Enough to move to Texas?

[smuboy86]

Originally Posted by BigDGeek

Plenty of people still take day trips to the border.

I don't know anyone, anyone, who crosses the border. Our family used to takes day trips all the time, till the mid 90's. I can't even imagine going now. BTW to me Dallas is way hotter in the summer, and has way worse winter weather than SA.

[bayoubengal1982]

I live just outside of Houston close to Katy and I have seen signs posted around schools that they are hiring for teachers for Lamar Consolidated ISD. A lot of people will trash LCISD when compared to Katy ISD and Ft Bend ISD, but it is actually a good school district and is growing rapidly

http://www.lcisd.org/careers/

[NJ2?]

Originally Posted by BigDGeek

This. I think south Texas/San Antonio is the OP's best bet if she wants to easily land a teaching job and stretch her dollar to the max.

Plus, it's much prettier than DFW since San Antonio has actual hills; there are some spectacular scenic drives in the hill country nearby; it's a short drive to the border if you want to visit Mexico for the day (and shop), and Corpus Christi is less than 200 miles away if you want to go to the beach. 200 miles may sound like a lot, but it isn't in Texas. SA is closer to Corpus than it is to DFW. Plus you have that awesome outlet mall in San Marcos...people from north Texas rent buses and go on pilgrimages there, and often stay overnight or ride the bus overnight back home because it takes us SO long to get there and back. Y'all down in SA can do it in an afternoon.

SA does have a very Hispanic flavor to it and it has been majority Hispanic as long as I can remember. That doesn't mean you're going to hear nothing but Spanish, though. A lot of the Hispanics in SA have been there since before Texas was part of the United States, and many don't speak Spanish at all. They didn't move...the borders did! This gives SA a rich heritage and distinct feel all its own. SA is justifiably proud of its strong Hispanic roots. You should check out Fiesta San Antonio; happens every spring. Quite a feast for all of the senses. Plus that area is rich with historically significant sites, starting obviously with the Alamo. You also have Sea World and Fiesta Texas (a Six Flags park), and Schlitterbahn a short drive away in New Braunfels.

San Antonio also has a great airport where you can get a direct flight to most major markets in the US.

If it wasn't hotter than Satan's crotch down there and a 7-8 hour drive from my family in north Texas, I'd entertain the notion of living there myself. That's a huge downside there...as hot as it is in DFW (and it's HOT), it's usually hotter in SA. If that's your thing, fine. I visited San Antonio 4-5 times a year as a child and still have a few relatives living there, so I've been there at all times of the year. Looking at their 5-day compared to ours, their forecast is actually a couple of degrees cooler each day than ours is...but normally SA is as hot or hotter than DFW. The people down there also tend to be pretty conservative; SA used to have five USAF bases (I think they're down to three now) and it still is a huge military town. Military members and their families tend to be more conservative than your average American. Not judging either way, just putting that out there. Also, for a city its size, it seems very small town-ish when the sun goes down. The sidewalks roll up and you're left wondering where everyone went. There is nightlife in SA, but it seemed much harder to find there than elsewhere. It's not Austin for damn sure. It also seems to lack high-quality cultural offerings that make life in north Texas somewhat bearable (high-quality art museums, opera, symphony, ballet, etc). The city is also not very diverse. Majority Latino, everyone else seems to be white, not much else. Kind of blah. Also if you're trying to get north on 35 to Austin or Dallas, definitely make sure you're fully gassed-up with a good playlist on the iPod because you're going to be there a while. I used to be able to make the drive door to door Dallas to SA in 5 hours. Now it takes 7-8 on a good day. Those are the downsides.

Overall it's a very nice place to live and raise a family, though. You really should check it out.

Thank you so much for all of the info. I did like San Antonio when we visited. My mother's side of the family is from Mexico and I have to say that downtown SA looks a lot like Guadalajara and MExico City to me. I don't mind if there are a majority of hispanics there as long as it doesn't interfere with getting a job.

Our current situation is that we live in an area of NJ, right across the NYC skyline, that is 90% hispanic and it's a nightmare. My husband can't find a job in this north eastern end of NJ, not even retail, because it is just all hispanic. Some people may not believe it, but he has been discriminated against jobs in this area and even bullied out of one in NJ and one in NYC because he is British and has a heavy accent. It's been 7 years of hell here since he moved over to the states and we know that getting a job in NJ/NYC is really all about who you know.

My job is based in this area, so unless I can find something else, we are kind of stuck here. This is the real reason I can't stand being in NJ anymore. It's a very aggressive, rude, dirty, and discriminating place. I don't want to run into this problem with him if we end up in another area that is mostly populated with hispanic people. This is why we liked Texas so much because it seemed diverse enough in many places that we could live there without him running into many problems that are job related.

[Trainwreck20]

I have 'lived in Texas my whole life, but have spent work assignments in other places around the U.S. for extensive periods. While racial relations are far from perfect, the Hispanic/white relationship in Texas has been MUCH better than it was in Georgia, Florida, Minnesota, and California (four places that I worked long enough to notice). It is anecdotal, since I have not really made a living studying interracial interactions or anything, but I doubt that being non-Hispanic will be a big deal for most jobs (the same as being Hispanic is not a big deal), and most people I know find the British accent interesting and/or entertaining, but not really a negative.