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Old 09-30-2012, 04:24 PM
 
6 posts, read 31,750 times
Reputation: 16

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Hi All,

I am considering moving to Houston. I visited Dallas, TX and fell in love unfortunately my company doesn't have an office in Dallas so I'm considering Houston. I'm from the East Coast from the Washington DC metro area and currently live in the Midwest. I am not really feeling the Midwest (no offense to any Midwesterns!). I miss living close (or in) to a major city with close to a million plus in population. I miss cultural diversity. I miss being able to have something to do on my free time and having a variety of options. I'm miss the smell of fresh air and a large body of water. Anyways, I need everyone's honest opinion on Houston. I've heard mixed reviews on Houston from folks that aren't even from Houston.

I'm young (mid 20s) single professional. Is Houston a good place for young single professionals? How's the nightlife? Are folks in Houston welcoming to outsiders? Is crime as bad as they say (can't be as bad as DC)?

Any responses are greatly appreciate. Feel free to send me a private message as well. Thanks!
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Old 09-30-2012, 06:06 PM
 
205 posts, read 246,869 times
Reputation: 182
Plenty of diversity, plenty of murder, theft and bank robbery, plenty of nightlife, plenty of traffic, amazing food choices, plenty of pollution, (especially on the east side). Some great recreation areas, such as Terry Hershey Trail on the west side. =) There's a large body of water off of Galveston, but that's a crappy drive, especially from the west side.
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Old 09-30-2012, 06:32 PM
 
2,277 posts, read 3,959,166 times
Reputation: 1920
Houston's not really a city on the coast like Boston, New York or Chicago. It sits about 40-50 miles inland. The coast is there but not really present to most houstonians. Nightlife is decent but only a few sections on the west side of downtown can be called cultural (montrose mostly, heights somewhat) I hope your companies office is downtown or you'll be in for a rude commuting surprise. Welcoming to outsiders is almost a given seeing how Houston is made up mostly of people who came here rather than grew up here (we didn't grow as fast as we have from birth rates, lol). There's always the odd grumpy local, but mostly locals love the fact that outsiders are moving here and growing the city so welcoming is the name of the game.

Crime is par for the course and not outrageous or nonexistent. Depending on your budget you may have to be careful what apartment complexes you choose, but usually there are decent areas for most price ranges.

Houston is not for everyone (our weather between may and October is stifling) but if you can tolerate heat, humidity, Mosquitos and flatness it's got alot of pluses.
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Old 09-30-2012, 09:35 PM
 
114 posts, read 253,112 times
Reputation: 81
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lost_In_Translation View Post
Houston is not for everyone (our weather between may and October is stifling) but if you can tolerate heat, humidity, Mosquitos and flatness it's got alot of pluses.
This is spot-on.
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Old 09-30-2012, 10:49 PM
 
Location: Upper East Side of Texas
12,498 posts, read 26,979,445 times
Reputation: 4890
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lost_In_Translation View Post
Houston's not really a city on the coast like Boston, New York or Chicago. It sits about 40-50 miles inland. The coast is there but not really present to most houstonians. Nightlife is decent but only a few sections on the west side of downtown can be called cultural (montrose mostly, heights somewhat) I hope your companies office is downtown or you'll be in for a rude commuting surprise. Welcoming to outsiders is almost a given seeing how Houston is made up mostly of people who came here rather than grew up here (we didn't grow as fast as we have from birth rates, lol). There's always the odd grumpy local, but mostly locals love the fact that outsiders are moving here and growing the city so welcoming is the name of the game.

Crime is par for the course and not outrageous or nonexistent. Depending on your budget you may have to be careful what apartment complexes you choose, but usually there are decent areas for most price ranges.

Houston is not for everyone (our weather between may and October is stifling) but if you can tolerate heat, humidity, Mosquitos and flatness it's got alot of pluses.
Please stop right there!

Chicago is some 800-1,000 miles away from any coast.

Houston is a heck of a lot more "coastal" & tropical than Chicago, which puts away its palm trees in the winter time. I really got a kick out of that one.
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Old 10-01-2012, 05:31 AM
 
2,277 posts, read 3,959,166 times
Reputation: 1920
Quote:
Originally Posted by Metro Matt View Post
Please stop right there!

Chicago is some 800-1,000 miles away from any coast.

Houston is a heck of a lot more "coastal" & tropical than Chicago, which puts away its palm trees in the winter time. I really got a kick out of that one.
The residents along lake Michigan will feel surprised that they aren't on a coast...and who said anything about tropical?
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Old 10-01-2012, 06:25 AM
 
1,574 posts, read 2,964,944 times
Reputation: 1118
Good: easy to make friends, a lot of ethnic restaurant options to choose from, enough of a variety of things that you can probably find something that you like

Bad: traffic (at all hours), lacks an artsy, cultural, bohemian feel, poor local music scene (excluding country and rap), people seem to go from ghetto to pretenious with little in between, mosquitos can be annoying when it is rainy

Ugly: the city itself is unattractive and lacks charm, the weather
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Old 10-01-2012, 09:51 AM
 
Location: The Lone Star State
8,030 posts, read 9,048,730 times
Reputation: 5050
You say you "fell in love" with Dallas? Well, you may find Houston to be similar, especially coming from out of state. Dallas is less green/fewer trees than Houston, and more sterile looking. Aside from that I don't think the differences as huge -- demographics, crime levels, housing market are all similar. Dallas is hotter, less humid with more severe weather (strong storms, tornadoes, ice storms) even the occasional earthquake. Houston has slightly milder weather but more rainfall, and the occasional hurricane.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kay2011 View Post
Hi All,

I am considering moving to Houston. I visited Dallas, TX and fell in love unfortunately my company doesn't have an office in Dallas so I'm considering Houston. I'm from the East Coast from the Washington DC metro area and currently live in the Midwest. I am not really feeling the Midwest (no offense to any Midwesterns!). I miss living close (or in) to a major city with close to a million plus in population. I miss cultural diversity. I miss being able to have something to do on my free time and having a variety of options. I'm miss the smell of fresh air and a large body of water. Anyways, I need everyone's honest opinion on Houston. I've heard mixed reviews on Houston from folks that aren't even from Houston.

I'm young (mid 20s) single professional. Is Houston a good place for young single professionals? How's the nightlife? Are folks in Houston welcoming to outsiders? Is crime as bad as they say (can't be as bad as DC)?

Any responses are greatly appreciate. Feel free to send me a private message as well. Thanks!
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Old 10-01-2012, 10:54 AM
 
17,183 posts, read 22,898,350 times
Reputation: 17478
Quote:
Originally Posted by Metro Matt View Post
Please stop right there!

Chicago is some 800-1,000 miles away from any coast.

Houston is a heck of a lot more "coastal" & tropical than Chicago, which puts away its palm trees in the winter time. I really got a kick out of that one.
While it is true that Chicago is not tropical, I could walk to the lake in Chicago. I cannot walk to any beach here (I guess if we lived in Galveston or someplace like that we might be able to).

Lake Michigan actually is so large that it is *coastal.* Just because it is not an ocean does not mean it does not have a coastline. It's not a *small* lake like those you see in other parts of the country.
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Old 10-01-2012, 12:19 PM
 
Location: Houston
391 posts, read 922,670 times
Reputation: 468
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kay2011 View Post
Hi All,

I am considering moving to Houston. I visited Dallas, TX and fell in love unfortunately my company doesn't have an office in Dallas so I'm considering Houston. I'm from the East Coast from the Washington DC metro area and currently live in the Midwest. I am not really feeling the Midwest (no offense to any Midwesterns!). I miss living close (or in) to a major city with close to a million plus in population. I miss cultural diversity. I miss being able to have something to do on my free time and having a variety of options. I'm miss the smell of fresh air and a large body of water. Anyways, I need everyone's honest opinion on Houston. I've heard mixed reviews on Houston from folks that aren't even from Houston.

I'm young (mid 20s) single professional. Is Houston a good place for young single professionals? How's the nightlife? Are folks in Houston welcoming to outsiders? Is crime as bad as they say (can't be as bad as DC)?

Any responses are greatly appreciate. Feel free to send me a private message as well. Thanks!
I understand about being close to a major population center. This is one reason I love Houston because it's such a huge place with a ton of diversity. Of all the cities in Texas, I think Houston has to be hands down the most diverse of them.

So let's break this down between the good, the bad and the ugly...

Let's start with the bad... our traffic!! Houston has some of the worst traffic in the country and it's only getting worse due to the heavy increase of newcomers. Houston is exploding in population and it is very difficult to keep up with new and expanded infrastructure. Some mentioned air pollution... yes we are a large city so we are going to have pollution (that's a no brainer!). What many people fail to realize is that our air is just as "clean" as Dallas. Check out the EPA's website and I am sure it will surprise you. Big cities come with big crime, but you will be surprised to find that Houston's crime rate isn't nearly as high as some other major cities, particularly DC... but nevertheless, we still have our share of crime.

The good... theatre district (2nd largest in the USA only behind NYC), museums, great nightlife (midtown, montrose, heights, Washington Ave), the best medical center in the world (Texas Medical Center), tons of parks, excellent economy (arguably the best in the nation right now), close to the Gulf (48 miles from downtown), extremely diverse population (92 countries have embassies in Houston) and the people here are some of the nicest especially for being a large city. Houston also enjoys relatively low property taxes and no state income tax!

The ugly... the things you cannot change. Our weather during the summer months can be rather warm and humid, however, what most people will fail to tell you is that the fall, winter and spring months are excellent! If you aren't a big fan of winter, then you'd love Houston. Our average high temp in the fall is around 75, average high in winter is around 63 and average high in the spring is around 74. Now the average high in summer is more like 94! Houston rarely ever sees snowfall, but it does happen from time to time. So if you can hold out with the heat for June-September then you will be just fine here. Now as far as geography is concerned, Houston sits on the Gulf coastal plain so it is fairly flat around here. Unfortunately unless there is a major earthquake in which other continent slams into the Gulf coast, we will never have hilly terrain or mountains. So for all the people who whine and complain about the weather and geography, well they are just whining beacuse this will not change.

Overall, I love Houston. I could never imagine living anywhere else. Other people may say different, but Houston has been really good to me! I'm sure you would love it here too.
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