If you want to move to Austin, then why not Houston? (Dallas: rental, house)

[Mr. Clutch]

One thing to consider when discussing Houston's flooding is that yes, it does flood often. However "flood" is relative. I'd probably say there have been 3-4 or so events in the last 25 years that flooded a major amount of people out of their homes - Allison in 2001, Harvey, and a major flood in the early 90s, perhaps around 93 or so. A lot of those other floods are primarily street flooding or flooding in the lowest-lying and most flood-prone areas (see Meyerland for example). Street flooding is common but hardly a major issue in most cases.

I guess what I'm saying is that most people don't worry about flooding except for in the most extreme of circumstances. And make no mistake about it - in Houston it rains hard and fast quite often. Those circumstances do happen occasionally, but other posters are right when they speak of the lowest-lying houses getting bought out and destroyed. Those are the houses that repeatedly flood. 99% of houses in the area don't repeatedly flood, and 97%+ of the houses didn't flood during Harvey.

I do agree that many people (primarily from out of state) do see Houston and Austin that way - Houston = work and Austin = fun. But as Gunion Powder said, there's quite a few young people for whom Austin isn't really ideal, and its not as if Houston has some lack of them - Harris County actually has a slightly younger median age than does Travis County.

Both good cities though and not hard to see why they are both growing.

[10scoachrick]

Really don't see the point in these "comparisons"...unless someone is being "forced" to move to Texas and must choose among the cities listed. How the heck often does THAT happen???

[DavePa]

Originally Posted by Texyn

I'm obviously referring to more than just ditches, don't be dense. You have features like reservoirs, drainage designs, detention ponds, etc, all scaled to capacity to handle epic tropical rains. Additionally, as a poster above recently mentioned, Houston's roadways are designed to function as makeshift flood channels during heavy rain.

But nevertheless, the point still stands: while improvements to urban design would still be needed, Houston pretty much is the best equipped city there is in this country when it comes to handling these floods. Go ahead and name a major city that has better heavy rain infrastructure, I dare you.

Another small (unrelated) question: must you jump into every thread in which Houston is mentioned?

Every thread? Ok ...... and a dare.

Texas GOP leaders pushing for high-dollar, long-delayed flood infrastructure projects. We’ve had three now major floods in three years — nothing at this level but major floods.”

https://www.texastribune.org/2017/09...ture-projects/

What it says of Houston:

In the wake of Hurricane Harvey, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is calling for the construction of flood control infrastructure in the Houston area — things he said should have been built “decades and decades ago” — including a coastal barrier to protect the region from deadly storm surge.

“We need more levees. We need more reservoirs. We need a coastal barrier,” Patrick said.

Another ...
Houston’s Shockingly Poor Flood Control System | Legal Planet

“If you look around at major cities in the country, Chicago had so much foresight, spent tremendously less, and received tremendously more than almost any other,” says David St. Pierre, executive director of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District in regard to other efforts to keep storms from flooding cities. The system has done a great job dealing with the Chicago’s old weather patterns he says.

*The city of Chicago problems are ..... directly related to its low level topography and the fact that the city is largely built upon marsh or wet prairie. This combined with a temperate wet climate and the human development of open land leads to substantial water runoff. VIRTUALLY ALL HAVE BASEMENTS TOO. Flooding there was a issue especially in the suburbs.

Chicago is home to one of the biggest public works projects in the world. It’s known as The Deep Tunnel, or the Tunnel and Reservoir Plan. Construction began 40 years ago. And when it's finally finished the tunnel project will be 130 miles long. Its price tag; 3.5 billion dollars.
Chicago's problem wasn't necessarily that their pipe networks couldn't handle extreme storm flow, but rather their wastewater treatment plants could not treat the water fast enough.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunnel_and_Reservoir_Plan

https://interestingengineering.com/c...ge-underground
From link:
This is perhaps the largest water detention project in the world, and quite possibly one of the largest civil engineering projects ever undertaken in terms of scope, cost and timeframe. Spanning a projected time of 1975 to 2029 or 54 years with a total estimated cost of US$10.4 billion, this project is like no other.

The Tunnel and Reservoir Plan (abbreviated TARP and more commonly known as the Deep Tunnel Project or the Chicago Deep Tunnel) is a large civil engineering project that aims to reduce flooding in the metropolitan Chicago area, and to reduce the harmful effects or spillovers into Lake Michigan by diverting storm water and sewage into temporary holding reservoirs. These underground tunnels themselves alone have diameters varying from 9 to 33 feet in diameter with depths upwards of 350 feet under the city. All of this construction work isn't being done in vain. In fact since parts of the project have been implemented, 70 species of fish have returned to the Chicago river and Lake Michigan further protected.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qjOeojvsFQ

Phase 1, the creation of 109.4 miles (176 km) of drainage tunnels ranging from 9–33 feet in diameter, up to 350 feet underground, was adopted in 1972, commenced in 1975, and completed and operational by 2006.

Phase 2, reservoirs primarily intended for flood control, remains underway with an expected completion date of 2029. Currently, up to 2.3 billion gallons of sewage can be stored and held in the tunnels themselves while awaiting processing at sewage treatment plants, which release treated water into the Calumet and Des Plaines Rivers.

GREAT Video on the tunnels and ADDING 3-MORE RESERVOIRS from 2015 (tunnels alone not enough) . Caulking the quarries to hold the excess water in heavy rains. Till Sewerage treatment plants can process it.

Thinking Big About Sewage | Chicago Tonight | WTTW

Additional sewage and run-off can now be stored at the 7.9 billion gallon Thornton Composite Reservoir, and the 350 million gallon Gloria Alitto Majewski Reservoir near O'Hare International Airport. The 10 billion gallon McCook Reservoir completion in 2017 (3.5 billion gallons) and 2029 (6.5 billion gallons). As the reservoirs are decommissioned quarries, construction has been delayed by decreased demand for the quarried gravel. Upon completion, the TARP system will have a capacity of 17.5 billion gallons of storage.

Another https://www.nrdc.org/onearth/blame-it-rain

SURE HOUSTON HAS TO DO MORE. YES A HURRICANE IS MORE. BUT EVERY CITY HAS TO ADDRESS THEIR OWN RISK AND IF PAST MISTAKES? EVENTUALLY CHANGE WHAT'S NECESSARY AND INFASTRUCTURE TO ALLIEVIATE RISK.

No one should say Houston's terrible. But it is getting a thrashing OVER FLOODING that it is NATUALLY PRONE TO AND LEFT LAX BUILDING NO ZONING, BUILD WHERE THEY SHOULD NOT HAVE RULE.

[RoamingTX]

Originally Posted by 10scoachrick

Really don't see the point in these "comparisons"...unless someone is being "forced" to move to Texas and must choose among the cities listed. How the heck often does THAT happen???

Agreed. These are literally the dumbest threads around.

[rynetwo]

Originally Posted by bubbyK

Having lived and owning houses in all three (Houston, Dallas, Austin) I would never recommend Houston to anyone unless they were specifically in oil and gas. The crime is rampant and every time I travel back to Houston it seems to become more and more filled with crime in fact I've had multiple friends murdered in town. If you ever go there just watch the local news and you'll notice the first 10 minutes is littered with shootings. The entertainment is non-existent unless you like going to restaurants and eating diverse cuisines on the cheap.

I personally dread returning to Houston to address issues with my properties there.

What kind of friends did you have? Houston is very much like any American city in that most murders are gang on gang crime. You rarely here about a random person being murdered by a stranger much less three.

Also why would you not recommend Houston to a medical professional?

[dbsteel]

Originally Posted by RoamingTX

Agreed. These are literally the dumbest threads around.

Have you read the threads on these message boards? Half of them are pretty dumb. But 15 pages later..........

[gwarnecke]

I live in Houston and am pretty happy here, but I'd definitely prefer Austin if I could make similar money there. Love the lower humidity, lakes and hills, cycling/outdoor culture, and incredible variety of the cityscape (lively, dense urban environment, greenbelts and parks, and upscale suburban areas, all within a few miles of each other).

Houston does have some advantages though - better overall freeway and mass-transit systems, more diverse and international, and a generally lower cost of living. A house like mine (4500 sq ft right next to a major business district) would cost twice as much in Austin as it does in Houston.

[Jeohnny]

Originally Posted by R1070

Don't forget the nightlife scene on Henderson Avenue (which is similar to Washington Ave in Houston) and Main Street in DT Dallas. Bishop Arts District has an active dining scene, but not so much a big bar area.

There's also an active scene in North Dallas in the Addison area (for the folks that live up there). Even the Legacy Area of Plano has a pretty active dining/bar scene. If those aren't enough, Fort Worth is next door with it's own entertainment districts. There's lots and lots of options to go out on the town and experience something different all the time. I don't think any other metro in Texas offers it on the same level.

Don't forget about the music factory in Las colinas and Texas Live! In Arlington which opens next year. So many more attractions coming to DFW

[Jeohnny]

Originally Posted by DTXman34

I agree with a lot of what you're saying, but for entertainment areas that have a large concentration of bars, clubs, and music venues like in Austin, nowhere else in DFW can really beat Uptown or Deep Ellum. It's nice that Dallas and DFW has a lot of great options for entertainment of varying sizes, so if you don't want the crowds of Uptown, there's still plenty of other areas.

West 7th in Fort Worth is also very active. I was surprised

[10scoachrick]

Even in my "partying" days, this was never something I thought I needed:


"but for entertainment areas that have a large concentration of bars, clubs, and music venues like in Austin",