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Coming from the north east, the only city to consider living in as far as Texas goes is Dallas, and even that is iffy. I have a good friend who is a teacher and lives in Dallas. Though it was easy for her to find a job, she says her commute is an absolute nightmare, as is her husband's. They have 2 school aged children - both who they put in private school (even though my friend is a public school teacher). They ended up in TX due to a temporary assignment her husband's job sent him to - his commitment is up this May. He has the option to stay and receive a small bump in salary, but they are moving back to NJ instead.
Keep in mind that Texas is as "deep south" as you can get. (No offense to any Texans who might be reading this - though I suspect if you live there, you know this fact about your home state). I've not been to Austin, but I have been to Houston many times and I wouldn't live there in a free house. My brother in law, who was born and raised in upstate NY, married a girl from there and they relocated to Houston on her instance. He is rather conservative and somewhat non-progressively minded regarding diversity. He is also very religious and recently "born again" and the one thing that did appeal to him about Houston was the abundance of churches. Having visited Houston quite a bit, I thought he might be happy there.
I couldn't have been more wrong. Long story short: In less than a year, he told her he was moving back to NY, with or without her, because he couldn't stand it any more. He felt people there were too conservative, too small minded, too racist, and too "overly churchy" (his words). I almost thought I was on candid camera when he told me this. In addition to hating the environment, his commute to work was over an hour of driving every day and that only added to his unhappiness.
NJ is a much better choice, and much closer to what you are used to in CT as far as way of living. Better schools, better environment as far as diversity...just better. Not to mention there would be 1000% less culture shock for your family.
Yes, NJ is more expensive than TX. But if you are not comfortable and not happy an in environment, price is not nearly the most important factor, know what I mean?
Which is odd because Houston has tons of Muslims -- seems like it's one of the more tolerant metro areas in the south.
Just a note as a parent. In Texas its legal for teachers to beat your child. One of my kid's teachers is from there, and she talked about how she missed "putting them in line". My friend in San Antonio confirmed it, and the teachers get no repercussions for something a parent would go to jail over. https://www.youtube.com/watch?featur...&v=0vt4v7KsFi8
I soent 6 months in Houston several years ago and thought it was fun (but then again I had no kids). Good things were low prices - I was able to rent in the toniest area for the same rent I would pay in a very mediocre area here. I also thought the shopping was great, wonderful, as there are more consignment stores there than I've ever encountered, some very high end you had to be buzzed into, some just for gowns, etc, etc. I thought driving was easier, because they have "feeder" roads running next to the major highways so that I never actually had to get on the highway until I felt more comfortable with the traffic and my sense of direction. Tolerance seems to go down the farther east you go, the areas where the refineries are located are much more "macho", where near to I was, there was actually a very large gay area, which surprised me.
Cons were: horrible radio stations, hard to find good coffee on the road, can't get many foods in the supermarkets that I can get here, have to pump your own gas, and there are homeless people everywhere, even outside the supermarkets and CVS, etc. I was in a very good part of town again, but in my 2-3 block walk to Walgreen's I'd probably have 3-4 people approach me asking for money.
Which is odd because Houston has tons of Muslims -- seems like it's one of the more tolerant metro areas in the south.
Well...you would think that would be the case. I don't really consider leaving a slaughtered pig on the doorstep of a mosque to be the most tolerant gesture, though. That happened in Cypress. IN DECEMBER 2012. And it's not the first time something similar has occurred in the Houston area just in the last few years. Sadly, it probably won't be the last. Some among us have not yet evolved, I'm afraid.
My brother lives in Austin and LOVES it there (he's a musician) but the summers are unbearable. He always says the warmer winters make up for it (there have been quite a few days this winter when we were warmer than they were) but there are many times he won't leave his apartment until the sun starts to set in the summer on his days off because it's too hot to be outside. They've been going through a drought and have had some pretty bad heatwaves over the last few years.
I went there to visit in September 2009 and we went to the Texans/Jets game and I was sweltering while tailgating (the fans there were awesome by the way - we won the game and they were actually congratulating us on the way out!). Thank God they have an air conditioned dome because I would have melted! It was brutal!
I'm a former Texan (Dallasite), now northern New Jersian (Hoboken/JC) AND I'm a teacher in public schools, so I know what I'm talking about.
Honestly, we moved from Dallas to here when my husband (who is Indian---so I also know South Asians!) got a promotion at work (one of the big financial firms in the city) contingent on a move. In my opinion, if you have children, Dallas beats this area hands down. We don't have kids yet.
First--cost of living is WAY cheaper in Texas, unless you are wanting to live in the most expensive zip codes, limited to the super rich, NBA, and NFL players. But there are many nice suburbs with a commute comparable to any place here (honestly, probably shorter, because highways here in NJ are dated and terrible), with great school public school districts, low property taxes and beautiful houses for cheap. Everything is cheaper--gas is cheaper, child care is cheaper, property tax is cheaper, nice restaurants are cheaper, and groceries are cheaper. Generally, I think it's much easier to live life comfortably there, especially since you have a child.
The inner-city school districts in Texas are comparable to the city school districts here in NJ--which means, not good, outside of the best Gifted and Talented schools or the special Magnet schools. But the nicer suburbs there have amazing school districts. I currently work in one of the "best" school districts in Bergen county and the facilities and technology here do not hold a candle to my old suburban public school in a nice suburb of Texas (it's called Coppell/Las Colinas area). In my building here, some of the classrooms don't even have proper heating/AC, the technological equipment and software we use is outdated, but teachers are comparable in both places....Luckily, the kids are pretty much all upper middle class, so their test scores are okay in spite of that. But I can tell you, having taught in both places that the best schools here are definitely not any better than the best schools in the suburbs of Dallas.
Also, there is a LOT of misinformation about politics and ethnic diversity on this thread!
Every major metropolitan area in texas is significantly more liberal than the rural areas--although some suburbs are notably very republican (I stay far away from those places). Dallas was the first city to elect a gay, hispanic, female police chief. The dallas area also has one of the highest concentrations of Indians in the US, as you can see here: Indian American - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dallas is number 4 on that list. The area I used to work (Las Colinas/Coppell school district) has an EXTREMELY high Indian population. The public elementary school there is 60% Indian--and it's also an Exemplary school, which is the highest rating a public school can get in Texas. It's pretty rare for a school to get the Exemplary rating.
The Irving/Las Colinas area has a Patel brothers grocery store, a Paradise (just like Journal Square in JC), a Hot Breads, and hundreds of other Indian groceries and shops. The main difference is that the Las Colinas area is more upscale and suburban in feeling than most Indian areas are here. It's very white-collar, young professional families. So It's more "Newport in Jersey City" than "Journal Square". Or more accurately, it's like Newport in big houses, as opposed to high rises. The Walmart there is like Little India. Personally, I kinda like it.
Hope this all helps your decision! When we have kids, we will be moving out of NJ--probably back to Texas or to Atlanta area. Can't risk the kids having the NJ accent! haha
Just a note as a parent. In Texas its legal for teachers to beat your child. One of my kid's teachers is from there, and she talked about how she missed "putting them in line". My friend in San Antonio confirmed it, and the teachers get no repercussions for something a parent would go to jail over. https://www.youtube.com/watch?featur...&v=0vt4v7KsFi8
This is not true at all. I worked in 3 different public schools over 9 years in the Dallas area, and there is no corporal punishment at all. That's insane. There are probably *some* schools in tiny towns, where parents WANT corporal punishment and school boards voted to put it back in schools, but that is not the norm.
[quote=tamparesident26;27887553]Coming from the north east, the only city to consider living in as far as Texas goes is Dallas, and even that is iffy. I have a good friend who is a teacher and lives in Dallas. Though it was easy for her to find a job, she says her commute is an absolute nightmare, as is her husband's. They have 2 school aged children - both who they put in private school (even though my friend is a public school teacher). They ended up in TX due to a temporary assignment her husband's job sent him to - his commitment is up this May. He has the option to stay and receive a small bump in salary, but they are moving back to NJ instead.....
Yeah, none of this is true either. In my less-than-one-year here in northern NJ, I have encountered WAY more racist people here, specifically at my job (at a public school in Bergen County). I have heard comments there in the break room, made by employees, that is downright offensive to me, a person married to a person of another ethnicity and religion. I don't think NJ is a beacon of tolerance.
Now it's true that I had a very diverse group of friends in Dallas, so obviously we wouldn't be friends with anyone racist, so I could have been slightly sheltered, but at least I know I never heard racism at work there, and I do *here*, on a semi regular basis. Of course, at my school here in Bergen county, the teachers are 95% white, as are the students---so it's very, very insular and it shows. The kids here are completely clueless about other cultures, except Judaism. But by the way, even at my JOB, people "caution me away" from the more "jewish areas" which was a major WTF moment for me. Like, why would I avoid those areas?!?!
Also, my commute in Dallas was shorter in time. There, I lived downtown Dallas (or rather--Uptown) and commuted out to Coppell for work. Here I live in Hoboken and commute to Bergen County for work. My commute here is an hour,five minutes each way because of traffic. There, it was 40-45 minutes. The distance in miles was about the same--traffic and highways here are just much, much worse.
Also, RE: summers. It's true that Texas weather sucks in the summer. The upside is that every place has amazing AC (unlike NYC), and you can drive everywhere.
Also, I had a nannying job this summer for extra cash here in Hoboken, and I was out on the playground almost every day in the 95-100 degree heat in July, so you can't tell me it's not insanely hot here, too. But HERE, you also have to wait in the unairconditioned Path and subway stations to go anywhere, so you look sweaty and sticky by the time you arrive. Goodbye, cute hairstyle!
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