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If one doesn't like Palm Springs and/or Fort Worth, I can imagine that one would not find too Midland enchanting.
To each his own.I find your outlook to be a very admirable one.To find any similarities between Midland and Palm Springs shows a very,very determined intention to see the good in anything.
To each his own.I find your outlook to be a very admirable one.To find any similarities between Midland and Palm Springs shows a very,very determined intention to see the good in anything.
Lifertexan, Your comment made me wonder where you live--especially since you didn't offer any evidence to support your opinion--so I searched through some of your other posts to learn that San Angelo has been home base for you for some time.
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San Angelo is a nice place to live,although I am now looking to move on now that my kids are out of school and experience life near a big city with all it has to offer (Dallas).Many servicemen who are stationed here like it enough that they move back and retire here.Major crime is fairly low,traffic isn't bad.Jobs in my line are plentiful (construction),and I think the other sectors are pretty good also,but I can't say for absolute sure.Wages are lower than most other places in Texas,without a corresponding drop in the cost of living.It isn't a place to get rich in.The weather is HOT from May till September,with strong thunderstorms fairly common in the spring.Fall and winter are mild except for the occasional arctic front that lasts 2-3 days.Snow is unusual.There are a lot of rentals, lots of apt houses and so on,but I really don't know the occupancy rates and if they are hard to get.We have good shopping,good restaraunts,and a 6 screen theater.Basically a nice,safe place to live that isn't a part of the fast lane of life.
Commenting on the availability of organic/health foods in Abilene, where you have relatives, you wrote
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Good luck on this one.There are probably some smaller specialty stores that do.Health food in these parts is a steak with most of the fat trimmed off and a loaded bake potato,followed by a light beer.
Now, while San Angelo has a "river", a healthy downtown revitalization effort, some very beautiful homes (especially along the "river"), and a small university, to me Midland's distinguishing culture of excellence is readily apparent [and verifiable] from street cleanliness and median income levels to dining and shopping. As I mentioned earlier, Midland has a wonderful health food store which resembles Whole Foods Market's [Austin] Brody Oaks store of the mid-late 1980s, and the Strawberry Fields restaurant is an antiseptically clean marvel which, I gather, couldn't exist in Odessa, Abilene, Lubbock, Tyler, or San Angelo. photo: http://www.naturalfoodsmkt.com/logo_...WFTXW28DSE.jpg
Location: Midessa, Texas Home Yangzhou, Jiangsu temporarily
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Thanks for that spirited defense of Midland Starfields. I was going to do one myself but I noticed that alot of people on this board from other states perceive Texans as being defensive about where they live so I decided not too.
Anyway, I do feel that Midland sometimes is unfairly critisized, especially by its West Texas nieghbors, like San Angelo, Abilene, Lubbock etc.
Good call on the polo club, I had forgotten about that and I have been over there twice this year with the wine society.
Also excellent call on the Anglo-Saxon work ethic of Midland, I think is what really makes M/O a great place to live and work.
starfields,like I said,to each his own.If your definition of quality of life is a health food store and a nice airport terminal,then that's nice.I like a little more,and find it here.Not that SA is paradise (well,except in relation to M/O ),but it does offer an enjoyable lifestyle.As far as comparing it to Midland,I don't know of a single thing that M/O has that SA doesn't,with the exception of a few more chain restaraunts that run out the good local ones,and more strip clubs,which hardly improve the quality of life.We have a nice river that Texas Highways doesn't see fit to put quotation marks around when it extols it (see a picture of it in the San Angelo site on city/data).Just out of curiosity,go to the San Angelo site within city/data,and click on the 4th picture on the top row to enlarge it,and then explain to me why that river needs quotation marks around it.That picture is of the river in the heart of the downtown area.The river is developed and landscaped,with walking and biking trails,and playgrounds,used by large numbers of people daily, from the east side of town through the downtown area on out to the west side.The downtown area has the Paseo of San Angelo,which extends from the Riverstage on to the best preserved frontier fort in the country in Ft. Concho,which has a nationally known historical contingent known as the Buffalo Soldiers.We have a very nice state park with herds of bison and longhorns,mountain biking trails,equestrian trails,and fishing.We have an award winning art museum (pictured on this site to the right of the river picture),a very nice "alternative" art center called The Chicken Farm,a quality symphony,and a thriving and very good local stage theater.The SA symphony also hosts the Sorantin Competition, an international music competition for performers under 30.Our downtown is alive and thriving instead of dead and boarded up,with businesses moving back in instead of leaving.Our rodeo coming up next month is one of the largest in the nation,and in the last few years has attracted the top ten PRCA cowboys in the world in every event and been shown on national cable TV,and now lasts for 9 days.In addition,we have numerous other rodeo type events like championship roping events that draw the world champions,cutting horse events,PBR bull riding,etc.Our 4th of July celebration is one of the best in the state,with a free concert by the local symphony on the river downtown at the Riverstage that draws crowds of 40,000,followed the next day by a huge fireworks show at the lake ( we have our concert on the 3rd because we bring in the same top quality fireworks and cannons that one of the major cities use on the 4th).We have a pro baseball team that has won the league championship and plays in a new stadium built especially for them that is the envy of the other minor league teams that have to play at the local college fields or at an old rundown field.We have ample hunting,fishing,camping,and hiking all around us,and I know that numerous M/O people abandon that area to spend the weekends here on the lake with their boats and jetskis.Not very many people here,if any,make the trek to M/O for recreational activities,unless you consider the seedier types here going there for the more numerous strip bars.We have 3 top quality golf courses,one of which hosts one of the few remaining 4 day club championships in the state.Most have dropped back to 2 or 3 day events.We have a polo team,although I think it is the cowboy version,and I think,but won't swear,that they have won the world championship in it.We are a major location for hot air balloning,and have produced some world champions in that.It is pretty cool to head to work some mornings and seeing the hot air balloons flying over the city.We are even remodeling our airport terminal .
San Anglo is known as one of the top places for military to retire because of the great relationship the city has with the base.When the military tried to close it down a few years ago,about 30,000 people showed up in support of it at the local closure hearing.The federal guys actually got scared and didn't want to go into that big of a crowd,but then gov Ann Richards led them through the middle of it and the federal guys had a great time with everyone shaking their hands and patting them on the backs.At the national hearings they said it was one of the most amazing experiences of their lives,and the base went from a sure fire closure to gaining a lot of missions from other bases that closed (Pat Schroeder,the rep from Colorado,was particularly hacked at San Angelo because they chose to close her base down instead).When I asked a friend who retired here why he chose SA,he said the city was unlike any other he had ever been stationed at in it's friendliness and quality of life.
It ain't heaven ( or Iowa),but it's nice.And I'll take a good steakhouse (Zentner's,Lowake's) any day over a health food store.
Last edited by lifertexan; 01-20-2007 at 07:27 PM..
Trying to compare Midland/Odessa to other west TX cities is like comparing apples to oranges. Midalnd is NO different to Odessa other than trhe fact they TRY to tell you otheriwse. Midland is full of people that denounce the strip clubs, yet drive to Odessa each weekend to find their next wife!!
Or rather....you and nearly everybody else on this board? NOBODY is going to make you or anybody else come here.....
The purpose in the question being asked is to get opinions on M/O.Many people obviously feel that the area is a terrible place to live,including many who have lived there.Why should people keep silent when someone has asked for an opinion to help make their minds up on moving there?
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That last comment is especially un-called for.
You don't think that Midland people drive to Odessa to the strip joints?The Midland sheriff has a public stance that he will intimidate and harass any strip clubs that try to open in Midland County,including intimidating the customers,so much of the strip club clientile comes from Midland.
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And...BTW, Lifertexan.....Cattle Baron and Texas Roadhouse steakhouses both put Zentner's to shame.....I've been to all many times.
Everyone has different tastes.But I never said that steaks were better here,only that I prefer a steakhouse to a healthfood store.I'm sure that M/O has many fine steakhouses.Zentner's and Lowake have both been written up in national magazines for their quality,so I'll trust those guys and my own tastebuds.
Midland bashing...don't y'all have anything better to do...?
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Originally Posted by conanS
Trying to compare Midland/Odessa to other west TX cities is like comparing apples to oranges. Midalnd is NO different to Odessa other than trhe fact they TRY to tell you otheriwse. Midland is full of people that denounce the strip clubs, yet drive to Odessa each weekend to find their next wife!!
Don't you ever get tired of bashing Midland? That last comment is especially un-called for.
Or rather....you and nearly everybody else on this board? NOBODY is going to make you or anybody else come here.....PROMISE!!!!
And...BTW, Lifertexan.....Cattle Baron and Texas Roadhouse steakhouses both put Zentner's to shame.....I've been to all many times.
Lucidus: "Anyway, I do feel that Midland sometimes is unfairly critisized, especially by its West Texas nieghbors, like San Angelo, Abilene, Lubbock etc. Good call on the polo club, I had forgotten about that and I have been over there twice this year with the wine society."
I think much of the criticism could be the result of prosperity and skyline envy, Lucidus. I wonder if Abilene, San Angelo, or Tyler have a wine society?
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Lifertexan: " starfields,like I said,to each his own.If your definition of quality of life is a health food store and a nice airport terminal,then that's nice.I like a little more,and find it here.Not that SA is paradise (well,except in relation to M/O ),but it does offer an enjoyable lifestyle.As far as comparing it to Midland,I don't know of a single thing that M/O has that SA doesn't,with the exception of a few more chain restaraunts that run out the good local ones,and more strip clubs,which hardly improve the quality of life.
It's a NATURAL FOODS MARKET and RESTAURANT, lifertexan. I gather--because your locale apparently can't support such an enterprise--that the concept is indeed very foreign to you. I am impressed that Midland has a restaurant which serves organic produce and hormone and antibiotic free meats. Qualitative differences do play a large part in defining quality of life. San Angelo, at least to me, doesn't register as highly across a number of fronts as Midland. Although an inexpensive bottle of sparkling wine and a bottle of Dom Perignon may have the same alcohol content and be sourced from the same varieties of grapes, few would argue that there are not qualitative differences. Your disdain for strip clubs is amusing giving your expressed "to each his own." I am fond of San Angelo for what it is. To me, San Angelo doesn't look or feel as modern, vibrant, and prosperous as Midland. I'm not a great fan of murky lakes/rivers. Animal husbandry is of no interest to me. How tearfully boring I would find San Angelo's "Running of the Sheep" [http://www.texasescapes.com/TexasPanhandleTowns/SanAngeloTexas/San-Angelo-Texas-Running-of-the-Sheep.htm] (broken link).
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),but it does offer an enjoyable lifestyle.As far as comparing it to Midland,I don't know of a single thing that M/O has that SA doesn't,with the exception of a few more chain restaraunts that run out the good local ones,and more strip clubs,which hardly improve the quality of life.We have a nice river that Texas Highways doesn't see fit to put quotation marks around when it extols it 
Midland bashing...don't y'all have anything better to do...?
