Likes & Dislikes (Houston, San Antonio, Van: apartments, crime rate, homes)

[Grand in Grand Bay]

Tell me 5 things you like (could be anything from favorite place to eat or visit) and 5 things you dislike about living in Houston.

[DANNYY]

5 Likes:
- Being near the coast, don't always have to go, but the idea that its there for when you want to go to the beach and walk around, with some rolling hills in the Northwest side of the metro, and large lakes up there. Good for recreational activities.
- Very car friendly, especially in terms of parking. Parking situation a hell lot better than San Francisco and Chicago.
- Populated but very spread out, I hate being near 54708537509 people within 15 feet of me at all times.
- The new developments is something I really like being apart of, the city is dramatically changing itself given pre-1990's to what it will be when growth comes to a stagnation level.
- Lots of great ethnic food, lots of really great food choices.
- The costs are great.
- The proposed commuter rail lines look great, hell lot more impressive than than the light rail lines they drew up.
- They are addressing the Bike Trails and Sidewalk things and extending those.
- There are plenty of activities to attend, art galleries, museums, theaters, boardwalks, etc. They just need to work on making those things more tourist friendly and keep adding on to that, and it will look even better, but its good already.

5 Dislikes:
- I hate Anniese Parker the mayor, she's very anti-development in a city THAT NEEDS THE DEVELOPMENTS. Like her stance for the MLS stadium, thank god for Bill White for that one.
- The public transit rail sucks, it looks nice (the trains) but its network just sucks, even their extensions look like they suck. They just aren't pushing for it as much as they should be doing. But it IS nice that they're pushing for it.
- They need to get some more individualistic designs, they need to to put an end to mass strip mall creation and get some cool stuff going, like stand alone shops and restaurants that resemble homes and whatnot.
- I hate how they don't have an active downtown. They really need to get a Riverwalk type of thing going with Buffalo Bayou, they should at least TRY to rival San Antonio on that, the potential is there but these idiots in office are so lazy about all their plans.
- We NEED to get an NHL team, I know all of last decade Houston came close to closing in on a deal like 4 times, but they need to keep on pushing to get one.
- They need to fix up some of the neighborhoods and gentrify.
- Crime rate needs to go down more.
- The schools need more attention on them, however I will note that Houston is trying on that regard, they're pushing for it but they need to keep on working on that.

I know it was more than 5 things but I just wanted to include all of it.

[Houston321]

Oh for the love of all thats holy, not another one of these threads.

[Grand in Grand Bay]

Originally Posted by Houston321

Oh for the love of all thats holy, not another one of these threads.

Well if you have an aversion to them then maybe you shouldn't even bother opening them, the title was pretty clear. Not everyone spends enough time here to know it's been done enough times to get on "your" nerves.

[glorplaxy]

Originally Posted by Houston321

Oh for the love of all thats holy, not another one of these threads.

People like to participate in these threads, though.

[houstoner]

Originally Posted by Awesome Danny

5 Likes:
- Being near the coast, don't always have to go, but the idea that its there for when you want to go to the beach and walk around, with some rolling hills in the Northwest side of the metro, and large lakes up there. Good for recreational activities.
- Very car friendly, especially in terms of parking. Parking situation a hell lot better than San Francisco and Chicago.
- Populated but very spread out, I hate being near 54708537509 people within 15 feet of me at all times.
- The new developments is something I really like being apart of, the city is dramatically changing itself given pre-1990's to what it will be when growth comes to a stagnation level.
- Lots of great ethnic food, lots of really great food choices.
- The costs are great.
- The proposed commuter rail lines look great, hell lot more impressive than than the light rail lines they drew up.
- They are addressing the Bike Trails and Sidewalk things and extending those.
- There are plenty of activities to attend, art galleries, museums, theaters, boardwalks, etc. They just need to work on making those things more tourist friendly and keep adding on to that, and it will look even better, but its good already.

5 Dislikes:
- I hate Anniese Parker the mayor, she's very anti-development in a city THAT NEEDS THE DEVELOPMENTS. Like her stance for the MLS stadium, thank god for Bill White for that one.
- The public transit rail sucks, it looks nice (the trains) but its network just sucks, even their extensions look like they suck. They just aren't pushing for it as much as they should be doing. But it IS nice that they're pushing for it.
- They need to get some more individualistic designs, they need to to put an end to mass strip mall creation and get some cool stuff going, like stand alone shops and restaurants that resemble homes and whatnot.
- I hate how they don't have an active downtown. They really need to get a Riverwalk type of thing going with Buffalo Bayou, they should at least TRY to rival San Antonio on that, the potential is there but these idiots in office are so lazy about all their plans.
- We NEED to get an NHL team, I know all of last decade Houston came close to closing in on a deal like 4 times, but they need to keep on pushing to get one.
- They need to fix up some of the neighborhoods and gentrify.
- Crime rate needs to go down more.
- The schools need more attention on them, however I will note that Houston is trying on that regard, they're pushing for it but they need to keep on working on that.

I know it was more than 5 things but I just wanted to include all of it.

What does this mean and how do both these things hold true for you? If anything Houston is over-developed and could use much less willy-nilly development. The city needs to focus on cleaning, beautifying, and maintaining the infrastructure that's already there, not building more more more just for the sake of it. Glad to hear Parker's against letting the developers run rampant. It's about time somebody in power in Houston was.

[DANNYY]

Originally Posted by neotextist

What does this mean and how do both these things hold true for you? If anything Houston is over-developed and could use much less willy-nilly development. The city needs to focus on cleaning, beautifying, and maintaining the infrastructure that's already there, not building more more more just for the sake of it. Glad to hear Parker's against letting the developers run rampant. It's about time somebody in power in Houston was.

Strip Malls are very generic. You've lived in Boston, and didn't you like how the restaurants and things of that nature had their own distinct identity? I live in Chicago part of the year, thats one of the main differences thats utterly noticeable between the two cities. Houston goes for a very generic design.

I don't think the city is as developed as it should be. For example the city needs to invest in apartments, and residential units to be along the new lines being constructed it leaves more to a desirability and more of a walkable theme. More pedestrian friendly and more convenient for people to access the amenities for the city.
Projects like Regent Square are nice, they are inner loop and near loop developments, and they are being built in rapidly growing areas, which adds on to beautifying the city. Its something every well established city has seen in its history. Remember the innovative ideas that came out of Chicago changed the world. It invented the skyscraper which led to a competition with New York City for sheer mass, neither city would look the same if one had not pushed the others to do it.

The Dynamos deserved that stadium which is being built as we speak, or when the construction crew wakes up tomorrow morning haha in literal sense. And its being constructed in the area of downtown that is very rundown looking. This project is revitalizing that part of downtown and its making more people want to live there. Its leading to new developments like Americas Plaza. These developments push each other to make Houston into a more urban city than it already is. I love the new development projects in Houston, they are trying to attack the lack of vibrancy that Houston has, and thats a good move in the right direction, in my opinion. And those are the developments I like to see going up.

Our mayor isn't against the projects that are utterly useless and have multiple replicas of like Vantage Park shopping center. But she is against the ones that WILL benefit Houston in the long run, like Buffalo Bayou, East Downtown revitalization, and things like that. Which is why I don't agree with her. Mayor Annesie Parker, shouldn't be getting in the way of privately funded developments, things that aren't in her control in the first place. But she finds a way to do that anyhow. She also challenges the cities developments and slows them down like Buffalo Bayou, either that or she doesn't push for it to happen faster. Houston works well with its budget, but she really pushes it too where Houston builds useless things and the good and helpful developments are left behind.

I always believed that Houston shouldn't build uselessly like the way Miami did and ruin itself, but Houston is not a city that builds off speculation before it can confirm it has tenants. Its a city that builds along the way. Which is why I am for the majority of the projects in Houston, because they will contract the city to more Urban means and will progressively change the city and force the city to become more beautiful architecturally and aesthetically.