DBLTKE

iTrader: (1)

Well if all goes well I should be moving to Texas sometime in the coming months. Specifically NW Houston in Spring Branch East between Interstate 10 and Highway 290. I'm pretty excited about the move. I'm coming from Aloha, Oregon in the Portland metropolitan area, so it's going to be quite the trek. I'm moving to Houston because I'll be going to the School of Automotive Machinists.

I'm trying to get to know the area as best I can before I head down there. So what can you guys tell me about it? How's the weather, traffic, public water, living costs, you name it. Are there any good Houston third gen clubs? Which drags strips, road courses do you prefer? What kind of grocery store chains exist there? Any good beaches? What are the "good" area's and the "bad" areas of town. How is the law enforcement?

So let me have it, Hopefully I'll like it down there.

Orr89RocZ

iTrader: (20)

Same boat as you but i'm leaving Thursday as in Jan 7.

From what I've seen for 2 weeks back in september its a nice place. Seems like the bad areas are east/south east and south west of the city.

but i'm interested in the other aspects as well. Cost of living was hard to judge from my 2 weeks stay but seemed similar to that of my hometown of pittsburgh pa and surrounding area.

Only thing i dont like is the strict emission requirements with no special law for exemption for low mileage/low useage vehicles like i have in my home state. One reason why my thirdgen is not coming down this year and perhaps for awhile until i can find storage

DBLTKE

iTrader: (1)

That's interesting, I read on the TxDOT site that you can apply to be exempt if you drive less that 5K miles a year. It looks like I'll be emissions exempt as my car is now 25 years old. I'm worried about the visual inspections though. I have no cat, !AIR, headers, no horn, and blacked out turn signals, side markers, tail lights, and I'll have to check out how low my tail lights, headlights are.

sailtexas186548

iTrader: (2)

weather is hot and humid, big rain storms and hurricanes all that good stuff you get in a fairly tropical region, winter is more like a few freezes sometimes and its cold, no snow/ice, the tracks closed mid december and reopen mid jan!

traffic... no one knows how to drive here, its pretty bad sometimes but hey its a big city what can you do, not to familiar with your part of town but in general there's some traffic around town.

drag strips, theres Houston Raceway Park 1/4 mile awesome track, there's Sealy (1/8 or 1/4 now i think?), there's a couple more i'm not very familiar with so i'll let some other guys fill you in on that.

road courses, there are a few to chose form, texas world speedway is an hour northwest of you, there's texas motorsport ranch, bmw track i think?, i think there are some i'm missing but they are around, i've never raced on them myself.

grocery - HEB, Randals, Krogers, super target, walmart, thats what's near me by the bay

beaches? haha well we have a beach, an i'll leave it at that. it can be fun but it's not anything to brag about, down in Galveston of surf-side. if anyone tells you they "surf", ehh again this isn't a beach on the ocean with a swell, its some wind blown chop that -kinda- resembles a wave. there is a big kiteboarding/wake-boarding scene though.

thirdgen clubs, well it would be nice to have one but everyone is SO spread out that whenever we try to get together its never turns out like we plan, there are a lot of good car hangouts and groups around town though. i'm really interested in one but no we don't have one

Welcome to Houston!

and Orr, here's the emissions info from his link, looks really promising!

Low Mileage Waiver
There is a low mileage exemption for motorists who drive less than 5,000 miles/year. To qualify for this exemption you must:

Fail both the initial test and free retest
Incur $100 of emissions related repairs
Drive less than 5,000 miles/year
If you meet these qualifications then you would qualify for the low mileage waiver. Contact the DPS challenge station in your area for more information on the forms to complete.

Stephen

iTrader: (12)

If you can, move slightly out of to a county that does not require emissions testing. Everything still needs to be there for Visual Inspection, but that doesn't it has to work!

Gutted cat, gutted smog pump, plugged A.I.R. tubes, etc.

Orr89RocZ

iTrader: (20)

WTF!! That wasnt listed several months ago when i searched alot and asked many questions on this board as well as LS1tech (I got a 99 trans am that i wanted to mod too)

Now i just need a place to store it!!!

DBLTKE

iTrader: (1)

I know I won't have a problem with the heat, I love the 90*+ weather in Cali, Arizona, Nevada and here in the summer. I just wonder if I'll hate humidity. I hear it's pretty bad there, but I recently spent a week in Hawaii and it was up to 100% humidity and I didn't mind it at all, though it was only in the high 80's.

I'm loving that racing season! Over here we close after Halloween and open in March. I've never heard of some of those stores. Is Super Target just a version of Target? Are the inspections really strict? I don't have those parts that I listed so I'd hate to have to go out and buy parts that I don't even want on my car.

Uglybronco

iTrader: (2)

I don't know what your commute route will be but I suggest staying the hell off 290 during any kind of rush hour, 6-10AM inbound & 2-6PM outbound (kinda guessing about the afternoon time.) That turns into a useless parking lot in the mornings.

The rest of the greater Houston area is still not much fun to drive unless the roads are empty. Slow people wouldn't get out of the left lane even if their food stamps depended on it.

I don't know what to say about law enforcement on crime & such since I don't spend much time in the city, watching the news or know what it is like in comparison to other places.

When it comes to traffic enforcement.. HPD has some white chargers that look really plain with ghost lettering on them. What is worse than that is they when they follow you in a truly umarked regular car then all the sudden a marked car shows up, pulls you over & gives you a ticket with 6 "violations" on it. I can't think of anytime I had a good thing to say about an HPD officer. A rumor I heard recently was that they would be doing ride-alongs in 18-wheelers and reporting violations.

The county sheriffs & constables I have dealt with have been pretty cool so far. I have also heard really bad things about Jersey Village police which you will be somewhat close to but that is just hearsay.

The good and bad areas are spread out in almost no organized pattern around Houston from what I can tell. There will be nice trouble free places backed right up to some super ghetto complete crap/ck holes.

Other than giving you the names what would you like to know about the grocery stores? The ones Sail listed are all big name ones. There are plenty of smaller ones around as well as some foreign owned that you can probably buy parts of lost pets in.

Oh & the humidity here really bites the donkey tool. It will take some getting used to almost no matter where you've been. But it surely beats being somewhere colder.


Damn, I didn't even know they closed at all.. Not that I go to them hardly at all, just figured they wouldn't..

Also, inspections can somehow be mysteriously easier if you find the right place. So bring the car down Orr89roc & maybe I'll weld some angle iron together & throw some tin on it to store your car in. (I know that sounds red neck & trashy but I've got some pretty thick angle & a bunch of roof & siding tin.)

sailtexas186548

iTrader: (2)

Orr im sure there's a place for you car in this city, and im sure PLENTY of us on here will let you keep it our garages, so long as you leave the keys so we can move it if needed...

but yeah that's a new waiver that wasn't listed last time i looked, i'm doing that for my car!

DENN_SHAH

iTrader: (1)

Welcome to Houston

from the link, there have been some changes recently.
no AIR injection you can probably get by with, it just depends on the guy doing the inspection.
the missing cat and no horn, would be a problem.
on the blacked out lights, it depends on how blacked out the turn signals, tail lights, headlights, and brake lights are.
they may pass inspection, but you can still get a ticket for them if they are too dark.


high temps are one thing, but the humidity level changes things, a lot.
a couple of years ago when my got back from Iraq in august, the first thing he said to me was" Damn its hot".
it can be 90~95 and be a nice day. or it can be 80~85 and be an absolutely miserable day.
when the humidity starts hitting the 90+ range with temps to match, or higher, it can make for some long days, and sometimes long nights too.
this past summer was actually pretty nice. i don't think we broke 100 very often if at all. it was one of, if not the mildest summers i can remember.


you can PM 3.8TransAM here on the boards.
he was here a couple of years ago for the same school i believe.
i know his experience here wasn't a good one and he wasn't happy being here.
but he can probably give you some good tips about being here.
being from Indiana he can probably give you better info on things like the weather than those of us that live here can.

a super target is the same thing as a super walmart.

DBLTKE

iTrader: (1)

Thanks for the info on the PD, that's some valuable stuff. My tail lights are actually only smoked, you can still see the color in them, the front turns and side markers are pretty much blacked out but you can still see them well enough in the day. I guess I should think about putting A/C in my car, and tinting my windows.

Do you have Safeway, Winco, Albertsons, or Haggen? Also what major drug stores exist there? Any 24 Hour Fitness's? What auto parts stores are there? Super Walmarts and Super Targets? they really need to outdo everyone down there don't they? lol.

How are most of the roads? Where I'm from we have a pretty good DOT that stays on top of bumpy, cracked roads, pot holes and such. I can run with 2" of ground clearance without a problem, even downtown.

Does Houston have a decent public transportation system? Around here you can get to pretty much anywhere on a bus or light rail. my girlfriend doesn't have a car so she'll be relying on this for awhile. I'll have to make sure to avoid the toll ways, we don't have those around here. Are there any red light camera intersections?

Thanks for all the great info, it's really going to help me out.

sailtexas186548

iTrader: (2)

we used to have albertsons, i think they all closed though.

there is CVS, Walgreens, and pharmacies in super walmart/target. the "super" stores are grocery plus everything else generally.

yes to 24hr fitness we have a lot of them

your gonna want a/c and tinted windows.

redlight cameras are around in some places

Orr89RocZ

iTrader: (20)

Awesome. That may be a plan Just dont let it get caught in the rain and feed it 93 octane...oh and there is no a/c so cool days are your friend, but doesnt like the heat anyway, motor runs hot so cool days are best such as right now . It doesnt like stop and go traffic, and it doesnt like to merge onto those highways at WOT, it just goes sideways really quick when you try that so be aware. lol ~700whp is a PITA sometimes.

Wasnt real impressed with some of the back feeder roads/side streets. Actually quite bumpy/cracked in alot of spots and I was shocked since its so flat down there and not a lot of hot/cold expansion sessions like up north with freezing harsh winters and still hot summers. Low ground clearance could be a concern on some of those spots but I've made due in PA with the rolling hills and back roads just fine with very little clearance, i dont think i'd have problems down in texas.

one92rs

iTrader: (5)

ok now not all of southeast houston is bad. down south there is league city,clear lake and all. perty popular place. hell if you are in town come on down south. we will give you a tour if needed. traffic. hah. 40 years of it for me. this place is crouded. construction all the time. but it is a nice place. big city. always something to do. lot a people say north. just as much traffic as south. pic a good spot. north in the woodlands nice. down south neart me nice. hell there are nice places all over. going to school near 290. move near it. heck i drive from league city to near downtown and back every day. 31 miles. have driven near that for my 23 years as a field service tech. hey Orr89rocz. we will be around the house this coming weekend. maybe even cooking up some homemade chicken fajita or some good ol texas ribs.

Orr89RocZ

iTrader: (20)

I'm used to that in pittsburgh and PA in general

I'll be busy moving in saturday and my mom is coming down to help out and to take a weeks vacation so i'm gonna show here around the area as best i can. I'll keep in touch tho

Jonathan Abner

Just watch out if you go downtown at night lock your doors and hide your valuables in your car.

one92rs

iTrader: (5)

did you end up north-south-east-west.

Orr89RocZ

iTrader: (20)

west.. right off of beltway 8/sam houston parkway and south of I10

DrewsCam

iTrader: (2)

Dude Orr you are right about 5 blocks from me except I live north of I-10. Right around Westview and the Beltway... Your not far at all... that makes you close to me a Zombie but a ways from Lance down in League City... If you need anything send me a pm or email and I'll get back with you quick... I'll be actually driving past your place to go work on my ride this sat ... hopefully Zombie will be heading out there with me.. and if I get my hands on her early I'll have to give 1bad91z (mike) to meet me there to tune the chip...

esc

iTrader: (6)

It's also a pretty easy shot down Beltway 8 to 59 if you want to go to the Saturday meet at Otto's BBQ. I make that one as often as I can. Not this weekend though. It looks like this weekend will be our annual freeze.

If there is ANY ice on the roads Saturday be VERY carefull. No one here has a clue what to do when it is freezing outside. Luckely it doesn't happen very often.

88gta_hiflyer

iTrader: (1)

Hey I'm in the same boat as you. Moving to Houston/Clear Lake in August and worried about emmisions. Please let me know if you're able to get the under 5k exemtion. I've got headers, no AIR pump, egr is not hooked up and probably some other infractions.

92_T-5

iTrader: (1)

ah live in the southeast side it aint as bad as northside or east or southwest lol watch the news lol poeple shoot most the time in southwest or northwest or northeast lol ah live at 45south an beltway8 welcome to TEXAS !!

Orr89RocZ

iTrader: (20)

Whats a good place to get a car inspected or does it really matter? I dont really have any questionable mods on my car, AIR is still present and I have cats but its an aftermarket exhaust system. I got an LS6 intake with NO egr on a 99 car that is suppose to have EGR, but since its an R-title car, and the headers do not have the EGR port on them, i will tell them its a 2001+ LS motor if they question anything. It all looks normal under the hood and you can see cats present but I dont think I have rear o2 sensors but not sure. All the error check engine codes for EGR are out so no lights show for the OBDII test so it should pass I guess.

I live on w sam houston prkwy s (beltway 8) and near westheimer road. South of I10. I guess any place that does inspections is ok?

one92rs

iTrader: (5)

as long as you have the tune in it to turn the test off for everything i dont think they will look for anything else. do the headers have the egr tube on em? if not they wont say anything.

DrewsCam

iTrader: (2)

Hey Orr your right down the road from my Camaro's temporary resting place.. its at westhiemer and diary ashford... I'll keep an eye open for a place for you to go too..

Orr89RocZ

iTrader: (20)

Cool man, i got a buddy that lives out off of dairy ashford I believe towards westheimer. I'm like half mile off westheimer, just off beltway 8/sam houston parkway

Headers have AIR and are for 01-02 cars which never had EGR in the first place. I got the LS6 intake to match which doesnt have EGR so the motor looks like a 01-02. Has AIR tubes and the 01-02 AIR system

Jupiter

iTrader: (1)

I live in Alief 'beltway 8 & 59' and just got my ride inspected in Katy with NO QUESTIONS ASKED... PM me if ya still need it done.

Orr89RocZ

iTrader: (20)

I guess i need to get it inspected first, then do my drivers license/registration changeover. Car still has PA plates

Stephen

iTrader: (12)

Just tell cops your down here for college or work (with a story to back them up). That'll buy you some time, before having to register it here in Texas & having to meet Texas Inspection & Emissions standards.

Jupiter

iTrader: (1)

Yep... Although
I ran out of state plates till they expired, heh

Orr89RocZ

iTrader: (20)

my concern is I was under a family plan insurance which runs out end of january, so i need to get my own insurance with my own name so I have to put it under my texas address. So i assume the car they insure has to be texas registered too.

As long as it passes the test here its fine, this 99 trans am is my daily driver with some pep. I never wanted it to become a race car and trying to keep it that way, although I want a big cam/heads package. I have the twin turbo car for that and its more than i could ever ask for.

Jupiter

iTrader: (1)

Insurance doesn't ask where the car is registered. I just added my T/A to my insurance before i even got the title/reg done. Current title/reg is from Oklahoma but I had to be insured to do the TX inspection then title/reg.

Jupiter

iTrader: (1)

A little bit of background...

I got my car in 1995 from my bro who lived and found the car in Oklahoma.
He gave me the car 2 weeks later and i brought it to Houston. I drove the
car till 2002 with Oklahoma plates. In 2002 i lost touch with my bro who still
had the title in his name. Since then this damn car with all my money has been sitting in the garage. Early this month i was FINALLY able to get the title taken care of and am now enjoying my car/money again.

My son claims he can see a complete personally change now that i am back playing with my favorite toy...
Now if i can just get my daily driver back from him i will be happier, LOL

87WS6

iTrader: (1)

Having gone from Arizona to Texas I can tell you that the humidity sucks *****. There is no other way to put it. Houston smells funny, the roads suck, traffic sucks, it's full of illegal immigrants (more so than even DFW or other areas of Texas), criminals, and in general it's just dirty and nasty. I hated living in Houston. That was some years ago and I doubt it has improved. Gun laws are pretty awesome in Texas though. I can say that's the good part about being anywhere here. We are also a Castle Doctrin state which rocks.

Having lived or worked in most major cities/areas of the state I have found the DFW area to the the best general location in Texas. Many people rave about Austin but the roads suck there, and it's far too liberal for my tastes. There are too many college age morons out there. I always heard that it was full of college chicks and that's simply untrue. The only place I saw good looking chicks was in the 6th street area. So unless you are young, college age, and like to get drunk and party regularly, Austin isn't all that.

To each their own I suppose. I've known people who actually loved Houston or Austin and hated DFW.

Orr89RocZ

iTrader: (20)

I havent been too happy with some of the roads here in texas... Some or just plain horrible and i have no idea how that can happen. Coming from a state with alot of freezing and thawing, our roads werent too bad compared to these down here. Some are very bumpy and cracked up which just surprises me for a warm flat area

Houston so far does seem alittle "dirty" and there are MANY different types of people here with some probably being illegal immigrants, but there are some decent areas that i liked so far. Still early to tell I've only been here a total of 3 weeks. 1 week this week and 2 in september

Jupiter

iTrader: (1)

The reason roads deteriorate so quickly here is that Houston is built on marshy ground and and in some areas old rice fields.

My best recommendation is to stay out of south and southwest side of town
because of flooding. I live in Alief which is SW Houston or as we like to call it, the SWAT 'South West Alief Texas'. My home flooded last year after an extremely strong overnight rain. I got about 4" of water in my house and water was lapping right up to the bottom of the car. I've lived here since 1974 and seen many floods and a few hurricanes. I strongly recommend parking your car in an elevated parking lot during severe weather conditions.

DrewsCam

iTrader: (2)

i've lived up on the nw to west side for about 25 yrs and never flooded... not once... its all in location... NW is newer part of town thats growing so imo the roads are better and the drainage is better that and its higher elevation...

houston_boss

WHAT!?! haha. are we talking about the same Houston? this past summer was one of the worst ive seen IMO. It didn't rain for literally a month and temps. were consistently above 100 until it did.
Believe me, I sanded my IROC in that heat. haha

And there's just no way to escape the humidity. Well, at least with no AC. My compressor's out, so last summer I thought I'd be fine cause I could just take off the t-tops. As a matter of fact, that just gives it a blow-dryer effect.

one92rs

iTrader: (5)

holy cow did someone say it didnt get hot here. streets always have and always will suck. down here in the south area doesnt flood all the time. 40 years down here. there are places all over houston that flood no matter where you are. been driving it for 23 years all day 5 days a week. i suppose its all in peoples opinion. its just like any other cities. there are good and bad spots. stay out of downtown at night. please. there is crime everywhere. just like all other cities. its friggin hot and damn humid here. the weather changes hourly. roads will never be done. construction all the time. but there is always something to do. best of luck to you man. there are some local hangouts that we try to go to. the one by esc is a good one. the one down south is good when they dont mess it up. damn punk kids. hell we all did it to.