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That is a VERY subjective opinion, and one that is very biased. How is Houston "soul-less"? Are you God, that defines a city or region? I made a stupid post earlier in this thread but I can guarantee you that the people of Houston are as "soulful" as anyone (if not more so) than anyone else in the country. They have HEART, which is much more than I've seen demonstrated by cities in the Northeast where you're looked at strange if you say hello to a stranger. People in Houston care about their fellow human beings, and I like that.
Another condescending statement. Environmental destruction was first hoisted upon the US by cities in the Northeast. Of course cities in the SE and other parts of the US have done the same, but the culture of the automobile had more to contribute to that than the people themselves.
Your continuous "noting" of the "high culture" of Boston represents the smug attitude that you Northeasterners embrace. Something that I am glad of which I no longer have to experience.
Smugness, arrogance, and rude behavior is something that is lacking in Houston and in particular, Texas. I'll take Houston any day over living with the rude people of the Northeastern US.
BTW, Houston IS one of the most culturaly diverse cities in the entire United States with a smorgasbord of the "high culture" which you speak. Experience for yourself, if you ever have the opportunity, the art, dance, theatre, and intense culture of Houston. You wouldn't merely be surprised, you'd be enchanted.
You call me smug for noting the bias toward so-called "high" culture? If you could comprehend what I wrote, you would realize I didnt endorse it at all, and didnt come up with the term. If any of you have ever taken sociology classes you would know that social critics have long noted biases in the supposed value of art by considering things to be of relartive "high brow" (or simply "high") or "low brow" culture. I didnt endorse this, or call Houston devoid of culture. I just noted that if we were to objectively weigh the High cultural institutions of Boston vs Houston, Boston would come out ahead.
And I mentioned that most of Houston is soulless sprawl- and yes, Ive been there. How can you disagree with this statement? I didnt say people from Houston were soulless. Most of Houston has no sidewalks and your "public transit" (the monorail) was built for the super bowl tourists and goes a few blocks- certainly not covering the 600 plus square miles of Houston. The fact remains that much of Houston is stripmalls and fast food. Again, if you could comprehend what I wrote, I wrote that sprawl such as that is a threat to the continuation of unique regional culture- which I mentioned was valuable in the case of Texas culture. Sprawl chart- Houston is number #2 in America: Sprawl City
smog chart Houston #5- Top 10 Cities With the MOST Smog
out of the 25 largest cities in America, Houston was the third most wasteful: America's Least Wasteful Cities - Houston
You should try responding to my actual post instead of your own projection.
And I love it when people go back to the old- "people here have heart and care about eachother, not like up north".
Do you judge this to be so by violent crime rates? I doubt it considering Houston is among the more violent cities in the U.S.
First hand knowledge?
?
Your continuous "noting" of the "high culture" of Boston represents the smug attitude that you Northeasterners embrace. Something that I am glad of which I no longer have to experience.
Smugness, arrogance, and rude behavior is something that is lacking in Houston and in particular, Texas. I'll take Houston any day over living with the rude people of the Northeastern US.
BTW, Houston IS one of the most culturaly diverse cities in the entire United States with a smorgasbord of the "high culture" which you speak. Experience for yourself, if you ever have the opportunity, the art, dance, theatre, and intense culture of Houston. You wouldn't merely be surprised, you'd be enchanted.
I've studied urban planning at architecture school at one of those "smug" preppy New England colleges, and we discussed that Houston was an example of how not to design a city. It was urban sprawl at it's finest, pointless skyscrapers that don't have any tenants, no singluar city center.
Who are you to judge us northeasterns? You Texans are so friggin proud of yourselves simply because your from Texas, as if God himself mandated a perfect land on earth and it should be named Texas. It is old. It's as if even the egos are bigger in Texas too.
That region you have so much distaste for contains 1/5 of the American population and has an economy equal to that of Germany. I'd be careful who you call smug and arrogant.
I've studied urban planning at architecture school at one of those "smug" preppy New England colleges, and we discussed that Houston was an example of how not to design a city. It was urban sprawl at it's finest, pointless skyscrapers that don't have any tenants, no singluar city center.
Who are you to judge us northeasterns? You Texans are so friggin proud of yourselves simply because your from Texas, as if God himself mandated a perfect land on earth and it should be named Texas. It is old. It's as if even the egos are bigger in Texas too.
That region you have so much distaste for contains 1/5 of the American population and has an economy equal to that of Germany. I'd be careful who you call smug and arrogant.
It seems like the Texans have been a lot more civil than anyone else in this thread when you consider how unnecessary some of the attacks have been.
I agree that Houston is poorly planned and has given too much way to chain stores rather than nurturing a thriving native scene, but it has a lot of good points and is trying to address some of its issues.
It seems like the Texans have been a lot more civil than anyone else in this thread when you consider how unnecessary some of the attacks have been.
I agree that Houston is poorly planned and has given too much way to chain stores rather than nurturing a thriving native scene, but it has a lot of good points and is trying to address some of its issues.
I took offense to how this poster called all northeastners smug, arrogant, and rude.
Is that the definition of civility these days? Boy I must be missing something. Thank God I live with rude, arrogant people, because this civility thing seems wrong.
Everytime a Bostonian mentioned something about Houston that the Houstonian found to be disagreeable, it had something to do with us hating Houston or Texas, rather than the facts at hand. At a certain point its frustrating and frankly stupid.
I took offense to how this poster called all northeastners smug, arrogant, and rude.
Is that the definition of civility these days? Boy I must be missing something. Thank God I live with rude, arrogant people, because this civility thing seems wrong.
Well, in this thread and this board in general, there's definitely been smugness, arrogance, and rudeness. So yea, it's an overgeneralization that doesn't hold true in real life, but I can see why he said that.
Anyhow, let's skip to the sixth and beyond category in another topic, which is what's really being argued here. Miami, Houston, DFW, Atlanta, Philly, Boston, and Detroit are probably the ones in contention for that and form a pretty decent tier.
Well, in this thread and this board in general, there's definitely been smugness, arrogance, and rudeness. So yea, it's an overgeneralization that doesn't hold true in real life, but I can see why he said that.
Anyhow, let's skip to the sixth and beyond category in another topic, which is what's really being argued here. Miami, Houston, DFW, Atlanta, Philly, Boston, and Detroit are probably the ones in contention for that and form a pretty decent tier.
Houston and Boston are probably equal for number 6 than on to the rest.
Houston and Boston are probably equal for number 6 than on to the rest.
It's arguable, though I think I'd place Boston, Philly, and Atlanta above Houston for a number of reasons (especially in terms of things harder to measure than GDP such as government institutions and education). Also, in reality, Boston and Philly really are probably significantly bigger than Houston in terms of the metro population and gross metropolitan product. DFW (size and affluence) and Miami (international recognition and Latin American cultural/financial hub) also have a case for being above Houston.
It's arguable, though I think I'd place Boston, Philly, and Atlanta above Houston for a number of reasons (especially in terms of things harder to measure than GDP such as government institutions and education). Also, in reality, Boston and Philly really are probably significantly bigger than Houston in terms of the metro population and gross metropolitan product. DFW (size and affluence) and Miami (international recognition and Latin American cultural/financial hub) also have a case for being above Houston.
Well some of those things you pointed out; other cities suffer in. Boston lacks the diversity of cities like Miami and Houston. Miami and Dallas lack a truly tier 1 university like Houston (Rice) and Atlanta (Emory). It was never even established that SF was number 5. This is all debatable imo.
Well some of those things you pointed out; other cities suffer in. Boston lacks the diversity of cities like Miami and Houston. Miami and Dallas lack a truly tier 1 university like Houston (Rice) and Atlanta (Emory). It was never even established that SF was number 5. This is all debatable imo.
I agree all of this is debatable, and that's good because debate is the purpose of this board (probably).
I did put DFW and Miami separately from the others as they do lack strong tier 1 universities (Southern Methodist is an alright school for networking but it's definitely not top tier while Miami has fairly large and very good schools rather than any single amazing university though FIU has been improving rapidly and may become both a great and large school) and government institutions such as those found in Atlanta (Georgia Tech should also be mentioned among great schools), Boston, and Philly.
I'd be happy to argue SF/Bay Area, as I think its importance might place it possibly as the fourth or even third most important city/metro though I risk repeating myself by arguing why that is.
Last edited by OyCrumbler; 03-10-2010 at 09:36 AM..
It's arguable, though I think I'd place Boston, Philly, and Atlanta above Houston for a number of reasons (especially in terms of things harder to measure than GDP such as government institutions and education). Also, in reality, Boston and Philly really are probably significantly bigger than Houston in terms of the metro population and gross metropolitan product. DFW (size and affluence) and Miami (international recognition and Latin American cultural/financial hub) also have a case for being above Houston.
My good friend, I do respectfully disagree with some of your post. When you say Boston and Philly probably have a higher gross metro product than Houston, even though Houston has a higher GDP than both, are you differentiating between GDP and gross metro product? If so can you help me understand the difference?
Also in terms of a tier 1 university, would University of Miami not qualify?
I think Houston is ahead of Philly but behind Greater Boston in terms of economic importannce. As far as culture, I'm sure everyone knows how I feel about that. Atlanta may be more popular than Houston (we'll say that for arguments sake) but economically it cannot compare to Houston.
With that being said these are IMO, and you are definitely entitled to yours.
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