Pearland: Growth increases crime rate

Relocating from OH wrote:

I have been to the Houston area many times on business and pleasure-we were married in Galveston in 2006-anyways I had Pearland on my list of locales to relocate to however after viewing these comments AND having been to Pearland and seeing its proximity to S. Houston I always wondered how successful Pearland is in stopping some of the thuggery that resides in S. Houston. In addition to Pearland I have looked at the Walden on Lake Houston in Humble, Katy, Clear Lake, and Cypress. I am African American with a wife and an infant daughter. We are both college administrators. Any tips, suggestions, ect that you can offer I will appreciate it. Thanks!

I have lived in Pearland my entire life and have seen this small town change drastically. It saddens me a great deal. The major problems are down by 288. I live on the other end, closer to Friendswood where I still feel safe. I hardly ever shop down at 288 and my mother, who lives close to down there, shops near BAYBROOK, instead of "Ghetto" 288.

What happend to Pearland??????????

We moved to Pearland in 1984. We live on the east end, close to Friendswood, and have never felt unsafe and our neighbors are friendly. It sounds like a lot of the problems with crime and congestion are in the neighborhoods near 288. It is such a shame. I remember how excited we all were with the new shopping development, but it sounds like it has turned into a nightmare for many residents there who have purchased lovely homes near there.

I have been living in Shadow Creek Ranch (Pearland Texas) since 2004 and thanks god we never had any bad incident in the division I live in. we heared that in 2006-2007 some theft had occured and the reason was that some of the house were being built and the police find out that some of the construction workers were burglarizing part of the shadow creek area houses in the morning when the residents goe to their work. The police was able to cath the theives.
In anyway, I also have noticed more police patroling the shadow creek area and that make us feel safer. In general, most of the people who live in shadow creek are professional who works in the medical center area or in the energy sectoe and thus I beleiev that 80% of the residents have univerity degrees.
In addition, the residents are from all races: Asian, White, African, middle eastern,.... And are all very friendly. The area is verry clean, and that is noticeable from how well the street of shadow creeck are kept clean.
I love the shadow creek area, as it is very close to downtown, and the galleria.
I have to admit though, that once you cross the 288 HWY (that is East of 288 may be 3 miles away from Shadow Creek) you can feel a big difference when compared to the Shadow Creek area. Lots of young guys that look like thugs (at least to me).
Or may be this the way that the new young generation acts (dress up with baggy pants and act like gangsters).

I haved lived in Pearland since I was 6, 20 years. I have seen it go from 11,000 to 49,000 people. I have seen it go from one high school to 3 since i graduated in 04. I have moved back and forth from Pearland to Clear Lake for the last several years. I love both. You wil not catch me in Houston. I care about crime and education. Truth is, Houston schools are terrible. Pearland district is highly recognized in Texas. I moved back because my child is starting school soon. I want him to have teachers who care. Not only that, I have had the same friends for 15 years. That's just how pearland is. I'm only 23. Point is, we all grew up together. We are a close-nit community. Granted, I do want to leave... ONLY because they keep building non-stop. I want my kids to have the same experience I did w/ school. I moved to Clear Lake at 14, switched schools, and came crawling back. Those schools were ridiculous. Pearland is changing, sure. But there are no "ghettos". There are maybe 10 apt. complexes here (which I believe attracts poverty) and the minimum rent is $1,000. There are 2 exceptions. Either way, the apartments that are here run background checks. Trust me, the police department is not kept busy. Now if you don't have a seatbelt or throw a cigarette butt out the window, you will be stopped. Other than that, in 15 years, nothing of mine has been threatened

im 17 years old and i've lived in pearland since i was 5
and back when i was 5 pearland was great but over the years my family amd i have seein it changes for the worst.
for one thing the crime is a major problem and for that i blame alot on the katrina folks and the missouri city people
mainly on katrina because i find them trashy,lewd,and crewd.
its a shame that we cant even shop in peace anymore
so word to the wise,if you think about moving to pearland you know what your up against

I have lived in Pearland since 2002,my family and I love our new home.I have seen tremendous changes,but what I suggest let us take back our community.I see people that do not live in Pearland taking over our shopping centers,restaurants ,taking over pearland area. There is crime everywhere,we need to take a stand to save our community.We have the power to make changes, we put pressure on our policeman for more security in the area.Everytime we see something that look suspicious we need to call the police.We pay our expensive taxes,and we should be fed up with the crime. Let us work together to get the bad people out of our community.If we need to have weekly neighborhood meetings with the police(then that is what we need to do.I have to put my child in private school ,because i am afraid for her to go to public school in Pearland. If we see cars park on the side of the street,if it is bringing our property value down ,call (HOA)and give them the license plate number.Look out for our neighbors homes when they are gone.Let us not complaint ,lets do something about it.

I've lived in Pearland for 15 yrs and have been a local business owner for 25. We love Pearland, but then again we moved hear from Pasadena.

The worst part of Pearland is the traffic especially since they blocked the center turn lane down 518. Also the fact there is no feeder along 288 that gives access to local businesses causes a great deal of problems on 518. The traffic is bad but I do enjoy local stores and restraunts. Back when we fist moved, there was nothing west of 35.

The schools are only as good as what the student and parent put into it. The same as any other schools.

I have to say though the people do have a tendency to be closed-minded. I guess their just a little too close to Santa Fe.

The troubles in Silverlake and Shadow Creek are an issue for the Brazoria Co. law enforcement as they are not within the Pearland city limits.

Resident since 2004 wrote:

I have been living in Shadow Creek Ranch (Pearland Texas) since 2004 and thanks god we never had any bad incident in the division I live in. we heared that in 2006-2007 some theft had occured and the reason was that some of the house were being built and the police find out that some of the construction workers were burglarizing part of the shadow creek area houses in the morning when the residents goe to their work. The police was able to cath the theives.
In anyway, I also have noticed more police patroling the shadow creek area and that make us feel safer. In general, most of the people who live in shadow creek are professional who works in the medical center area or in the energy sectoe and thus I beleiev that 80% of the residents have univerity degrees.
In addition, the residents are from all races: Asian, White, African, middle eastern,.... And are all very friendly. The area is verry clean, and that is noticeable from how well the street of shadow creeck are kept clean.
I love the shadow creek area, as it is very close to downtown, and the galleria.
I have to admit though, that once you cross the 288 HWY (that is East of 288 may be 3 miles away from Shadow Creek) you can feel a big difference when compared to the Shadow Creek area. Lots of young guys that look like thugs (at least to me).
Or may be this the way that the new young generation acts (dress up with baggy pants and act like gangsters).

I can't believe there is crime concern in Shadow Creek. I've living in Shadow Creek Ranch for 4 years. I love this place. my neighbors are friendly and educated people working either in Medical Center or NASA, or Energy Industry. My kids love swimming pool and water park, plus our Shadow Creek Soccer Club. I really don't know why crim is going on in such a nice neighborhood.

Learned Hand wrote:

<quoted text>
Feel free to hyperbolize more. I've lived in Pearland since 2000. Before that, I lived in the League City/Clear Lake area for over 25 years.
My biggest complaint about Pearland is the amount of people who have moved into the area and have made 288 worse for all of us. I agree that the city planners don't seem to have a clue but I have never felt unsafe in Pearland. If you expect a crime free town, then you may find it in Neverland, just down the road pass Missouri City. Seriously, if you feel that unsafe, then you really need to get out of Pearland.
I'm glad people want to move out. I don't want anyone else to move to Pearland until they upgrade the infrastructure. Please move to Katy or Sugarland so you can add to the congestion on I-10 or US59.
And you have the nerve to accuse Pearland residents of being small minded after you make the gross exaggerations and generalizations regarding the residents of Pearland? You can't leave soon enough.

Thank you for your positive comments about Pearland. My family has lived in Pearland for 22 years. Yes it has grown too fast, and yes there are far too many unsavory types( thug types and Katrina refugees, and hispanic population have also added to the crime rate) but we also have many, many great residents. We live in a smaller subdivision and have had some incidents in our neighborhood but you can't tell me that there is an area around the Houston Metro Area that doesn't have some crime. The traffic in Pearland is bad but if you live in the area you soon figure out back roads ( I know that doesn't help visitors that come to the area). So, if you don't like Pearland then by all means...LEAVE!!! We will be just fine without you. And by the way, I work in Friendswood and they are worse than Pearland about covering up their crime rate. The residents of Friendswood are delusional.

HMM wrote:

I grew up in Pearland. It was a great town back in the 80s... I remember the small town atmosphere and virtually no crime, all that has changed in just a few short years. The problem is first of all Pearland grew too fast. It wasn't a gradual influx of people it was a flood. Second of course is the crime, the city LOVES to cover it up as much as they can but it's getting harder for them to do that. There is section 8 housing real close to Silverlake and it had contributed to the crime rate significantly as do the Katrina refuges. My friend and my cousin both had their homes broken into and when they caught the guys take a wild guess where they had relocated from.....

The Black plague is coming to a hood near you!!!!

I live in Pearland near the Centennial Park. The "Westside" of Pearland is getting worse year after year. Traffic and CRIME are the main reasons why myself and a bunch of other people I know stay away from there. There are always car burglaries at the 24 hr Fitness, WalMart, and town center parking lots...The guy on the golfcart w/ the flashing amber light is not a good deterrent.
The traffic is horrible , plus the type of people driving around in that area are always on their cellphones, listening to RAP music, or leaning gangter style-striking a pose instead of checking their blindspots and using turnsignals. So this part of Pearland is the new Missouri Cty??? I'll go to the Wal-Mart off Dixie Farm, before I got to the 288 Walmart...less thugs that have their pants hanging down below the butt.
Pearland PD/ Braz Cty Sheriff can only do so much out there...If they really took control of that area, "acitivists" would be crying profiling. "Profiling" is BS...crime/race statistics don't lie.

When your town starts to grow as PL has, you will get a spike in the crime rate. To accomdate the growth rate, you will have to start to build apartments and unfortunely that is usually when the crime starts. DP will start to have the same problem soon, if it has not started already.

I moved to pearland in 2002, and it has grown dramatically. I live in the silverlake area (edgewater estates) and it used to be great and now.. Not so much. The increase in population has brought traffic, crime, and changed silverlake alot. My car and mothers car were broken into in our own driveway. Home burglaries down the street. my friend was jumped and robbed walking down fite road. There are alot of apartment complexes full of Katrina refugees especially tranquility bay. Called "Da bay". Silverlake area around 288 is so crowded and there are MANY people that don't belong here. Go to the walmart in silverlake at night and you will see what I mean. Also something I haven't seen in these posts is the drug problem in pearland. Lots and lots of drugs in pearland. Just last month there was a drug bust on old chocolate bayou (50 pounds of cocaine) before that a massive steroid bust. also counterfeit money is a problem in pearland.... Not to mention Susana de jezues who was abducted in a silverlake shopping area for her cadillac and then she was murdered. The graffiti in the silverlake area has been on the rise. Cullen and 288 are where alot of the crime is coming from. Pearland has changed..

Drunk as hell but no throwing up
Half way home and my blackberry still blowing up
Today in Pearland I didn't even have to use my A.K.
I got to say it was a good day.