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Part of this is copy/pasted from a post I put up few weeks back in the "Texas" thread. Forgive the redundancy if you've seen it already.
My family and I (wife, high school junior, 7th grader) are thinking of leaving Northern California - cost of living is the main economic reason, but also feel God's preparing us for a move as we've felt this stirring before (we grew up in the Bay Area and left 20+ years ago at God's prompting). Arizona and Texas have struck a cord with my wife and I and we're researching as we're looking at a possible post-2018 school year move. I teach high school (18 years) and she's worked for our local school district in clerical the past few years.
We are Christians, but not stick-up-your butt ultra conservative like. For example, I'm going to listen to my worship music (Chris Tomlin, Newsboys, etc.), but I also will go see U2 and Metallica in concert. I love the Lord but want to wear t-shirt/shorts in warm weather and untuck my shirt (if wearing pants) when going to church. How's this jive w/Tyer? I only ask as I hear it's conservative, but I'm wondering how conservative? Would Tyler and its surrounding communities be a good fit?
Our current NorCal city has 100-130K people give or take (we live 7 mi. outside of it), so that's the size we'd prefer (or a suburb of a 100-200k city). It gets over 100 here about 30-40 days a year - dry heat, so we're used to heat - though not humidity heat.
My understanding is that you should stay south of the 31 and east of Broadway. I'm looking to invest in SFR/MFR rentals there. It may end up being where I retire since living in CA is so darn expensive.
You'll be shocked at how much house you can buy there for about half what a home is here.
Mark Senior
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You gotta' visit Tyler. My pick, can live most anyplace, no family connections, but for Texas, Tyler is for me. City size, and for what it has to offer. You've looked over the Tyler sub-forum?
Again, Tyler is NOT utopia, lol, NOT a party city, but WILL NOT 'thump" you over the head with a Bible, as some would lead you to believe, but as I've said, before, Heaven forbid, they just might invite you to their church. lol
Mark Senior
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Orange wave - I don't really think you will be looking at East Texas Tyler, using the same "color" lenses as Thoreau424 uses, as HE views the world. Or as it seems, imo.
Mark Senior Senior Member Status: "Delete" Edit (set 3 months ago)
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Oh, I did respond on 3-5-17 in the general Texas section to your thread. You can look at my many responses on Tyler in the Tyler Sub-Forum. If you need more questions answered, or didn't see what you needed from my responses, feel free to respond to me directly, no charge, lol. many people have done so over the years I've been on cd.
Mark Senior Senior Member Status: "Delete" Edit (set 3 months ago)
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Yep, you are certainly "old school" on the Tyler of today. You had to be around, of what you talk about, growing UP in Tyler, then you followed up what you saw in Tyler with the affluence and what that CAN bring by going to high school in Highland Park of all places in Dallas ! That is pretension at it's finest. I grew up in Tyler born in 1946, saw some of what you describe, but did not, apparently "move" much in your circles.
I lived in Houston for 25 years, moved back here 27 years ago. Very little of what you refer to is Tyler of today. Yeah, there are still a few, very few, that think the Rose Queen is a "big deal" hardly anyone pays attention to that crowd or the Queen's Coronation Friday and Saturday of the October Rose Festival Activity, hard ANYONE see the Queen or Douches on the parade floats, hardly anyone goes, lol
Tyler has a large Mosque, and a second one for one of the "other major" groups, Sunni are already here. Not that I'm "proud" or happy with this, but it is what it is. You know well, that liquor and beer/wine, have been consumed in restaurants and clubs for at least 25 years. Yeah, by a 67-37, vote beer and wine can be sold in most anyplace.
Just to give you a more "today" knowledge of Tyler. Oh, a small one, Waco's City, I said City property tax is approximately 300 per cent, THREE times greater than Tyler, .776 to Tyler .230. Actually 348%, no minor thing.
Oh, you know Tyler is 2 hours from most any part of Dallas, and three hours from the mountains of Southeast Oklahoma, the Broker Bow area. And 3 hours from the norther suburbs of Houston, including Houston Intercontinental Airport. 1 1/2 hours to the "boats" in Shreveport.lol And a shorter distance to many lakes, forests, national parks. So there, lol take that, lol.
You did have the "wrong crowd" as pointed out. The people on average, are great people here as well.
Also, Kathyrn, gave great in depth responses, very thought thru comments. Still, come visit, best to you. Maybe others can add, by posting here. Good luck.
We just moved here two months ago from the plains of central Colorado with a family composition very similar to yours.
To follow God's leading is the only way. He is well able to shepherd our little lives through his great big universe, and if we only go along, (paraphrasing) all things work together for good. In other words, I encourage you to be sure that it is truly leading, and be sure to follow it!
We've found that churches are far more informal here in dress, which sounds like something you are looking for. We are not experts by any means. We're still in the process of looking, interviewing, and evaluating to see if we can discover God's will for us in this area as well. The topic is very current in our home, but in the end only represents having visited half a dozen churches and spoken at great length with possibly twenty more.
I've almost thrown out the word conservative entirely, because its meaning has been fiddled with over the years. It's especially difficult when the meaning of conservative is anti-meaning - defined, as it were, as being against (or not) liberalism, progressivism, modernism, or whatever ism you prefer to include.
I'll try to pick a few positives - that the family is a central institution and has great value within its proper scope of influence; that mediating institutions (church, community and volunteer organizations, etc) are critically important in society also within their proper scopes of influence; that all government exists by consent of the governed and that its place is properly restricted to its own proper scope and should not overlap with or take away from the family and other mediating institutions; that slavery or serfdom result when the central authority exceeds its proper sphere of influence, usually because the governed do not exert themselves to check the excesses; that some things are true and some things are not; that truth has not changed, and should not change, because of changes in fashion or taste (though of course new information can and should be discovered and taken into account - seeking out the secrets that God himself has concealed (Proverbs 25:2)); that people are typically far better at handling things privately, individually, and directly (as in - in person) than being controlled by a remote centralizing authority; that people can and should do their best to work out their disagreements without resorting to the bludgeon of the state (that is, without throwing their enemies in jail, or creating a law to demonize anybody who disagrees); that this is not a one-size-fits-all world where a single central policy can work for all people in all places at all times; that freedom of expression is a good thing, even when I disagree with the idea expressed; and I am sure there are many other things that might go here!
One of the beauties of stating it as positives is that it's hard to imagine how you could be too much in favor of them, and thus 'too conservative.'
Now to my answer to your "is it too conservative?" question: I have found this place to mostly conform to those positive ideas, with the usual variation for those who have not yet seen the light . Then again, I've only met, being generous, maybe a few hundred people total, and observed maybe ten times that many in the several public events my family and I have attended (two concerts, a pair of 5k/10k runs, a handful of track meets, twice to the rose garden, once or twice in the malls, and those church visits I mentioned already).
I've found that people here are pleasanter than other places I've lived (which places are many - I having been raised in a Navy family, and then later lived in several regions of the country) though of course individuals vary a great deal. Pace is a bit slower as befits a town of about a hundred thousand, though the crowding and busy-ness here are perhaps a bit enhanced by some traffic from outlying towns in the area like Chandler, Flint, Hawkins, Lindale, Whitehouse, and many others whose names I haven't learned yet. The downtown is a bit on the dead side, with all of the new growth in business appearing to me to be focused on south Broadway south of Loop 323.
We settled inside loop 323 on the edge of the Azalea district, west of Broadway and have found it exceedingly reasonable in price, and not crowded or busy. We have a third of an acre and paid about one third of what our last house cost us back in Colorado.
I hope this input might have helped a bit. Please do ask specifically, here or privately, if there's something else a newbie might be able to add.
I moved from Northern California (outside Sacramento, also from the Bay originally) to Tyler a few years ago. It's a completely different world, and it's hard to describe. Everything is different, from the architecture of buildings to the people. Tyler has a ton of traffic, and it seems to be getting worse and worse as South Tyler gets built out. There is basically no public landscaping (this goes for most of Texas). Say goodbye to center divides and park strips full of trees and flowers. A lot of neighborhoods have no sidewalks or street lights. There are rarely planters in parking lots in Texas, they are just vast swaths of blacktop which are very stark and ugly (Like so: https://imgur.com/a/byiOP). A lot of people don't landscape their yards either. It's very common for yards to be only grass, with maybe a tree in it. Most buildings are brick (which I think looks terrible), but a lot of the newer construction is more like you would see in California with stucco and rock buildings. Even the way people decorate inside their homes is immediately noticeable as different.
The weather is also very different. It rains all year long, where in California (obviously) it's just hot and dry from May to October. Storms in Tyler get nuts, with thunder and lightning, and very heavy rain. Think of the storms in the Sierras. I don't mind (or much notice) the humidity because I'm so used to the extreme heat in California, but the rest of my family does notice it. It also gets a lot colder in the winter (compared to Sacramento, and the Bay). Ice storms are common. Everything in Texas turns brown in the winter and green in the summer, the exact reverse of what you're used to.
People in Texas can't drive (sorry everyone). They drive fast, don't pay attention, and everyone is texting. They think they are the only person on the road. It's the first thing everyone from California notices when they visit, and it's terrifying. Speaking of the people, they are nice but politically it's the exact opposite of California. You're probably used to liberal people who are only liberal because they were raised that way and don't actually know why they believe what they believe. That's Texans when it comes to conservatism. Nobody has questioned them because the whole society thinks like they do, and it's equally frustrating as liberalism in California (I say this as a conservative person). Also, there is a much higher population of black people, which leads to a higher amount of racism (from both sides). It's not stereotypical Mississippi, but it's real and something to keep in mind. You will find plenty of grumpy hillbilly folk who hate you because you are from California, but most people are fine. A lot of people here also complain about driving even the shortest distances as if it were 10x further, which I still can't wrap my mind around since Texas is such a massive state. You would think driving 15 minutes would be nothing to Texans.
It's pretty weird seeing the sheer number of Christians and churches (the vast majority are baptist), but it's also neat. You'll feel at home with that. Tyler also has a weirdly sizable gay community, far more than I'm used to from California which was very surprising. There are lots of restaurants that you will be used to, and some new ones that you will enjoy. In n Out is allegedly coming, which is wonderful, but still no Carls Jr. Lots of stores so there are plenty of places to shop, and there's effectively one grocery store chain in town. People here are also afraid of technology. Shopping online is scary because "that's how you get your credit card stolen." No Amazon Prime Now.
Tyler is also very remote. This isn't the Bay Area. You will be several hours from a "real" airport or large city. Tyler is the big city around here. If you want to go to a U2 or Metallica concert, you will be driving two hours to Dallas. If you want to take a flight, you either need to fly 20 minutes on a tiny plane from Tyler to Dallas, or drive the two hours to Dallas.
You will also probably miss the mountains. Texas is flat, and even "hill country" is pretty pathetic compared to the hills (let alone the mountains) of California.
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No. 1
. Then again, I've only met, being generous, maybe a few hundred people total, and observed maybe ten times that many in the several public events my family and I have attended (two concerts, a pair of 5k/10k runs, a handful of track meets, twice to the rose garden, once or twice in the malls, and those church visits I mentioned already).
