Houston and bikes, kids, dogs.

[Neo45]

Famlife, I wouldn't say theyre scary unless you consider whites being the minority in the neighborhood as scary. They are just more working class, blue collar type areas that are rougher around the edges. IMO they're probably more of the "real Houston" since not as many transplants around

[imback]

The City of Houston has no zoning (though many of the adjacent municipalities do). Whether this lack of zoning is overall positive or negative has been the subject of ferocious debate for many years.

But what I don't think anyone debates is that the lack of zoning has led to some unusual demographic patterns in the City of Houston. For example, the City of Houston has "good" (7-figure-plus homes) areas and truly "bad" (high levels of violent crime) areas juxtaposed more closely together than would ever occur in a typically zoned city. This can mean that in some area, travelling a few blocks results in a radically different neighborhood atmosphere.

The lack of zoning also means that in the City of Houston, HOA rules and especially deed restrictions may be almost the only protection homeowners have against things like having a 17-story office building being built literally next door to their houses.

Of course, these issues would not be very pertinent in the more remote and rural areas of the Houston Metro area.