prohibitive to you but also that 'you're gonna love it'.

Don't let the heat, the humidity, the church, the nay sayers hold you back. Houston is a large, on the go, bustling metro and nothing's going to stop that. There's no room for anti-business attitude, or earth-worship/anti-development or anti-Christian. I don't know how it is today, but just last century Houston was the largest metro in the US with no zoning. You'll recognize that when you get there.

There's plenty of room for you and the way you want to live.

Dallas is now bigger than Houston. :-P

[Mom2Feebs]

Top 50 Cities in the US by Population

If you're talking about DFW, then yes, the DFW area is bigger overall, but Dallas alone has a ways to go to beat Houston.

[jfre81]

Originally Posted by kpoeppel

Jfre81,

I don't have a problem funding highways, since almost everyone uses them. I do, however, have a problem with funding light rail since few people will have convenient access to it. As long as it is impossible to put a bus stop/train station in front of everyone's driveway, the automobile will usually be more convenient and thus used more often.

There is a bus system. You can ride the bus to the rail line. I do this. Anyone can.

[Mom2Feebs]

Originally Posted by jfre81

There is a bus system. You can ride the bus to the rail line. I do this. Anyone can.

Yes, but the problem is when you're forced into doing that because Metro has cut off your direct bus line in order to up ridership on the train.

The train is a bunch of BS. My husband has to take it every day. He hates it.

They should have done elevated rail connecting the major business/medical centers, and commuter rail, and worked from there. Personally I think they did it backwards. Ah well.

[jfre81]

There was no chance of the kind of funding for all that as long as DeLay was around. He is the one who shot down the commuter train. IMO DeLay is a big part of Houston's popular image of being *conservative.*

You also cannot do all of the infrastructure construction at once because A) the money isn't there and B) it would create a citywide traffic fiasco - not just in the area where the construction is taking place. Were you ever around the Med Center when they were building the rail? It wouldn't have been any better if they were building an el-train or monorail.

Everyone just sees the first rail line, decides it's not of any use to them so it's not of any use to anyone. It will get connected to more areas with time and public support. The University Line would already be under construction now if not for the NIMBY shrieking from Afton Oaks and a few businesses on Richmond, all of whom are going to see their value increase once it goes through.

[mjewell]

If you're looking for conservative churches you will surely find them here, but there are also plenty of open minded, live and let live types that both do and do not attend churches. Houston is extremely pro-business. It's called the "right to work", which basically translates to "no unions allowed" and little in the way of business taxes to the big businesses that decide to move headquarters here, therefore we have a booming job market and when you hate your boss you can usually find somewhere else to go pretty quickly.

Development means construction jobs, tax revenue, and low housing prices so most people are happy to see the new developments AFTER they're done. BEFORE every project there are tons of people complaining about how it's going to affect everything under the sun from commute time to wildlife to drainage issues. Everyone has an opinion, they voice it, it gets done anyway, and then everyone wonders why it didn't happen years ago....like the light rail. I believe we ran 2 mayors completely out of town because they supported it. Now everyone wonders why we don't have better mass transit - a little inconsistency??

Now that I've exposed my neck, I'm going to neatly place it on the chopping block. I have no problem with the illegals that come here. I've never seen a bunch of harder workers with the attitude that they will do anything and live with any hardship so they can help their families get ahead. Drive by any of the areas where guys are standing in the hot sun waiting for someone that wants heavy manual labor and see how hard they fight for the privilege of getting $10 or $20 for doing anything you tell them to do.

I'm going to take heavy heat for this, I know. Go easy guys.

[jfre81]

Originally Posted by mjewell

I believe we ran 2 mayors completely out of town because they supported it. Now everyone wonders why we don't have better mass transit - a little inconsistency??

I think it's just more a sign of the dynamics of the city. It changes too much and too quickly to be labeled *conservative* at least in whole.

There are also people in support speaking out more and showing that not everyone wants to have to drive everywhere.

[SDBreaux]

Originally Posted by jfre81

I think it's just more a sign of the dynamics of the city. It changes too much and too quickly to be labeled *conservative* at least in whole.

There are also people in support speaking out more and showing that not everyone wants to have to drive everywhere.

People are returning to the idea of downtown life. That pretty much died when the car industry destroyed the public mass transit industry. Now, cities across the nation are beefing up public transit. I can't wait until PT is so developed and reliable that I'll just walk a few blocks to catch my train.