Thinking about relocating for a promotion at my job, and among a long list of choices are 2 locations in Texas-Killeen and Laredo. Anyways, I thought nobody better to ask then the people that live there, so I was just wondering if you could give me your opinions on these two areas.

I'm sure both areas will be a huge difference from Orlando, FL but just looking for a list of pros and cons--my goal would to be there for only a year or so, so you think I could handle the changes?

Thanks for any input.

 

Ok, Killeen is known as "the armpit of central texas" by those of us who have been stuck living there. I was born there in 84, moved away a year later due to my father being in the military and he retired there in 92. We used to live in Copperas Cove (which is basically connected to the Killeen-Fort Hood 'metroplex'). We moved to Temple in 97 (20 mins east on highway 190) but my mom still works as an administrator in the Killeen school district, so when I'm home from college I'm always there helping her in her school. Killeen is FULL of soldiers, 99% of those being inbetween the ages of 18 and 25 and most of them are cocky and ignorant. The traffic is insane, you can't go anywhere without sitting at stop lights for forever. After living in the area, I'd rather cut off my arms and legs than live there again. But notice I said live there! It's a nice place to go for shopping and dining and such. Tons of places to eat, tons of places to shop at! If you are interested in the position, you can always commute from the Temple/Belton area which is very close and they are a lot better to live in. Belton is smaller (around 30k people) and Temple is larger (around 60k people) but still a bit smaller than killeen, but both are so much nicer to live in than killeen or the surrounding areas. Oh, and don't be fooled by people saying that Harker Heights is any better, it's not. The entire stretch of highway 190 from Copperas Cove to Harker Heights sucks to live in. Not sure what others may think of the city, but I know most of the people I know and have met from the area would rather just commute to Killeen from Temple or Belton than have to live in the killeen area.

P.S. - I don't mean to sound overly critical of Killeen, it's just the kind of city you either love or you hate. It's not a horrible place to live, but I would much rather just commute to the area than have to live there. If you are into the F-Body scene, there are a TON of F-Bodies in the area and lots of clubs to get involved with. There's also a dragstrip outside of Temple that we all go to a lot. They do a lot of other non racing stuff as well; BBQs, trips to the lake, trips to the beach and to Six Flags and stuff every once in a while. All in all, the F-Body community there really makes up for a lot of the things that tick you off about the city!

 

TechCam97 hit the nail on the head about Killeen. I lived in Copperas Cove for 3 years while serving in the Air Force. Although not much better than Killeen, I felt the "outer" areas of Killeen were a bit "cleaner." TC97 also had a great point that if the position/money is great enough, I feel that living in Temple could work out. It's a bit of a commute, but I liked Temple quite a bit. Not far from Austin, kind of a college town so there is somewhat of a nightlife, and much less soldiers!! Good luck!!

 

Man I would think long and hard about moving to Laredo. I lived there for a year when I worked for Customs. You are 150 miles from anywhere, the city is not to receptive to outsiders, imho. And you better be up on your Spanish, because even though it is in the US, english is the secondary language.

I knew it was bad when the peeps from El Paso that where there working with me hated it.

Not knocking the city, but it is definetly a whole other world.

 

killeen=****hole

dont do it. really dont do it

Vince

 

Cool, thanks for the advice everyone. I have a few other choices that are possibilities like Denver, CO and Greenville, NC, etc. so I think I'm going to take a look at those.