franny

Wow! This thread went all over the place without us. Fantastic input, thanks to everyone who replied. Just a few points of clarification, none of it having to do with architecture. We were probably overly idealistic about how much people would get used to our family over time. We didn't realize that lots of people are open-minded in theory, but get uncomfortable when their kids ask questions about, in this instance, where the daddy is. The people we've met in Tanglewilde are like that - perfectly nice but never quite comfortable, either treating our family as a curiosity or as not-quite-right. We've done everything we can, been very involved in the nabe, had lots of people over, but it's just not budging, or not budging fast enough. Also, the fact is there just aren't that many little kids in our neighborhood, and almost none on our street. So - we have a couple of solid offers on our house, which is exciting, and it looks like we're moving to Godwin Park/Meyerland. We've decided to just walk house to house as a family, introduce ourselves, ask people what they like about the neighborhood, see if there are any other pre-K kids in the immediate vicinity. If we get the stink-eye a bunch we'll have some thinking to do, but my guess is, we won't. Once our daughter gets to Kolter I'm sure she'll make lots of friends. We aren't so dumb as to assume that everyone will love our family, or even like us, but we just want the chances to be a little stronger that kiddo will have some of the same opportunities for neighborhood fun that we had growing up. We looked and looked in Westbury, and in Willow Meadow, but in the end the siren song of Kolter's Mandarin language program won out - we'd love our child to learn Mandarin early and Kolter's language program is one of the best. So hopefully Meyerland is as openminded as Westbury, even if it's not as gay. At any rate, lots of her DINK aunties and uncles live in Westbury, so she'll have some doting grown-up friends just to the south. Oh, and BTW - there IS actually a place where you can see all presidential political campaign donations mapped, by street. http://fundrace.huffingtonpost.com/ . You can drill down to street level, and even find out what your neighbors who donated do for a living. Please excuse the info overload, but I hope this thread and responses are helpful to other families, gay or straight, looking for a magical Sesame Street liberal, livable, affordable neighborhood with good schools. We sure do appreciate the assistance.

Nothing really, just wanting to know if there are some other pockets of cool liberal neighborliness. My sister and her family live in Meyerland and my mom lives in West U, so central SW is definitely the area we are most attracted to. We just don't want to spend the $$$ they spent. I appreciate all the people who gave neighborhood input. Again, not too interested in the patronizing interpersonal assvice, but Jeebus is right that you get what you pay for.

We're a lesbian couple currently in Tanglewilde with our 16 month old. Lately, it has become clear that many parents in the neighborhood are never really going to get comfortable with us. We both grew up in neighborhoods with lots of interaction, and we really want that for our child(ren.) We don't want our daughter to be punished for the fact that we're on the homo team. Since for some reason HAR doesn't list voting patterns or predominant sexual preferences on their site, can someone point us toward a neighborhood with: a) lots of gay or liberal families b) near Medical Center/Bellaire/West U area (partner is in nursing school in med center and I work at 45 and Fuqua.) c) good public elementary and junior high schools (realistically we'll most likely move before high school) d) houses in the $200-300 range e) a little style wouldn't hurt - we like midcentury modern but we're not the types to live in a "perfect" home with all vintage furniture We're thinking Westbury, but which sections are most likely to fit all of the above? And are there neighborhoods other than Westbury?