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I've seen the fourth largest city thing more on other sites than this one. This includes swamplot and the chronicle commenters. I've also been it used when it comes to putting Houston into the spotlight on irrelevant feel good lists. I admit it's mostly on the net where you see the fourth largest thing repeated. But I don't see that for any other city in top 10 as much as I do Houston on the net. I do believe that most people don't care about this type of stuff in the city. But some do which is why some are disappointed at times with the city. For example, I've read that "this is the fourth largest city, it shouldn't be this hard to expand on efficient public transit." That's a paraphrase but people do I use it at times.
Those websites are full of obnoxious people with nothing to do but boost about irrelevant stuff like city size. Most people don't care about that. Most people in Houston complain about it more than boost about it. I've never heard anyone use "4th largest city" as some kind of nickname for us. That would be weird. I've heard Space city and Bayou City countless times but never "4th largest city". To most people that's irrelevant. What really matters is what a city has to offer and most Houstonians know there are many cities that offer more than Houston including many of the East and West Coast cities. Most people tend to ignore those top 10 lists or click on those articles to laugh at them. Only obnoxious internet people use those lists to brag about. Most of those list are so silly.
So to clear things up a bit from someone who lives in Houston most of us don't care about population size. The only thing you'll see most Houstonians outside of an internet forum boost about are sports and sadly you won't hear much of that lately due to the suckiness of our teams. Most Houstonians are realistic and realize that Houston is a cheap city to live with a good economy which makes it easy to find a job. We can appreciate the good places to shop, eat, and be entertained without thinking our amenities are superior to most cities. In reality we know we are average when it comes to amenities and don't come even close to cities like NYC, Chicago, San Fran, Miami, etc. But we do think we have something to offer to people who are willing to look past sprawl, humidity, and any other insult that can be thrown at us and enjoy what we do have which is pretty cool if your willing to get out there and explore the city. Heck most cities have a lot to offer to those willing to get out there with an open mind.
So to be clear, internet forums and especially chron commenters don't represent most Houstonians. Please oh please don't think chron commenters represent most Houstonians. Those people are the absolute worst.
Smaller city proper with more independent suburbs. The Memorial area for instance should be its own municipality.
I'm confused. Houston has a few suburbs that are independent. Like West University, Southside Place, Bellaire, and Memorial.
Maybe I'm reading your post wrong. Sorry if that's the case.
Also Dallas has a pretty massive city limits compared to many cities so I think Houston shouldn't be judged negatively compared to Dallas in that criteria.
To be honest Houston doesn't need to be more like Dallas or any other city. Houston just needs to be Houston. Houston grew the way it did and now we just need to improve on the things that make the city work. Same goes for Dallas. It grew the way it did and the improvements they make will work for it. Houston gobbled up all that land for economic reasons. Not so it can be nicknamed "4th largest city".
We all can agree that city boundaries mean nothing when it comes to what makes a city what it is. So I'm not sure why it's so often used to bash Houston. Instead of focusing on how big the city limits are. How about we focus on the part of Houston that most people would consider the heart of the city which is the innerloop. Houston could expand it's borders 1,000 sq miles but no one would care. It would still be the inner loop that mattered most.
Most people in Houston probably don't even know how many people actually live here. Even less probably know where we rank amongst other cities. You ask most people and they will just say "a lot of people live here" or "millions". But very few will start boasting about exact figures or even tell you it's 4th largest. Sports is another matter. They can tell you exactly when we had a winning team. Or they'll brag about high school football. City population. Not so much. Bragging about something like that will just make people roll their eyes at you.
I'm confused. Houston has a few suburbs that are independent. Like West University, Southside Place, Bellaire, and Memorial.
Maybe I'm reading your post wrong. Sorry if that's the case.
I'm pretty sure he's saying that the Houston area needs to be like the Metroplex, i.e., have another major city 30 miles away that's the 2nd anchor in the metro.
I'm pretty sure he's saying that the Houston area needs to be like the Metroplex, i.e., have another major city 30 miles away that's the 2nd anchor in the metro.
I'm talking about the large suburbs that surround Dallas and Fort Worth. Houston proper has very large areas that should be their own municipalities. Maybe Houston has benefited from having such a large land area but I'm not seeing how that benefit has been significant.
I'm talking about the large suburbs that surround Dallas and Fort Worth. Houston proper has very large areas that should be their own municipalities.
I think I got it. So your saying that The Woodlands, Katy, Sugar Land, Pearland, and Baytown should be their own municipalities like Arlington, Carrollton, Richardson, Garland, Mesquite, Irving, and Grapevine.
I'm not sure why Houston's suburbs aren't their own municipalities. My best guess is that it's some kind of economic benefit to the City of Houston. The suburbs probably benefit from it somehow as well. Both setups probably have their costs and benefits.
I'm pretty sure he's saying that the Houston area needs to be like the Metroplex, i.e., have another major city 30 miles away that's the 2nd anchor in the metro.
Maybe some day in the far distant future Galveston will regain it's prominence and become a major city again. There was a time when it was more prominent than Houston. It won't happen in my lifetime but it's the only city in our metro that has a truly distinct identity apart from Houston.
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