Quote:
Originally Posted by westhou
It's just that too many people get bent out of shape when someone dares to criticize Houston. Houston has many flaws and just because someone brings it up doesn't mean it has to be countered with an over the top fantasy praise for it. Houston is sprawled out, hot/humid, flood prone, brown coastal water, and nightmare traffic. As Houstonians we need to accept this as a reality while at the same time being able to speak on it's positives like strong economy, cheap housing, and mild winters. Houston only appears to get a ton of hate because as soon as it gets criticized people come on here and rant about how Houston Is the best city in the world which of course is going to get more people countering that with it's negatives.
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Those aspects of Houston can be accepted as reality, but there is indeed a fine line between acceptance of such aspects, and using said aspects as reasons why "Houston is the armpit of the country, the worst place of Earth with nothing going for it." Unfortunately, many Houstonians do tend to gravitate towards doing the latter, which doesn't leave a good impression on outsiders, leading the media sources to run with those negatives, stereotyping the city.
It also must be noted that the Houstonians refutations are mostly against the subjective implications of those aspects, not the aspects themselves. For instance, where is it a fact that hot, humid weather = bad weather (especially as it is accompanied by nice, cooling thunderstorms, and grants the good moisture allowing for verdant plant life in the city)? Should Galveston forever be condemned as unattractive, just because some of the beaches have brown water, and in spite of its charming, historic architecture, and verdant gardening? Why should a mere preference for any aspect of Houston amount to the person being "untraveled, or having low expectations/taste?"
Many of the aspects you describe as negatives can be seen in New Orleans as well; it too is hot and humid during summer, its beyond flat, and sits right on the muddy Mississippi. But nowhere do you here people talking about how the city is "ugly, with nothing going for it." The citizens of the city don't mope around and chide about how the city has "flat scenery, with no mountains." Instead, Disney films get made about it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by westhou
As for Phoenix I don't see many people ranting about how great Phoenix is whenever it is criticized. They seem to take their criticism much better than people from Houston. So when I see many negative posts about Phoenix on here I actually feel bad for them.
There's a thread in the Houston forum right now that embarrassingly highlights just how offended people get when Houston gets any kind of criticism.
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To be fair, Phoenix's criticisms are usually confined only to its built-environment, which happens to be the auto-oriented sprawl; it at least gets praise for its scenery (because of mountains), sunny weather, and Western-US style live-let-live vibe among the populace.
Houston, in addition to being to criticism for built environment, gets criticized for having "no scenery"(read: flat geography, regardless of features like intricate waterways, or lush, verdant vegetation), too many "rednecks and ghetto people" (as if those are the only types of people the city has, and that's if following the implication of those types are even necessarily bad to begin with), and nothing unique (refute with NASA, San Jacinto, etc, and watch the detractors shuffle in attempt to save face).
With that said, yes, I agree that Phoenix is undeservedly hated on this forum, as are Dallas, Atlanta, Tampa, even Miami and LA at times.
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