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Wait how would Austin rank above Houston unless your into outdoorsy recreation, tech, film and live music? I can see how certain people would prefer Austin over Houston but Houston is the more well rounded city period. And when you look at the metrics, how can Austin beat Houston in Product, People, Prosperity and Programming.
Houston is more diverse, has more cultural institutions, has professional sports, more Fortune 500 companies, much more diversity and representation in the city's image,
Honestly in my opinion Austin is too high. I don't think it should be over Denver and Philly.
Top 5 never changes, just the order varies from list to list. But how do San Diego and Las Vegas jump cities liked Boston, Houston, Dallas, and Atlanta if criteria like Fortune 500 companies are being considered?
Sunny days puts in work for Las Vegas and San Diego
Jokes aside, I think the correct term for this list is “greater” not best. “Better” is a subjective term. To many, Austin is the best city in Texas. But objectively, it’s not the greatest city in the state. Greater is a more along what the OP’s list describes.
Austin is in a lower Tier than Houston and DFW in a ton of areas. It still has a whole lot of growing up to do.
It is strong in its tier but that doesn't put it at or above the heavier hitters in its state.
Houston will not just wipe the floor with Austin on the number of restaurants, it will also crush on terms of variety of offerings due to how much more diverse Houston is.
Austin racial diversity is improving, but it doesn't hold a candle to Houston. Just looking at Black, White, Asian... didn't tell you anything in terms of what that translate to restaurants.
You can say Austin has a lot of Hispanics but there is no genre of food called Hispanics food or black food. An ethnically diverse city will have more variety because whereas Austin may score high in Mexican numbers, it didn't have the Cuban, Honduran, Puerto Rican, Guatemalan... numbers that Houston has and so will not show out as well as Houston.
In every racial category Houston will beat Austin (or just about anywhere in the south) in terms of variety of food options.
You mention IAH, Houston's size is not the only thing that blows Austin's airports away. IAH outperforms far busier airports in terms of carriers again because of the diversity.
Austin isn't as overrated as it was in the 90s, but to question why Houston is ranked over it is just highly overrating Austin when doing an across the board comparison.
Points taken...it's definitely true that I didn't put too much thought into diversity metrics.
As long as Houston is above Dallas I'm happy otherwise .
Points taken...it's definitely true that I didn't put too much thought into diversity metrics.
As long as Houston is above Dallas I'm happy otherwise .
Lol. They go toe to toe in most things.
DFW is one of the healthier metros currently.
But I handicap DFW because I think it is what is mainly because of location and not any other special character.
The reasons why I am so hard on regional kings is because they gain strength not from inward characters but more so on being the biggest thing in an area.
This is why in my rankings I rank Philly above DFW. Take Philly out from the competition in the Northeast and Place it where OKC is and let's see how important DFW airport remains, or if the metro still maintains the massive growth.
Same thing with Atlanta. I give it props for certain aspects such as the CDC, but it too is more of a regional hub. Wouldn't be much different from Birmingham or Charlotte if it wasn't for logistics.
I do not want to diminished the importance of regional hubs, they are the next tier in my opinion, but the cities that dominate in certain areas are scored higher in my book.
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