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Cities like NYC, Philly, DC, Boston etc urban built environment came into existence during a different era. A city whose urbanity is coming into fruition in the modern era will be more like the booming modern Chinese big cities like Chongqing and Quanzhou. These Chinese cities have more urbanity, density, better mass transit and higher population counts than their American counterparts but are not iconic in the sense of the world where they have an identity or uniqueness that separates them from other modern boom cities of the world in terms of urban built environment and architecture. European cities are iconic because they are old cities that preserved a lot of their urban built environment and architecture from the past.
Seattle's backdrop of the mountains already makes it iconic in a sense of the word in natural surroundings but in urbanity it will be more like a Chongqing than a Boston or Philly.
The cities that have preserved a good percentage of their urban built environment and architecture from the 1800's to the early 1900's have a better chance of becoming iconic from 30 to 50 years down the line due to the rarity of the architecture they possess if they put a serious effort into restoration of their architecture heritage because they possess the similar urban built environments from the same time period of those iconic American cities.
Houston lacks the urban part of being and iconic, urban big city. And IMO it lacks the iconic part too. And the weather is far from great. It's like saying Minneapolis has great weather.
A transit cop beat a homeless man last year, a few years ago HPD officers beat another man up after a chase, that one was in national news, and HPD officer Abram Joseph was convicted of raping immigrant women. They are just like every other department.
Houston traffic moves? LOL As of midnight tonight, there is gridlock on 45N by UH.
Every city has bad cops. Considering its size, Houston appears to have way fewer bad ones than other places. You don't see our city in the news every other day with a killer-cop story.
Same with traffic. No one in Houston likes the 610. The 45 isn't the best. But generally, traffic does move, even at rush hour. Are you looking at google maps for your claim of "gridlock" ? I see you live in New Orleans. Maybe there was an accident.
As for the weather, we generally have sunny, warm-to-hot weather. Sitting outside in mid-January in Houston, in 70-degree sunny weather, sure beats Minneapolis and most other places in the US.
It's all about the arguments. Anybody can say anything, it's all about how you back it up.
We have an OP who thinks LA, the second largest city in our country, has yet to achieve iconic, urban big city status. Then there are those who disagree. Who has the more sound reasoning? Which claims have stronger foundation in fact? You'll have to pay attention.
As I've said before, its urbanity is what currently keeps it from being in that echelon. Vibrant, iconic big city - it scores high. But even it's densest contiguous area, the urban fabric is far less consistent then the initial 6 cities I mentioned. It's improving but there are still too many surface parking lots, car-oriented strip malls, etc. to be at that level of urban. It's huge, it's vibrant, its world famous, it offers everything you could want and is one of the most iconic cities in the world. But it's urban form is not currently at the level of places like Chicago or San Francisco.
But I put it on the poll as the first choice and actually assumed it would win the poll, so no slight intended.
Will you please define what you are thinking when you say "iconic", maybe the OP should as well.
A city with iconic features/landmarks/architecture/characteristics that are known nationally. Also a city identity that's palpable and holds cultural influence.
Well, maybe I wasn't considering hockey as a major sport
I forgot to mention ... we do have "dense" urban areas, three of them (downtown, med center, the I-10 energy corridor centered at Memorial City). The downtown is attracting more and more residents, but people in Houston like a little bit of space, and they can get it, even in close-in neighborhoods, so no, we're not dense like NYC.
NYC, Boston, DC, etc ... old school. This is new school.
When I think of urban, I definitely don't think of cities that just have a few walkable neighborhoods. You need the whole city to be so. Houston doesn't fit here.
It will probably be one of the Canadian cities (Vancouver, Montreal, or Toronto) or maybe Mexico City becoming more popular (but are arguably already great/iconic, just not that well known by people in the states). Possibly one of the South American cities if they ever manage to get a handle on crime.
That said not a lot of great urban cities are being built in the US these days. You have to go someplace like China or SE Asia.
Minneapolis is my favorite city in the US after NYC. There are many who live car free already, and it has a good reputation for its walkability. It's always one of the first cities that comes up after your top tier urban ones, so I'd say it's right up there with Seattle. It's also excellent for biking if that's your thing.
One thing I notice about many cities is that there's just 2-3 walkable areas and that's it. That's certainly true of almost every city in the South, and when you look at other cities in the Midwest outside of Chicago...Minneapolis leads the pack.
Uptown Minneapolis is a good example of a walkable vibrant neighborhood that's hard to find in the sprawled out cities or even other cities across the US that have a few walkable neighborhoods...cities such as Cincinnati may appear to be urban, but the neighborhoods have nothing as lively as Uptown and you do need a car.
And it's not just Uptown...you have Downtown, Northeast, St. Anthony, Dinkytown, etc. Many neighborhoods you could choose from. An urban city to me has to have that variety. I used to live in Raleigh and there was literally the Downtown area and that was it...very sprawled out city. That's no fun. There should be multiple neighborhoods you can go to, and not just 2-3.
The most iconic thing about Minneapolis is probably the nature that's right there within the city. You have bicycle trails, all those lakes, and a 53 foot waterfall right in the city. Try finding that in another urban city.
I think there are currently some very underrated urban cities out there. Seattle and Minneapolis are among them. I don't know about them becoming known for that on a national scale, but they are definitely good for that.
It will probably be one of the Canadian cities (Vancouver, Montreal, or Toronto) or maybe Mexico City becoming more popular (but are arguably already great/iconic, just not that well known by people in the states). Possibly one of the South American cities if they ever manage to get a handle on crime.
That said not a lot of great urban cities are being built in the US these days. You have to go someplace like China or SE Asia.
I think we are only talking about within the US here. I'd say Montreal and Toronto are already known for being urban.
Will you please define what you are thinking when you say "iconic", maybe the OP should as well.
Nationally or internationally recognized architecture, scenery, or palpable culture. Houston doesn't have that and probably never will.
Quote:
Originally Posted by sibelian
Every city has bad cops. Considering its size, Houston appears to have way fewer bad ones than other places. You don't see our city in the news every other day with a killer-cop story.
Same with traffic. No one in Houston likes the 610. The 45 isn't the best. But generally, traffic does move, even at rush hour. Are you looking at google maps for your claim of "gridlock" ? I see you live in New Orleans. Maybe there was an accident.
As for the weather, we generally have sunny, warm-to-hot weather. Sitting outside in mid-January in Houston, in 70-degree sunny weather, sure beats Minneapolis and most other places in the US.
You don't see any department in the news over and over again other than NYPD. Doesn't change the fact that HPD has problems like every other department.
I lived in Houston and was well aware of the midnight gridlock or the Sunday at 7pm traffic. Or some other gridlock during non-peak hours. I lived on Westheimer so I'm well versed in Houston traffic. It was construction but it was still at a standstill at midnight.
You have the same weather as we do and it's not great weather period. Half the year is unbearable humidity and sweltering heat. It's not warm, it's hot as hell. I used to deliver pizza with no AC on the west side in all that traffic.
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