Nobody on here seems to know much about Galveston. I've lived in both Clear Lake and the East End of Galveston, and I liked Galveston much more. Everyone will tell you it's a 30 minute commute from Clear Lake to Galveston, but people in Houston tend to only count the amount of time they are on the freeway as their commute. So yeah, it's 30 miles on I-45, but they don't count the 15 minutes it takes on Harborside to UTMB, and they don't count the 10 minutes on the Clear Lake side to get to the freeway. League City is a little closer, but your probably only cutting your commute to 45 minutes.



As for specific neighborhoods, west of 61st St is typical 1960's-1990's suburban areas. The schools tend to be a little better, and the population more middle class. The portion of the city from 25th St to 61st and north of Broadway is a mixture of industrial sites, housing projects, empty lots, and an occasional nice house mixed in. I wouldn't look in this area. From ~21st St to 61 St South of Broadway is an interesting area. It's a big mix. There are beautiful well maintained houses on Ave O and Ave P. Some of the side streets have dilapidated houses, some have nice ones. It's almost block by block. In general, the higher the street number, the newer the houses, but most of the city east of 61st was developed by the 1950's. There are some really good independent restaurants tucked in the neighborhood, like Queen's BBQ and DiBella's. East of 21st and South of Broadway has some ok places for food and drink, but the neighborhood is a little rougher and I wouldn't want to live there.



Now on to last quadrant of the city, which has some really good housing options for someone working or going to school at UTMB. There's downtown Galveston which has some nice apts and lofts, probably not the best for a young child. There are plenty of restaurants and coffee shops downtown though. One of the best neighborhoods for Victorians is the area between 21st, Broadway, 14th, and Market. The closer you are to Broadway in this neighborhood, the grander the houses. North of Market is not a great neighborhood, but my friends that lived south of Market did not have many problems with crossover crime. The area east of 14th and south of Market to Broadway is again a little mix. I had plenty of friends renting places here, and it tends to be a mix of students and blue collar families. It's pretty safe. There are some decent restaurants in the area, Sunflower bakery, Mosquito Cafe, The Original Mexican Cafe. The housing stock tends to be older, some of it is beautifully maintained, some of it is not. Then there are the apts east of UTMB. Some are decent, some are rundown. There tends to be a lot of students in this area. A few of the complexes are a little rough. Some are ok. It's kinda building by building. The last part of town is Fish Village, which I would guess is a 1960's suburban area. If you look at the map, it's the area near Ferry Road where all the streets are named after fish. It's smaller ranch houses. There are no sidewalks, which I find annoying. A lot of employees at UTMB live in the area. It's a nice enough neighborhood, the biggest downside is on weekends Ferry Rd gets really backed up, but you'll learn to take Holiday Dr. instead.