Your neighborhood?
I have never spent much time there but, I have been through there several times. If your friend is coming from the east or the Rocky Mountains, he needs to remember that this is WEST TEXAS.
I like it.
That whole area has the most wonderful smell of any place I have ever been. It just smells of money.
‘91 to ‘95,Midland,loved it.
What always surprised me about this area are the vast stretches of empty land and how the neighborhoods are so crowded with such small lots! Probably the water problem. I always advise any family moving anywhere to rent for the first year. The advice about understanding that thus is high prairie and a very different landscape is good.
Been here (Midland) 2 years and, it is essentially true. odessa is the home of roughnecks, hot-shots and roustabouts. More serene neighborhoods are being built East and Northeast.
If the move involves kids, your kin might want to consider Midland. It’s only 20 miles away.
Pretty much still true IMO, but the area is growing so the two cities are not as separated by miles as in the past. But I live in Oil Patch City, NM, so what do I know.
I’m from Abilene (east of Midland-Odessa), but my Dad and Uncles lived in Midland for many years. It’s not a pretty place, and the water smells bad (or it used to anyway). But, hey, it’s TEXAS, and that’s a good thing.
Midland is way better than Odessa. Odessa has a more blue collar, lower income population and some bad neighborhoods on the west side. While both are heavily Mexican, Midland less so.
The wind always blows, always. Summers are miserable hot and winters are cold, wet, and windy or cold, dry, and windy.
3+ hours to El Paso, 2 hours to Abilene, around 1.5 to Lubbock.
I hope your not allergic to dust.
Example of how Midland is growing:
Energy Tower would be 6th tallest building in Texas, developer says
http://fuelfix.com/blog/2013/07/10/striking-tower-proposed-for-midland/
A developer is pitching what would be by far the tallest building in downtown Midland, a booming oil and gas town in west Texas.
The project would be 58 stories (the tallest building there is about 25 stories), and it would combine office space, condos, a hotel and shops. It even would top the skyscraper that oil major Chevron is planning for downtown Houston.
The cost to build the structure is estimated at around $400 million. The building would be developed on a two-block site that would also include convention space, an entertainment center with a movie theater and an outdoor area for concerts.
Driving a hundred miles or better a day is our Texas way of life and it's worth it.
Oh, the wind and the dust. I used to work about an hour east of there. I’d be writing and have to shake the sand off my papers. Try driving through a sand storm with the wind blowing 74 mph and add just enough drops of rain to make it rain mud, whew. But it is Texas.
We have lots of restaurants to choose from, and then Midland is very close. As a matter of fact, I drive to and from there every day and it takes me about 18 minutes.
I am from Odessa..
The best way to put it is that the hard workers are in Odessa (Conservatives).. and the office people (snobs, most of them) are from Midland (Democraps)..
Honestly, I can’t help out with info since I haven’t been there in 15 years now, but I always hated going to Midland because of the snobbish attitude of most businessmen/women.. (outside the business/office workers, people were like anyone else.. just trying to take care of families).
High School football will be THE sport, unless it’s changed in the last 2 decades..
And, other than the weather (hot and dry), I could go back and live comfortably again.
(P.S. If you go to Odessa,live on the East side.. most of the trouble was on the West side).