Geez. Texas sounds like an American version of Australia.
I grew up in Brooklyn. Texas sounds nothing like Brooklyn at all. I’m wondering how the OP’s kids feel. Brooklyn is not a bad place to grew up in, especially once you get old enough to be allowed on subways by yourself. There’s an enormous sense of freedom when you’re thirteen and all you need to go somewhere in town is a metrocard. Some days I still miss it here in NJ.
There was a bit of hyperbole in there but the point being that someone used to a northern clime where it freezes too deep for snakes to survive will need to adjust here and, in some circumstances, while out recreating at least be aware that rattlesnakes, copperheads, coral snakes and water moccasins are part of certain landscapes. No biggie but you do want to educate yourself as to their preferred environs.
The heads come off? Only time a snake’s head has come off around me was when machetes and shovels were involved.
And although I haven’t seen scorpions except extremely infrequently in very rural areas, the last time I did see one was in at scout camp in the hill country, and it’s demise was noteworthy.
So there we were in the campsite, and this scorpion just comes scuttling up looking all pissed off. Without missing a beat, a friend’s tobacco-chewing dad just spit some of his chew-spit on it. It just curled up like it had been set on fire. I suppose nicotine is a powerful insecticide.
I don’t know if it is better to mention hoop snakes or just keep quiet about them. At least there aren’t that many hills in the Dallas area so you have a good chance of outrunning one if it decides to put its tail in its mouth and roll after you.
Little Nemo is not joking either with that although going from Dallas to Houston and back in one day I will not do anymore, It is just too tiring
Here is a new article about people fleeing the general NYC area for better economic prospects in states like Texas, North Carolina and Georgia. It focuses mainly on New Jersey and the reasons why it is hemorrhaging population and even whole companies but the general idea should be roughly the same.
I recently spent a year and a half in North Dallas.
It wasn’t bad , it wasn’t great.
They DO get some snow and ice and boy do they suck at driving in it.
The people are generally nice, the children are honestly polite.
I think the worst part was discovering chiggers.
This.
NJ has a Republican governor. A crude, dumb, nasty, incompetent Republican governor.
Look, we have problems here in NJ. Taxes are too high. I am currently involved in fighting corruption in our school district where the school board is wasting our fucking money and trying to drive up property taxes. I don’t think I would want to retire here either.
At the same time, it’s ridiculous for Texans to criticize NJ property taxes when their own taxes are the nation’s fifth highest. A friend of mine lives in Texas. Her taxes on her house (worth only half of my house) are only about five hundred less than what I pay right now. I strongly suspect that should I personally move to Texas our transportation costs alone would probably eat into any savings we might enjoy.
Good points.
Overall, about half the Tax burden as NY.
Oh, this bears mentioning. Texas builds highways that look like they are big enough for blue whales to break dance their way across the state and in some places they have huge overpasses and loops of road that are several stories high. Then they get an inch of snow or a thin sheet of ice and the roads fucking shut down for the day. I have friends who actually sat in an inch of snow that caused a traffic jam that lasted for 5 or 6 hours last year. The slightest hint of snow or ice can make the roads impossible to navigate. In NYC it takes many feet of snow to shut things down so you will be used to functioning in the winter weather. That will change for you in Texas.
The big thing about these winter storms that they get is the freezing rain and ice build up before the snow
I am from Canada and the ice buildup during some of the storms that I have seen is even worse than what I have ever seen in Canada. The problem is that when these freezing rains happen, it is just below freezing so it freezes just barely and then there is a small layer of water on top of the ice which makes it more slippery than you can imagine. I have seen cars and trucks slide slideways when even stopped across not much of an incline (we are talking about 2 - 3 degrees of an incline). That is how slippery it can be.
It doesn’t help in that there are only around 30 sanding trucks in the entire Metroplex and the best that they can do is cover the major problem spots.
Fortunately, these only occur a few times a year but most things do shut down for the day and for good reason.
Even the skllled drivers have troubles in these conditions
All that I can say is that on a 200k house in the dfw area, I pay $4000 a year in property taxes including the school taxes (which is the majority of the tax)
I pay that just over that on a $140k, 1000 sq ft house in Shirley (LI), NY. And that’s far east on the island at the point where the taxes drop big.
We pay about 6k a year on a house about twenty miles from midtown Manhattan in NJ. The house was assessed at about 300k a few years ago.
I agree. I live in Massachusetts and have driven in Texas during some terrible sleet and ice storms. The latter is much worse and it has little to do with driving skill. You literally cannot brake or turn on it in a controllable way and Dallas does not have the equipment to improve general conditions once things start to get bad. Tractor trailers with very experienced drivers jackknife and cause major pileups on essential arteries. I don’t hesitate to take my SUV out on Massachusetts roads even during the worst snowstorms because you can drive on snow if you go slow and take care especially because the roads are constantly plowed and treated.
For people that smirk, I am sure you are familiar with insidious “black ice” in the North. That is a hidden surface layer of ice that takes drivers by surprise and leads to some impressive chain-reaction crashes. Now imagine that virtually all roads are like an extreme version of black ice and will not get treated with anything. That is what it is like.
Thanks Shagnastry. That is exactly what I had experienced during these ice storms.
If I had not experienced it myself, I would not have believed just how slippery it could be in those cases of the ice storms.
Fortunately, these only last a day or 2 at the most but when they hit there is a shutdown of most of the area including most flights and everything but essential services.
The only ones who benefit are the tow truck drivers. They can make a killing but they can only work so many hours in the day and can only do so many tows
Assuming you’re relatively apolitical, I imagine the main downside of moving from NYC to Dallas is having to drive everywhere. Particularly if you like to drink. In NY, you pretty much walk out of your apartment and walk, cab, subway or Uber to any number of bars and restaurants. Dallas is a lot more spread out.
That said, I have some friends who moved from NY to Dallas and they found a neighborhood with some local bars and restaurants within walking distance.
It’s a link to the National Review so I assume it has something to do with how Obama is destroying America.
The main downside of living in and around NYC is that it’s so damn expensive. My wife and I are friends with a couple of who moved to NC and the main downside is that they keep loosing their child in their nine bedroom mansion that costs less than their old Upper West Side 1BR apartment.
Are you kidding? When I lived in Manhattan, I considered a trip out of the East Village to be a “significant journey”.
Leaving NYC for south Georgia is the biggest regret of my entire life. I miss the culture, I miss the wide selection of food, I miss the hustle, bustle and vibrancy that you only find in NYC and no where else on the planet.
