From Los Angeles to Houston (San Antonio, Alamo: quality of life, living in, cost)

[mpope409]

Originally Posted by Dr.VanNostrum

who wants to jog? talk about boring. you can jog anywhere. why not live somewhere nice. beauty is a universal reality. people vacation to the rockies, northwest, the coasts, new england and even nyc. but nobody in their right mind vacations in houston. that should tell you something about it.

life is short. there is more to it than sq. footage and money. i think that while you may make more and have a bigger house in houston, you loose out elsewhere. for instance, this weekend my family is going to go dip netting for salmon and camping on the beach. how much is that worth? i can go hiking and skiing minutes from my house and will never have to use air conditioning. i made the conscious decision to avoid working in houston even though that's where i would make the most money.

if you don't have friends for family in houston, i think you're insane to move there out of state.

Well you're stating your opinion on Houston and Texas, don't assume that everyone likes the same thing you do. You also shouldn't assume that your preferences are the right ones to have, and that anyone else's taste is inferior. Also, keep in mind that you are one of the minority of people that don't like Houston.

[jfre81]

In place of asking everyone "do you like Houston?" I propose the Google method:

"houston sucks" - Google Search - 816 results for "houston sucks"

"nyc sucks" - Google Search - 3,900 results for "nyc sucks"

"la sucks" - Google Search - 16,100 results for "LA sucks"

Some of the "Houston sucks" hits refer to Allan Houston, formerly of the New York Knicks, so some of those 816 hits pertain indirectly to NYC.

So at least this is evidence that Houston is better than the Big Apple or LA, right?

[BearBranch]

I live in a community (Kingwood) that is far more beautiful than anywhere else I have lived in the SF Bay Area and Seattle. I'm surrounded by forest. People boat and fish. We go downtown on weekends to clubs, art house movies, galleries, museums, major concerts, etc)

[BearBranch]

As a counterpoint, here is a New Yorker's view of Houston:

Just back from Texas...WOW

[Premont]

We've got beaches close by too. We've got lots of lakes. The hill country is a 3 hour drive away. It's not like we don't camp and fish in this area.

[Guerilla]

I know really. We aren't in the middle of nowhere here in Houston. Over by Clear Lake/Kemah is the third largest yacht/pleasure port in the U.S.:

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e128/buggylittle/Rollercoaster2.jpg (broken link)

[houstoner]

Nope, no skiing and no mountains, but that's all right; we've got airports for that. What we do have are a gulf, a bay, and numerous lakes and bayous to provide us plenty of other recreational opportunities, like sailing and kayaking. The Buffalo Bayou Regatta, Texas' largest kayak and canoe race, and the Dragon Boat Festival are held in Houston, a few minutes from MY house.

[jfre81]

The wonderful North Carolinian lady I lured here to Houston thinks this city is beautiful. She actually enjoys the flat terrain as she grew up in a part of North Carolina that is much like Austin, Giddings etc. with hills just enough to make it where you can't always see for miles. The lightning shows on the Texas coast are second to none - you can safely watch from >10 miles away. Watching it over the downtown skyline, if you're blessed to have a good view, is something awesome. Amid all the concrete and glass that so many people bemoan, nature still has a way of showing whose turf we're still sitting on.

In general, hurricanes are a bigger problem for the people on the immediate coast than in the interior of Houston. Rita was a major post-Katrina panic, and yet I made it from Alvin (where I lived then) to Spring in 1 1/2 hours cutting through secondary roads nobody was using. If you are on a major bayou, get out. Otherwise I think it's better for people to shelter within the city, in sturdier structures than their homes if need be.

Our date with the Gulf's fury is coming one day, but when that day comes, we are not going to be like some other places and wait around for somebody else to pick our butts off the floor. That's not the way we roll.

And hey, satellite images don't pick up earthquakes before they happen...I'll take Houston in a hurricane over LA in a major quake.

[Dr.VanNostrum]

im happy that people like houston who live there. i know when i lived in texas the people were pretty friendly. but everyone is different. i love the outdoors and winters/mountians/ocean to much to live in houston/dallas/austin...etc. i spent 5 years between oklahoma and texas and will never go back.

i encorage anyone who wants to move their from california, which i totally understand, to think about other more senic places that offer more family friendly outdoor activities to do. no offense, but that picture of the rollercoaster is pretty lame. the humidity in the summer can be horrible and you spend a good amount of money on vacations to get out of there. do people ever vacation to houston or buy paintings of houston?? the answer is almost never. that should tell you something of the objective beauty and quality of life there.

seems to me that houston is becoming a place where people are forced to live because of the job opportunities and cost of living. big buisness can operate down there much cheaper. but, life is short. don't be afraid to move somewhere objectively beautiful or stay where your family and friends are. i'm very happy that i did. the family is the building block of society.

[jfre81]

Originally Posted by Dr.VanNostrum

or stay where your family and friends are

Funny you say that, because it seems like a lot of people's family and friends happen to be right here.

Trust me, part of me would like to be relaxing on Puget Sound right about now, where the rain is a mist and not a monsoon, and I would know I'm not going to feel like a boiling lobster once that sun peeks out from behind the clouds, beating down on those puddles everywhere. But I don't know anyone there and I can't afford to live around there. So Houston's where I am.