baytown? why is it bad to live here? (Houston, Pasadena: crime, hotel)

[gyrlonfilm]

hi all,

i am currently as we speak, in a hotel room in baytown. i have been in the town for only a few hours and i have not begun exploring it yet. i see it has a lot of the same ammenities as every town would have, walmart/target/a mall, which i saw briefly driving by to get dinner on gartner road.

i will be interviewing for a teaching job at Ross Sterling high school in the goose creek school district.

my husband and i drove to houston from Phoenix area to check it out and see if this could possibly be a good place to live.

i did searches here on city-data before bombarding with questions, and there were several comments made about how baytown is bad, or, not a good place to live, etc. but no one went into detail.

i would like to know why, besides the fact that there are a lot of oil refineries around the water, baytown according to the map seems spread out, so, am i just missing something?

what is so bad about living in baytown? i would love to know in case i do get an offer teaching at sterling high school. i am one of two candidates for this job. thanks for any info you can give me!!!!

[Lone Star Rooster]

Having only been to Baytown a handful of times, there seem to be some good and bad areas. Guess the reputation you speak of is largely due to the refineries and other industries you mentioned. I've been through some pretty nice neighborhoods around Baytown (incl. Lakewood), and the Baytown Nature Center (former Brownwood subdivision) is a very neat parkland setting. However, what I've seen of the "downtown" area of Baytown left a lot to be desired...it looked practically abandoned to me.

One thing to keep in mind, is that a lot of the newer shopping/restaurant areas of Houston are a bit of a drive from Baytown. Kemah is pretty close, but other than that, the Galleria, Woodlands, Katy, etc. are all at least 30 minutes to an hour away with no traffic.

[gyrlonfilm]

thanks so much for answering quickly. i will see tomorrow and monday when it is daytime and i can do some exploring.

[EM1956]

While you are in Houston, why not look at other school districts also? Katy, Ft.Bend, Houston ISD, Cy-Fair, Alief, Clear Creek ISD, Friendswood, Pasadena, Humble (Kingwood) Conroe (Woodlands)? Check their websites for current openings.

[Poltracker]

There is nothing really wrong with Baytown per say...but alot of folks here have negative views of any area that is primarily blue collar workers and has refineries nearby. There are some very nice neighborhoods there like Lakewood (older) and the new neighborhoods off of 146 as well as some very expensive communities off of FM 1405 and Tri-City Beaches Rd. If you like more rural living, you could head out towards Mont Belvieu. If you would like to commute, check out places like Deer Park and the Clear Lake area of Houston. In the past, Baytown has not really had the ammenities that most folks would require but that has been changing recently and continues to change. Good luck in your search and I hope you enjoy SE Texas.

[jfre81]

Baytown is like a larger, less isolated version of my hometown (Texas City). Too industrial and blue-collar for those looking for the typical suburban setting and too boring for those with more urban sensibilities. That said, it's not a very expensive place to live, and all the big city stuff isn't that far away.

Mont Belvieu is a country town turning into an exurb of sorts, with people commuting into Baytown or even to the Beaumont area as well as Houston.

[poodlestix]

I lived in Baytown for 4 1/2 years (before moving to FL), and I didn't mind it. It had some good Mexican restaurants. It didn't seem to have any more crime than any other part of Houston.

[poodlestix]

By the way, I was in the Tanglewilde subdivision, off of 146, so it was definitely a nicer neighborhood.