relocation to Tyler

[KathrynAragon]

Originally Posted by SusanG_O

Want some odd factoids from an old lady who lives outside Tyler? Insane things that interest me. Tyler or Athens? Depends on how you feel about traffic and trees. To me, Tyler is too busy. Too much traffic and add to that the heat half the year (paired with humidity) I like the 'burbs of Edom (almost Nothing to do but it's quiet) or Chandler (tight knit community, your life revolves around which church you attend) but it is not laid out nicely. By that I mean you have highway 31 running right down the center of Chandler and , I'm telling you, those vehicles are really moving! No; not 80 mph but there's a lot of them and Chandler only has one stop light in the center of town. So the cars come racing south from Tyler towards that one light while people are slowly pulling out of the grocery store and they'd better have good distance vision. People in Chandler just "know" which church you attend: it's either, for the most part, the Assembly of God or First Methodist. And the people stick together. Heaven help you if you attend First Baptist. It's right on the highway and you have to pull out to go home! There is no , what I would call, "scenic" aspect at all to Chandler. The one thing I can say about it is they have the nicest people I've ever met and I've lived in New Jersey and Colorado. If you choose Tyler you almost always have to enter the "Loop" 323. Some man owns a concrete company and he was on the board , the city board, whatever it's called and he decided that the entire loop needed concrete dividers "to save lives" and they very much narrowed the lanes on the Loop and other important streets that run into the Loop. You must be sober to drive in Tyler! Church is important , too , in Tyler with Green Acres Baptist seemingly leading the list of most popular church. The streets and suburbs around Tyler have some very beautiful trees and flowering shrubs. Not to the point where people would come here for the scenery-it isn't Switzerland-but we do have huge, healthy hardwoods and pines. I'm speaking of south Tyler. North Tyler is where the crime is for the most part and there's nothing attractive about north Tyler. Tyler has a lot of restaurants! But then, if you're older like moi, you have to battle traffic to get to them and get out of them. The parking lots are shrinking as they squeeze in more new restaurants. And watch out for those concrete medians! But, they're saving lives, right? For anyone to die or have a serious accident in Tyler is extremely small; always has been. Then there's the mall. It's old. It's not pretty. A store closes down in there and another pops up in its place. On the plus side, in north Tyler are two huge hospitals Christus Mother Frances (my favorite by far; you can actually find a parking spot and get from one end to another) and East Texas Medical Center which is so enormous its a major pain. First you have to go to their parking garage. Then you walk a LONG walk to the hospital which was just sold. Yes; they sold the hospital. In our experience the care you get at ETMC is , shall we say, spotty. Personally, I ran into a lot of nurses that should quit or be fired interspersed with one black RN who was fabulous. We have many good dentists of course, miserable summers that can go to 105 every single day for a solid month until 95 feels good. Our taxes are quite reasonable and you get a lot for your money in a home. A good amount of people are doing their best to get their kids into private school since the public schools have deteriorated quite a bit over the years. Meaning bad behavior and crime.
Athens has nothing going for it except lakes. I'm tired now; message me if you want any more weird information.

LOL it's funny how different peoples' perceptions are. My husband thinks Tyler has bad traffic and I just shrug and think "Heck, it's only bad around 7:30 am and 5 pm - so what? And it's nothing like a larger metro such as Dallas." Now, I will admit that during the holidays, you do not want to be anywhere on Broadway, especially around Rice Road - LOL.

GO BACK, GO BACK!

Anyway, on to Chandler - did you know we are about to add an extension of Sawmill Road to the north and another light before the grocery store? So we will officially be a "two light town." Seriously, that should really help the traffic flow and divert much of the traffic off of 31 and around Chandler instead of right through it. I will be one of the people that road diverts because I live on the north side of Chandler and I am really looking forward to that extension and even the extra light.

The construction has already started, and the completion date is forecast to be in about six months. And Christus TMF clinic has bought the adjacent land so they will be building a much larger facility, which is great since they are our health care provider and like you, TMF is my favorite of the three major hospitals in the area.

IT's funny you should bring up the church thing because I've lived in Chandler for nearly four years and no one has ever made any sort of big deal about where we go to church. And we actually go to church in Tyler just for the record. There is a once a month neighborhood bible study in our neighborhood and it's very well attended, and the women go to a wide variety of churches in Chandler and Tyler but no one has ever tried to push me into attending a Chandler church.

You're right about Chandler having no aesthetic beauty (in it's "downtown area" anyway). It's just a suburban spot in the road just outside of Tyler in my opinion - I literally don't know ANYONE who is "from" Chandler who lives in Chandler - it seems like a bedroom community for Tyler. But some of the neighborhoods are really peaceful and pretty. I'm hoping that these new roads and developments will be geared toward making Chandler actually attractive - to me it's not an ugly town (Brownsboro would fall into that category in my opinion) but it's not pretty either. It's just a road with some businesses on it from what I can tell since there's no real "downtown" area. We moved here in part because it's closer to Dallas (without having to live in Dallas) but we rarely even go to Dallas for anything - Tyler seems to have all we need and nearly all we ever want.

Oh and for antique shopping, Mineola and Gladewater are close by!

Love me some East Texas!