Houston vs Seattle (Pasadena, The Woodlands, Pearland: 2014, crime, college)

[mpope409]

Originally Posted by pwright1

Why do I live in the gloom belt. Because Seattle and San Francisco are in the gloom belt, and I'm far from being depressed.

Actually guys, some people consider San Francisco to be in the Sunbelt.

[JDTD]

Originally Posted by KerrTown

After looking at those pictures, Chicago is still more impressive! 8.5 million in Chicagoland vs. 3.2 million in Seattle. Houston has more than you at 5.5 million. Seattle is deserted compared to what I'm used to.

Great pictures. It's only too bad that it looks like that, at the most, 8 weeks per year. It's pouring rain and cloudy the rest of the time. Then...if you actually live outside the downtown area, it's not worth the time and effort to get down there in the freakin' traffic.

[Aunty Den]

Originally Posted by JDTD

Great pictures. It's only too bad that it looks like that, at the most, 8 weeks per year. It's pouring rain and cloudy the rest of the time. Then...if you actually live outside the downtown area, it's not worth the time and effort to get down there in the freakin' traffic.

I agree 100% with your statement.

[davidt1]

Originally Posted by KerrTown

I don't like Seattle because it is less populated than Houston. San Francisco is much better because it's in California but both cities are still gloomy compared to Los Angeles. I might like Los Angeles better because of the sunshine. It's too bad SoCal is the only sunny place on the West Coast because it's crowded. No wonder it's the most populated city/metro in the West. At least the two great cities of the West are more populated than Houston. Houston and Los Angeles are in the sunbelt. SF and Seattle are in the gloom belt. How can anyone live in the gloom belt? Why would anyone want to be depressed?

Are you kidding me? Crowded cities use more space and resources that working citizens ultimately pay for in taxes. Los Angeles is having seriously problem with crimes, traffic congestion, lack of medical services for the masses and affordable housing. Given all these problem with crowded cities, the better question would be, why would anyone want to live in such places?

Now let's look at the weather. Too much sun is not healthy for you. It burns you skin, makes you age quickly and causes skin cancer. Sunny weather is not healthy on your wallet either. People in hot cities spend a small fortune to keep their house cool. Cool, misty weather, on the other hand, purifies the air and makes it healthy to breathe. The rain washes away dirts on the streets, on your driveway and on your roof and anywhere else where there is dirt that needs to be washed away. You spend less on electricity. You and your house last longer. You wake up every day to the green and beautiful forests, trees and grasses. This, my friend, is not gloom.

[Wysiwyg]

Originally Posted by davidt1

This, my friend, is not gloom.

I like gloom. you can grow a lot of great variety of 'indoor' plants outside. its nice and gloomy in houston these days and the various moss in my starter japanese garden is finally thriving

[vtowntom]

Very interesting topic. Comes up quite frequently amongst my family and a few friends from WA that have also moved to the Houston area. To start off: I'm a native New Englander (from Rhode Island), moved to Port Orchard, WA in 2003, lived there until this past August. Married with 3 children. Employment is what moved us around this beautiful country of ours. We really loved it in Washington, it is a very beautiful place. When it came time to move, we decided (my wife and myself) that the best "bang for our buck" would be to move to the Houston area. My wages jumped considerably as did our home buying options. We currently rent a home in Katy and when the lease is up next August, we're going to purchase a home, probably remain in Katy. Mostly that is because of the schools. At first, we looked for a home to rent in Sugar Land (where I currently work) but rental homes with pools were few and far between there.
I'm still not used to everything here but am slowly getting familiar with how things work here. Yup, August was really really hot and humid. Thank goodness for AC. Drivers here drive like they're in a NASCAR race, but that's ok, I like trading paint once in awhile. Yup, the countryside is not as pretty as WA but I still can't get over how flat it is here, and that you can see for miles. The coast is not that far and a nice beach is much closer that where I lived in WA. I mean, a beach with actual beach sand and not rocks. My sons are able to play baseball almost year-round here, we like that.

Overall, I would say it has been a positive thing, moving here to the Houston area. Still can't wait to see what winter is like here......

[nana053]

Originally Posted by vtowntom

Overall, I would say it has been a positive thing, moving here to the Houston area. Still can't wait to see what winter is like here......

We moved to Louisiana from Chicago and are now in Houston. They don't *have* winter here.

It's actually very nice here during what would be the winter months up north.

Dorothy

[nana053]

Originally Posted by JJP

Racism? Sounds like an old Texas stereotype to me. Where are these people from who are saying that?

I found the Northeast to actually have more in the way of prejudices than Houston in my experience.

Seattle - great downtown, very nice scenery, no worry about hurricane threats. Aside from those things, I'd say Houston has the advantage in most other categories (housing prices, activities, sunny weather, jobs in most fields, access to other places)

Unfortunately, there is much racism here.

Look at these incidents:

In Conroe

http://www.eeoc.gov/press/3-21-06.html

And in Pearland:

Noose incident leads to Pearland High walkout | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle (broken link)

[Muhnay]

I was on page one of this debate.. and after much consideration, and thought. The Wife, myself and our kids will be moving to Galveston TX very soon. I have chosen it over Seattle because it has everything I am looking for.. and its still in my beloved Texas.

[Rocket Power]

Houston winters you'll get maybe 3 or 4 days of cold weather (and by cold I mean upper 20s to lower 30s). Following that, you'll get 4 or 5 days of humid weather usually in the 70s with 60 degree temperatures at night. When the next cold front comes through, you'll get your 3-4 days of cold weather again, then it warms up and we repeat the process.

It rarely stays cold here for weeks at a time. This year I'm hoping we'll get these cold fronts just in time for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I normally hate cold weather, but it just feels wrong munching down on that Thanksgiving turkey or putting up a Christmas Tree with the air conditioner on.