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In the Los Angeles forum, someone said that "you can live the San Diego lifestyle in L.A., but not vice versa." I would say that you can live the Austin lifestyle in Houston, but not the Houston lifestyle in Austin. The Heights resembles the Central Austin lifestyle physically and culturally.
(Crossdressing in a highlighter green dress? That will catch people's attention.)
Austinties like to chime in with abuse for Houston's lack of zoning, but will you ever find a strip club next to a bible church in "weird" Austin?
I wouldn't swim in Banana Bend after the high-profile drownings. But we also have a Mt. Bonnell, at least the TV/FM tower part. These are the tallest radio towers in Texas.
Haven't really seen an Austinite chime in, but there's weird and just needlessly seedy. Yeah, Austin is not weird because there are no strip clubs next to elementary schools. You really need to go that far to compensate?
As someone who currently stays within walking distance of Downtown Austin. I don't understand how someone could say, Houston are Dallas are car-centric and Austin has a better Downtown, almost like the entirety of Austin is not Downtown Austin. Like In the center of Houston you can literally be in a rural area in the equivalent Austin area, partially because of it's shape but also partially because Austin like any other Texas city, Austin sprawls. Houston city limits itself is denser than Austin...
As someone who currently stays within walking distance of Downtown Austin. I don't understand how someone could say, Houston are Dallas are car-centric and Austin has a better Downtown, almost like the entirety of Austin is not Downtown Austin. Like In the center of Houston you can literally be in a rural area in the equivalent Austin area, partially because of it's shape but also partially because Austin like any other Texas city, Austin sprawls. Houston city limits itself is denser than Austin...
Of course all three cities sprawl and Austin is in fact the worst offender, but it still has WAY more foot traffic and activity in its immediate core and I'm not seeing how anyone could argue otherwise. As I pointed out in my previous post, the presence of UT makes all the difference here.
Of course all three cities sprawl and Austin is in fact the worst offender, but it still has WAY more foot traffic and activity in its immediate core and I'm not seeing how anyone could argue otherwise. As I pointed out in my previous post, the presence of UT makes all the difference here.
This is true. Dallas and Houston are much bigger cities and even bigger MSAs, but they both underperform for their size.
DFW is the 4th largest MSA in the USA. I totally see why people call it the Meh-troplex. Downtown Dallas is improving and in terms of the built environment should be the premier urban neighborhood in Texas but it REALLY isn't. It was ruined by highway construction, and while Klyde Warren park is nice, it is a woefully insufficient attempt to undo the damage done to the urban fabric by the highways. It links downtown Dallas and Uptown Dallas, which is the only live, work place neighborhood in Dallas and it is ghastly: home of the 30K millionaire, an Okie's fantasy of NOO YAWK, ersatz and half-baked new urbanism thrown up on the cheap in the last 30 years displacing what I suspect was a much more interesting Mexican-American neighborhood. Uptown Dallas may very well be the Eddy Hardy wearing, apple martini drinking, douchebag capital of the world. I am there often for work, and alternate between being bored and irritated. Dallas has gorgeous street-car suburbs -Lakewood, Kessler Park, the Park Cities, a pretty great gayborhood in Oaklawn, but mostly it manages to be both crappy and snotty. The best art museum in Dallas sums it up succinctly- the Nasher Sculpture garden, third rate works by first rate artists, collected for the name of their maker not for their quality... Molly Ivins summed it up a while back and regrettably it still pertains: "“There is a black Dallas, there is a Chicano Dallas, there is a Vietnamese Dallas, there is a gay Dallas, there is even a funky-Bohemian Dallas. But mostly there is North Dallas, a place so materialistic and Republican it makes your teeth hurt to contemplate it.” The political leanings of Dallas have changed. It is now a reliably democratic city, but the style and the vibe have not. It is remains a good place to get discount Botox and last year's Gucci...Erykah Badou notwithstanding. I am easily influenced. If I am in Dallas for longer than a week, I think i need to start ironing my jeans. And I try NEVER to go north of 635...
i generally prefer Houston, even though it is mostly butt ugly. It has the best cultural institutions in the state of Texas, though the Kimball and the Modern in Fort Worth are marvelous museums. Houston has a pretty great food culture, though it is exports - Pappathis, Pappathat, and Johnny Carino's are truly terrible. It manages to be both more elite and blue collar than Dallas, and i generally find it more fun. Its urban fabric is as ruined by highway construction as Dallas, and its downtown is even lamer, but its urbanish neighborhoods - Montrose, the Heights, Upper Kirby are less strip mally and more lively than their Dallas equivalents. Rice is also a real university in a way that SMU is not. DFW is the largest MSA in the country without a tier 1 university. Houston is user unfriendly, but everything is there and kinda attitude free.
I totally get why coastal elites think Austin is the only livable city in Texas. THEY ARE WRONG, but Austin throws the best party in the state in SbySW. It is paradoxically the most Texan of the big Texas cities. Houston is a gulf coast city- think a much larger and more cosmopolitan Tampa, with a huge Louisiana influence. Dallas is the capital of the southern great plains, in a similar way to Denver as the capital of the western great plains, and often feels like the largest city in Oklahoma. San Antonio, which really should be part of this conversation and while not short of horror is to me the most under-rated city in Texas, is like a gringo Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, without the mountains and much much less of the colonial architecture. Only Austin is pure Texas, despite all protestations to the contrary, and central Austin, which I would call the area west of Airport boulevard, south of 53rd, north of Oltorf and east of Mopac is easily the most topographically appealing - hills and lakes and creeks, the most vibrant in terms of pedestrian life, and amenity rich area in the state of Texas. 78701, the zip code of downtown Austin has more liquor licenses than any other zip-code in the entire U.S. Downtown Austin at 11 pm on a Tuesday night, my acid test for nightlife, it is gonna be busy. Maybe a few blocks on Westheimer in Houston, and the riverwalk in San Antonio can compare. Nowhere in Dallas...
Central Austin does a good job of integrating its rather pretty river/lakefront within its urban fabric. It is walkable, bikeable, kayakable, and nearly everything I like in the city is easily accessible. I have a car. I drive it maybe once a week. I could not imagine that in Dallas or Houston. YMMV...
This is true. Dallas and Houston are much bigger cities and even bigger MSAs, but they both underperform for their size.
DFW is the 4th largest MSA in the USA. I totally see why people call it the Meh-troplex. Downtown Dallas is improving and in terms of the built environment should be the premier urban neighborhood in Texas but it REALLY isn't. It was ruined by highway construction, and while Klyde Warren park is nice, it is a woefully insufficient attempt to undo the damage done to the urban fabric by the highways. It links downtown Dallas and Uptown Dallas, which is the only live, work place neighborhood in Dallas and it is ghastly: home of the 30K millionaire, an Okie's fantasy of NOO YAWK, ersatz and half-baked new urbanism thrown up on the cheap in the last 30 years displacing what I suspect was a much more interesting Mexican-American neighborhood. Uptown Dallas may very well be the Eddy Hardy wearing, apple martini drinking, douchebag capital of the world. I am there often for work, and alternate between being bored and irritated. Dallas has gorgeous street-car suburbs -Lakewood, Kessler Park, the Park Cities, a pretty great gayborhood in Oaklawn, but mostly it manages to be both crappy and snotty. The best art museum in Dallas sums it up succinctly- the Nasher Sculpture garden, third rate works by first rate artists, collected for the name of their maker not for their quality... Molly Ivins summed it up a while back and regrettably it still pertains: "“There is a black Dallas, there is a Chicano Dallas, there is a Vietnamese Dallas, there is a gay Dallas, there is even a funky-Bohemian Dallas. But mostly there is North Dallas, a place so materialistic and Republican it makes your teeth hurt to contemplate it.” The political leanings of Dallas have changed. It is now a reliably democratic city, but the style and the vibe have not. It is remains a good place to get discount Botox and last year's Gucci...Erykah Badou notwithstanding. I am easily influenced. If I am in Dallas for longer than a week, I think i need to start ironing my jeans. And I try NEVER to go north of 635...
i generally prefer Houston, even though it is mostly butt ugly. It has the best cultural institutions in the state of Texas, though the Kimball and the Modern in Fort Worth are marvelous museums. Houston has a pretty great food culture, though it is exports - Pappathis, Pappathat, and Johnny Carino's are truly terrible. It manages to be both more elite and blue collar than Dallas, and i generally find it more fun. Its urban fabric is as ruined by highway construction as Dallas, and its downtown is even lamer, but its urbanish neighborhoods - Montrose, the Heights, Upper Kirby are less strip mally and more lively than their Dallas equivalents. Rice is also a real university in a way that SMU is not. DFW is the largest MSA in the country without a tier 1 university. Houston is user unfriendly, but everything is there and kinda attitude free.
I totally get why coastal elites think Austin is the only livable city in Texas. THEY ARE WRONG, but Austin throws the best party in the state in SbySW. It is paradoxically the most Texan of the big Texas cities. Houston is a gulf coast city- think a much larger and more cosmopolitan Tampa, with a huge Louisiana influence. Dallas is the capital of the southern great plains, in a similar way to Denver as the capital of the western great plains, and often feels like the largest city in Oklahoma. San Antonio, which really should be part of this conversation and while not short of horror is to me the most under-rated city in Texas, is like a gringo Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, without the mountains and much much less of the colonial architecture. Only Austin is pure Texas, despite all protestations to the contrary, and central Austin, which I would call the area west of Airport boulevard, south of 53rd, north of Oltorf and east of Mopac is easily the most topographically appealing - hills and lakes and creeks, the most vibrant in terms of pedestrian life, and amenity rich area in the state of Texas. 78701, the zip code of downtown Austin has more liquor licenses than any other zip-code in the entire U.S. Downtown Austin at 11 pm on a Tuesday night, my acid test for nightlife, it is gonna be busy. Maybe a few blocks on Westheimer in Houston, and the riverwalk in San Antonio can compare. Nowhere in Dallas...
Central Austin does a good job of integrating its rather pretty river/lakefront within its urban fabric. It is walkable, bikeable, kayakable, and nearly everything I like in the city is easily accessible. I have a car. I drive it maybe once a week. I could not imagine that in Dallas or Houston. YMMV...
Thank you for proving what I’ve always said. People in Austin are every bit as pretentious as they are in Dallas.
Is the Nasher Sculpture garden really considered Dallas' best museum?
Also, Houston's downtown should be the best, no? FW in DFW does stand for Fort Worth, which has a larger metropolitan division, population wise, than Austin's or San Antonio's metropolitan areas
That was the first time I've heard that Houston is less strip mally than Dallas neighborhoods. I'm not sure that's reality at all. Dallas is known for having the more solid neighborhoods than Houston.
Austin sounded cooler when I was a bit younger, but Houston appeals to me way more nowadays. I don't think they're comparable cities - Austin is more of a niche city that more or less revolves around UT/state government/growing tech while Houston/Dallas have a much larger population and economy.
It's weird, the Texas cities that have the most tourist cachet are San Antonio and Austin, while Dallas and Houston is where everyone lives.
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