Any opinions on Big Spring, TX? (Austin, Midland: apartments, crime rates, home)

[mjazz]

Two posts, a day apart, with total opposite opinions.
When your 60, towns like Big Spring sound like nice places to live.

[Kevin Preston]

I understand your grievance was that my post was not helpful or funny. Wasn't supposed to be. But I guess its OK for a poster to besmirch conservatives.

Got it. Thanks for being such a great, balanced administrator.

[LeighLeighstallings]

My family and I are thinking of moving to Big spring. Not much on -line has anything good to pay about big spring, but to me big spring looked pretty clean compared to midland. I'm from PA and I’m used to "Green", but would not mind leaving the winter behind us. We have 2 young children and are most concerned with where we will raise them. Can anyone put my mind at easy? Not worried about nightlife, just a town full of good clean people.

[doctorjef]

Hey I know a good anecdote stemming from my late teenage years in Lubbock. We had friends in Big Spring, as you might imagine (and all over the Panhandle and Eastern New Mexico). Anyway, the Big Spring police got wind of a local pot dealer whom they decided to bust at his house. So three Big Springs cop cars went racing over to the house, sirens blaring. This of course gave the dealer due warning as the cops converged on his block and he was able to flush all his stash down the toilet before the cops got in his house.

One wonders if the locals have grown in sophistication over the past 40 years.

[Westerner92]

Originally Posted by LeighLeighstallings

My family and I are thinking of moving to Big spring. Not much on -line has anything good to pay about big spring, but to me big spring looked pretty clean compared to midland. I'm from PA and I’m used to "Green", but would not mind leaving the winter behind us. We have 2 young children and are most concerned with where we will raise them. Can anyone put my mind at easy? Not worried about nightlife, just a town full of good clean people.

I strongly recommend Midland over Big Spring. It's one of the sketchiest small towns in existence, and it surprises me that you found it cleaner than Midland. I have a couple friends whose parents moved them from Big Spring to Lubbock just to get out of the place. I get the impression that it's a fairly large drug running center.

Midland, though not my type of place, at least has decent schools, and in my opinion, is clean. Which parts of town did you see? Almost everything north and west of its downtown (which most of the city is) is fairly nice, middle-class neighborhoods. They shoved most of the bad neighborhoods over to Odessa.

[SVTRay]

Originally Posted by Westerner92

They shoved most of the bad neighborhoods over to Odessa.

Care to elaborate on this?

[Westerner92]

Originally Posted by SVTRay

Care to elaborate on this?

That's just how the two cities developed. It doesn't take keen observation to notice that Odessa is basically just Midland's bad side put 20 miles to the west. That said, there are sketchy parts of Midland and good parts of Odessa.

[be wise]

I would also strongly advise you not to move to Big Spring. I grew up there and couldn't wait til the day I graduated to get the heck out of Dodge. What people have posted is correct. It is a small town that has been dying for decades. The teenagers there are largely into drugs and crime and it's only gotten worse. There is also a community of adults that are drug dealers as well. I have always called it a black hole. A lot of people that end up living there for any long period of time end up getting sucked into the Twilight Zone that is Big Spring. Now mind you, there are people that are good, decent people that live there that have not succumbed to the evil side of Big Spring but if you are one of those that don't, you can definitely feel and see the grub my side of
life there. If you just HAVE to live in West Texas, you are far better off picking Midland, and even better yet, Lubbock.

[rr2005]

Let me preface this by saying that I love most of West Texas and think it's a wonderful place to raise a family. With that being said, I would strongly advise you to stay away from Big Spring. I've never lived there, but have had occasion to work there in the past. Every part of town I visited seemed really trashy. Their school system is rated "Academically Unacceptable" by the state. The presence of the mental hospital there makes for some "interesting" characters roaming the streets.
If it's a great job opportunity, you could consider living in a surrounding community. Forsan ISD is not too far away and is rated "Exemplary" by the state. Good luck with your decision!

[doctorjef]

This thread started several years ago! I'm sure the OP has moved on by now -- to Big Springs or elsewhere. I was just reminded that when I lived in Lubbock and knew people from Big Springs, they always thought of Lubbock as the big city.