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Yeah just under 2 months, including the 2 week stay in hospital. Went from LA to Boston, visiting/passing through 17 states. I've read up a bit about it but no, there's a lot about it I don't know about it obviously since I've never lived there.
I would disagree. I have lived in Austin, Dallas, Houston, and Washington. Washington "looks" like the clear frontrunner in the snob contest there doesn't it? In my experience, it's not.
I would say San Antonio, El Paso, and the Metroplex are pretty down to Earth. Dallas' reputation precedes it as an elitist snob empire but I don't think that's the case. Austin on the other hand is widely accredited to it's "Austitude" which definitely exists. You know, hipster city, hipster (delusional) viewpoints.
The worst offender is Houston, in the aforementioned four cities. The city is rapidly becoming self-absorbed and elitist. It's becoming a haven for the snobs. Materialistic and also very rude. It's far surpassed Dallas on that front nowadays and it's starting to distance itself too.
Washington is a snob haven too, although I'd probably say Houston's surpassing it as we speak. This is generally what happens when a thriving and rich industry goes on an expansion like this, you build a level of over confidence in the people there, and they react in this manner.
All being generalizations however.
The first and only time I've heard Houston referred to as the snobbiest city in Texas. Care to share some personal experiences that highlight this?
Interesting observation. You never really hear this point of view, but I've got to admit I'm starting to notice this. Especially if the Houston C-D forum is any indication. As someone who grew up in Houston through the 70's and 80's (during the BIG boom and the big bust), I've watched the city go through some seriously manic highs and lows, but through it all it always used to maintain a somewhat down-to-Earth feel and a certain level of humility. I don't really see that humility too much anymore.
It seems and feels like a very different place now. I don't know how much of that is the huge influx of transplants, or just a new generation of natives with a much different attitude. Maybe it's a combination of both. Either way, I have noticed that Houston is becoming much more elitist, arrogant, and rude. Of course this doesn't apply to all Houstonians. There are still plenty of friendly, grounded, modest people there, but for the first time in my lifetime, they no longer seem to be the majority.
If we're talking about Upper Kirby or parts of Uptown, then sure, but really?
"Snob" and "Houston" just don't belong in the same sentence.
Interesting observation. You never really hear this point of view, but I've got to admit I'm starting to notice this. Especially if the Houston C-D forum is any indication. As someone who grew up in Houston through the 70's and 80's (during the BIG boom and the big bust), I've watched the city go through some seriously manic highs and lows, but through it all it always used to maintain a somewhat down-to-Earth feel and a certain level of humility. I don't really see that humility too much anymore.
It seems and feels like a very different place now. I don't know how much of that is the huge influx of transplants, or just a new generation of natives with a much different attitude. Maybe it's a combination of both. Either way, I have noticed that Houston is becoming much more elitist, arrogant, and rude. Of course this doesn't apply to all Houstonians. There are still plenty of friendly, grounded, modest people there, but for the first time in my lifetime, they no longer seem to be the majority.
Yeah it's not the same place as the 1990's when I was growing up there, not the same place in the least bit.
As a kid, the city was warmer and friendlier, especially to outsiders and there was a FAR more noticeable Houston, Texas culture in the city and it's suburbs than there is now, which is rapidly becoming some sort of sick playground for energy executives. As a kid, whether you were some nerdy Chinese kid playing Yugioh or Pokemon or Magic or the world's biggest fan of Paul Wall or something, more or less they still had an affinity for the Houston way of life, not saying everyone but there were "most takers" in the case. The whole, get good grades in class and don't be a pest in elementary school would reward you with a free class day. Where they would explore more of their Tejano heritage as well as consume Tex-Mex, tacos, burritos, salsa, quesadilla, and of course fajitas. For the activities, we would resoundingly all end up either outside where recess was/still is or in the indoor gym and there would be "Texan" like expositions like a taste of ranching, the cowboy theme, stuff like that without wasting more time with specifics. It's weird but it's distinct and it's not there anymore.
It's not really like that anymore. It's not really a warm and welcoming place anymore. Now it just seems like people driving around are mad of something, no manners, no courtesy, no thought on using proper turn signals. The city's creating wealth at such an alarming rate, people with ties to the energy industry are quickly finding out they're starting to have big stakes in national politics through lobbies and how everyone's "dad" now all of a sudden seems to "own things", like parcels on the ship channel, half a skyscraper in downtown, an entire condo tower in Uptown, a large portion of west Texas' land area, such.
Like you mentioned, probably a lot of great people in Houston these days but areas like Neartown, Allen Parkway, Memorial City, Piney Point, West University, Bellaire, Sugar Land, Hunters Creek, Jersey Village, the Binz area, River Oaks (no duh on this one) definitely are not in it and these are the areas that are expanding their influence over their surroundings.
I cant say I've been treated any different anywhere I've lived in but I've enough observations on how others are treated. In Houston, it's increasingly becoming "I make this much", "I know this person", "I work here", "I'm this high on the pecking order", "so? just buy another one, what's it cost? $100,000?", "make sure you clean the entire car, make sure I don't see a speckle of dirt, and do it fast will you", "um hello waiter, are you day dreaming or what? I said I want (insert), did you get that or do you need for me to repeat it for you". For people of my brothers' age, it's like a materialistic empire, "my dad is blah blah blah", "my mom knows blah blah blah", and my favorite one that someone's personally said to me "your city sucks, half the city is crime ridden and full of (insert a bashed racial minority group here), it's an embarrassment for the nations capital, your congressmen and executives go to New York, Silicon Valley, Hollywood, Dallas, and Houston begging for financial support". While the point is true, the inflated egos are at an all time high and they're probably not going to get any smaller.
Unlike Washington though, Houston has real capital. Washington or the longest time gave off a "too important to fail" sort of thing, I think at some point people here realized there are limitations to how much they can exploit from Wall Street, Hollywood, Silicon Valley, Energy Corridor, such before the miracle run ended. Also unlike Washington, the arrogance of Houstonians runs in a stratosphere large of an educational pool. There are a lot of ego-maniacs with no formal college education working in the energy industry and being paid pretty close to six figures and living out in Brookshire or Sealy or Rosenburg or the like to take advantage of lower property payments due to no primary schools being out there to do a community tax on. It's literally a colorful rainbow of arrogance over Houston, people of all skin color, socio-economic background, or educational attainment. It's there, in my opinion, and it's only getting larger.
When I lived in Houston, someone that lived down the street from me moved to DALLAS of all places because he thought Houston was a cliquish and elitist city, and he was a pretty well educated person himself.
I don't personally care myself but it's just a different place than what it was and this really uprooted only recently.
Last edited by Trafalgar Law; 12-07-2013 at 11:20 AM..
Yeah it's not the same place as the 1990's when I was growing up there, not the same place in the least bit.
As a kid, the city was warmer and friendlier, especially to outsiders and there was a FAR more noticeable Houston, Texas culture in the city and it's suburbs than there is now, which is rapidly becoming some sort of sick playground for energy executives. As a kid, whether you were some nerdy Chinese kid playing Yugioh or Pokemon or Magic or the world's biggest fan of Paul Wall or something, more or less they still had an affinity for the Houston way of life, not saying everyone but there were "most takers" in the case. The whole, get good grades in class and don't be a pest in elementary school would reward you with a free class day. Where we would explore more of our Tejano heritage as well as consume Tex-Mex, tacos, burritos, salsa, quesadilla, and of course fajitas. For the activities, we would resoundingly all end up either outside where recess was/still is or in the indoor gym and there would be "Texan" like expositions like a taste of ranching, the cowboy theme, stuff like that without wasting more time with specifics. It's weird but it's distinct and it's not there anymore.
It's not really like that anymore. It's not really a warm and welcoming place anymore. Now it just seems like people driving around are mad of something, no manners, no courtesy, no thought on using proper turn lanes. The city's creating wealth at such an alarming rate, people with ties to the energy industry are quickly finding out they're starting to have big stakes in national politics through lobbies and how everyone's "dad" now all of a sudden seems to "own things", like parcels on the ship channel, half a skyscraper in downtown, an entire condo tower in Uptown, a large portion of west Texas' land area, such.
Like you mentioned, probably a lot of great people in Houston these days but areas like Neartown, Allen Parkway, Memorial City, Piney Point, West University, Bellaire, Sugar Land, Hunters Creek, Jersey Village, the Binz area, River Oaks (no duh on this one) definitely are not in it and these are the areas that are expanding their influence over their surroundings.
I cant say I've been treated any different anywhere I've lived in but I've enough observations on how others are treated. In Houston, it's increasingly becoming "I make this much", "I know this person", "I work here", "I'm this high on the pecking order", "so? just buy another one, what's it cost? $100,000?", "make sure you clean the entire car, make sure I don't see a speckle of dirt, and do it fast will you", "um hello waiter, are you day dreaming or what? I said I want (insert), did you get that or do you need for me to repeat it for you". For people of my brothers' age, it's like a materialistic empire, "my dad is blah blah blah", "my mom knows blah blah blah", and my favorite one that someone's personally said to me "your city sucks, half the city is crime ridden and full of (insert a bashed racial minority group here), it's an embarrassment for the nations capital, your congressmen and executives go to New York, Silicon Valley, Hollywood, Dallas, and Houston begging for financial support". While the point is true, the inflated egos are at an all time high and they're probably not going to get any smaller.
Unlike Washington though, Houston has real capital. Washington or the longest time gave off a "too important to fail" sort of thing, I think at some point people here realized there are limitations to how much they can exploit from Wall Street, Hollywood, Silicon Valley, Energy Corridor, such before the miracle run ended. Also unlike Washington, the arrogance of Houstonians runs in a stratosphere large of an educational pool. There are a lot of ego-maniacs with no formal college education working in the energy industry and being aid pretty close to six figures and living out in Brookshire or Sealy or Rosenburg or the like to take advantage of lower property payments due to no primary schools being out there to do a community tax on. It's literally a colorful rainbow of arrogance over Houston, people of all skin color, socio-economic background, or educational attainment. It's there, in my opinion, and it's only getting larger.
When I lived in Houston, someone that lived down the street from me moved to DALLAS of all places because he thought Houston was a cliquish and elitist city, and he was a pretty well educated person himself.
I don't personally care myself but it's just a different place than what it was and this really uprooted only recently.
This just proves that Houston remains a gigantic patchwork of very different areas and sensibilities. I can go back to the Northwest side neighborhood I grew up in and get the same warm feeling I got growing up, especially around the holidays.
MOST people would agree that Houston remains one of the most down-to-earth major cities in America. I think people are just using their isolated experiences to paint the entire city with one large brush.
This just proves that Houston remains a gigantic patchwork of very different areas and sensibilities. I can go back to the Northwest side neighborhood I grew up in and get the same warm feeling I got growing up, especially around the holidays.
MOST people would agree that Houston remains one of the most down-to-earth major cities in America. I think people are just using their isolated experiences to paint the entire city with one large brush.
Yeah I'll concede that to you, not everywhere in Houston is a douche capital yet. The areas that I spend time in or have to spend time in, either because of where I live or the people I personally know though, they've really let themselves go in mannerism and they probably wont ever get back to how it was before.
It's the same catch in Washington, if you spend time in areas that aren't the beloved Northwest, Montgomery County, Fairfax County, Arlington, Alexandria, and increasingly Loudon, then you can still say with a straight face that down-to-Earth and warm people exist there, because they do. Just the areas I mentioned earlier have grown in influence, they can only cover so much area but their influence has spilled over, and communities (even this online forum) is a product of "group-think".
It's a lost case here in Washington, the silver lining is that people here are starting to finally accept that we have limitations. Places like Silicon Valley and Energy Corridor haven't reached that realization yet, and I don't think they will for the longest time to come.
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