Ugly Houston??? (Galveston, Atlanta, San Diego: buy, cost of, stores)

[mpope409]

Originally Posted by Wysiwyg

you have no idea how much it cost to fly people from japan do you?
or from the northeast or cali, and taking away some of their well deserved vacation leaves, putting them on a plane and selfishly having them spend it in houston. You also (probably) have no idea what other places these people have seen and what are the BASICS of a *tour*. I am being considerate and dont want to waste their time and money. we'll be happy to fly over to them at some point

while I go to the office I should probably just lend them my car and have them visit San Antonio or Austin. This is the best I can offer if someone just popped up

Well, unless you held a gun to their head and made them come here, they should've kept their asses where they were. Nobody wants them here if they don't want to be here.

[jfre81]

After taking a trip down Hempstead Highway near Antoine/34th/etc. I cannot imagine how anyone can call this city ugly.

[tstone]

Originally Posted by crbcrbrgv

I'm not a Houston hater. I love Houston. I am, however, a Galleria hater. It ain't all that and a bucket of chicken wings. Not even from Church's.

Damn dude, you're a real uptown hater... because Church's sucks!!!

A lot of companies in the Galleria bribe people pretty damn good just to get them to work there. Whatever that means. I personally think it's a great place to work, and there are a lot of fortunate people who work in there. Oh yeah, and I visit every Xmas at least once, been doing that since I was 3 ft tall. Nighttime is cool. Hey, it's all that we grown up, natives-since-birth have! Vacations to see truly cool & beautiful things only last for days, unfortunately.

But as far as uptown goes, that's about where I draw the line. Because I'm not a shopper at all, not into cramped living, and don't want a mortgage to my eyeballs so we can have the space my wife & I deserve as Texans! (Put that in your pipe and smoke it! )

If you are hardcore, the Galleria mall is a great place to max out your husband's credit card in a matter of hours. (maybe minutes)

And I think that could get rather ugly!

(my neighbor's Monday morning, Galleria-mall-store-bag-trash comes to mind)

[jfre81]

Uptown is our Little L.A. - full of people either from there or people who act like they're from there.

The true, and little-known purpose of the Transco/Williams tower spotlight is to warn everyone within an eight-mile radius of something they should avoid.

I will say the Uptown skyline looks kinda cool at night, at least coming from the north on 610.

[tstone]

^ ^

I've noticed there are more uptight posers than true Angelenos.

It's more like the Dallas of Houston.

[mpope409]

Originally Posted by person

I am the one who said it, Houston is an embarrassing place for tourists, NOT because there are NO nice parts. There are, but for one, the quality of these nice parts are such that, they can't really compared to what one can get elsewhere for the same amount of money, time and effort spent.

Only an opinion. Not a fact.

Visitors I managed to convince to come over, spent their vacation time, money and effort to visit me, it is embarrassing that I cannot make their time and effort's worth more. I certainly did try and they did have a good time. But in another big city, I can easily do better and they can easily get their money's worth.

Well that's y'all. And I'm trying my hardest not to be offensive towards you or your friends. Houston is a great city, and we don't need either of you all to validate that.

I do struggle, my visitors have stayed and visited many places. If someone had visited or come from NY and Chicago, you don't really want to bring them to the museum district (and the museums are not that close I might add, you have to drive to each one)?

I'm not a museum person, so I wouldn't know. But I would only imagine that it's only their names that gives NY, LA, and CHI the interesting museums. Nothing great in that regard ever comes down south.

If they visited or come from west coast or florida, do you really want to bring them to our beach or our boardwalk?

West Coast beaches aren't hardly all that better. And there's no beach in Houston. But I would take them to Lake Houston.

If they had lived in or visited shopping places like HK and Dubai, do we want to bring them galleria?

You either love the Galleria, or you could care less about it. If you're into fashion, name brands, and beautiful people, that whole area will be your heaven. If that's not your thing, then you won't care for it. There's nothing wrong with the Galleria. At the same time, it attracts too much of a mixed crowd. I wish that the high end stores moved to locations downtown.

The only one that I always seem to score well is old town springs. Another thing my visitors seem to want to see and thought there is a lot of is all the cowboy stuff, but we all know how Houston so do not do that sort of thing as well as other parts of Texas. And not all of them come during the few days rodeo is on.

Hmmm, how did I know that your friends were the kind who fell for the Texas stereotypes...

It seems most of the attractions we have, aquariums, museums, shopping, zoos, beaches, boardwalks, gardens, many other cities have it too, and they do it much much better, not to mention they are in closer proximity to each other, so Houston offers nothing in that regard. The only thing different we have seems to be the Space center, old town springs, and the distance between those are vast.

Once again, an opinion. A respectable one at that. Most people say the same thing about Atlanta.

To me, the fun in visiting Houston is examining the lifestyle, the food, the strange neighborhoods, the hidden gems, the interesting architecture, the pines and oaks. Mix and mingle with the natives. Not the corny tourist traps that you listed above. They call them traps for a reason.

[mpope409]

Originally Posted by crbcrbrgv

I agree with person and think that the same can be said about pretty much all texas cities, including San Antonio. This is a great place to live. But not a great place to visit. The Galleria compared to shopping in other cities is about as nice as a strip mall on Bellaire and Fondren.

What can be found in the Galleria is pretty much what can be found in all the major American cities. Just in a different setting.

[mpope409]

Originally Posted by person

No need to ask permission for what you want to post.

And its good you do feel upscale, but for visitors sake, it shouldn't feel just like another mall. Your criteria for upscale is very low I would say. Upscale shopping atmosphere is not created from just product pricing. The renovations are ok to keep it updated, but I still would like to see some glitz and glamor, because we don't have much natural attractions here, so we definitely need to put extras into our man-made ones.

Well, like I said above, the upscale stores are in need of a different environment and location. So I agree with you on this. I mean, Versace and Build a Bear just don't mix, to me.

[tstone]

Originally Posted by mpope409

West Coast beaches aren't hardly all that better.

WHAT?!?

I took these (attached) pictures about a month ago. West Coast. Guys, click, view, & judge for yourselves!

[mpope409]

Originally Posted by tstone

WHAT?!?

I took these (attached) pictures about a month ago. West Coast. Guys, click, view, & judge for yourselves!

I said..."West Coast beaches aren't hardly all that better." South Florida is impressive. You can literally see through the water.