3 Best/Worst Things About Houston? (2009, insurance, mortgage)

[jd2008]

Originally Posted by Texas Mack

See that's very interesting. I find the architecture and the super density of cities like Boston, Philadelphia and New York unattractive (and to be honest, I'm one of the few people that find the built landscape of San Francisco unattractive, for the most part), mainly because there's a lack of distinction in the built landscape. Visually, it looks confining.

Don't get me wrong, I understand that these are all just opinions, and I respect yours (not at all being defensive about it), and I do find the diversity of opinions quite interesting.

Well, of course it is a subjective opinion. My personal opinion is just that but I would also point out that generally Houston has a pretty poor image nationally in terms of "ugliness." Even in other parts of Texas (I grew up in Texas), Houston is thought of as kinda ugly. That general feeling is reality, regardless of the truthfulness of it.

My one attempt at some kind of objective standard would be to point to where tourists flock. Dense cities worldwide get a much higher percentage of tourists than low density cities.

[jfre81]

But....LA has zoning. Plenty of other low-density sprawls have zoning. Look at Oklahoma City for crying out loud. Density will come when there's demand for it. All the other cities you mentioned have geographical constraints (San Fran on a peninsula, NYC mostly on islands and Seattle on a narrow strip of land between Puget Sound and Lake Washington). That brings about the need for density faster. Density will come when people get tired of paying an arm and a leg to drive 30 miles to work and back every day. It's coming.

San Diego is actually a little less dense than Houston, IIRC.

What zoning would really create is more red tape and more people with ties to the government making a living lobbying to cut certain developers a break. Anything zoned as anything can still get turned into something else with the proper persuasion. CVS will still be able to build its suburban-style store in Midtown if it wants to and it wants to make the connections and pay the money to do it. Not to mention there will have to be tax revenue funding the bureaucracy involved with it. You know, the tax revenue generated by those nefarious property taxes that have been touched on a time or two on this topic...

[jd2008]

Originally Posted by jfre81

But....LA has zoning. Plenty of other low-density sprawls have zoning. Look at Oklahoma City for crying out loud. Density will come when there's demand for it. All the other cities you mentioned have geographical constraints (San Fran on a peninsula, NYC mostly on islands and Seattle on a narrow strip of land between Puget Sound and Lake Washington). That brings about the need for density faster. Density will come when people get tired of paying an arm and a leg to drive 30 miles to work and back every day. It's coming.

San Diego is actually a little less dense than Houston, IIRC.

What zoning would really create is more red tape and more people with ties to the government making a living lobbying to cut certain developers a break. Anything zoned as anything can still get turned into something else with the proper persuasion. CVS will still be able to build its suburban-style store in Midtown if it wants to and it wants to make the connections and pay the money to do it. Not to mention there will have to be tax revenue funding the bureaucracy involved with it. You know, the tax revenue generated by those nefarious property taxes that have been touched on a time or two on this topic...

LA actually had rather lax zoning laws for a long time which is why they got into the problems they are in right now. They have spent the last 25 some odd years attempting to get a hold of the mess. They have had some success in certain areas (Santa Monica is a great example) but for a long time that city was run by the developers, not the population at large. Houston has made the same mistake and it is about time that the city begins to correct this problem.

And you state that if the demand is there, the free market will build it. Rather ideological and not borne out in the real world. There are all kinds of market failures in the system. The demand is there. Look at the rents per square foot in a place like Midtown versus any burb. Compare the home prices of the Heights versus Katy. The demand is there but the market is failing to react accordingly.

One other quick point...Houston has land use regulations and they actually encourage sprawl. The reason CVS built that building that belongs in Clear Lake is because the default development requires set backs and big parking lots. To build a building like Post Midtown, the developers needed a variance. This is completely backward!

[AK123]

Best things: Too many for me to mention really. Which is why I'm still here nearly a decade after moving here in my early 20's. The previous posters have done a good job of listing the positives.

Worst things: Billboards, summer heat, crime could stand to be lower, and general lack of concern for saving historic structures. I can kind of deal with the lack of zoning, but the billboards in this city are just way too numerous, just as they are in many Texas cities. But my #1 negative? Poor public image, bad publicity. Let me repeat... poor public image, bad publicity. Especially within our own state, which is quite sad. Most of this is undeserved, or very exaggerated at least. I think it's the most underrated large city in the country. I get tired of having to defend Houston when I really shouldn't have to!

[person]

It's time for my quarterly rant. Do not take personally.

Best:
cheaper: who doesn't like value
diversity: food food food food food people food
parking spaces: if you have kids, you know.
freeways: they are seriously very good, but that also means sprawl of course.
Suburbs: Some of them are really nice, and cheap, but not for everyone.
Weather: I like the weather is good six months of the year.


Worst:
ugly: my number one complain, because I live in many places before and houston just kills me aesthetically. They are pockets of nice looking places, as already mentioned in the thread, but even some of those are not really not up to standard, and you have to drive through lots of ugliness to get to them anyway. Driving through billboards, dirty signs, crumbly roads, strip malls, electrical poles with wires all over the place can get very depressing. If you want to prevent relatives from visiting again, choose to drive like Westheimer from the core all the way to 8. But you won't even have to try, because no matter where you are heading, you are bound to see the above mentioned along the way.

Its such too gritty sort of place, worn out, broken down kind of things like abandon lots, buildings, bad crumbly roads, overgrown grass, telephone poles with crazy electrical wires all over, hanging traffic lights (gosh, don't me started on the ghetto hanging traffic lights).

To be fair. many cities have a few of those things, but houston seem to have all of them, and in abundance, and stretched out long distances across flat flat land, with no other worthy natural attractions to distract or minimize the pain.

lack of density/pedestrian unfriendly: but you get lots of parking spaces.
lack of world class attractions: there are actually some ok attractions, but they are all so far apart from each other, if there is some density between them or just a few really good ones, then it will be so easy on me. Imagine having to drive visitors (because rail goes only so few stops) long distances only to see something like a dirty ass beach is not exactly fun.
ugly beach: but better than nothing.
Bugs: hornets,wasps, yellowjackets, spiders, fire ants, mosquitoes, and host of others.
Weather: I hate the weather six months of the year.

[arbucle]

Mexico city in large parts thats what it looks like to me.Ditto all of the above from last post.Not the giant garbadge piles where entire families live and make a living collecting garbadge in Mexico city but the middle class areas where the smell of poverty and crap laying everywhere.This really is not a place to be a tourist unless you want to watch a football or basketball game.Everytime someone comes to visit I dread saying lets go to the museum or Galveston Kema etc etc.Nothing really to get excited about but it is a great place to live which is hard to understand from what I just wrote.

[jfre81]

Everything mentioned that people complain about I've come to embrace. Without it we would have 10 million people land on our doorstep pretty much overnight. And that wouldn't be good.

We would be like Florida.

Our weather is a lot like Florida's, anyway.

[MxL]

BASED ON A FEW VISITS...

What I liked (random order):

1. Tropical (or sub-tropical) climate
2. Shopping
3. Food
4. Friendly people
5. Failry inutitive roads/highway system for a huge city
6. The beautiful natural areas mixed in (parks, lakes, beaches if you drive far enough)
7. Cost (of living especially)
8. Nice suburbs
9. Plenty of quality golf courses (many at great prices)
10. It's green (things are in bloom -- I hate desert landscapes)

The Not So Good:

1. Rush hour on the highways (traffic wasn't that bad outside of the peak times)
2. Things are spread out way too much (takes too long to travel from site to site)

[KerrTown]

Originally Posted by arbucle

Mexico city in large parts thats what it looks like to me.

I like Mexico City. It's a New York-sized population with the topography of L.A. (save the ocean) and the coolness of San Francisco.

Originally Posted by person

If you want to prevent relatives from visiting again, choose to drive like Westheimer from the core all the way to 8.

That's like driving Wilshire from Downtown to Santa Monica (or more like Santa Monica Blvd from Hollywood to the ocean?). I think my uncle driving down Wilshire was enough for my mom to dislike L.A. I actually think L.A. is very urban due to the grittiness and the lack of setbacks (which bring undivided streets and left-turn yields)--something Houston has already emulated in the inner-loop like Highland Village or Montrose.

[davidt1]

I can only think of three here.

Best:

1. No capital gain tax
2. No income tax
3. Relatively cheap houses

I can think of a dozen more for this category.

Worst:

1. Hot, humid weather
2. Absurd property taxes
3. Except for houses, everything else is expensive