Houston or Inland Empire?

[theSUBlime]

Originally Posted by houstoner

The OP is referring to The Woodlands. She(?) posted about her choices in another thread.

When I hear North Houston I think Cy-Fair, Spring, Humble, etc.... but even those would be further broken down into NW or NE. The Heights is central Houston to me.

Yeah, Houston has this weird problem with neighborhood/region naming seeing as it's all sprawled out, large and relatively new. But I agree, when I think North Houston I think of the same places you do. The loop is central.

[compelled to reply]

Inland Empire has to be the biggest dump I have ever seen. There are maybe 4 or 5 consistently nice areas (Rancho is one of them), and they are blandly nice at that. Houston has the IE trumped for a much, much lower price. The main thing IE has going for it is it's proximity to LA. Rancho Cucamonga isn't all that different from a moderate part of north Houston anyhow and Ontario is a dump.

[vegaspilgrim]

Both places suck. But the IE still beats the pants off Houston. On a nice day, it can look quite nice:

I-10 to I-15:













Temecula:



I-215:



Downtown Riverside:







Redlands:



Mt Baldy:



A ski area:

[neotextist]

Originally Posted by vegaspilgrim

Both places suck. But the IE still beats the pants off Houston. On a nice day, it can look quite nice:

"Nice" freeway shots. Oh, was I supposed to be looking at the mountains?

Judging from these pics and the ones in the TW photo threads in the Houston forum, both places look hella boring. In The Woodlands there's Market Street, the Woodlands Mall, and the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, an outdoor concert venue, and that's about it in the way of entertainment. The surrounding area leaving the insular Woodlands also turns into Hicksville very fast, unless you're heading back south into the city, then it's just more sprawling suburbs and disgusting sprawl, till you hit the loop, where the sprawl is much more contained and lessened to the point of being practically nonexistent in some areas, and just far more aesthetically pleasing where it does exist, as it is more integrated into the city neighborhoods. (Yes, Houston actually has neighborhoods, not just suburbs! I know that's hard to believe, but it's true!) It's also where most of the good stuff --arts and culture, restaurants, bars, clubs, boutiques, etc.-- is. You've got a tough decision ahead of you, OP! Good luck with it.