Re-locating to Lubbock from Indiana (West: credit card, school districts, getaway)

[Jim Finn]

Originally Posted by jaxen.2304

Lubbock is the ****hole of America, Period! There is nothing to do. It's pretty dirty ALL of the time. The crime is bla bla bla........................Ok Ok You do not like Lubbock. GO back to where you came from please.

There is Plenty to do here for ADULTS! Not collage CHILDREN like you maybe. After you grow up and have lived in at least 4 other states come back and see how you like it then. Lubbock is a safe place to live work and retire. You are obviously too young and inexperienced to have a point reference as to good places to live! Thank you for leaving!

[jgean]

I am sure Lubbock is nice for the most part, it's just not for everyone.

[NOTAM]

i think i would like Lubbock. i have not spent any time in the city but used to fly there when i was a Flight Attendant.
i have to laugh when i hear the song Billy Joe Shaver sings about Amarillo,..when he talks about how much he hates Amarillo and then the last line is something like "yeah Lubbock-they got some good people there, BUT THEY ARE ALL DEAD!" lol.......(you just have to hear him sing it-its a funny song).......no offense to Lubbock-ites, just tellin ya about a funny song Shaver sings, thats all!
for the person who hates Lubbock, i guarantee it is A HUNDRED TIMES better than South Texas! GUARANTEE!

[case44]

Originally Posted by jgean

Are there any small town's around Lubbock that are nice?

There are a few, but they are not quite suburbs. Not yet, anyway. Idalou is on the east, Wolfforth is on the southwest, Shallowater on the northwest, New Deal on the north, and Slaton on the southeast. I'd have to say Wolfforth is the nicest of those towns, but all of these are a long way from being fully developed. Slaton has more to offer but is 16 miles out. And Wolfforth has excellent growth potential right now, bordering the exploding southwest Lubbock. Everything Coach Knight says about Lubbock is true -- he loves this place and you are never far from anything.

[jgean]

I turned down the job in Lubbock, we decided that the town just wasn't for us. Thanks for all your help.

[joossens]

I registered an account here JUST so I could come and post a counter-reply to the absolutely absurd and totally slanted post by “jaxen.2304” First of all WHAT A BUNCH OF POPPYCOCK! I second what Jim Finn said: Just get out of Lubbock if it's so bad. And good riddance!

I was curious about the town of Tyler, TX and so I was reading the forums. The posts from a few people kinda changed my mind. But I was thinking how slanted and negative they sounded. I thought to check out the posts for Lubbock since I KNOW how this place is and I'd know if what I was reading was a load of bull or not. And what I see is that the TOTALLY NEGATIVE posts about Lubbock are just hogwash. There is so much more positive about Lubbock than negative that any slant in the negative direction is just not believable. You simply cannot rely on such negative opinions if you are trying to decide to move to a town—ANY town.

I'm sad that the original poster said they were turning down a job possibly because of the negative things jaxen had to say. Mr. Football has laid out about as accurate a description of Lubbock as you're going to get along with some great photos.

I've been here for over 2 years. My wife has been here for 4 years. We actually moved away for a time to Florida when we first married because I had a house there near Gainesville. We sold the house and lived in Naples, FL for two winters. We moved for a short time to Tennessee and also lived in Albuquerque. Then we moved back to Lubbock. I've lived in many other places as well. So I have plenty to compare Lubbock to.

A number of people have said correctly that there are some of the friendliest people you will EVER meet here in Lubbock. I've traveled all over the country and I'm not kidding when I say there is a good crowd here. The word that comes to mind is “respectful”. People are very respectful here. Whenever you are walking to your car from a store people will stop to let you cross. The exception seems to be older people. They would probably run you over before they'd stop. That's been my experience time and again. But that is the case everywhere I've ever been.

People comment about it being windy here. I happen to like a stiff breeze. People mention dust storms. I've only seen a few times what I would call a “storm” where the sky turns orange. Most of the time the wind just kicks up some dust here and there. No big deal. But I have seen people with irritated lungs. I'm guessing they were smokers. So that truly is a consideration for some people.

The cost of living is reasonable. Food and merchandise are not outrageous and pretty much like I've seen elsewhere. Sales tax is 8.25% which is more than I'd like but not too bad like Tennessee was at almost 10% including food. You get a lot of house for the money as people have said. The Southwest area is considered the best and the house values are higher because of that perception. But as others have said there are many other nice housing areas throughout the city.

People have mentioned the “high crime rate”. Well there is a crime here. There are some pretty violent crimes too. And those crimes surprise me. But those crimes seem to be centered on certain areas of town. Areas which I never frequent myself. I've never been anywhere where I have felt unsafe in Lubbock. Never. If you're into drugs and living a sleazy lifestyle I'm sure you can make and find trouble wherever you go including Lubbock.

There was a comment about racism. I've seen a pretty diverse population here. I'm white and I don't like to be in towns that are predominantly white. I've not seen any racism although I'm sure it exists in pockets. Blacks I notice don't make eye contact with me much. I've seen that a lot in the south though. I wish it were not so. I go out of my way to greet blacks for that reason.

I've not seen the ignorant redneck southerners that I've seen so many other places in southern states. Lubbock seems more western to me than southern and I like that. My car broke down on me and I had some black people pick me up and give me a ride home which was out of their way. I was very grateful for that. And I've had many other very positive relations with blacks. I will also go out of my way to help blacks whenever I have the chance. I've never sensed any racial tension like I have in other areas particularly Orlando, FL where I grew up as well as Jacksonville and Tampa.

The same goes for the Latino population. There is no imbalance of Latinos as someone tried to suggest. And I've found them to be friendly. Latinos really like to socialize amongst themselves because they share the same language and culture. But I've never seen any territorialism. There is a healthy Filipino population here as well. Bottom line: If you're a racists you'll spew out your venom and hatred if you see one black or one Hispanic. There's no place on this planet a person like that will EVER be happy.

I think it was Mr. Football who mentioned the beautiful girls. He's right there are many pretty girls here. More than I've seen anywhere else it seems. Not sure why that is. I'm married so I don't look too hard... It's not easy when you go to the mall though!

It's true there isn't a whole lot here to do. I like that! After living so many years in the tourist destination of the world—Orlando—I've had enough of all that. The less there is to attract tourism the better as far as I'm concerned. It seems like the big draw here is the Buddy Holly museum. Gives me a chuckle...

I'm not a big football guy. Texas Tech football is big here. But it's not annoying like it was in Gainesville, FL with everybody painting EVERYTHING they owned blue and orange and plastering gators everywhere. It was stupid. You don't see so much of that lunacy here and I'm glad of it!

People have mentioned the parks. Lubbock has more parks than anywhere I've ever lived. And they are all very pretty with trees and small lakes. I love that about Lubbock. It's not hard to find a house next to or very near a park.

Lubbock in general is flat and treeless when you get outside of the city. This is the “Great Plains” though. And that is why there is more cotton farmed here than anywhere else in the world as far as I know. The land and the weather is idea for growing cotton.

You do get a smell of the cattle from time to time. It's not too bad and not all that frequent. It really reminds me of when I was young and used to walk through the agricultural tents at the fair every year. Those are pleasant memories for me so I don't mind it at all.

It has been mentioned that the water tastes awful. It is the absolute worst tasting water I've EVER tasted. So I thought until I went to Possum Kingdom lake and had some water in one of the towns near there. It was even worse! But Lubbock water is pretty bad. We have a reverse osmosis system which makes the water taste just fine. Otherwise you're looking at bottled water.

I, as others mentioned, love the low humidity. It makes the summer heat much more bearable. The prevailing winds also help to keep things feeling cooler here. Humidity in Florida was absolutely unbearable. And in Florida there are only two and a half seasons—fall, a short spring and a looooong summer. No such thing as winter. Hated the heat there. Here you get 4 distinct seasons with most of it on the cooler side. It seems like we have a short summer and the rest is mild which I just love. You get snow but it melts within a day or two. You get to enjoy the beauty of the snow without all the misery that follows for weeks after a good snow. So it really depends on where you come from whether or not you like the temps here.

I'm used to being within an hour's drive from an ocean. That's the ONLY thing I miss about Florida. Naples was second to none when it came to being near the ocean. It's just paradise there. I am within 3/4 mile of a nice lake so that helps. I should also mention that I was chased out of Florida by a hurricane when we moved back to Lubbock. Don't miss those hurricanes one bit! There is the threat of a cat 5 tornado at any time though. This is part of tornado alley. But there haven't been any major tornadoes in Lubbock in many many years. It only takes on big one though...

Oh and no one has mentioned the hail. The dust that gets kicked up produces frequent hail of usually golf ball size but you also hear about baseball and grapefruit sized hail. But it's not like the entire city gets blanketed with hail. Hail falls in pockets and rarely ever in the same area more than once every few years. So it's not like you'll get hail falling on you all the time. You just hear about every last hail storm on the news because farmers are very concerned about it as it does considerable damage to their crops when it hits.

People were getting into the politico-religious discussions about conservatism and such. I would say it's probably predominantly conservative as it is in much of the south. BUT because of the college there is a wide variety of other “isms” and ideologies here. I don't feel this a Baptist or religious stronghold either. As I said I feel more like I'm living in the west than in the south. That is a good thing. I don't care much for the more negative aspects of the southern mentality. I should say “cracker” mentality. There is a difference. I was born in the south but I don't consider myself a southerner. I don't see that aspect which I dislike about the south here in Lubbock.

Traffic! As pleasant as you can get which is surprising considering there are over 200,000 people here. Those people making statements such as, “people here don't know how to drive!” I'm quite certain those people are the idiots you see weaving in and out of traffic and generally making it miserable for everyone around them. Fortunately there are VERY few of those people here. Most of the other drivers are respectful and easygoing. The Loop makes it easy to get from one side of town to the other. There is relatively little congestion. As someone said there's no such thing as “rush hour”. I will say traffic at the mall around Christmastime is pretty bad. But that's it. Maybe in 10 years I'll have a different opinion. Add 50,000 more cars it may start to get crowded if they leave the roads just as they are. For now traffic is fine. The roads are also nicely maintained and sensibly laid out.

Whatever any of you interested in moving to Lubbock do DON'T listen to these negative idiots posting on these forums about ANY town. All places have good and bad. But I can tell you from having been all over, Lubbock is, on balance a great place to live. If you're raising a family that is particularly true. If I haven't made it clear already IGNORE the negative posters.

People in Lubbock seem to be proud of Lubbock. And something I've seen all over Texas is a pride for the state. So many people have Texas stars as a display their love and pride for the state as well as Texas flags. I like that. You don't see that so much in other states. Texas is a good state to be proud of.

[jgean]

Has any one recently moved to Lubbock? I was recently contacted about the job I turned down and was asked to consider it again.

[Westerner92]

If you don't mind answering, can you tell us what your field of work is? That would help a lot in answering your questions.

[High_Plains_Retired]

Originally Posted by jgean

Has any one recently moved to Lubbock? I was recently contacted about the job I turned down and was asked to consider it again.

My wife and I owned a nice home in SW Lubbock in the 1980s but moved to the east coast with my job. My last position was in Albuquerque where I retired. We are now selling our Albuquerque home and headed back to the Lubbock area but to a rural setting. I have nothing but good things to say about Lubbock and the conservative folks who live there.

[jgean]

I am a Toolmaker/Moldmaker.