re: Longview Tx - good place to live?

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Probably was miserable as a new college grad. I would think its a good place to raise a family.

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was going to reply in the same manner.

i'm in Temple which is a somewhat similar town. Couple of big industry rules the town. Private Christian University. Few nice local places but mainly spec homes and chain restaurants.

one time i was at a conference and met a guy that lived here for a few years and talked about how much Temple sucked arse. I said "did you live there as a single person in your 20s? "

"yeah why?"

"it's an awful place for a single person. go sow your wild oats in Austin or a bigger town, but don't shite on a place that is purposely slower with a lower cost of living focused on family activities. Not everybody wants to raise their children in high crime areas with a bunch of homelessness with a high cost of living and nice bars and restaurants. sometimes it's about more than the $15 street tacos."



eta: to the OP, i like tyler more, but Longview is fine. wouldn't hate ending up there if i had to.

I lived in Longview Texas from 2000 to 2004 when I was in my mid twenties and had a Mechanical Engineering Degree. Wasn't alot to do there, sort of a boring city and I would travel to Dallas on weekends for fun. My last year there or late 2002, I married a local gal who was a good 6 years older than me and divorced me on our 1 year anniversary and then I was fired from my job at the Huntsman Plant about a month later in early 2004. I was in Longview when 9-11 happened and those terrorists attacked New York and we could see all the military planes gearing up for Afghanistan and Iraq landing into Barksdale near Shreveport (Longview is about a 40 minute drive from the border with Louisiana and Shreveport on Texas side). I also lived there when the Columbia shuttle blew up over Dallas and landed south of Longview (about a good 3 hours south of city in Natchitoches and Hemphill). I dragged my wife with me and we drove 2 to 3 hours south to go see all the wreckage all over Natchitoches, and just see and be a part of history - wasn't much to see but pieces of metal roped off or with orange cones marking every piece of debris here or there on sidewalk with strict instructions that anyone touching the debris would be arrested on the spot, with news choppers in the sky. Worked for Huntsman which was located inside the Eastman Plant. I bought a Big Beautiful mansion in 2003 for $100K on the south side of Longview. House had 2 fireplaces and wood floors, nobody wanted to live South of Hwy 80 because that was considered the black side of Longview, where as north of Hwy 80 is where all the white people lived. But I didn't care. This little pocket of mansions on the south side was built in the late 30s with oil money. Longview became a city of instant millionaires when oil was discovered in the 1930s, then during the 1960s many of the white people moved on North side of Longview when segregation became illegal. So you got white Longview on North and black Longiew on South side. My wife hated me for buying a house on the black side near the plant which was also on South side. My wife grew up on an angus cattle ranch on North side of Longview just outside the city, her younger brother was a cool dude and could pick up all sorts of women and he was same age as me and her family was really good friends with the Satterwhite Family, who build these log homes all around the country and especially in that part of Texas. I remember those log homes were really beautiful and her brother worked for Satterwhite. And in 2003 went to the Satterwhite July 4 barbecue and just before July 4 the firecracker warehouse blew up killing 3 people making national news, they were preparing firecrackers for his event coincidentally. But this warehouse distributed fireworks all over Texas and Louisiana. Anyway fater my divorce and being fired from work, I found work in Baton Rouge and came back home and have never left since. I like Baton Rouge because I just didn't really no anybody in Longview Texas. Good people and very cowboy rustic type place to live. The black folks are really nice too and know how to barbecue.

It depends, are you looking at this from the Long View of life?