You could accomplish this right here is California at Harbin Hot Springs.
Texas is all hat and no cattle
I’ve never understood why this is a selling point for any place. You do know that the government still gets tax money from you, right? It’s not like their necessity for the funds magically disappeared by not having income tax.
It is as “nice” as not only not having a professional fire department, but not even planning to to organizing a volunteer fire department until your house in on fire.
My understanding is that the heart of Texas’ economy is oil. They happen to be sitting on large reserves of a valuable natural resource. The production and sale of oil provides jobs, produces wealth, and pays the majority of taxes. So the state government can follow a lot of half-assed economic policies and still be successful.
It’s a selling point if you rent a home rather than buy (hence no property taxes.) That’s what I’ve done for the past 7 years. No state income or house taxes.
Your landlord is paying property taxes. Where do you suppose he gets the funds to do so?
I have relatives in the Dallas suburbs and find the treeless landscape there depressing.
You DO get me! 
So true. But other states have similar reasons to be apologetic and embarrassed. Missouri? Kentucky? Georgia?
Surely you don’t mean treeless? You mean the absence of 30-50 ft high trees that block out the sky. You don’t find really tall trees much here except on riverbanks. Here’s one view of the Dallas skyline from the suburbs.
I lived in Texas until my late twenties- in Houston, Waco, and Austin.
I miss the food, I don’t miss the heat. There’s a lot to do in Texas, but it’s so spread out that those things might as well be in different states. The politics seem more contentious than anywhere I’ve lived since.
And did I mention the heat?
As with many folk - I’m not sure there is any other state in which I have found such a large percentage of residents as offensive. OF COURSE, that is not to say ALL Texans and ALL of Texas is problematic. But the percentage is higher than just about any other state.
I’m hardpressed to think of any other state in which people are so likely to offer their identification w/ their state. Maybe Californians - but I tend to agree with the liberal policies of liberal Californians (not all of CA). And I make some generalities about Florida and its residents. Other than that, maybe residents of NYC, and La/NO.
But for the other states, there is nowhere near the degree of “Proud Texan” attitude. And yeah, I find a lot of the Texas Pride attitude offensive.
Not sure if it was in the Pit or not, but there was a recent “Fuck Texas” thread after the recent weather problems, in which a lot of views were expressed.
I lived in Houston back in 2001-2003 , I was transferred there for work’ we didn’t have kids and had a good time , active theater district, some good cinemas and plenty of food and bar options’ and when not summer some good outdoors stuff up in teb hill country or further afield.
We were transferred back in 2015 , along with 3 kids. Being in a reasonable financial situation Houston is not a bad place, school is decent, housing prices not awful and fairly stable. We have a Democratic house rep (liz fletcher) and I’d say it was 2:1 trump : biden lawn sign ratio, with about 1/4 the houses having lawn signs.
Overall its fine, way too hot in summer , but not too expensive to live and good array of utilities/conveniences.
If I didn’t have to be in Houston for work we would head back to the Wasatch mountains in a heartbeat.
All I know is that one of my backup career plans is to move to Austin and open a formalwear store called “Don’t Fuck With Tuxes.”
Every person I have ever met from Texas has been amazing.
It’s worth noting they were each choosing not to live in Texas.
I’ve lived in DFW for 20 years, and it’s a completely different world in the city itself–I literally don’t know anyone who is a conservative, politically, and if they are, they aren’t mentioning it. And the first-ring suburb I live in is getting bluer and bluer all of the time.
Intellectually, I know this other Texas exists, in the outer ring suburbs, in the rural areas. But it doesn’t feel like it has anything to do with me or my world.
The Republic of Texas is mythological. There was a governmental organization established to to control some of the territory until Congress got around to providing state hood. But, the borders were never defined and the proposed borders were never successfully defended. The southern incursion into Mexico was decided by the United States. The first western incursion by Falconer was simply captured by Mexico and and shipped south. The second by Sibley was soundly defeated at Glorieta Pass by the Union Army.
However, there are bright spots. Austin is beautiful. And, then there is Mi Tierra in San Antonio!
True in theory–Harbin looks nice and is so much closer, but take a look at the pool at Balmorhea and you might understand why I want to go back there if/when I travel to Texas again. There’s an added bonus that you can’t see in the photo–they have a diving board, rare to find in a public pool in California
Worst place I’ve ever visited. And that includes Saudi Arabia.
I’ve driven across it a couple times. That was pretty brutal. Seems okay, however. Hey, they got a Formula One race, so it can’t be all bad.
If one was raised (as I was) to be modest about one’s accomplishments, open-minded, civil, and with a sense of civic duty, then just about every single quality of Texas culture is grating except those which are deeply offensive. Texans are proudly and vociferously racist reactionary braggarts, how that is laudable in any way passes my understanding.