Best and Worst of Houston (Paris, China: cheap house, neighborhood, gated)

[bayoubengal1982]

Originally Posted by eric3781

Good: Industry, commerce, economic vitality, jobs, energy, low cost of living, affordable homes, plenty of things to do, plenty of restaurants, plenty of "cultural enrichment" attractions, good looking women.

Bad: Inner Loop hipster douchebags, and whiny communist northeastern carpetbaggers and smarmy expats that move to our glorious city from the soviet wastelands they grew up in, now reduced to ash by leftist policies, expecting it to be a carbon copy of New York or London, and bemoan the lack of cute little trolleys to ride everywhere, complain about mosquitoes, complain about heat, complain about humidity, complain about the lack of "services", whatever TF that means, complain about traffic, complain about power lines, and seek to turn Houston into a high-density western European socialist hellhole, etc., etc., etc.

I love every bit of this!!!! If you are a true Texan, you accept all the negatives and are proud to call Houston home.

[Nairobi]

Originally Posted by eric3781

Riding public transit is dehumanizing. It is the opposite of freedom. You are a nameless faceless mass of human flesh crammed into a tin box with other nameless faceless masses of human flesh and you all sit lifelessly like lobotomized automatons as the agents of your gracious central government benefactors shuttle you from place to place like a child hitching a ride to the mall from mommy.

I prefer the rugged individualism that owning my own cars allows for. You can keep your cute little trolleys. *ding ding*

And how is our "sprawl" reckless? See the funny thing about the free market is that development won't be initiated unless the market dictates/warrants the new development. Non-vertical development is not inherently "reckless", at least not by any standard other than a collectivist high-density western eurotrash municipal model.

What do you advocate? An authoritarian command economy with fascistic zoning boards dictating who/what/when/where/why/how things get built?

I'm an advocate for balance and options. Leave the suburbs and autocentric lifestyle for those who prefer it, but still allow a dense, walkable city center for those who want that. Houston is certainly big enough for both lifestyles.

I certainly didn't feel dehumanized any of the many occasions I used public trans. It was nice not having to be bothered with gas, parking, traffic jams, terrible roads and terrible drivers. I enjoy driving, but I also would enjoy the option of not having to drive if it isn't necessary.

All of this trash talking about the urban model is simply baseless and silly, especially since this is the model that the original Houston followed. One need only to visit the historic areas of downtown to see this.

[CherryMagic]

The Good: Seeing Houston in your rear view mirror as you head to someplace more peacefull. LOL

The Bad: Traffic....omg....its no LA traffic, but none the less....stupid drivers everywhere! (and usually using a cell phone)

The Ugly: Our beaches have gone downhill. People leave trash everywhere (Shame on you!) Galveston charges to park on seawall. Water will NEVER look swimable. And finally - Tillman Fertetti has turned the Gulf Coast into one expensive commercial carnival.

[eric3781]

Originally Posted by Nairobi

I'm an advocate for balance and options. Leave the suburbs and autocentric lifestyle for those who prefer it, but still allow a dense, walkable city center for those who want that. Houston is certainly big enough for both lifestyles.

I certainly didn't feel dehumanized any of the many occasions I used public trans. It was nice not having to be bothered with gas, parking, traffic jams, terrible roads and terrible drivers. I enjoy driving, but I also would enjoy the option of not having to drive if it isn't necessary.

All of this trash talking about the urban model is simply baseless and silly, especially since this is the model that the original Houston followed. One need only to visit the historic areas of downtown to see this.

In a still largely agrarian turn-of-the-20th-century Houston with a population of 44,633 needing access to the limited ship channel and rail yard resources, a relatively high-density setup like Harrisburg was probably ideal. I wouldn't really call that high-density when compared to present-day NYC or London.

[PedroMartinez]

Originally Posted by ComeAtMe

I am ready to be entertained... proceed with the show =]

God wants Houston to be different than NYC.





Does that help?

[eric3781]

Originally Posted by PedroMartinez

God wants Houston to be different than NYC.

Does that help?

Damn straight.

[Nairobi]

Originally Posted by eric3781

In a still largely agrarian turn-of-the-20th-century Houston with a population of 44,633 needing access to the limited ship channel and rail yard resources, a relatively high-density setup like Harrisburg was probably ideal. I wouldn't really call that high-density when compared to present-day NYC or London.

Of course not. In fact, I wouldn't even want Houston to be as dense as those cities. I'd prefer density around the level of Chicago or even Miami.

[Meyerland]

Houston is a quirky big city with lots of pocket areas that people tend to stay in. The positives far outweigh the negatives for me and it's a great place to raise a family.

You can pretty much find any type of restaurant you can think of, and it will probably be good.

You can shop at some pretty incredible places from the expensive to the cheap. Do I need a sari for a party? Check. Do I need masks for a masquerade? Check. Do I need some super expensive clothes...no but I can get that too. Jimmy chooS? Yep.

Lots of art, music, concerts, symphony, ballet, theater, etc...

All kinds of bars and nightlife.

The bad...who cares? Every place has bad stuff. I remember talking to a cabbie in Paris (France not Texas) and he was complaining about living there. I remember thinking...no matter where you live there will be someone tired of it.

[Augiec]

Originally Posted by eric3781

Riding public transit is dehumanizing. It is the opposite of freedom. You are a nameless faceless mass of human flesh crammed into a tin box with other nameless faceless masses of human flesh and you all sit lifelessly like lobotomized automatons as the agents of your gracious central government benefactors shuttle you from place to place like a child hitching a ride to the mall from mommy.

I prefer the rugged individualism that owning my own cars allows for. You can keep your cute little trolleys. *ding ding*

And how is our "sprawl" reckless? See the funny thing about the free market is that development won't be initiated unless the market dictates/warrants the new development. Non-vertical development is not inherently "reckless", at least not by any standard other than a collectivist high-density western eurotrash municipal model.

What do you advocate? An authoritarian command economy with fascistic zoning boards dictating who/what/when/where/why/how things get built?

Wow, is there really no room in the middle? You refer to driving in your car as some form of individualism? Why? Is the fact that your honda civic/toyota camry/bmw 3 series that different from the one next to it? Okay, yours is blue while the other is silver... big whoop. In the meantime, all it takes is one ****** to not pay attention to what they're doing on the road and rear end another person. The next thing you know hundreds to maybe even thousands of people are stuck on the freeway. Want proof?

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow...155643521.html

Initially, it was one person managed to flip their car over. I'm not even going to ask how. Then two more people got into separate collisions by rubbernecking the overturned vehicle. Then the police showed up and started directing people to drive against the flow of traffic... because that always works out so well.

Look, I've seen enough of both types of cities to know there's an upside to mass transit & a downside as well. Our govt is too big & inefficient to ever get the amazing mass transit system of Singapore. Over there you can track where your train is from your phone & they can estimate when the train will arrive to within a few seconds. I've also lived on the green line in Boston which is just a hot mess.

I've also had the joy of driving a convertible in Houston during the Fall with little to no humidity, barely any traffic and my beautiful wife (gf at the time) in the passenger seat. Then again, I've been stuck in stress & headache inducing traffic jams in LA & Houston the likes of which I wouldn't wish upon my some of my wife's most annoying friends.

I'm not bashing you, I'm just saying it's not black and white. I honestly think mass transit is a good idea, and if it takes some people off our freeways that makes it better for the rest of us. I'm not opposed to building more roads, and if free market economics dictate that we continue our urban sprawl, then so be it.

I will say my biggest pet peeve is the b$ we're starting to see where public tax dollars go to fund the expansion of highways, only to see them turned into tolls. So, we're now paying for our roads twice? What's worse is leasing those tollways out to private enterprises. Nothing like Socializing the expense while privatizing the profit. You'd think we'd have learned from 2008.

[Nairobi]

Originally Posted by Augiec

Wow, is there really no room in the middle? You refer to driving in your car as some form of individualism? Why? Is the fact that your honda civic/toyota camry/bmw 3 series that different from the one next to it? Okay, yours is blue while the other is silver... big whoop. In the meantime, all it takes is one ****** to not pay attention to what they're doing on the road and rear end another person. The next thing you know hundreds to maybe even thousands of people are stuck on the freeway. Want proof?

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow...155643521.html

Initially, it was one person managed to flip their car over. I'm not even going to ask how. Then two more people got into separate collisions by rubbernecking the overturned vehicle. Then the police showed up and started directing people to drive against the flow of traffic... because that always works out so well.

Look, I've seen enough of both types of cities to know there's an upside to mass transit & a downside as well. Our govt is too big & inefficient to ever get the amazing mass transit system of Singapore. Over there you can track where your train is from your phone & they can estimate when the train will arrive to within a few seconds. I've also lived on the green line in Boston which is just a hot mess.

I've also had the joy of driving a convertible in Houston during the Fall with little to no humidity, barely any traffic and my beautiful wife (gf at the time) in the passenger seat. Then again, I've been stuck in stress & headache inducing traffic jams in LA & Houston the likes of which I wouldn't wish upon my some of my wife's most annoying friends.

I'm not bashing you, I'm just saying it's not black and white. I honestly think mass transit is a good idea, and if it takes some people off our freeways that makes it better for the rest of us. I'm not opposed to building more roads, and if free market economics dictate that we continue our urban sprawl, then so be it.

I will say my biggest pet peeve is the b$ we're starting to see where public tax dollars go to fund the expansion of highways, only to see them turned into tolls. So, we're now paying for our roads twice? What's worse is leasing those tollways out to private enterprises. Nothing like Socializing the expense while privatizing the profit. You'd think we'd have learned from 2008.

Exactly. It's not about favoring one lifestyle over the other. It's about finding some middle ground and accommodating several lifestyles at once. That's part of what makes a great city, in my opinion, and, as I said, Houston is certainly big enough for all of it.

Houston doesn't need to be like San Francisco, but I don't think it's in our best interest to be like Phoenix either.