We are in the process of relocating to Houston Texas. My husband is interviewing for positions there. I would love to hear from moms who live in Houston or around Houston. Are you happy there? Is the school system good or I have to put my son in private school. Also what areas of Houston are good for raising a family. We are moving from New Jersey as we are sick of the weather here. Waiting to hear from you all and thanks in advance.

Mariam

By Christylee on Friday, January 16, 2004 - 12:24 am:

I love it here in Houston, I grew up on the outskirts in a town called Deer Park. I now live in what we call the Galleria or uptown area of Houston. I love having everything in just driving distance, it doesn't ever get that cold (today was 70) but the summers are brutal (heat index of 110) with humidity. That said I'd rather sweat anyday over freeze, maybe that's why it's good for me.

As far as the schools, I know Deer Park is rated second in the state a while back when I went there, not sure what it is now. I personally won't be putting my son HISD (Houston Independent School district) when he starts but hope to be living in the suberbs in a different school district.

Any other questions let me know, I've been here my whole life!

Christy

By Kolbysmom on Friday, January 16, 2004 - 08:18 am:

I have a friend who just moved there last summer. She is also a 2nd grade teacher, I'm not sure which district. I will have to ask her. She LOVES it there. She says there is so much to do, all the time. I'm sure you'll like it. She moved from Indiana, so the weather is a big change for her also.

By Kaye on Friday, January 16, 2004 - 08:44 am:

I live in the houston area also. I didn't used to like it so much, then we spent 4 years in ohio. I loved ohio, I loved having seasons, etc. BUT now that we are back I really appreciate wearing shorts today The summer wasn't so bad. I look at it this way, in the north you have jan and feb that really aren't so pleasant outside, here we have july and august, some years worse than others, but EVERYbody knows this, so most of the mcd's have indoor play places, lots of indoor activities. Everywhere has air conditioning it isn't so bad. There is no state income tax, your house insurance is much higher, the deductible is also pretty steep (1% of the insured value of your home). Overall the cost of living here is much less. You can buy a 3000+ sq ft house in a nice neighborhood for just over 200K. One big thing about moving to houston is it is BIG. I mean literally it takes an hour or more with traffic to get from downtown to each outskirt. So if you were south and wanting to go north it can take you close to two hours. The west side, I-19 katy area is probably the most congested, but that also means that is being worked on. I would stay out of Houston ISD, but most of the suburbs are pretty good. http://www.tea.state.tx.us/perfreport/account/ this has the year report card for texas schools. What does your hubby do? What areas are you looking at? The biggest factor in choosing a house is looking at the drive. we don't have mass transit here (yet??), so you do have drive the distance. Good luck!

By Familyman on Friday, January 16, 2004 - 09:45 am:

I hate it and here's why. The city is HUGE and dirty. There's trash everywhere (except for the rich neighborhoods) There are more trucks per capita in Houston than anywhere else in the world. This makes our pollution bad and out traffic worse. All the chemical plants to the south and east of the city don't help in the pollution department. There is no public land. Sure there are small parks here and there but there's very little opportunity to just go outside and play in big open spaces. Mosquitos are terrible for 7-8 months of the year. Again, not in the rich parts of town, their homeowners association dues pay for spraying, but that spraying kills ALL the bugs, then they wonder why they don't have any birds or lizards in their tiny tiny yards. Housing is cheap for what you get, but everybody lives in giant houses everbody ends up spending a lot anyway.
The weather sucks. Well, for 3 months a year it's good, but the rest of the time it sucks. There's fully 4 months of the year where I CAN'T bring my kids outside to play because of the heat, by the time the sun comes up it's just too hot for little ones. The rest of the time I have to plan playing around what time it's going to get absurdly hot. This means that we play at the mall instead of the park and I really don't like that. Commute times are generally horrible. You can blame this on whatever you want, but the fact is that most of the nice neighborhoods with the nice schools are at least 45 minutes from downtown, and over an hour at rush hours. Everybody I know commutes at least 30 minutes, and several of them commute an hour and 15 minutes so they can work a good job and live someplace that's not a horrible place to raise their kids. So it's either live someplace undesirable or spend an extra 12 hours a week away from your kids.
And lastly is the thinking in this part of the world. It's a very "men are men and women have babies" way of thinking. This offended me long before we had kids. It seems to really limit both sexes at a very early age. They tell girls to do one thing and boys to do another instead of telling all the kids they can do whatever they want. Some think it's old fashioned and good, I think it's a stifling way to raise kids, especially girls.
I could go on for hours. We're here because my wife loves her job. I make do and raise my kids as best I can. We'll be out of here by the time the kids are in school so they won't have to deal with the completely screwed and heavily financially biased education system.
Those of you who love it here will tell me I'm wrong, but I live here and that's my take on the place.

By Christylee on Friday, January 16, 2004 - 10:19 am:

Familyman... I'm curious as to what area of Houston you live in? I grew up in Deer Park and my mom currently lives in LaPorte, there are no homeowners associations yet the city sprays for mosquitos in the summer everynight. I only see trash on the side of the road on trashday. As for the trucks and pollution from the chemical plants we are a large inport city, without them Houston wouldn't be one of the largest cities in the US.

I totally don't understand your comment on the "men are men and women are have babies" way of thinking. I was a part of a playgroup and had three members that were SAHD and they were welcomed in with open arms, in fact we liked having them there for the views from the other side. I was born and raised here and never once was I led to believe that because I'm a female I could or couldn't do whatever I wanted. By my parents or society... Heck we had a woman mayor for how many years?

All cities have bad things about them, it's sad that you can't find at least one thing good to say about the city which you call home. Just curious when you do leave here, where will you be moving to? This said everyone is entitled to thier own opinions, I for one am proud to be a Texan.

Christy

By Texannie on Friday, January 16, 2004 - 10:21 am:

Hi! I used to post here a LONG time ago and recently started lurking back. This post has drawn me out of "lurkdom"! LOL I will first admit my bias as I am a 3rd generation Houston. Like any big city (4th largest in the country) it does have it's problems. But Houston also has many plusses. We have a wonderful zoo, huge museum district, hospital district that is top in the nation, a full range of the arts and wonderful shopping. As far as green space/park areas, I am not sure how big Familyman is talking about but there are Memorial Park, Herman Park, Terry Hershy Park, Addicks, Buffalo Bayou hike/bike trails that have lots of area to run and play. Again, like any big city, there are good sides of town and bad sides. Also, there are several different school districts to pick from depending on where you live. All of them have plusses and minus.
As far as the weather, how is a few months of hot any different than a few months of terrible cold where you can't go outside? At least we can drive to the beach when it's hot, go play at an indoor play area or go to the pool 9 months out of the year. I know that my kids were out riding their bikes yesterday afternoon, what were the kids in the NE doing? ;)
I think that there are some people in most every city that have antiquated ideas like Familyman expressed. I have never come across them. I was encouraged to go into business when I was going into college and then out. I never came across that when I was working in banking (a very stodgy field) I am teaching both my children (boy and girl) that they can do anything..play sports, acheive academically..whatever they want. I have not come across any teachers ever in my kids' school (8th and 4th grades) that seem to push the boys in one direction and the girls the other.
If I were looking to move here, I would probably first rent to get an idea of where I wanted to live and not be locked into an area if I didn't like it. I would go over the school district website. Familyman, is correct that the areas closest to downtown are in the weakest school district (HISD) but there are some wonderful schools within the district. I would look at the neighborhood schools individually before writing off the whole district. There are some districts here (Spring Branch ISD) that are supposed to be premium but have not so great schools within them. My point is look at the individual schools within the district before you decide. Many people here choose to live closer to town and know the trade off is tuition for private schools. Many choose to live farther out, but have great public schools. Another thing to consider is type of neighborhood you want and whether you want new construction or an older home or an old established neighborhood or a master planned community. We live in an older neighborhood on the westside of town. Our home is much smaller than pretty much all of the new homes, but we liked the schools in our neighborhood that our kids will/are going to. So it was a good trade off for us. We have 25 kids on our street. We have a nice mix of grandparent age owners and younger owners. We have block parties all the time. My kids walk or ride the bus to the elementary school. We have a neighborhood pool with a swim team in the summer. My husband does drive 30 minutes or so for work, but 90% of the time, everything that I need (grocery store, cleaners, movie, shopping ect) is within 10 minutes of me). I very much feel that even though I am living in a big city, I have the atmosphere of a small town.
(gosh, this ended up being long! LOL)

By Familyman on Friday, January 16, 2004 - 11:33 am:

Christylee and Texannie, you both grew up here. This is what you know and expect. Trust me, there are many parts of the US that are much better in basically ever aspect.
I live in New Caney. North of Kingwood about 7 miles. I drive through rich and poor parts of town every day. I see how both sides live, raise their kids, and school their kids. What I react to is what I see. I see the good and bad of it all.
There are good schools here but there is huge economic segregation within them. Sure you heve bleed over like you do anywhere, but here the rich schools and the poor schools are dramatically different, both in their tax base and their student makeup.
Texannie is right about one thing. The city is so unfathonably huge (it's the largest city in the US by land area, it dwarfs all the others) that you can pick the part of the city you want to live in and never visit any other part for any reason. It's not like a small town, it's spread out, even the smaller micro cities. You HAVE to drive everywhere, even if it's not too far away it's too dangerous to bike or walk almost anyplace. And don't even get me started on the laughable state of public transportation.
I know why you two like it, you grew up here, it's your home town, everything is as you expect it to be. If you hated your home town I'd actually think you were pretty weird. But agian, compared to other parts of the country, and even other large cities, Houston has a tremendous amount of negatives for the few small positives it has. Incidentally, work is one of the big positives. Houston has weathered the dowturn in the economy better than any other major metorpolitan area, even with the shutdown of several major companies like Enron and Compaq.

By Kaye on Friday, January 16, 2004 - 11:34 am:

LOL fmaily man! I will agree with you on the mosquitos (and let's add fireants). I have found though with a few citronella plants and candles and some bug spray, it isn't so bad. Our neighborhood does spray, so that helps. I wish that got rid of the birds and lizards though! I hate those little tiny things hanging out in my house. And the bird that fly smack into my windows just plain scare the poop out of me. Nothing like curling up with a good book on your couch and having a "bang" directly over your head! I also have to say that compared to cincy we have different parks, but certainly alot. You do have to watch for alligators but hey, small price to pay for getting to be outdoors all year long.

By Familyman on Friday, January 16, 2004 - 11:38 am:

Oh, and I have found positives in the city. The cost of community college here is silly inexpensive so I'm taking advantage of it. There is a very strong motorsports community and I'm enjoying that as well. And though the weather is bad for playing with the kids outside for a significant part of the year, it allows me to ride my bike and run all year in select spots where I feel safe doing so. I've found things here that I can enjoy and do, however I'd never ever want to truly raise and school my kids here, and I think that was the basic idea behind the original post.

By Texannie on Friday, January 16, 2004 - 11:46 am:

Yes, it is my hometown, and I did admit to bias, but I have lived in other places so I don't think I am seeing things with blinders. Just like in any city, there are good and bad. I have yet to come across a city that is perfect for everyone. I think we all look at our town as how it is perfect for us. It's obviously not a good "fit" for Familyman, which is fine.
BTW, Familyman, I noticed you are a runner, where would you be running in the am if you lived up east? ;)
Love, as you can see, there are as many different opinions about Houston as there are people who live here. If you do choose to move here, welcome!

By Familyman on Friday, January 16, 2004 - 12:02 pm:

I run on FM242 down by 59 early in the morning. Always in the dark. No so much the east part of town as the northeast.
You're right, Houston doesn't fit me. I'm still most comfortable in small (3-5000 people) midwestern towns. Houston is the antithises of this.

By Debbie on Friday, January 16, 2004 - 12:19 pm:

I am a Texas girl at heart. Right now I am freezing my butt off in the midwest- Chicago suburb. I am jealous that you are moving to Texas. I have lived several places including Austin, Texas; Arlington, Texas; and out in California, we are currently in the Chicago area. I never actually lived in Houston, but my brother did for about 10 years. There is so much to do there. I personally prefer warmer weather, so the heat doesn't bother me. I love the beach and being able to swim 6-8 months out of the year. Yes, like everywhere, there are good and bad areas to live and attend school. I would first find out where your husband will be working and then go from there. Houston is VERY big and there are lots of good and bad areas. I have found doing online research is great. Also, when we recently moved here, dh was working here before we moved and he asked his co-workers about schools and areas to give us an idea of where to look when we were house hunting.

There is such good and bad in any place. I personally am not as happy here in the midwest. Unfortunately, the schools are terrible here in Illinois since they get such little state funding and I don't like the cold. Now, the people are great and have been really nice to us. When we lived in Texas we had a wonderful school system and I loved the weather. Also, I will have to say we had great neighbors. I think the weather will definitely be a big change for you and will take some getting used to. Overall, I really like Texas and I know my brother loved living in Houston. I am sure you will find a wonderful place for your family to live.

By Love on Friday, January 16, 2004 - 04:12 pm:

thanks everyone for your comments whether positive or negative. My husband is a physician. I have a son who has ADHD and is extremely active so being in New Jersey does not allow him to to be outdoors most of the year. It is extremly cold now. Yesterday it was -10 degrees today it is not as bad only 15 degrees. Thanks again for your help.

Mariam

By Texannie on Friday, January 16, 2004 - 06:49 pm:

Familyman, I could never live in a town that size. All of the cities I have lived in have been big. I remember living in Dallas, and they ONLY had a million people and that was small! LOL Nice to know everyone is different.

Love, is your husband in private practice or will he be out of the medical center? There are two ways that I would suggest you approach where you want to live.
1. Decide where your husband will office, and then decide how much of a commute he wants. Based on the commute decision, decide which schools best fit your needs (public versus private)
2. Decide which school district you want to live in and live there regardless of the commute.
Good luck.