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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.
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.
Houston has always bucked any type of "planning". It is what it is. Houston started small, got a little bigger, and they modified. Got a little bigger, and they modified further.
Not sure what part of Houston you actually saw, because there are indeed some areas where you wonder where the concrete ends. However, most of Houston is not like that. In fact, we have been ranked #3 or #4 as having the most greenspace.
Anytime my friends come in from out of town through IAH they always remark about all of the trees. They always say, "I had no idea Houston had so many trees!" It's a source of pride for us, that is, unless you're the Texas Medical Center where they make it a practice to rip out 50 year old oaks daily...
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.
I honestly think most people are just naive to the way Houston actually is. Especially in contrast to the stereotypes they may have formulated in their heads based on the Texas image. I say this because Ill admit: I was ignorant about the city of Houston before I got to the city. The diversity of both the people and the landscape found in Houston actually shocked me initially. And as you alluded to, the people are so laid back.
But it actually requires that one visit, or live in Houston to really understand that despite the fact that people may be very secure with their stereotypes of Houston, the reality is that most of those stereotypes are woefully wrong. Hard to admit, but they usually are.
I have been to other cities, and the only ones that Ive been to that offer the diversity AND laid back feel of Houston is Honolulu. Cities like LA, Boston, NY, Chicago are great for what they are. But the concept of people/pedestrians clamoring over every little foot of open space simply didnt appeal to me. And believe it or not, just as driving in a car city may be unappealing to others, walking everywhere or riding like sardines on a subway train everywhere loses its luster pretty fast as well. And in Houston no one would want to walk anyway - Its too hot 90% of the time...lol
Guess today is one of the remaining 10%. And just about every day from here on until April at the earliest.
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But the concept of people/pedestrians clamoring over every little foot of open space simply didnt appeal to me.
We've just traded it for clamoring over parking spaces and driving with people who think their car is their office or bathroom and they think they need to text and Blackberry or do their makeup while they're driving their two-ton chunk of steel at 60 mph. Lots of tradeoffs in life, wherever you are.
Guess today is one of the remaining 10%. And just about every day from here on until April at the earliest.
You're right today is decent...But Id say from my experience, that weather really starts to go downhill sometime in March.
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Originally Posted by jfre81
We've just traded it for clamoring over parking spaces and driving with people who think their car is their office or bathroom and they think they need to text and Blackberry or do their makeup while they're driving their two-ton chunk of steel at 60 mph. Lots of tradeoffs in life, wherever you are.
which is why I said that it didnt appeal to me. There's no tradeoff to be had imo. I am one of those people driving 60mph and texting and so forth....so this lifestyle fits me much better....I would run over the pedestrians if we had people clamoring everywhere for sidewalk space...lol
Well, thanks for putting your convenience over the safety of others. This city needs ... the likes of you.
Why do you think I came?!...lol
No but seriously..Thats why I DONT live in a city with a lot of pedestrians...if anything..I am putting the safety of others over my own convenience.
If everyone in Houston is doing 60mph clamoring over a parking space as you alluded to..then how would I, particularly, be endangering the safety of others if we are all driving the same way?..
anyway..whatever..I personally like Houston and its car culture...
If you don't understand how driving and texting can endanger others (and you think everyone else does this, I surely don't) then you deserve to be shoved like a sardine into the dingiest NYC subway next to a bum that hasn't showered since Reagan was president.
If you don't understand how driving and texting can endanger others (and you think everyone else does this, I surely don't) then you deserve to be shoved like a sardine into the dingiest NYC subway next to a bum that hasn't showered since Reagan was president.
I didnt say i thought that everyone else does it. You said that Houston had traded its clamoring pedestrians for people in cars driving 60mph while texting and so forth...and that it was a trade off. So I was simply saying that if that's true then I dont see how I could particularly be a problem, if Houston has already made that trade off anyway. A tradeoff in which I would apparently be in good company.
Im not concerned about any video about the dangers of texting and driving..Heck, I could have said "applying make up and driving" and it would still cause unease. I think I was actually on that subway once btw....which is why I hurried up and high tailed it back to Houston..lol it just wasnt my thing.
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