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What i mean is whats the point of living outside of houston's city limits when you can get that same kind of suburban lifestyle within the city itself? In most cities people move to the burbs because it allows them an affordable spacious lifestyle that, by in large, cannot be found within the city itself. Where is the logic in living outside of the city limits when there are plenty of suburbs within the city limits? Low taxes, open space, and good school districts are the advantages of most suburbs outside of fully developed cities, so it makes sense. So what is the draw of houston's suburbs when all those things can be found in the city itself?
This is easy, traffic, noise, crime, etc. Suburban Houston is not the same as a town outside of Houston like Katy
And honestly I dont doubt there are areas where you can walk but are there neighborhoods where 20+% walk to work or 50+% walk/take PT (rail PT is likely a better proxy but will stick to PT for purposes here). Can you walk comfortably in minutes from one neighborhood to the next. Are they cohesive? These are the types of questions I would think about when considering how walkable a place is. Plus May to Sept are just god awful to be outside for more than 10 minutes during the summer in houston, honestly the day in and day out is far worse than winter, at least from my perspective.
PT. Look all along Richmond Avenue, Bellaire, Bissonnet, Gessner and especially Westheimer. I don't know the percentage but those METRO busses are usually quite full and well-used. People walk on those streets. They're not pedestrian heavy...but there are still enough people walking around them that it's not a surprise to see them.
"Are they cohesive?"
Remember, the point is we all know Houston is not Philly or DC or SF in that sense. We are car-oriented.
That being said, Houston is still walkable. Some neighborhoods can be reached by walking in Houston, most are not.
"Walkable" is when I see those Burmese, Mexican, Vietnamese, Chinese, El Salvadoran and such folks walking in steady stream back and forth to New Chinatown, regardless of weather, along Ranchester. When I see working class people getting their food, walking their babies or catching the METRO down Hillcroft...on sidewalks...that's walkability to me.
I see well-off people walking around Rice Village. The place has a nice pedestrian scale and intimacy.
At night, I see people walking to different clubs, bars and restaurants along Washington Avenue. Downtown. Montrose. Midtown.
I see people walking a lot in the Texas Medical Center.
Surely we are not crowded as those East Coast burgs or SF...but again, Houston is walkable, just in a different way.
This is Houston. Not DC. Not Philly. Again, we are not crowded and tight like them but people still walk in Houston, for whatever reason.
When I load up some water in New Chinatown, right on Ranchester, it looks like some ethnic Mayberry. People walking around. It's like some weird movie prop sometimes.
Facts don't lie. There are a lot more people moving in than leaving. You are free to leave anytime
Conclusions drawn from facts often might as well be lies, such as in this instance. As Texas whores itself out with tax breaks and a lax regulatory climate, businesses come or expand accordingly - and thus, people get dragged along, or "go where the jobs are." Most people aren't moving to Houston because it's a nice city, that's for sure.
Besides, what fraction of the, IIRC, 1.2 million people that moved to Houston over the past decade were people moving from within the US - compared with how many "migrated" from Mexico and subsequently had children in the US? Let's not pretend that Houston's truly staggering growth is necessarily a healthy sort of growth, or otherwise indicative of the fact that it is somehow a truly desirable location, aside from the cost of housing (or simply its location in the USA)...
Conclusions drawn from facts often might as well be lies, such as in this instance. As Texas whores itself out with tax breaks and a lax regulatory climate, businesses come or expand accordingly - and thus, people get dragged along, or "go where the jobs are." Most people aren't moving to Houston because it's a nice city, that's for sure.
Besides, what fraction of the, IIRC, 1.2 million people that moved to Houston over the past decade were people moving from within the US - compared with how many "migrated" from Mexico and subsequently had children in the US? Let's not pretend that Houston's truly staggering growth is necessarily a healthy sort of growth, or otherwise indicative of the fact that it is somehow a truly desirable location, aside from the cost of housing (or simply its location in the USA)...
Orlando is more country than Jacksonville, Charlotte, Richmond, and Indy, give me a break. While it is not heads and shoulders more urban than those cities, you have seriously underestimated all of them, but Orlando most of all.
how cute, a proper understanding of "straw men" fallacy eludes you
your lesson on why this is so begins by re-reading this post:
Quote:
Originally Posted by HtownLove
And I and 2 Million other people wouldn't give a damn if it didn't. We like our city just fine, thank you very much.
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