If you had to live in TX

[cherry1111]

I'm in the burbs north of Dallas. I'd probably be cool living in Dallas, Houston, or Austin. Traffic is going to blow in all of those options. I will say my college roommate was from the Houston suburbs and her and her friends were far more redneck than anyone I had spent time around in Dallas.

[lindsaymg]

May 23, 2015 21:51:56 GMT -5 TamiTaylor said:

May 23, 2015 21:43:35 GMT -5 lindsaymg said:

The weather is insane right now! No tornados but we have had warnings. The city is quite literally flooding. H's cousins came in for a weekend of heat and sun and this is what they got.

Oh no! I remember about 4 or 5 years I got trapped at IW due to all the flooding. I was down there taking a certification test. It was scary.

Near Sea World. crazy.

Attachments:

[psychmom]

May 23, 2015 22:10:45 GMT -5 TamiTaylor said:

May 23, 2015 22:09:02 GMT -5 lindsaymg said:

Near Sea World. crazy.

Omg. psychmom urbancowgirl are yall ok?

Holy shit lindsaymg! Did you take that picture? The tornado warning was over my area but when it reduced to inside 1604 to downtown area we were good. We never even lost power at all, which I'm pretty shocked at.

[oswin]

We had a tornado warning about an hour ago but I think the worst of the storm has passed now. Still have a flash flood warning though, but I think Austin isn't getting as much of this storm as San Antonio is.

[lindsaymg]

May 23, 2015 22:19:35 GMT -5 psychmom said:

May 23, 2015 22:10:45 GMT -5 TamiTaylor said:

Omg. psychmom urbancowgirl are yall ok?

Holy shit lindsaymg! Did you take that picture? The tornado warning was over my area but when it reduced to inside 1604 to downtown area we were good. We never even lost power at all, which I'm pretty shocked at.

Not my picture, a coworkers from Facebook. We were eating at a Thai restaurant when the worst of it went over us. We have maintained power but saw a lot out while driving family back to their hotel.

[psychmom]

May 23, 2015 22:31:41 GMT -5 lindsaymg said:

May 23, 2015 22:19:35 GMT -5 psychmom said:

Holy shit lindsaymg! Did you take that picture? The tornado warning was over my area but when it reduced to inside 1604 to downtown area we were good. We never even lost power at all, which I'm pretty shocked at.

Not my picture, a coworkers from Facebook. We were eating at a Thai restaurant when the worst of it went over us. We have maintained power but saw a lot out while driving family back to their hotel.

It was intense there for a while. I've heard that the Stone Oak area is flooded. I think the west side has done ok. My husband made a crack about how awesome our water bill will be this month since we don't need to run the sprinklers with all this rain. lol

[Marmee]

I like the cities ok...my sister lives in Dallas & my brother in Houston. I actually thought Austin was overrated & SA underrated but clearly I go against the grain there.

[bcarp30]

May 23, 2015 21:45:28 GMT -5 @natariru said:

May 23, 2015 21:43:04 GMT -5 bcarp30 said:

My best friend is from the woodlands and based on her lifestyle and her friends it seem very stepford. It's basically my dream city haha! But she loved it and talks about how much she misses the food and culture and how you can travel anywhere from Houston.

But if you're a raging liberal you should look at Denver

Are you crazy?! It snows in May! I'm trying to runaway from snow, lol.

Yes but we had several 70 degree days in January, February, and March! We have sun!!!

[azurely]

Austin or Ft Worth

We loved Austin when we visited. Such a cool city with a very indie/liberal vibe. Other than UT, it seems very different than the rest of Texas.

My brother and SIL live in Ft Worth. It's a nice city too, and of course has great proximity to Dallas so there's a lot to do there. And for me personally, it'd be nice to be so close to my brother and SIL.

[niq]

In my industry, the only places I could get a good enjoyable job are Austin and San Antonio. Both I'd be fine with. If I was in San Antonio I'd have a basketball team that wins 55 games a year forever.

Mayyybe Houston, that would also be a good place for msniq (I think there's some stat that it's one of the most diverse metro areas in the country?)

But really we're never moving.

ETA I went to summer camp in Dallas as a teenager, visited Houston on college tours and some other trips, and have been to Austin for conventions. Other than that, just driven through parts of the state.

[Deleted]

May 23, 2015 20:49:42 GMT -5 @natariru said:

Thanks everyone! We are toying with the idea of trying something completely different.
We might be insane, lol.

We assumed we'd live in Seattle forever, and here we are in Montana. Been here a month and it was the best decision ever. Do it!!

[isabel]

Austin is awesome. I was born and raised there, so I'm biased, but it really is a cool city. I'm not sure I would consider moving anywhere else in Texas.

[regeltx]

I live in North houston, so you have my answer. Just moved from the woodlands about 10 miles closer to downtown.

[dcn]

We lived in San .anotnoio and really liked it. Big enough to have what you need but not so big thqt you get swallowed up and it doesnt take too long to get places.

That said we are not texas people and wouldnt choose to move back there i dont think.

[meltoine]

Well, I've been to San Antonio, Del Rio, Austin, Abilene, Dallas, and Amarillo and I hated all of them. So if I had to live in Texas again I'd pick Houston on the off-chance I wouldn't hate that too. Being near the beach might help.

But I think I'm just not made for Texas.

[MrsAggie]

I have neighbors on here!

[bowies]

Jobwise, Austin would be a good city for my H, Houston would be a good city for me (though I'm actively trying to get out of my industry right now). I wouldn't consider Dallas or SA.

I fully support having an adventure and moving though. I've done it twice and we're gearing up to do it again in a couple of years.

[MNH2013]

Another for The Woodlands! we would like to retire in the hill country though.

[Jalapeñomel]

Austin is the only place I would even consider moving to; I'm not a fan of Texas.



That said,DH's next job will probably be in Texas, huh?

[Jalapeñomel]

Oh and guns. Nope.

[Deleted]

I have close friends and family in Houston, Dallas and Austin, so that would all be good. They are all too hot and the traffic in Dallas and Houston terrifies me but I'm sure I would adapt.

I don't plan to relocate, but Dallas and Raliegh are probably the two places I could see myself relocation for a combination of reasons.

[caramia17]

I lived in San Antonio a decade a >1M people ago. I would only live in Alamo Heights in SA now due to the traffic issues. We have family in Frisco and Grapevine (Dallas suburbs). I would not like those particular places, but there are neighborhoods in Dallas I could do. Same thing in Houston. I would do Austin in a heartbeat. It has a beach town vibe because of the lake.

We would never live in El Paso (my H lived there a while) or Lubbock/Abeliene. Too flat, too boring, too apt to smell cow manure if the wind blows the wrong way.

[skib]

Let me go ahead and be a stereotypical Texan, but...

Texas is the BEST. Everyone should want to live here.

Pretty much anywhere in the state would be an awesome place to live, but it kind of depends on what you want. I live in a suburb of Dallas, and I love that I live in a small town, but I can get to Anthropologie in 30 minutes. Some people love West Texas, but I couldn't live there because it's too far from everything. I love visiting Austin and San Antonio, but I wouldn't live in either city. You should make a list of all of the things you're looking for in a place to live, post it here, and let us tell you which area of Texas would be best for you.

[skib]

May 23, 2015 21:08:25 GMT -5 sent said:

Is there a less hot part of Texas? Maybe I'd go there?

Nope.

[egishere]

I'm from the Dallas area and DH is from s Tx. We want to move back to DFW. We have been in Denver for three years and while we don't hate it, it's not home for us. I would love pretty much any major city in Tx. But would not want to live in east tx, south tx or most parts of West tx minus Lubbock - I could handle Lbk and we went to Tech.
I went to Midland for work last week and could not imagine living there. Nothing to do except go out to eat!

[cinco]

Austin, but considering I've never actually been I probably shouldn't answer the question.

[Deleted]

I have friends who just moved to Austin. I hear it is pretty nice and liberal there. Not what you'd think when you typically hear stories about Texas.

[Velar Fricative]

I'm naming cities that fit your criteria because I'm not sure what the suburbs are like:

Houston
Atlanta
Raleigh-Durham
Nashville

I purposely didn't list anything too far west since you said you weren't made for SoCal.

[noodleskooze]

I really do think you would like Houston based on your list of musts.

[skib]

 

May 24, 2015 8:15:47 GMT -5 @natariru said:

Ok, so I currently live in NJ (always have). I grew up in Newark (big city) where I could walk to everything including the train station to go into NYC and be there in 20 minutes. You can hear the "bing" of the Path train doors closing from my parents' house. Now I live in a suburb where we are 45 minutes from the city and 45 minutes from the beach. It's a very diverse town with lots to do, an arts center, a rec center with tons of activities, and easy access to lots of places in the state via car, and a train station in the center of town. School system is eh, but I don't worry about it much right now.

I dunno why I want to move to be honest. My mom is driving me INSANE lately, my sister lives in California, so I get the brunt of her shit. I don't want to deal with winters anymore. Our taxes are out of control.

Here's my list of MUSTS:
- diversity & culture
- mild winter
- near an airport
- things to do with children
- a suburb near a big city

Lower cost of living would be nice.

I play around with the idea of moving to California as well. My sister lives in Venice but I'm not a huge fan of the LA feel. Maybe if I could be like 1.5-2 hours away from her?

Guide meeeee.

If you want to lower your COL, Texas is a great choice. We don't have state income tax, there are a lot of places you can move with low property taxes, and the state is just generally lower COL than many other places.

- diversity & culture - I feel like Austin is probably less diverse than other places. It's more "white," in my opinion. San Antonio has a huge Hispanic population (all of our major cities do, but San Antonio more than others). Dallas and Houston are both very diverse, in my opinion. All of these cities have cultural/arts activities, Dallas and Houston probably on a larger scale since they are bigger cities.
- mild winter - Just don't move to West Texas. You have to be prepared for HOT summers as a trade-off for mild winters, though.
- near an airport - I wouldn't move more than an hour from a major city (Dallas, Houston, Austin, San Antonio) if you want easy access to an airport. The Dallas and Houston airports will have more direct flights to more cities than the other two.
- things to do with children - I'm not as familiar with Houston in this area, and of course, I'm biased toward Dallas since it's my city, but I would say that Dallas is at the top of the list. We have two zoos (Dallas and Ft. Worth), an Arboretum with an amazing children's garden, the Perot Museum, an aquarium... I could go on and on. San Antonio has a great children's museum, but beyond that, I'm not super familiar with stuff they have for kids. I'd say Austin is probably the last on the list for things to do with kids, but people who live there may feel differently.
- a suburb near a big city - You'll find great suburbs outside of all of the major cities.

One thing to think about is that here in Texas, our public transportation systems are virtually nonexistent. If you live in the suburbs, you can pretty much forget about relying on public transportation. We are a driving state.