Urbanity and Amenities: Texas Edition (Houston, Dallas: living, shopping centers, beach)

[HtownLove]

Originally Posted by AmberAzeneth

So, are you going to change the poll?

would it matter?

[AmberAzeneth]

Originally Posted by HtownLove

would it matter?

No, Houston will still come out on top in the poll. I was just thinking of equal representation in the poll. I would not want you to upset or have someone feel left out from representation in the poll.

[HtownLove]

Originally Posted by AmberAzeneth

I was just thinking of equal representation in the poll. I would not want you to upset or have someone feel left out from representation in the poll.

too late. Poll already made, can't change it now, but people can still discuss the other cities.


You should start. What is outside downtown McAllen? I have not been down there in years

[AmberAzeneth]

I do not really go to Downtown Mcallen, we go to the southside to my wife's Aunt & Uncle's house down off Military. There is more amenities by the freeway. That place is growing up though.

[HtownLove]

Originally Posted by AmberAzeneth

I do not really go to Downtown Mcallen, we go to the southside to my wife's Aunt & Uncle's house down off Military. There is more amenities by the freeway. That place is growing up though.

The thread is not about downtown, it is about outside of downtown.

[AmberAzeneth]

Originally Posted by HtownLove

The thread is not about downtown, it is about outside of downtown.

Disculpeme por favor(sorry). In that case Mcallen now has most things of a larger city but on a smaller scale. It is growing rapidly there. I see Mcallen eventually being the largest city in The RGV and Hidalgo County eclipsing 1,000,000 population real soon. It is quite the busy area now.

[HtownLove]

Originally Posted by AmberAzeneth

Disculpeme por favor(sorry). In that case Mcallen now has most things of a larger city but on a smaller scale. It is growing rapidly there. I see Mcallen eventually being the largest city in The RGV and Hidalgo County eclipsing 1,000,000 population real soon. It is quite the busy area now.

yeah, 200K more and Hidalgo will be in the 1M club.

Travis just joined the club.

Tarrant and Bexar are quickly catching up to Dallas County and will be in the 2M club pretty soon.

I doubt anyone else will be joining the 4M club in the next 50 years.

[justme02]

Originally Posted by HtownLove

erm, so why are things being spread out more of an advantage again??


I just don't see why driving from burb to burb is more advantageous than 5M out of the 6M people living 10-15M away from all the amenities?

explain it for me nice and slow. I don't see no advantage in bouncing around from Plano to Frisco to Grapevine to Arlington to Dallas.

How about a straight shot from burb to city and be done with it?

Its not so much about bouncing from burb to burb, I can go to the same burbs (mainly Plano and Carrollton) over and over.

Ill use food as an example since Im a foodie. The best ethnic food (outside Mexican) in DFW is not in the city of Dallas or Fort Worth. Its in places like Carrollton (which is easily the most all around ethnic food city in DFW), Irving (Indian and African), Richardson (Lebanese, Persian, and Indian), Plano (Chinese and Indian), and Garland (Vietnamese, Ethiopian, and Korean). Plano and Frisco also have fine dinning scenes of their own (chain and non-chain). Then there is Addison which has tons and tons of places to eat (chain and non-chain).

All of the burbs I mentioned in the paragraph above border on each other so they are in one area of the Metroplex. Its still fragmented, but they are in one area. For me, I wont have to drive more than 10-15 minutes to reach any of them except Garland.

Now lets suppose Im living in Montgomery County, Kingwood, Pasadena, Cypress, etc. I would have to travel much further since the best food (ethinic and otherwise) in Greater Houston is in Houston (specifically on the West side, Westheimer, Memorial, and Bellaire). And its also mostly concentrated in a few areas. Now if you live close to those areas, its like heaven since Houston has an amazing food scene on every level. But if you live in the burbs, its a lot harder. Im not saying you cant find good ethnic food in the burbs there, but (outside of Sugar Land and maybe Katy) there arent nearly as many burbs in the Houston area with that kind of variety. No doubt because the burbs there are much smaller and things are concentrated in Houston.

Besides Htown, this thread is about things outside of downtown/the core right? DFW and Greater Houston have about the same ammount of ammenities overall, but Greater Houston's are concentrated in Houston whereas DFW's are all over the metro. Given that, it should go without saying the DFW has more going on outside its core than Houston does.

[HtownLove]

Originally Posted by justme02

Now lets suppose Im living in Montgomery County, Kingwood, Pasadena, Cypress, etc. I would have to travel much further since the best food (ethinic and otherwise) in Greater Houston is in Houston (specifically on the West side, Westheimer, Memorial, and Bellaire). And its also mostly concentrated in a few areas. Now if you live close to those areas, its like heaven since Houston has an amazing food scene on every level. But if you live in the burbs, its a lot harder. Im not saying you cant find good ethnic food in the burbs there, but (outside of Sugar Land and maybe Katy) there arent nearly as many burbs in the Houston area with that kind of variety. No doubt because the burbs there are much smaller and things are concentrated in Houston.

No, you are committing a major logical fallacy. Put it this way.
There are about 5M people living in or around Harris County. There are about 5M people living in Dallas, Tarrant, Colin and Denton. For the Former there is 5M concentrated around one county in about 2000 sq miles. In the latter there is the same number of people concentrated in about 3000 sq miles. It is just pure common sense that more people would be readily accessible to the concentration of amenities in the smaller area than in the larger one.

furthermore, finding all your needs in one area is much easier than finding them in two dozen.

Going to a department store and finding all your stuff right there is much easier than running to Jimmy Choo, then to Gucci then to Prada even though all of those are in the same mall.

Besides Htown, this thread is about things outside of downtown/the core right? DFW and Greater Houston have about the same ammount of ammenities overall, but Greater Houston's are concentrated in Houston whereas DFW's are all over the metro.

Your argument is major a non sequitur in my book. It just doesn't follow

Given that, it should go without saying the DFW has more going on outside its core than Houston does.

No again. They have the same amenities, DFW's are just more spread out. Having 500 amenities in 20 pockets does not amount to more going on than having 500 amenities in one area. It just doesn't follow -> non sequitur if I ever heard one

[AmberAzeneth]

Hey HtownLove, howlong hasit been sinceyou have been to the RGV? Did you notice any kind of developmental flow between the cities in the RGV, especially alon U.S. 83?