People Say Houston's ugly but not cities like Chicago, NYC, etc? (Dallas: extended stay, motels)

[cBach]

Originally Posted by crbcrbrgv

3. NYC, Chicago and other cities advertise their beautiful areas very well. As a Chicago native myself I'd have to say Michigan Avenue is the most recognized street. Furthermore, the Michigan Avenues of the world have had over a century to develop. 100 years ago, Houston was barely starting to grow due to a devastating hurricane in the town that was supposed to be Houston. And that town, of course is Galveston.
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Have you ever wondered what would have happened had Galveston not been destroyed (and many people killed) by the Hurricane? They were saying that Galveston Island was going to be the Manhattan Island of the South.

Imagine if Houston would have been constrained to the island of Galveston, it would be an extremely dense walkable city and places like Texas City would be "New Jersey". Wait, Texas City already is with all those chemical plants...

It's kind of sad knowing what "might have been".

[Spade]

Actually. I wonder what Houston could be if they built the city where Texas city is now. Galveston could have turned around and be what Miami Beach is to Miami. The sprawl IMO would have been checked and I bet downtown would have been on the waterfront of Galveston Bay. Would have been a much better city tbh.

[radiolibre99]

Now to be fair some of the MPCs, exurbs aren't lonely islands. There are people who live and with there and haven't been inside the loop in years, no joke. In Ft Bend people would rather go west than east.

[HouTxn]

Originally Posted by radiolibre99

Now to be fair some of the MPCs, exurbs aren't lonely islands. There are people who live and with there and haven't been inside the loop in years, no joke. In Ft Bend people would rather go west than east.

I know plenty of people that live or grew up in the suburbs who have never been to Houston, or have no reason nor need to come into the city. Heck, I live a stone throw outside of 610 and I try to avoid going inside the loop as much as possible.

[radiolibre99]

Originally Posted by HouTxn

I know plenty of people that live or grew up in the suburbs who have never been to Houston, or have no reason nor need to come into the city. Heck, I live a stone throw outside of 610 and I try to avoid going inside the loop as much as possible.

Yeah that's normal for Houston. They can't even fathom going into town for any reason. A lot of those MPCs, suburban towns, exurbs have all some people need. If they work there inner looo Houston might not even exist to them.

[_OT]

Originally Posted by Spade

No what it says is that Houston wants urbanism but wants to hold onto suburbanism. Interesting to see how that works out but I don't think it can to be honest. Houston to me needs to work on cohesiveness and connectivity with it's neighborhoods. That's part of what is holding it back.

That's the gripes I have with Charlotte also; despite Lynx, there's no cohesive and fluent connectivity between certain neighborhoods. I think what'll jump start Houston's growth into better connectivity and more foot traffic, is if it basically just implements more dense street retail. Most Sunbelt cities have this thing where they believe high-rise buildings bring in more density to generate foot traffic, well no, that's not the case; if you bring in businesses in an urbanized design, that's going to generate foot traffic. LA is seemed to be the poster child for suburban housing, strip malls and sprawl, when in actuality, LA has some great walkable areas with street retail. I think the main adjective is to bring in everyday people, or rather the "average individual" to various establishments within one confined area.

In Austin, there's something similar to this near UT on Guadalupe St. To develop something like this shouldn't really be an issue, it's not an expensive project to ponder about. In London they used old shipping containers to combine pop-up space for unique and interesting upcoming businesses, it's called Boxpark. It doesn't take much to buy up some used of unused property in Midtown, and pave over the patches of grass to lengthen the sidewalks.

[Othello Is Here]

Originally Posted by radiolibre99

Why do you guys think I'm being defensive when I question your arguments? It's not me getting defensive, it's me finding some of the claims biased and rather spurious. And some of you are getting a bit defensive because I don't swoon over other cities. Yes to a lot of people the other cities are more attractive because that's the mainstream culture. People all over the world just take it as a given yhat cities are supposed to be congested, highly dense, full of homeless, rat racey, etc. But many Texans don't like that and as dense as they can make their inner cores in the cities the biggest fear is that we'll end up like NYC or LA.

Example, one of my good college buddies from CT, a New England blue blood, spent one summer interning for an I bank in NYC and the next summer at one in Houston. The latter made him fall in love with Texas, the city and everything that made it a polar opposite to NYC and the northeast. You couldn't pay him enough to move back. He prefers the sprawl, the exurbs, I mean everything you guys find ugly and lacking in aesthetics he didn't mind because it didn't factor to him. I thought he was bonkers for choosing Houston over NYC but he just didn't find any of the high density, the congestion, etc appealing. It wasn't attractive to him. He could see the appeal for some of its features but overall he preferred Texas. That's what i meant. That there are a lot of people like him in many positions of power in the city and state that have thinking that they don't want to turn Texas into the boogeyman of CA and NYC. Our governor and the one before him sell the state with that mantra.
That's all I'm trying to say. That these arguments over aesthetics when it comes to Texas cities seem spurious because in the end it boils down to stuff many residents may not want in the first place.

Why?Because I answered your questions with details answers but intead of taking time and understnding the context in which I spoke of Houston's nightlife,you call me nuts.

Also if this thread was about YOU then we would understand what you like.Its not.It is about what the majority finds attractive but I do think you are fooling yourself if you cant see the difference in a city like Chicago downtown with its statues,streetcapes and grand architecture.

I prefer Atlanta over NYC all day but id be crazy to not understand why the masses prefer it.One thing that you and your friend seem to be missing is its not just one thing that makes these people want to be in a city like NYC or CHicago.
The food,the shopping,the entertainment.the urbanity,the diversity,the ease in which to get around by public transportation,etc.These are things where homelesness or a dirty street are not going to deter people.Not the opportunities.There is nothing you cant do or experience in cities like NYC.
So Houston is nicer but its has less of all of that.There is nothing special about Houston than many cities unlike NYC.

[radiolibre99]

Originally Posted by Othello Is Here

Why?Because I answered your questions with details answers but intead of taking time and understnding the context in which I spoke of Houston's nightlife,you call me nuts.

Also if this thread was about YOU then we would understand what you like.Its not.It is about what the majority finds attractive but I do think you are fooling yourself if you cant see the difference in a city like Chicago downtown with its statues,streetcapes and grand architecture.

I prefer Atlanta over NYC all day but id be crazy to not understand why the masses prefer it.One thing that you and your friend seem to be missing is its not just one thing that makes these people want to be in a city like NYC or CHicago.
The food,the shopping,the entertainment.the urbanity,the diversity,the ease in which to get around by public transportation,etc.These are things where homelesness or a dirty street are not going to deter people.Not the opportunities.There is nothing you cant do or experience in cities like NYC.
So Houston is nicer but its has less of all of that.There is nothing special about Houston than many cities unlike NYC.

The issue is that there are a lot of people that do not see the overall grand beauty of other major cities but respect them from a historical pov, hence the term, nice to visit but not to live. I was trying to get you to understand that there are millions of others with different tastes and that if they do not find NYC attractive to live in, that doesn't devalue what others like you prefer, but it certainly puts the person who doesn't on the defensive because mainstream opinion is that NYC is better. It's sort of more socially acceptable to prefer NYC over Houston, than vice versa. If someone has the latter opinion, they're grilled as to why they would make have such a view. As such, when you insist that I am fooling myself for not seeing the grandeur. You honestly think I am just being stubborn or incredibly naive but neither is the case. I'm in LA now because I've always preferred LA over NYC in that famous city vs city battle.

[Gunion Powder]

Seeing a lot of non-Texans in this thread. I thought this topic had gotten moved to the City vs. City forum.

[radiolibre99]

Originally Posted by Gunion Powder

Seeing a lot of non-Texans in this thread. I thought this topic had gotten moved to the City vs. City forum.

LOL No, lie. Good catch. I am like who are all these Texans giving mad praise to NYC? Odd.....