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Old 01-09-2011, 08:05 PM
 
Location: Huntersville/Charlotte, NC and Washington, DC
26,677 posts, read 41,509,172 times
Reputation: 41282

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I'm a student who looks to graduate college this year in December. With my job search in Louisville being extremely difficult, I'm going anywhere that has jobs.

Houston seems like a good fit but I lived for 6 years in Northern VA right outside of Washington and hated every last minute of it. I'm concerned that Houston seems to be a big metro area like NoVA and very similar to it.

Obviously the difference in my prospective Houston experience is that instead of being stuck as a minor where my mom decides to live, I'll have choice in what neighborhood I want to live in. I would want one that is close to my place of employment with minimal traffic as possible (a thing I hated in NoVA) and has a lot of 20-somethings that is affordable.

My biggest dislikes of NoVA were rude people, bad traffic, and very expensive COL. Will I be setting myself up for most of this by moving to Houston?
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Old 01-09-2011, 08:14 PM
 
Location: Fortbend County
164 posts, read 362,537 times
Reputation: 82
Houston traffic is bad too. Unlike Norther VA Houston does not have metro. In NoVA at least you can take metro to work in DC or you can drive a hybrid on HOV lane.
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Old 01-09-2011, 08:32 PM
 
Location: Fondren SW Yo
2,783 posts, read 6,649,187 times
Reputation: 2224
Quote:
Originally Posted by Alanboy395 View Post
I'm a student who looks to graduate college this year in December. With my job search in Louisville being extremely difficult, I'm going anywhere that has jobs.

Houston seems like a good fit but I lived for 6 years in Northern VA right outside of Washington and hated every last minute of it. I'm concerned that Houston seems to be a big metro area like NoVA and very similar to it.

Obviously the difference in my prospective Houston experience is that instead of being stuck as a minor where my mom decides to live, I'll have choice in what neighborhood I want to live in. I would want one that is close to my place of employment with minimal traffic as possible (a thing I hated in NoVA) and has a lot of 20-somethings that is affordable.

My biggest dislikes of NoVA were rude people, bad traffic, and very expensive COL. Will I be setting myself up for most of this by moving to Houston?
I lived in NoVA for two years (by the Courthouse Metro station in Arlington) and hated it. Pretty much for reasons #1 and #3 that you express (I did not own a car then, I took the Metro to work in DC). Depending where you live and work in Houston traffic can be a mess, but the people here are much nicer and COL is lower. Culturally the two areas are very different. NoVA is mostly northeastern liberals and wannabes, hence the pretentious douchebaggery that I found in most of the folks I met there. Houston is much more laid back.
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Old 01-09-2011, 09:26 PM
 
Location: League City
3,842 posts, read 8,215,351 times
Reputation: 5364
Houston traffic sux, and public transportation is lacking. But people here are definitely laid back and more friendly than a lot of other places. Your money will go farther in Houston, and you will likely discover a lot of other bonuses you did not expect in Houston.
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Old 01-10-2011, 10:46 AM
 
98 posts, read 308,662 times
Reputation: 88
I lived in Northern Virginia (McLean) for about four years and my parents have been there for about 25 years now and I still get back somewhat frequently. I have lived in Houston (Clear Lake) for just over six years. Both area's have large populations which sprawl out over large distances. NoVA is more densely packed.

Traffic is worse in the DC metropolitan area. When I am at my parents I rarely leave the house between 4-6 in the evening. They live right in the middle of one of the most congested parts of that area. In Houston I do not. Public transportation is better in DC, but as you probably know, most people don't use it.

I moved to NoVA from Colorado and I found it to be a bit of a culture shock. There is a lot of money in the area and some people are pretentious. As a high school student I was very taken aback at how competitive the students were academically and how concerned they were about which college they were going to get into. (I picked my first college because of its proximity to a ski area). Based on that experience I would guess that people are more laid back here.

The COL doesn't compare. I would be living in Chantilly or even farther out if I was still in NoVA.

From having lived in nine different states most of what you make of an area depends on you.
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Old 01-10-2011, 10:59 AM
 
Location: ITL (Houston)
9,221 posts, read 15,862,559 times
Reputation: 3545
Quote:
Originally Posted by va_residents View Post
Houston traffic is bad too. Unlike Norther VA Houston does not have metro. In NoVA at least you can take metro to work in DC or you can drive a hybrid on HOV lane.
Houston has the most miles of HOV lane in the country, so if the OP can get a friend from work, they can use it. Houston COL is MUCH lower than Northern Virgina and Houston has been called one of the friendliest large cities in America.
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Old 01-10-2011, 01:34 PM
 
Location: Underneath the Pecan Tree
15,982 posts, read 35,028,608 times
Reputation: 7427
Quote:
Originally Posted by lonestarwvu View Post
I lived in Northern Virginia (McLean) for about four years and my parents have been there for about 25 years now and I still get back somewhat frequently. I have lived in Houston (Clear Lake) for just over six years. Both area's have large populations which sprawl out over large distances. NoVA is more densely packed.

Traffic is worse in the DC metropolitan area. When I am at my parents I rarely leave the house between 4-6 in the evening. They live right in the middle of one of the most congested parts of that area. In Houston I do not. Public transportation is better in DC, but as you probably know, most people don't use it.

I moved to NoVA from Colorado and I found it to be a bit of a culture shock. There is a lot of money in the area and some people are pretentious. As a high school student I was very taken aback at how competitive the students were academically and how concerned they were about which college they were going to get into. (I picked my first college because of its proximity to a ski area). Based on that experience I would guess that people are more laid back here.

The COL doesn't compare. I would be living in Chantilly or even farther out if I was still in NoVA.

From having lived in nine different states most of what you make of an area depends on you.
Really??? Because when I use to go up there to visit; it was always pretty crowded.
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Old 01-10-2011, 02:47 PM
 
98 posts, read 308,662 times
Reputation: 88
I think the ridership is something like 7% of the population in the DC metro area. I think Houston is about 3% by comparison. Yes it gets used, but by what is still a pretty small percentage of the population. Most people don't use it. Also, as a point of comparison, the train I take between downtown and the medical center is always pretty crowded.
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Old 01-11-2011, 02:37 PM
 
Location: Huntersville/Charlotte, NC and Washington, DC
26,677 posts, read 41,509,172 times
Reputation: 41282
Quote:
Originally Posted by jluke65780 View Post
Really??? Because when I use to go up there to visit; it was always pretty crowded.
Looks can be deceiving. There's peak time, rush hour, events. Just look at Wash DC traffic. Plenty of people not using the transit system. In some cases it makes more sense to drive.
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Old 01-11-2011, 10:26 PM
 
13 posts, read 42,674 times
Reputation: 12
Quote:
Originally Posted by Alanboy395 View Post
I'm a student who looks to graduate college this year in December. With my job search in Louisville being extremely difficult, I'm going anywhere that has jobs.

Houston seems like a good fit but I lived for 6 years in Northern VA right outside of Washington and hated every last minute of it. I'm concerned that Houston seems to be a big metro area like NoVA and very similar to it.

Obviously the difference in my prospective Houston experience is that instead of being stuck as a minor where my mom decides to live, I'll have choice in what neighborhood I want to live in. I would want one that is close to my place of employment with minimal traffic as possible (a thing I hated in NoVA) and has a lot of 20-somethings that is affordable.

My biggest dislikes of NoVA were rude people, bad traffic, and very expensive COL. Will I be setting myself up for most of this by moving to Houston?
You didn't list all of your dislikes in nova. Houston will have a high Hispanic
population so take that into consideration. There will be other non black and non white races as well so that is another concern for you. The illegals will be another major problem for you. You may want to stay put where you are at or you will complain about Hoston just like you did about nova.
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