Quote:
Originally Posted by Pedestrian
How many out of state license plates you see is a function of many things including the cost differential of registering a car in the different states. Not everybody obeys laws about reregistering cars if you move to a new location if it costs more. And some people are just too lazy to bother doing it--after all, how likely are they to get caught?
As for people moving from CA to Houston, they better get ready for major acclimation issues. Coming from the west coast or the southwest, anywhere along the Gulf coast or southeast feels like a steam bath. Even the 80s feels miserable until you get used to it and that takes months (I grew up in the east and southeast and even I am miserable if I go back there anytime but winter).
I know--there's air conditioning. But actually not in many places north of LA (and even LA itself if you are near the water). Many homes in SF don't even have central heat. My condo doesn't--we have built-in electric baseboard heaters which I almost never turn on and no A/C. That shocked me when I moved from Florida 40 years ago but not any more--artificial climate control just isn't necessary on the west coast and realizing how critical it is in Houston may come as a surprise.
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In Texas, the deadline is 30 days from the time you move here to when you have to register. Of course, if the cops become stretched too thin here as in other places, I'm betting people will get away with it. My brother in law got hit at a 4 way stop - not his fault, and the cops told them straight up they wouldn't come out for a report unless someone was injured or the vehicles weren't driveable. So it might be poetic that we're getting a bunch of Californians coming here.
Still, I see a ton of out of state plates here from all over the place. In the last month that I can remember, I've seen plates from California, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, Missouri, Tennessee, Minnesota, Illinois, Ohio, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey...?
As for the weather, I suspect people will adapt. I always think about what life was like for people who lived in the south well before air conditioning. I've been able to trace my roots back to Georgia to at least 1793. I always look at the Texas Capitol and an amazed that thing existed before air conditioning. I think what the street must have been like from drought to flood. I do much better in warm weather. I just hate cold weather and always have. I was already cringing last week when our morning lows were in the upper 40s, but our high today of 91F felt great.
And what I meant by "this fits" is just that California has a lot more people than say, Wyoming, which even though is closer to me, I pretty much never see any cars from there. I also see a lot of people here from Florida, and for some reason, I've been seeing more from New Jersey, which is a bit odd.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pedestrian
Ever been to San Antonio? I think that's where I'd go. The River Walk is very nice, the "hill country" is too. I don't see much as interesting as those in Houston except its proximity to Galveston and New Orleans.
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I love San Antonio and am totally biased about it on certain things - I was born there, but it has a different feel than the other Texas cities, and I'm not talking about the Mexican culture and old world charm its downtown has. I sort of think that wild growth that the other Texas cities have seen recently hasn't quite happened in San Antonio. That's not to say there isn't any, but there are places there that don't look like they've changed in 40 or 50 years.
Anyway, San Antonio has plenty of weather issues to worry with. They're 80 miles closer to the coast than Austin is and have had full on hurricanes falling apart over the city dumping rain down there. They're also farther west at the same time. Anyway, the Riverwalk is a gem and I don't care who doesn't know it.
There are plenty of good places to go there that aren't tourist orgies and that are legit San Antonio.
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I thought it would be much higher given all the media hysteria.
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