Houston Options

[pysex]

keep in mind though that there's a thing going around where illegal aliens are now stealing people's identities to take money, etc.

it's in her best interest to cancel/freeze anything and watch her credit report like a hawk for a while

and houston is a hellhole

[impala454]

and houston is a hellhole

yeah bc houston is the only place cars get broken into

[Hartmann]

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.

[impala454]

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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?

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.

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

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.

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.

[Hartmann]

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?

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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

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.

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 just like the old style homes.

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.

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.