Hurricanes.
So, no.
I’m sorry - I refuse to play this game. There is no way in hell I’m going to voluntarily set foot in a place where the life of an unborn fetus is held to be more important than mine and doctors are forbidden to help ME unless I’m actively bleeding to death.
I don’t care if it “plays” into the hands of these sexist, fascist scum - I’m not a martyr and have no intention of becoming one. The best thing would be for every individual female in the state of Texas to LEAVE the state and let the sexist, fascist men-folk stew in their own juices.
^ This.
I’ll take a wild guess that abortion rights are not a dealbreaker for those moving to Texas in recent years, including the multitudes who’ve been heading east on I-10 from California.
Dallas has its problems, some of which I’ve mentioned. For those choosing to move to the area, health care is apparently not seen as a significant drawback (note the cluster of Dallas suburbs which rank among the healthiest locales in Texas):
People here have the right to be affronted at the idea of rubbing elbows with people and politicians they abhor. Those who are part of a marked migration to Texas in recent years evidently have other priorities.
https://www.niche.com/places-to-live/dallas-dallas-tx/#about
Of course those who are voluntarily selling homes in California to relocate to Texas are almost certain wealthy enough to be able to fly out of state for an abortion, should they need one. Despite that, the law is still wrong.
That’s the thing - there are a LOT of people who don’t give a shit about the Texas abortion law because they can just go out of state if they want/need one. Screw all those other people who can’t do the same thing.
According to this list, Dallas ranks #95 in the nation though. Austin, to its credit, is #7, Plano is #36 and the next Texas city (Houston) comes in at #93. Maybe you’d prefer a different rankings list but a national list makes a lot more sense than “This is one of the healthiest places in the state” without a baseline for how healthy the state is.
Anyway, for the broad “People move to Texas so they must not care about that”… sure, I guess. I think anyone here would agree. The question posed in the OP was whether I, the reader, should move to Texas, not why is some random guy moving to Texas.
It is never time to move to Texas.
A day? I can go from the mountain John Muir once noted as having “…the most sublime spectacle to be found anywhere on this earth!” to a Padre game in less than 2 hours.
@BigT, @Broomstick, et al – I didn’t meant to blame anyone who chooses not to move to Texas because of the current policies of those in power. No one is obligated to martyr themselves to stick it to Greg Abbott. As a liberal(ish) Texan, it’s more of a lament that Republicans are successfully making the state worse for the sake of scaring off those who might help make it better.
If there’s any consolation, it’s that it wasn’t always like this. Texas Republicans have always been conservative, but used to be tempered by a strong “Chamber of Commerce” contingent that was usually successful at fighting off the more egregious social conservative policies. It was just four years ago that our Republican Speaker adjourned the House rather than let a transgender “bathroom bill” come to a vote. This state is NOT as conservative as how it is currently governed, and sooner or later that will come to a head.
Anyway, you’re right – not your fight. We’ll keep fighting the good fight down here, and only ask that you send prayers, good vibes or whatever encouragement you can our way.
Sure, but it’s a little more complicated to go, say, from Timberline Lodge to Astoria since you’ll need to get through Portland proper (travel time about 3.5 hours vs 7.5 hours from that Big Bend NP to Corpus Christi, which seems like the shortest mountains to the sea route available in TX). Also, I’m thinking in terms of being able to get up early, have a lovely sunrise hike through the woods, travel, then spend the sunset sitting by a fire on the beach. Comfortable travel, with fun at either end.
I don’t equate anything with much fun in Texas, to be honest. I look at pics of Houston or Dallas/Ft Worth traffic and shudder, look at pics from those endless hot flat boring plains and shudder, think of articles about Texas politics and policies and shudder. I mean, Friday Night Lights tried harder than just about any tv show to make Texas seem palatable and all I could think during it is just a huge NOPE to it all.
I lost all desire to live in Texas when I read Gen. Sherman’s description.
I could probably live in Texas just fine, especially if it meant I could afford to be near the ocean. I’m past the age of ever needing an abortion, so I could be a future democratic voter. I do have misgivings about all the guns. I would never leave my house to enjoy the ocean if everyone is walking around with guns strapped to their backs.
I never saw anyone packing heat when in Galveston (I lived in SE Texas for five years) other than law enforcement. So you can enjoy the beach there, if you don’t mind people driving pickup trucks down the gray sands.
Those interested in possibly discarding their stereotypes about Texas might benefit from the following Texas Monthly article, which notes that the overwhelming proportion of the state’s recent population growth has come from Hispanics and various minorities (Texas is ranked as the fifth most diverse state in the U.S.), and that an influx of outsiders probably doesn’t mean that Texas is becoming a more liberal state:
“…an argument that has circulated in political circles for years…holds that a great ideological sorting is underway, in which like-minded people gravitate toward one another, often across state lines. Those who see California as a nanny state will escape to a more enlightened Texas, while those who see Texas as a fundamentalist petro-state will escape to a more enlightened California or Colorado.”
For me, the biggest argument against living in Texas has nothing to do with getting the vapors at the idea of seeing more pro-gun rights bumper stickers or having a senator whose brain is on Cruz control. It’s the often miserable and unpredictably extreme climate (I no longer have the inclination to fill and drag around large numbers of sandbags for when the bayou rises) as well as the strains on already inadequate infrastructure from all those new arrivals. Californians migrating to Texas may be accustomed to the threat of frequent power outages, and figure that in Texas at least they’ll be allowed to purchase generators.
I’ve been sending donations.
It’s not like my state is perfect, either…around the time North Carolina passed the ‘bathroom bill,’ and the police had gotten into the habit of arresting clergy for protesting too long in the legislative building, it seemed like everyone I encountered on my out-of-state vacation wanted to know “What in the hell is going on in North Carolina?” We have a much better governor now, but our lieutenant governor is a homophobic wackjob.
How long ago was this? I recently said in another thread that even though I’d lived in the state with the most guns per capita, I never saw anyone open carry to a dinner party. Yesterday I talked with a friend who still lives there. She said she never goes to dinner parties, but she’s seen a lot more people open carry in the last few years than ever before. Open carry seems to have become a political statement.
I think what makes this difficult for so many of us is the hijinks of Texas’s elected officials. Texas is definitely a more diverse, purple state, but the laws passed and spokesmodels Cruz and Abbott do seem to indicate the state is controlled by conservative wingnuts, and with the recently passed election laws, Texas seems to be trying to ensure it stays that way. It little matters how diverse the state is if laws and the legislature don’t reflect that.
Remember Texas has about the same number of per capita gun deaths as Oregon or Maryland. It is only 25th in gun deaths per capita.
Man, you didn’t get it at all, if you thought that show was meant to make the state look good. If anything, it’s a particularly hellish representation of West Texas life.
Was thinking of Taylor Kitsch’s character and his love affair with the state, and all those good family values and the like. Also, I live in Oregon so that particular representation of small town life was pretty familiar to me, right up to high school football games being broadcast like it was the NFL, cuz that’s how it was when I first moved here and that was quite the culture shock after living in California, which actually HAS NFL teams.
And yeah, I got the show just fine, thanks, I get that teenaged ennui and frantic yearning to GTFO of the small town and see the world. I grew up in strip mall central Sacramento, I get what they were going for. I know what flat ass too hot cow towns look like and how crappy they are–and FNL was shot on location in Texas and even the landscape shots look like shit. Looks a lot like the California Central valley, in fact, and I know how crappy that can be what with the poverty and agricultural economy and the like. Living in Texas would be a whole lot like moving back to Sacramento, but with shitheaded government and a stunning lack of sensible zoning laws. Also hurricanes and tornadoes. HARD pass.
Oh now, you get to take your pick, for the most part. The coast doesn’t really get that many tornadoes, and the inland doesn’t have too much to fear from hurricanes. But, whenever anyone asks about moving here, my leading question is something like “How do you feel about the sky semi-randomly opening up and trying to kill you?” It doesn’t happen really often, but often enough to be a psychological factor of living here, or anywhere in the plains.
The reason my wife would never move to California is earthquakes, she fears them pretty bad. I dunno, I’ve slept through tornadoes being a few blocks from my house. I would probably sleep through the earthquake, too. If I got smooshed or torn up in an air Cuisinart, both would be a complete surprise to me, and I’d probably figure my last few minutes were a dream.
Heh, I think of the HEB area as Methville, every person I’ve known that was into meth had a connection back to one of those three cities. I’d never consider buying a house there, but somehow it won this poll. Same planet, different worlds.
Heh, I grew up on the edge of Arlington (Bethlehem on the highway), lived most of a decade in Denton (can’t swing a dead cat without hitting a hippie who wants to talk about crystals), and most of two decades in Fort Worth (no idea where it’s supposed to be going, but nice enough and mostly harmless). They were really different places during the time I lived in each. However, time has passed, and they may have grown more homogeneous. But I lived in FTW less than a year ago, and now live in Oak Cliff (just its own odd mishmash, red lights have really long grace periods), which to me is different again still. It could also be another case of same planet, different worlds. I’m just experiencing that area through a different set of events.
Really, to sum it up: There are places in DFW where I would be very scared to live in, and places in DFW where the residents would instead be scared of me, and yet another subset where they see me as “one of them”, but I think they’re all insane. Somehow I’m still happy in pretty much any of them (but, I’d probably have a pretty good time in most places, I’m flexible enough to keep from really breaking). Most varieties of either can be found within 10-15 minutes by car in DFW, sometimes you can get between them by foot in that time frame. It’s a very varied place.
Yep, there are very good reasons to think Texas sucks. I haven’t been fond of the state government in any form or fashion over the last 25 or so years*. But, it wasn’t really awesome before that, and people were already moving here in droves. Seriously, I was born in Texas, and have dated only one person born in Texas. Everyone else had moved here from somewhere else in one of the several waves of migration to here. Heck, my Dad moved here from somewhere else (and was an almost embarrassing enthusiast for the state).
If you really looked at your own state with a critical eye, it’d probably be a wash, anyway. Trust me, I’ve considered moving to most states. My employer has the stated policy that I just need to live in the country I’m employed (yes, pay adjusted for where I live, but I feel I’m overpaid anyway), before that I could have always negotiated a remote position, and my sweetie would probably be happy for an excuse to change jobs. So far, even legalized weed hasn’t been enough to get this pothead to consider moving. It’d feel nice to have my team win more often in the ballot box, but I’d rather stay and try to make where I grew up a better place. Nothing’s been compelling enough to draw me away, at any rate. People are moving here in droves? That’s nothing new at all, it’s how my wife arrived here in the early 80s. I doubt it will stop anytime soon, as it has been the story throughout my life.
*I’m doing what I can, and have seemed to have about as much success as this place has in its stated mission.
Oh, and as far as open carry goes: I’ve seen two instances of a firearm being carried openly by someone who wasn’t in law enforcement in a lifetime. Both of them were decades ago, and were instances of someone carrying a long gun in public, which was legal before any recent laws. I haven’t seen an increase in open carry in DFW, at any rate.