McAllen's "Changing Face" (Houston, San Antonio: military, stores, move to)

[rgv17_956]

There was a newspaper article from McAllen's The Monitor and it was very interesting. It basicly tells how the Valley's racial diversity is growing rapidly. And I think it is very helpful for anyone thinking to move to Hidalgo County and the McAllen metro area.
It talks about the African American, Arab, Asian, Filipino, and Indian fastly growing population in the McAllen area.

News: The Changing Face of the County | changing, county, day : TheMonitor.com (http://www.themonitor.com/news/changing_10422___article.html/county_day.html - broken link)

[rgv17_956]

some photos of McAllen =]

[awecelot]

Very good articles....the RGV still is pretty culturally homogeneous but that is beginning to change. Nice pics as well. To all who have not been to McAllen in the past 5-10 years, I would encourage you to make the trip down: it really is a city (and region) in transition.

[doss1]

those pics look like any other city....chain stores and more.

[TomBradyFan]

Please don't take offense to what I am about to say. I read the articles in the link you provided and I was left very unimpressed. Talk about making a big deal out of an ant hill. The Asian population went from 3,375 in 2000 to 5,350 in 2006. Sadder even, the black population went from 2,807 in 2000 to 3,783 in 2006.

I don't see why there's even a need for a series of articles chronicling this as if McAllen is seriously diversifying. It screams of wanting to be something and pretending to be something your not. And those pictures are a sad representation of McAllen. It's strip mall signs, power line poles and a virtually empty road. The saddest part is that is very very close if not actually is downtown McAllen.

[tstone]

Those pictures dont' look sad at all. It shows McAllen somewhat resembles some parts of Houston, maybe San Antonio except for the palms... or even LA/Anaheim/etc... ''big cities'' as opposed to the stereotypical thought people have of the RGV looking like nothing but some 3rd world Mexican barrio.

[TomBradyFan]

Those pictures are Anytown, US with a thoroughfare and commercial and retail.

It's actually quite ugly (I'll say the same thing for much of Military Drive on the south side in SA, or Fredericksburg Road inside the loop, etc) with the signs. There's nothing unique to it, nothing aesthetically pleasing to it, etc.

The sad part is that it resembles a suburban strip but instead of being some suburban strip in McAllen, it's their central core.

Also, SA does have palms, many in fact.

[teatime]

Yeah, the RGV is FAR from "diverse." It never will be because of its location and geographic isolation. Within five years, many of the minorities (non-Hispanics) who moved there for work move on. It got to the point where I became leery of developing close friendships because my friends, both non-Hispanics and educated Hispanics, would move out of the RGV the minute something better came along. Then, of course, I moved, too!

[case44]

Originally Posted by rgv17_956

some photos of McAllen =]

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I love these city shots. Very nice-looking cityscape. The upside in McAllen, regardless of who resides there, is that there's been any growth at all there in the last thirty years. They've built a few nice high-rises.

[doss1]

One city that is really nice downtown with the palm trees is Weslaco. Never seen so many AMERICAN flags in my life in one area.