Waco, Texas future (Dallas, Austin, Round Rock: insurance, violent crime, houses)

[KathrynAragon]

Originally Posted by texasdiver

Exactly. And when looking at Waco you also need to look at the surrounding areas. The Waco suburbs of Hewitt and Robinson have experienced 22% and 30% growth since 2000 and other unincorporated areas south and northwest of the city have experienced similar growth. I see construction happening all over south and west Waco everywhere I drive. The area is growing as fast as it can reasonably accommodate, if not faster.

We were in Waco this past weekend and were very impressed with the amount of construction going on, the changes over the past few years, etc.

[laina1980]

Originally Posted by jdrtx

The horrific area in this discussion is the 15 miles from Round Rock to Austin. Fast food, C-stores, Ikea, outlet stores, bowling alleys, Motel 6, and the rest. It's ugly. The Waco area has sprawl but in a much more softer way. If I was sending my child to college, I would pick Baylor over one of those "party" universities. That's just me.
As to the Waco area school districts, Midway ISD is almost a feeder to Baylor football and has many exceptional high school programs with Lorena ISD the safest and nicest school for your kids.
Good luck.

I hear Midway ISD is the best there, is that true? I also heard they are going all device and if so are they doing 21st century type learning? My daughter is in a school that is this way but they don't have classrooms. It is ok but I would like a middle ground like old with new. Anyways just curious!

[TexasTallest]

Originally Posted by KathrynAragon

We were in Waco this past weekend and were very impressed with the amount of construction going on, the changes over the past few years, etc.

Right..? I was just there over the weekend for a game and was thoroughly impressed with the development progress since I was last in town. Looking forward to eating In N Out the next time I'm there.. And Baylor is taking its campus to the next level as they work on building out the Master Plan.

[texasdiver]

Originally Posted by laina1980

I hear Midway ISD is the best there, is that true? I also heard they are going all device and if so are they doing 21st century type learning? My daughter is in a school that is this way but they don't have classrooms. It is ok but I would like a middle ground like old with new. Anyways just curious!

I have 3 kids in the Midway schools.

We moved into the Midway district from China Spring (smaller suburb to the NW of Waco) so we have experience with both districts and also have friends in the Lorena and Robinson schools. Those are your four choices for middle class school districts in the Waco area. All the others are inner city with higher poverty or else very rural.

I do think Midway is the top district in the Waco area. I felt the schools, resources, and teachers were all superior to what we had in China Spring which is generally considered the 2nd best district in the area. Yes they have 1:1 iPads so every child from K-12 gets their own personal iPad which gets used to a greater or lesser degree depending on the teacher and subject. But otherwise it is a traditional school system with ordinary classrooms and such. Midway likes to compare itself to the upscale suburban districts around Dallas and Austin which might be a bit of a stretch as it isn't as uniformly wealthy as those districts but it does have most of the pockets of wealth in the Waco area except for the really old ones around the lake. Basically Midway is the only large middle class school system in the entire Waco area so if you want a larger system with lots of diversity of academics, athletics, and other extracurriculars then Midway is your only real choice. China Spring, Lorena, and Robinson are all much smaller systems with High Schools in the 600-700 student range so they just can't offer as much. Like no swim teams, tennis teams, orchestras, etc. And their budgets simply aren't as lavish as Midway because they have harder time passing tax levies and those areas generally aren't as affluent so the property values aren't as high. Midway is lucky that the district encloses much of the Waco industrial park so big businesses like Mars Candy, Caterpillar, and a whole bunch of other industrial businesses pay property taxes to Midway without sending kids there so it is a fairly property rich district and it shows in the resources it has.

[happycrow]

I just can't imagine ANY circumstance which would plausibly cause me to move to Waco and be happy about it.
I suspect a lot of Texans feel like that, even if we're out of date -- perhaps it needs to blow its horn and let folks know what's changed?

[KathrynAragon]

Originally Posted by happycrow

I just can't imagine ANY circumstance which would plausibly cause me to move to Waco and be happy about it.
I suspect a lot of Texans feel like that, even if we're out of date -- perhaps it needs to blow its horn and let folks know what's changed?

I can be happy in most places. Waco has it's pros and cons, but if one is used to a mid sized city and PREFERS to live a couple of hours away from a large metro (I'm one of those folks) then I'd say that Waco is just as nice a town as many other small to mid sized cities in Texas.

[texasdiver]

Originally Posted by happycrow

I just can't imagine ANY circumstance which would plausibly cause me to move to Waco and be happy about it.
I suspect a lot of Texans feel like that, even if we're out of date -- perhaps it needs to blow its horn and let folks know what's changed?

Well, here's one recent article

http://houston.culturemap.com/news/t...-getaway-lure/

[ParkerPal]

I never really liked Waco but Waco is on an upswing. This is the best time to invest there.

Report: Greater Waco economy continues to improve - Greater Waco Economic Index - Waco Trib

[blkgiraffe]

Originally Posted by texasdiver

Well, here's one recent article

Texas' most unlikely tourist destination? Waco

Hating Waco is kinda like the cool thing on City Data.

People on here judge small and medium-sized cities on the scale of large cities. Apparently if they don't have skyscrapers, public transit and ethnic restaurants and more. They're ****ty places to live.

[cattusbabe]

Originally Posted by blkgiraffe

Hating Waco is kinda like the cool thing on City Data.

People on here judge small and medium-sized cities on the scale of large cities. Apparently if they don't have skyscrapers, public transit and ethnic restaurants and more. They're ****ty places to live.

Well my husband and I are moving from a big city with the skyscrapers, public transit and ethnic restaurants to just outside of Waco. Different people want different things I guess and a small city/town has a lot to offer people like us.