People Say Houston's ugly but not cities like Chicago, NYC, etc? (Dallas: neighborhood, movie theater)

[crbcrbrgv]

You know what's really funny? Foreigners tend to like Houston. A lot. I think foreigners see the good, such as what Chickrae spoke of in the previous post.

[amyalta]

I think you're right there. I'm a 'foreigner' (tho with family in Houston) and I like the city a lot, even if I would not call it beautiful. It is very green, the people are exceptionally polite, helpful and friendly.

In a strange way it reminded me of Edinburgh - the way it's sort of on two levels with a green divide. Edinburgh is beautiful but grey, and full of miserable people and ghastly, overpriced restaurants - Houston is not beautiful but full of nice people and fantastic restaurants.

[Mom2Feebs]

Moderator cut: off topic

Houston is beautiful to many, but not to all...and there are some things about Houston that clearly, our out of town friends here on CD don't seem to understand.

We are not a "lifestyle"...we are MANY lifestyles. It's what makes us more unique than other cities.

People who do not understand the underlying culture and people that make up this great city, and that makes Texas special, will NEVER understand it. No matter how much you try to enlighten them, they will push back that much more, and then--be insulted on top of it. It's sad and funny at the same time.

It's just how the world works. All we can do as Houstonians is continue to welcome people with open arms and a "Howdy, y'all" (or the greeting of your choice in the language of your choice). At least a few million folks "get it". Houston is a great city.

[verybadgnome]

The most striking thing to me about when I first visited Houston was how the highways and major arterials overwelmed every other part of the landscape. They overwelmed the neighborhoods, greenspaces, civic areas, shopping, etc. As if personal motorized transport was the No. 1 goal of the city planners and every other consideration was set aside. Pity.

[dv1033]

Originally Posted by verybadgnome

The most striking thing to me about when I first visited Houston was how the highways and major arterials overwelmed every other part of the landscape. They overwelmed the neighborhoods, greenspaces, civic areas, shopping, etc. As if personal motorized transport was the No. 1 goal of the city planners and every other consideration was set aside. Pity.

I don't agree completely but understand how most of Houston's major arterials and highways give negative impressions.

I have been taken an alternative route home after work near Rice University. I take Braeswood home after going to them gym in Meyerland and it really is a gem of a road. Don't think I've heard that road mentioned much on CD and wanted to mention it.

[jfre81]

Originally Posted by dv1033

I don't agree completely

The main thing wrong with that post is that the city really didn't have much to do with the construction of the freeways and the rise of car culture in general. The freeways and major roads were built by the federal and state governments. The Interstate Highway System, combined with local zoning ordinances that require parking and push businesses off the streets (Houston has this too) and did more as a social engineering project than anything else in the 20th century. Now we pretty much have to drive everywhere, although a lot of people get the idea that it's because everyone wants to. Either they want to or they do it because they don't have much of a choice, or they think they don't have a choice.

[worldlyman]

Originally Posted by jfre81

The main thing wrong with that post is that the city really didn't have much to do with the construction of the freeways and the rise of car culture in general. The freeways and major roads were built by the federal and state governments. The Interstate Highway System, combined with local zoning ordinances that require parking and push businesses off the streets (Houston has this too) and did more as a social engineering project than anything else in the 20th century. Now we pretty much have to drive everywhere, although a lot of people get the idea that it's because everyone wants to. Either they want to or they do it because they don't have much of a choice, or they think they don't have a choice.

To go further on this, back in the 1930s Standard Oil, Firestone and General Motors bought out the rail system that was burgeoning in Los Angeles.

They covertly and conveniently ran it to the ground so that they could dismantle it and thus the car culture was born. Yes, there was another rail line they didn't buy but it was aversely affected by the corporate misdeeds. It's an interesting story but nonetheless led to car culture which eventually affected cities like Houston, Dallas, Phoenix and others down the road.

I choose to fight car culture in a city that is all about car culture by taking METRO to work about 70% of the time. I use my vehicle for errands, pleasure or when using public transportation is a bad option on a particular day.

[worldlyman]

Originally Posted by Chickrae

The close proximity to the beach is another reason why I think Houston is not "ugly" and beautiful. Maybe it's not one of these other beaches that have been mentioned, but there is a beach people can enjoy and have the ocean

I've lived in California and Florida. While Florida has beautiful beach towns around with the, of course, attendant beautiful beaches...they lack character. Florida is for beach PURISTS. Only St. Augustine has any sort of unique vibe in its architecture...and it's not really the fun open town that Galveston is.

Galveston may not have the most blue surf or whitest dunes...but it certainly has a unique character in its layout, architecture and set-up. Plus it has all sorts of amenities. Galveston is certainly a plus to the Houston area.

I lived in Clearwater and went to Clearwater Beach a lot...but it is so vanilla. I love it, have great memories but I'm glad that it is balanced by my memories of Galveston. They are the yin and yang of beach towns to me.

[jluke65780]

Originally Posted by dv1033

I don't agree completely but understand how most of Houston's major arterials and highways give negative impressions.

I have been taken an alternative route home after work near Rice University. I take Braeswood home after going to them gym in Meyerland and it really is a gem of a road. Don't think I've heard that road mentioned much on CD and wanted to mention it.

Too many pot holes, dips, and humps depending on which way your traveling.

[worldlyman]

Originally Posted by C2H (ComingtoHouston)

I mean seriously, this isn't one of those threads trying to lift Houston up by tearing down another city, but why don't people call every spade a spade? Houston is a giagantic city with freeways, some lined with atrocious billboards and run-down buildings, and some others lined with lush green trees and towering old and new skyscrapers. Some areas where you can see the many skylines in Houston that can make you feel like you're in a New York City or L.A. Other freeways offer views of the smoke stacks from the industrial factories while others offer a different view that a lot of cities lack... Water (gulf).

So clearly Houston can't be classified as one thing. Why doesn't Chicago catch as much heat for having that big rusty old el train bridge runing right through it's downtown? Or Philladelphia's narrow raggedy streets and run-down buildings, or NYC's dirty streets? It brings me to wonder why "Life" as people live it in Houston is only viewed as ugly? The last time I checked, NYC, Chicago, or LA, were not pretty cities either. True LA has mountains in its backdrop but the thick smog covering the mountain herizon hardly makes it an art painting. NYC has the dirtiest streets where you don't see the roaches like in Houston, but hairy rats running across the street. Oh add some of the dirty bums you see walking up and down, not just the ones you see hanging out at gas stations in Third Ward.

So what is it? People have a natural stigma with the word "Houston". It gets downgraded for everything it's not. It gets credit for all things negative but none positive? Mens fitness magazine has Houston with the number 6 fattest city in the nation, Surpassed by NYC, Chicago, and a few others, yet people still refer to Houston as the fattest in the nation. It's also said not to have any beauty or characther.

If you want Beauty, go to Colorado. Clean pristine air, blue skys but don't expect much character out of the people. Why can't Houston get love for the character it has? The museums, shopping, restaurants, theater district? What's the deal?

Well, the imagery of the USA is controlled by stupid ass Hollywood. And the fact that most Americans see our own country through Hollywood lenses says that much. I mean, how could there be medical dramas but none that are set in the Texas Medical Center? It's like having a casino drama always being set in places like Barona near San Diego or Coushatta, Louisiana but never Las Vegas.

Houston can never get credit for where it is the strongest.

I rarely watch TV because too much of the same over-produced crap is set in NY, Miami, LA and increasingly Las Vegas (a truly one-dimensional place if you ask me), and for, ahem, variety, maybe Chicago and Boston. How about some dramas set in Cleveland, Detroit, St. Louis, Atlanta or here in Houston?

New York City is UGLY. Most tourist types typically fly in, so they glow about, take the on-and-off tourist double decker busses. I actually have driven to Manhattan and gotten lost around the fringes. I mean, Pasadena, TX is San Diego compared to the Hudson rim.

Houston is a green garden paradise compared to NYC in general. So people who bash Houston for being "ugly" are quite stupid, really.

Chicago, my original home area (lived there as child for a few years after birth in Gary, Indiana)...I've always had nightmares about it when I was a kid living in adjacent Gary. Enjoyed the visits to Barrington to Bolingbrook to Des Plaines to see family but as a child, I never connected to Chicago except with Shedd Aquarium and Lincoln Zoo. Even in 1986 when I re-visited, I felt odd about Chi-town as a late teen. Only on a 1996 visit did Chicago feel like a nice normal city (after I'd been to places like London, SF, Copenhagen, Malmo, Amsterdam, Toronto, etc.).

Chicago's ugliness for me had also been the people. And outside the pretty cityscape of Chicago's core...it is nasty blocks upon blocks of filth and degradation. Nah. Gessner, Bissonnet, Kirkwood, Wilcrest...I'll take the nice green landscaping any day. And the cool people of Houston add to its beauty (but their driving is insane).

Houston's true beauty is NOT in having some cliched Hollywood sign, Golden Gate Bridge, Times Square or such things...but rather a DIVERSE SET of entertainment environments from downtown to Rice Village to the Montrose to White Oak's bars to Washington Ave to the Woodlands city complex (Market Square, Waterway, Mall, Cynthia Woods Pavilion, etc) to the Kemah Lighthouse District to Old Town Spring to the burgeoning City Centre to the highly entertaining strip center at Winrock@Westheimer to Midtown's W. Gray block at Brazos to the Sin Chao/Dynasty to Dun Huang centers of New Chinatown. We have the diverse environments.

The clueless can complain about downtown Houston...but look at downtown Los Angeles, Phoenix and Dallas. They don't have real nightlife in the actual areas. Just things like Staples Centers or Victory Pavilions on the periphery. Downtown Houston at its actual core is hopping with nightlife from Thursday to Saturday, and the Theater District does its thing as well. That's definitely BETTER than L.A. or Dallas or Phoenix or Atlanta even if it's not Rush Street or Gas Lamp all the time.

That's the BEAUTY of H-town. We can have our cake and eat it too. We can have our urban slice in downtown, we can have our Galleria (BLOWS AWAY South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, blows away the Beverly Center and other enclosed SoCal environments)...but have our, oops, outdoor Santa Monica style in Rice Village (God, I love the Chocolatta at Chocolate Bar and kababs at Istanbul Grill). And I like the INTIMATE Euro-style village grid of Rice as opposed to the straight street style found in Santa Monica, Montana, Old Town Pasadena and such. But if they ever put in a movie theater in Rice Village, I mean, it's over.

The funky bars of the Montrose and its colorful "Main Street" bungalow, Victorian style are a contrast to the alleyways and wide sidewalks of downtown Houston's action, just a couple miles apart. You think you'll find that contrast in Manhattan? Heck, no. NY Chinatown doesn't look any different than Little Italy except the signs. You won't find an impressive colorful bayou walk in downtown Los Angeles either.

Then we have a truly rustic outdoor shopping district in Old Town Spring, where it feels like Mayberry as a contrast to the ultra-modern setting of the nearby Woodlands. The Woodlands is a very impressive neo-urban experiment that's going on around Market Square/Waterway area no matter what anyone says. It could use more mom n pop retail but the food/dessert scene is quality, all things considered.

Then there's the wonderful Kemah Lighthouse District (as opposed to the corporate Boardwalk). Clapboard bar and cafe crawl, retail mom n pop style by the sea. It's nice that it looks and feels different than the bar crawl that's on Morningside St. in the Rice Village or along Travis St. downtown. Houston is all about choices, contrast and different settings even if there's no singular huge Times Square thing here.

Sheesh. Sitting at a Houston al fresco bar such as Onion Creek on White Oak makes me feel like I'm in Tago, Philippines! Where the heck can you feel like that in NY or Chicago! Let the anal-urban snobs gush over various little villas in other towns (you know, the ones that have the cliched wide sidewalks at every turn, parallel parking and buildings built out to the street. I mean we have some of that here...but not to the point of cliche in what's an automobile city).

There's nothing wrong with that gaudy but very urban strip center at Winrock/Westheimer. You can park in that center and walk to Little Napoli, Miyako's, Tapioca Express or whatever's there...it's actually pedestrian oriented. I always see gaggles of pedestrians on Westheimer. So what if modern convention and convenience dictate parking lots? Driving in cities where there's lots of parallel parking is ANNOYING. You can't always see the on-coming traffic at corners, cars always have to back you up so they can parallel park in rare spaces, etc.

I'm a lover of big cities but I don't hold Houston's character against that of other places. It is unique for what it is. If people want San Francisco or Boston, then they should go there. Period. Houston can certainly improve the areas such as the vicinity of HCC Ensemble Metrorail station. Those colorful and conveniently placed buildings could use capacity and a new development to balance out that empty field there. This is one example where Houston can improve. But the constant negative bashing is quite useless considering the quality of life here and job scene is better than the rest of the nation's.

I'll take Houston's panoply of diverse cityscapes, landscaping and architecture in one metro package. That's the beauty of this Space City area.