Anyone from El Paso, TX?

[hukarez]

Just thought I'd inquire, and get some insight on the place in general.

[MrBug708]

lol

[Lorena]

Are you planning on leaving beautiful San Diego hukarez?

[cartman]

JeeberD spent a lot of time there, and I'm pretty sure that Raiders Army is currently stationed at Ft. Bliss. They can probably provide some insight. I've been there a bunch of times, but it was always passing through to somewhere else. I really haven't spent much time in the city at all.

[JPhillips]

When I was on tour we stayed at a hotel that shared a parking lot with a strip club. If I remember right there was no cover if you showed your room key.

[hukarez]

Originally Posted by Dodgerchick

Are you planning on leaving beautiful San Diego hukarez?

I might have to, if nothing pops up in Sorrento Valley for me job-wise. There's a potential opening that I've considered in El Paso, but I'm honestly not that familiar with the city in general - how big it is, cost of living, traffic, population density, etc...etc...

[cartman]

Originally Posted by hukarez

I might have to, if nothing pops up in Sorrento Valley for me job-wise. There's a potential opening that I've considered in El Paso, but I'm honestly not that familiar with the city in general - how big it is, cost of living, traffic, population density, etc...etc...

El Paso is a decent sized city, around 600,000. But it is dwarfed by it's Mexican neighbor, Ciudad Juarez, which has around 1.5 million. Cost of living and traffic are both low, from what I hear. There are quite a few people that live in New Mexico that commute to El Paso for work.

What I've always noticed driving through, is that the people living in Juarez in $5000 houses look across the Rio Grande to people living in $500K houses, while the folks in El Paso in $500K houses look out to the $5000 houses in Juarez.

[stevew]

What happened to Raiders Army?

[cartman]

Originally Posted by stevew

What happened to Raiders Army?

If I recall, he is currently TDY, and probably doesn't have internet access.

[MrBug708]

What I've always noticed driving through, is that the people living in Juarez in $5000 houses look across the Rio Grande to people living in $500K houses, while the folks in El Paso in $500K houses look out to the $5000 houses in Juarez.

Heh.

(I didnt mean to lol at the beginning in a rude way, just thought it was basically a PING - Jeeber post)

[JeeberD]

If there's anything that cartman didn't answer that you would like to know, let me know...

[JeeberD]

OK, some more info now that the Rox aren't playing and I can give my undivided attention...

El Paso is a fairly large city. It's pretty spread out and it takes a while to get from one end of town to another, though after living in DFW for the past six years it doesn't seem that bad anymore. Traffic usually isn't an issue on the highways, and it's nice because there's a designated truck lane on I-10 through town.

Cost of living is pretty dang low, though from what I've heard in the past year or so housing costs are going up. Still, housing will be dirt cheap compared to California. The West side of town is the more affluent area, the Lower Valley is the poorest (it's the part that's on the Mexican border), the North-East side (where I lived as a kid) is getting older and more run down, but hopefully should pick back up again now that Fort Bliss is expanding, and the East side is I suppose the middle-class-ish area.

El Paso has a majority hispanic population, and therefore has the best Mexican food in the entire damn world. Seriously, you pretty much can't go wrong with any of Mexican restaurants in town, though my favorites are Avila's (three locations, but I prefer the Mesa (West side) location), and Griggs (which is more New Mexican style). Try all the hole-in-wall dives, as well.

If you like steak, Cattleman's Steakhouse way out in the middle of nowhere east of El Paso is just about the best damned steak I've had anywhere. Plus, their beans, coleslaw, mushrooms, desserts, etc all rock. And if you have time before or after dinner, the grounds are fun to visit.

In the past couple of years, El Paso went completely smoke-free in public. So there's no smoking in restaurants, bars, etc.

If you want to see live sports, your options are somewhat limited. There's a minor league baseball team, the El Paso Diablos, a minor league hockey team, the El Paso Rhinos, and of course UTEP sports. There have been rumors of an AFL2 team coming to town, but the city pretty much needs to build a new arena for that to happen, and knowing the city politicians it's gonna be another 20 years before that happens. Sunland Park Racetrack is, I believe, technically in New Mexico, but it's on the western edge of town. And I'm pretty sure that they've added a casino in the past couple of years.

There's also a ton of info in this post for out-of-town visitors on the UTEP board...

http://utep.rivals.com/showmsg.asp?f...986381&style=1

If I can think of anything else, I'll let you know...

[Lorena]

Originally Posted by hukarez

I might have to, if nothing pops up in Sorrento Valley for me job-wise. There's a potential opening that I've considered in El Paso, but I'm honestly not that familiar with the city in general - how big it is, cost of living, traffic, population density, etc...etc...

Oh man, sorry to hear that hukarez. My first thought when I read your post was another Californian moving to Texas... there are a lot of us out here.

Hope everything works out for you either in Diego or in El Paso. Sorrento Valley is quite a drive from Chula Vista no? My personal opinion is that the cost of living out here is so much better than Diego so if you're looking to stretch your dollar, definitely consider moving. I'm actually thankful we never bought a home in Temecula because we'd be tied down.

Anyway, gluck I'd be interested to know how it goes.

Lorena

[Richard Weed]

Originally Posted by JeeberD

OK, some more info now that the Rox aren't playing and I can give my undivided attention...

El Paso is a fairly large city. It's pretty spread out and it takes a while to get from one end of town to another, though after living in DFW for the past six years it doesn't seem that bad anymore. Traffic usually isn't an issue on the highways, and it's nice because there's a designated truck lane on I-10 through town.

Cost of living is pretty dang low, though from what I've heard in the past year or so housing costs are going up. Still, housing will be dirt cheap compared to California. The West side of town is the more affluent area, the Lower Valley is the poorest (it's the part that's on the Mexican border), the North-East side (where I lived as a kid) is getting older and more run down, but hopefully should pick back up again now that Fort Bliss is expanding, and the East side is I suppose the middle-class-ish area.

El Paso has a majority hispanic population, and therefore has the best Mexican food in the entire damn world. Seriously, you pretty much can't go wrong with any of Mexican restaurants in town, though my favorites are Avila's (three locations, but I prefer the Mesa (West side) location), and Griggs (which is more New Mexican style). Try all the hole-in-wall dives, as well.

If you like steak, Cattleman's Steakhouse way out in the middle of nowhere east of El Paso is just about the best damned steak I've had anywhere. Plus, their beans, coleslaw, mushrooms, desserts, etc all rock. And if you have time before or after dinner, the grounds are fun to visit.

In the past couple of years, El Paso went completely smoke-free in public. So there's no smoking in restaurants, bars, etc.

If you want to see live sports, your options are somewhat limited. There's a minor league baseball team, the El Paso Diablos, a minor league hockey team, the El Paso Rhinos, and of course UTEP sports. There have been rumors of an AFL2 team coming to town, but the city pretty much needs to build a new arena for that to happen, and knowing the city politicians it's gonna be another 20 years before that happens. Sunland Park Racetrack is, I believe, technically in New Mexico, but it's on the western edge of town. And I'm pretty sure that they've added a casino in the past couple of years.

There's also a ton of info in this post for out-of-town visitors on the UTEP board...

http://utep.rivals.com/showmsg.asp?f...986381&style=1

If I can think of anything else, I'll let you know...

This is also a pretty good website for restaurant reviews:

http://www.eskimo.com/~sockeye/index.html

The guy is partial to Asian and Mexican, but he has reviews of other restaurants as well. Right now taxes are going up like crazy. There is no state tax in Texas, so housing taxes are higher than most (thus why a lot of people live in Las Cruces and commute to El Paso). Also there was a vote last week on an EPISD bond that would increase taxes yet again.

Jeebs is right that the Westside is the uppity part of town. The Eastside is growing like crazy and some people live in Horizon and commute to work. It's changed a lot in the past few years and the growth seems to be more on the Eastside than the Westside. The Northeast is growing as well and it's a much shorter commute. They're going to make 54 into an interstate so that will affect things as well.

With the BRAC and the expansion of Ft. Bliss, it will affect traffic and everything in general. That being said, more soldiers means more money for the city so overall it will benefit people.

BTW, this is Raiders Army. For some reason I can't login on my laptop. If you have any other questions, email me at my work email, [email protected]. I haven't been on FOFC because of a couple of reasons and now I can't get on. Quite ironic.