yeah bc houston is the only place cars get broken into

no

i thought i would just reiterate from the other thread

i hear from more and more people that they really like houston


yay

I think I could like Houston if I was allowed time to adjust to a city of that size.

Who are these crazy people and where do they live?

Ok, I'll write a long post as to why I think Houston is a less than desirable place to live.

1. Public Transportation - There are a number of reasons it doesn't exist (beyond Metro and the light rail to nowhere), including weather (it would have to stop every 10 ft. so that people didn't show up to work smelling to high heaven), geography, and the fact that no one would ride it. The city has spread out so much that it makes public transportation a dream that will never be fulfilled.

2. Weather - Let's face it, it's hot here. I don't mind the heat but a lot of people do, mix in the fact that the humidity levels usually hover around 85% year round and you have a rainforest disguised as a city.

3. Traffic - Since a good number of people do not want to live within Houston city limits, the suburbs are sprawling and continuing to get bigger while downtown living developments have barely started (and I doubt they'll go anywhere). This leads to horrible traffic on some roads (I-45 and 288, etc.) and makes morning commutes reach into the 2 hour range (and they wonder why people shoot each other). For a lot of people it doesn't matter, but that 1 1/2-2 hours each way could be spent so much more productively and that's important to me.

4. Overall Cleanliness of the City - This is a dirty city, no matter which way you look at it. The city of Houston eats up other cities (annexes) such as Bellaire, Bordersville, etc. to collect more taxes and yet they can't keep the city clean. Since grass grows like a weed here (weather), everything always looks overgrown and rundown. Oh, and before the Olympics bid we planted trees everywhere to make the city "look" nice, now there's just a bunch of dead trees on the sides of freeways.

5. Strip mall central - Everything is in a strip mall. For a lot of people, having a Target every 10 miles inside of strip mall is fantastic, for me, I thinks it's wasteful, especially when one of them closes down and there's just an empty building there for 5 years.

Those are my main points, I am sure there are more I can come up with. I have thought about living in the downtown area but it's almost unlivable. There is a single Randall's that is only walkable from the south side of downtown but other than that, you've got to drive to get groceries and necessities. Since more and more of the downtowns have moved away from city centers to business centers, this is happening all over the country.

I've also looked at the Heights and of all places I could live, this comes the closest. It's old homes that have been restored (sometimes) and shopping is done at a Farmer's Market. Sounds like my kind of place except for the fact that I-10 isn't done, I-45 @ 610 is terrible, and those are pretty much your only options for going anywhere.

Totally agreed, but then again the people who live here don't want it... I don't see how this is a reason why it's a less than desirable place to live. Where would you want public transportation to go?


I think this is kinda a cop out... yes it's hot, yes it's humid, but in comparison to what? I love it when people (not saying you) say stuff like "omg I hate Houston it's so hot & humid there" and then move to Austin or Dallas, where it's not that much difference.


It just depends on where you go... I think 1 1/2-2 hrs is an exaggeration, or at least the very extreme. I assume your evaluation includes the suburbs since you mentioned them. Not everyone goes into the city for work. Even then I'd put the average at prob 45 mins - 1 hr, which is still a lot, but I don't think it's that much worse than many other cities commutes.


I never really understood this... I guess I don't see the "dirtiness" everywhere that some people talk about.


well ya answered your own problem there... the grass grows like weeds... hell I have to mow my grass twice a week at least. I don't really see dead trees everywhere on the sides of the freeways though. What freeways do you see them on?


So in a good city, in your opinion, what should happen with that land that's unused in our very spread out city?


Ugh I guess it's just a culture difference... see a good friend of mine lives down in the heights so I've spent quite a bit of time there the past several months, and I'm glad I did, because now I know I'd never in a million years want to live down there. There's not a lot of shopping around there, and like you said every direction you go you run into a major freeway. On top of that real estate is at a large premium down there, so you're paying a lot more for a much less convienent area to live in. Although in the evening those freeways are pretty low traffic.

I suppose it's just a matter of you not liking all the things about Houston that I do like. It seems to me that you're the type that would like to live in a densely populated downtown city area like new york or boston, and you want to see that type of environment here in Houston. It's just not how it is down here. It'd be like me going to New York to live and complaining that there too many people and I can't drive anywhere and there's no strip malls . I love the fact that I get home to my 30,000 people suburb, and can go to pretty much any type of shopping I want, any awesome restaurant I want, without touching a giant highway or being surrounded by concrete and skyscrapers.

That's exactly the point. By building strip malls and a giant sprawling city, public transportation becomes useless.



Actually, Dallas and Austin (to a lesser extent) are noticeably milder than Houston. Dallas' summers are pure heat (similar to Lubbock), which some find more desirable than Houston. I forgot the other thing, the smog which is huge here. I think I just read we are the city with the highest level of mercury in the air.



1 hour is the norm. I leave early in the morning so I miss most of it but my dad sits in 1-1 1/2 hour traffic everyday both ways, and most of his trip is on the Beltway.



Notably, 610 on the south side, 59 at 610 (on the Southwest side), 45 just south of north 610, etc. The potholes are another piece that I left out. Besides it being just flat out dirty, there are potholes throughout the city. I understand they happen, but no one seems to fix them. Oh, and can anyone tell me if they are going to finish the West Belt at 59? It's like they've finished the work but left their crap on the side of the road.



So you are suggesting we should just take up land to take up land? I am saying don't spread out in the first place. Most people here have these huge yards that either they take care of or they let die or go to crap. Go to a major metropolitan city where the city has grown while still keeping it livable downtown (Chicago) and you'll see what it means to use land correctly. Instead of driving to your favorite restaurants and stores, you walk.



I just like the old style homes.



Well, I guess your favorite restaurants are Chili's, McDonald's, Benihana, Pappasito's, etc. Yeah, you're right you can get to any of those without much freeway driving at all. I prefer non-chain restaurants, just out of preference.

It's not like I've been displaced to here, I grew up here. As I've grown up, I've seen the things that have been done wrong. In NYC you don't have strip malls because you don't need them, you live in a city where just about everything you'd need to live is within walking distance, work is within a 30 minute train ride, and your local park is one street over.

I am not knocking your preference for living style, I am knocking the living method. Here it is space, space, space and upscale living, whereas in other major cities it is necessity, necessity, necessity, and I think there is something to be said for that. The frivolous, will, at some point, become the mundane.

Just look at the progression of things. When I was growing up, the only mall that was close, was Sharpstown. As the city has become more suburban, that area has turned to a pretty nasty place to go. Those houses used to be good looking and decent, now they are dumps. So, in the next 15 years will Sugar Land, The Woodlands, Clear Lake, etc. all follow the same path?

At some point we are going to have start looking back and reinvesting in the city itself instead of just moving away from the problem.

My girlfriend has a lot of insight as well since she moved from a small town (Leander) to east Austin and now to Houston.

And just a note, for my girlfriend to get anywhere from her apartment (which is located in a decent area), it takes about 15 minutes in any direction due to traffic. It is also a headache of an experience and it seems this becoming the norm rather than the exception, which is what it used to be.

All cities have crime, weather issues, dipshit drivers, traffic, and cleanliness problems

However, Austin has UT football, which makes them cooler than Houston

Houston is the reason I didn't take a lucrative position right out of college. I did my internship there and thought I was going to go on a killing spree.

the stripmalls, traffic, weather (vomit), and general lack of culture was suffocating.

ok, they have shakespeare in the park, but dude we almost had a heat stroke watching the shrew.

fuck that joint.

dallas is a hole, just not as miserable as houston and with radder sports.

This is why you were an English major. You pretty much summed up my thoughts in about 1/18th the words.

I forgot about culture. We have the theater district but every time I go down there it seems like it's old people and that's it. Nothing like hippie counter culture in San Fran, creativity in Denver, etc.

houston is 2nd on my crappy cities in the US list. right after san antonio.

I honestly think it is 2nd on my global armpit list.

#1 being mogadishu.

But that's my point too.. The people who live here and like it would prefer the strip mall style shopping to the disgusting stinking public transportation.


Highest by what amount? With dallas at what, #3? Gimme a break.


I guess it's just a matter of where you live and work. I can't say what the "norm" is. I know my parents both work in the NASA area, and their drive from Deer Park is roughly 12-15 miles, 20 minutes, without ever getting on any highway. It's actually a pretty drive as well, going through lots of parks and wildlife areas in clear lake near UH. My drive is from Deer Park to the NW side, about two miles SE of the beltway on 290. It's 35 miles and I make it in 35-40 mins every day. To me, that's pretty awesome considering the distance. Plus, due to the highway setup I have several different possible routes if one is high traffic.


Well I can't recall the last time I've been on the SW side so I guess I can't speak to that point, but I drive all over the place everywhere else in this city and haven't really noticed dead trees everywhere. In fact I've actually noticed the exact opposite lately, with much nicer landscaping, particularly around I-10 & the west loop.


This isn't distinctive to Houston, sorry.


But what's dirty!??!? I don't get it.. that's what people keep saying... are you saying the street has dirt on it? are you saying there's trash everywhere? I have no clue what you're talking about.


Again I never go to the SW side so I couldn't tell ya... sounds like that may not be the best area of town if it's so terrible.


But people here like having huge yards and lots of space. And the residential areas are very spread out so it's pretty logical that the retail areas would be as well. In my area of town as well as the NW side where I work, there are still very large areas of grass/trees/empty land where nothing has been built.


Use it "correctly"? You mean what you see as correct. Those cities are that way because they have nowhere to expand. That is not a problem we have here.


No, not really. We have lots of hole in the wall local places we love to go to. But then again we also have a wal mart that's about 5 minutes away. No, it's not quite walking distance, but it's a matter of convenience. you seem to think that walking down to the grocery store 3-4 times a week is convenient, whereas I think having a 5 minute drive once a week is more conveient. Not to mention all those downtown areas you keep praising will have real estate prices through the roof, and other cost of living through the roof.


So lets say I live in New York and need five things. I need a cat litter box, 20lb box of cat litter, wireless USB adapter, a large plastic toy truck, and a carton of milk and some sliced ham (this shopping list was a reality a couple days ago for me). Can you honestly tell me that you believe it would be more convenient for me to walk out of some loft apartment into the streets of new york, get all of these items, and return in less time for less money? Please. I'd like to see someone hop on a subway with all this shit in their arms.


But necessity is up to the person... you seem to be the type that enjoys the more eclectic (sp?), contemporary, dense, downtown city lifestyle. To be honest (not mean) houston is not the city for you if you enjoy this lifestyle. It doesn't mean that it's frivolous to live here. Or that there's anything wrong with enjoying a 2200 sq ft house on an acre of land vs a 600 sq ft apartment.


It is spreading out, but I don't really see a progression like you're saying. Sharpstown definitely is a shithole area, but it's definitely not a representative of the whole area. I have lived in Deer Park for 20+ years and it's still just as nice an area as it always has been.


But this is happening already... the heights area that you mentioned is definitely under a transformation already. Go to the I-10/heights blvd area and it's amazing the number of huge loft style apartments and eateries around there. All those old style houses you liked are being bought up and rennovated, it's really nice. The area around minute maid park is getting a similiar rejuvenation as well.


Where does she live?


Here's the $65,000 question. If Houston is so terrible, so out of date, so frivolous, with such terrible climate, traffic, living conditions, atmosphere, etc, why do 5 million+ people live here? I say it's good to let the snobs leave.

houston is more humid than any other city in texas that i've ever been to.