I have lived in Utah most of my life. I was active for many years and served in various callings including as Bishop. I have a nice job offer in the Houston (the Woodlands)area that I am considering. The salary is 40 percent higher than here in Salt Lake City. Although Utah is okay I dislike the church and the winters here as time goes on.

Any thoughts about living in that part of Texas? I have been in the Houston area many times so I am aware of the traffic, the heat and humidity and bugs. The job is something I would like doing and not being around a lot of Mormons would be nice too.

With that said it can be helpful to get feedback from people in the area. Thanks

I grew up in Houston. (Clear Lake City-NASA).Graduated from UH. The Woodlands is great. People are great. Nobody gives a crap about your religion (or lack of). Where would you work? The Woodlands is about as far as from downtown as Clear Lake. I loved CL due to its proximity to the beach & Kemah seafood. You'll have a hard time transitioning to the humidity. Makes 45 degree rainy days feel like 10 degree Utah days. Makes 90 degree days feel like 115.
Great food- you'll gain 10 lbs. your first year there. Most neighborhoods are very social. BBQ's, Block parties, beers or Margy's in the evenings. Quick access to Austin/San Antone/ Hill Country. Politicians seem almost as stupid as Utah. No State income taxes, but research your property tax rates.
Good Luck!

I would be working in the Woodlands so I wouldn't need to commute to Houston. Property taxes are higher than Utah but it appears that the overall tax rate is similar when factoring state income taxes in Utah.

The weather is concerning and I have spent time in Houston during July and August. I would imagine the winters could be bone cold with the humidity.

You'll love the Woodlands. Great golf course. Also, you can waterski 8 months a year. You'll make REAL friends based on interests, likes & personalities, not based on which church you attend. Great sports town (Astros suck). You'll swell up like an inflatable doll the first times you get bit by the mosquitos, but you'll build up an immunity. Housing is some of the cheapest in the country. It's 100 times easier transitioning from Utah to Houston than the other way around.

One of the best things about living in Houston is the amount of cheap non-stop flights all over the US, Latin America (and even a few to Europe).

You can get anywhere in the lower 48 for usually less than 3 hours flight time and around 200 bucks.

Ever since moving to Texas, we have lived in a MUCH nicer home and travelled so much more since everything is so cheap.

I don't know what gas costs in Utah, but I paid 2.65 a gallon today. Many people don't realize how cheap Houston is because it's near a huge port and lots of energy production.

I'd say GO FOR IT! With the money you save, you can fly back to SLC a couple of times a year when you start missing the mountains.

you will love Houston. It's humid but mild winters and you have an openly gay mayor! No-one here in Texas gives a shit about your religion or what you wear. There's a LDS temple but it usually pretty empty (like most of them lol.)


The Texas Food Pyramid:

Breakfast Tacos
Shiner Bock
Mexican Food
BBQ
Blue Bell Ice cream

Love Blue Bell Ice Cream

you ask me what I like about Texas:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvu4nKdLWX8

That about sums it up.

Houston is alright. Great Indian food, Mexican food, and close to a lot of easy getaways if you get sick of the Houston Metro area. Already big and still growing.

Come on down to Houston, rocky.

Ziller grew up in the Woodlands and can vouch for all the above.

The Great City of Houston and the surrounding areas have something for everybody.

Hit a fellow ex-mo up ~ we will show you a good time.

H-town is great. I moved here in 2001 and have no desire to ever leave. I am from Texas but grew up in the D/FW area and thought Houston was a terrible place until I actually lived there.

People are friendly. The food is great and inexpensive. Great museums and other cultural events. One of my personal favorites is the Greek festival held every year at Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church. Everything is air conditioned to make the summers tolerable.

TSCC appears to be growing here but that is because so many people in general are moving here. Some of them happen to also be Mormon. You may run into a few Mos but they are most certainly a minority here.

People generally don't care where or if you go to church. Honestly, I could not tell you the religiosity of 90% of my co-workers. People here are pretty much live and let live.

I lived in Houston for about twenty years - left for the backwoods of East Texas about eight years ago because I couldn't take the traffic, heat, and humidity anymore.

Agree with what everyone else here has written - nobody in The Woodlands is going to care about your religion.

Sam Houston National Forest is just up the road from there if you like that sort of thing. The statue of Sam Houston pretty well sums up the whole Texan Attitude...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sam_Houston_Statue.jpg

I grew up in The Woodlands and loved it, although it has become much more developed than what it was 20 years ago. There are some decent areas surrounding it as well if you want something less suburban. The people are friendly and much more diverse than Utah. The schools are excellent compared to Utah! (My brothers went from mostly B's in Texas to straight A's in Utah because the classes were so easy. My experience has been that people are more religious and conservative compared to other parts of the country, but are much more tolerant compared to Utah where culture, race, and religion is more homogenous. Eat some beef fajitas at Lupe Tortilla and drink some Promiseland chocolate milk for me--eating Blue Bell ice cream was already a given :)

Mmmmmmm..... Lupe Tortilla.....

Now I need to go!

Promised land does more than chocolate milk, my family loves the banana and blueberry milk too :)

Howdy

It's BIG! and Texans are proud.

Texas is BBQ, sports, beer, freedom, music and family.

Don't Mess With Texas :)

Come on down. You will like it and the winters aren't too bad. Good fishing close by if you like to fish.

I lived in the woodlands for 2 years before being temporarily relocated. I love it there. I can't wait to go back. It's a little stepford seeming sometimes because it's a master planned community but it's really really convenient. Walking trails all over town, pools and parks everywhere, most major stores you could want are all in town (costco and whole foods being put in currently). Plus the cost of living is really low compared to most of the country. Everyone is really nice and it is wonderful for kids. For the bugs just get a terminex or other equivalent set up and have them spray outside every once in a while and you shouldn't have a problem. The summer is hot but the woodlands has so many trees and therefore shade that it isn't nearly as bad as the rest of the area (Houston itself gets a little gross), plus you can just go jump in a pool and everything is air conditioned. Wear mosquito repellant outside in the evening (it's too hot for them in the middle of the day). I found that we were very active when we lived there because it was so easy to walk places.

If you have kids definitely live in the woodlands. If you don't and don't plan on them you could live in magnolia for way cheaper if you don't need the great schools but then you can still take advantage of the amenities.

We lived in the Houston area for about 8 years. We chose to live in Cypress because the schools were highly rated, but the Woodlands is a good area as well.

There's lots to do in Houston with the space center, the beach nearby, fishing, professional and college sports, museums, and a large theater district.

The heat and humidity definitely take some getting used to. A lot of people we knew (we were active in the church at that time) would move there from the west and either love it or hate it. We loved it. Just make sure you have access to a swimming pool, and you'll be fine in the summers.

We used to go down to Padre Island every Thanksgiving and go camping on the beach. The weather was always nice at that time of year, and the water in the gulf is warm. It was a nice tradition.

Things to be aware of:

1. There's no income tax, but property tax is quite high.
2. Homeowners insurance is also high because of the chance of flooding and mold (make sure you don't live on a flood plain).
3. Traffic is terrible if you have to commute into the city.
4. Fire ants.

geographically, Houston is enormous. I am still amazed by the sheer size of the place.

Well, I guess someone has to be critical here so I guess it might as well be me. I've been to the Houston area off and on for several years whilst working on different contracts. All of the above is true but the full picture is not quite what it seems and you should be aware of the following:

*** The overwhelming presence of right-wing, Protestant, politically activist, Evangelical Christianity. Houston proper isn't too bad but the Woodlands, Clear Lake, Sugar Land, Friendswood, and Pearland areas are not the place to live if you are a non-religious non-believer. Don't let people know if you don't go to church. If you thought Mormons were bad, evangelicals are worse.


*** Intolerance and lots of backwards thinking -- especially concerning African-Americans, LGBT, and Latios/Hispanics. SW and SE Asians aren't treated as badly though.


*** Militant 2nd Amendment activism. Remember the famous portrait of John Brown in Kansas with the Bible in one hand and a rifle in the other? That is what it's like there. If you favour even moderate or common sense gun control you are marked as an enemy and a traitor.



The Greater Houston Area is very diverse with people from almost every corner of the Earth. There ARE lots of good people but the significant presence of reactionary conservatives can make life there difficult.

anybody Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Well, I guess someone has to be critical here so I
> guess it might as well be me. I've been to the
> Houston area off and on for several years whilst
> working on different contracts. All of the above
> is true but the full picture is not quite what it
> seems and you should be aware of the following:
>
> *** The overwhelming presence of right-wing,
> Protestant, politically activist, Evangelical
> Christianity. Houston proper isn't too bad but
> the Woodlands, Clear Lake, Sugar Land,
> Friendswood, and Pearland areas are not the place
> to live if you are a non-religious non-believer.
> Don't let people know if you don't go to church.
> If you thought Mormons were bad, evangelicals are
> worse.
>

I ran into a few Evangelical nutwads, but not many. Religion is far less a pervasive influence in Houston than it is in Utah.
>
> *** Intolerance and lots of backwards thinking --
> especially concerning African-Americans, LGBT, and
> Latios/Hispanics. SW and SE Asians aren't treated
> as badly though.
>

I didn't see this at all. My workplace, neighborhood, and kids' schools were far more diverse than those in Utah, and I rarely saw the kind of "backwards thinking" you speak of. Certainly it wasn't as backward as Utah.
>
> *** Militant 2nd Amendment activism. Remember the
> famous portrait of John Brown in Kansas with the
> Bible in one hand and a rifle in the other? That
> is what it's like there. If you favour even
> moderate or common sense gun control you are
> marked as an enemy and a traitor.
>
>

I never came across a gun nut in 8 years in Texas, but when we moved back to Utah, my workplace was crawling with them.

>
> The Greater Houston Area is very diverse with
> people from almost every corner of the Earth.
> There ARE lots of good people but the significant
> presence of reactionary conservatives can make
> life there difficult.

Maybe I was just lucky and missed the reactionaries. That said, I don't see how you could argue that Houston has a more significant presence of such people than Utah does.

Maybe so. Who knows? As soon as we went back to Utah, I had to deal with an IT guy who is a fanatical, conspiracy-theorist, Ezra Taft Benson loving, right-wing nutjob. Everything that ever happened was a sign that the end was near.

Houston was not like that.

Houston proper is more liberal but the exurban towns outside of Houston (Sugar Land, Friendswood, Pearland, etc) are very conservative. Brazoria County is the most conservative County in Texas and one of the most conservative in the US. I can tell you similar stories. Almost every yard has anti-Obama TEA Party type slogan signs. AR-15 and John 3:16 stickers are everywhere. "I really need to tell you about Jesus so you can be saved," etc. I went to a baby shower where one woman said she was moving to Alaska to get away because Obama was taking over the government after the election. I never had problems like that Boston or Chicago. There were such people there but they kept a lower profile and were not so rabid.

Yea....Sure I'd tolerate Houston for 40% raise....
To me, it is a rathole...with no elevation anywhere...traffic is awful, restaurants are abundant & great, Galveston, kemah are at armslength.

What bothers me most is the City's horrible disregard for garbage, one can see plastic flying all over the place, bayous are choked and nobody cares.

Sometimes I wonder if Rio or Mexico City are cleaner than here...

Rocky,

Houston has arctic-like conditions !!!

This morning the thermometer out on Ziller’s grill said it was +41° F !!!

It is not as cold as it was last year when the water in the dog dish froze over but it is still pretty dang cold !!!

Last night the Trophy Wife was going crazy and made Ziller bring all the tropical plants off the porch in to the double-wide !!!

Texas Department of Transportation crews are out making sure all the “Watch for Ice on Bridge” signs are operating properly !!!

There are reports of snow flurries near Dallas !!!

All the mosquitoes and bugs are wearing earmuffs !!!

The local Baptist Church is sending volunteers to the Montrose District to hand out free fur-lined thongs to the Gays in the Name of the gun-toting Jesus !!!

The beer people bought at the grocery store that they forgot in the car trunk all day is still cold !!!

Whatever you do, rocky, don’t come to Houston !!!

Wait till next week when the temperature is +85° F and everything returns to normal !!!

Severe Weather Warning-ly yours,


ziller

I moved to the Houston area 1 1/2 years ago from Utah. I hated the area south of The Woodlands that we rented in. Burglaries like crazy, drive by shootings etc. We built a home in Cypress and for the most part I like it.

Pros
-People don't seem to care about your religion/lack of religion
-Awesome neighbors who offer you a beer or wine if they see you(at least in my neighborhood)!
-No snow! Usually warm weather...just not this week or next! It's so cold!!!!
-Far away from Utah
-Good schools
-Cheaper houses

Cons
-Fire Ants! They are awful!
-A lot more violence/break-ins/Rapes/purse snatching/gun to your head robberies than most places. I don't feel as safe here as I'd like to. I feel like I can't fully "live" here.
-High property taxes.
-I hate the grass here....and if you stare at it, it crawls(too many spiders/ bugs crawling through it)! I miss Utah grass.
-Expensive to rent.
-Crazy traffic.
-Houston is seriously HUGE!
-Poisonous snakes. We've had 2 in our yard in the 5 months we've lived in our house.

If I didn't love my neighbors and my house so much I'd probably try and have my husband relocate to Phoenix for work.