Just got back from my Weekend in Houston, looks like I am staying put in the North-East............. (Katy: college, dangerous)

[amywynn]

TO OP:

I've lived in Houston my whole life...Conroe growing up, Tomball/NW/Cypress areas for 16+years and now back to Conroe. I cannot WAIT until my situation is such that I can get out of this cesspool. I'm glad you did your research and don't worry with the poo-poo'ers on here, they're just jealous that you live in an area that has more than two seasons (HOT & HUMID). LOL

[SouthernBoy205]

Originally Posted by amywynn

TO OP:

I've lived in Houston my whole life...Conroe growing up, Tomball/NW/Cypress areas for 16+years and now back to Conroe. I cannot WAIT until my situation is such that I can get out of this cesspool. I'm glad you did your research and don't worry with the poo-poo'ers on here, they're just jealous that you live in an area that has more than two seasons (HOT & HUMID). LOL

Where are you going to go?

[HtownLove]

Originally Posted by SouthernBoy205

Where do you venture off to? I guess you don't see the ugly everyone is talking about. LOL!

the beltway is about 25 miles by 25 miles. Usually stay in there.

[SouthernBoy205]

That's a large area. Yeah, you have no need to go anywhere outside that.

[stoneclaw]

i think what makes houston ugly is the combination of bad roads, potholes, excessive powerlines, rusty billboards, and the old dillapitated buildings and crumbling strip centers.

A few years ago after visiting Vegas, coming back to Houston straight down 45, i was florred by how bad it really looked in comparison to Vegas. I thought i was in baghdad and was depressed to be back home. But on the other hand, i visited NYC over the summer and saw old, rusty buildings lined with graffiti. Plus the subway stink and health issues in the subway didn't strike me as beautiful. Of course not! Why would i expect a city of 8 million people to look all clean and prestine like a town of 10,000 people?

What are people expecting when they visit a place like Houston? It sounded to me that the OP expected to see a small country town with rolling hills and prarie. Sorry, that's not Houston. Houston has areas that offer much of those same things minus the terrain. Closest thing we got is in Conroe with it's slight rolling hills. C'mon 4 out of 5 ain't bad.

BTW O/P. With your comparison to Atlanta, I don't honestly see how you can say that you didn't see similarities when you mainly explored secluded areas. It sounded like you were primarily on the outskirts of the city and didn't venture around very much. There is similarity to Houston and Atlanta by the layout of the city. True, Houston doesn't have Atlanta's hills, but you can't tell me that the skylines, edge cities (i.e. Uptown Houston and Buckhead Atlanta) and tree features don't have some similarities.

stoneclaw/C2H (ComingtoHouston)

[Spade]

Originally Posted by AK123

I think it's mostly the feeder roads filled with strip centers, billboards one after the other, and the overhead power lines. Especially all of those put together (along I-45 is a good example) that just turns a lot of people off. Note that these are all things you see while driving... get down into the neighborhoods, especially in areas like West University Place and the Museum District, and you'll forget all about that other stuff.

BTW - Sugar Land has an ordinance against any kind of billboards or signs taller than a certain height. I love this, makes such a huge difference, wish more cities would do it.

I have said this many times on various boards about feeders. They really do damage to the Image of the cities in Texas. I hate them very much because they are ugly.
This is from Texasfreeway.com. The image is basically the same all over the state and its depressing. It really sucks that build our cities around the interaction of cars and not the interaction of humans.

Not to mention, they are dangerous. People act as if they are freeway themselves. Maybe Houston needs to put a wall on I 45 like Miami did with I 95.

[SouthernBoy205]

That's not a bad picture.

[Spade]

Originally Posted by SouthernBoy205

That's not a bad picture.

To me it is. It's the very definition of ugly sprawl and this is the very first thing new visitors see coming from the IAH. You have to understand where I'm coming from. I don't have many, if any positive things to say about feeders. Sure you can skip back ups, accidents, and construction. But the other disadvantages far outweigh those. Besides, I can take the side streets that run parallel to the freeway. Houston is gridded and does a great job with that. Just like Chicago. If 290 is backed up, I get off and take Roosevelt to get to the west suburbs or to the city.

[SouthernBoy205]

That picture of Houston seems very busy.

[usc619]

Originally Posted by Homer12

I spent the weekend driving around the suburbs of Houston, I had an opportunity that professionally I had a lot of interest in, but had to make sure it was a good fit personally so I went to visit.

If you read my other post you know I have 3 kids, twin 6 year olds and a 2 year old. I currently live in Western Massachusets on a Golf Course with over an acre of land.

Here are my thoughts of Houston-

The Bad (No offense to those that live there, I am hoping I help others)
- Power lines are everywhere, I just could not get over it.
- Billboard after billboard, they should have restrictions on these.
- Flat as can be and outside of communities there is little to see beside Industry and Stores
- I thought the Communities would be similar to Atlanta and Charlotte, my 2 cents is they are not even close to as nice
- So much land everywhere and they choose to give such small lots, I just do not get it. This was a huge negative for me, you have absolutely no privacy. Today I have just over an acre and no neighbor in front or behind me.
- Homes are not built to the standards I expected, I was looking at $600k homes and they had 4 inch faucets in the bathrooms, cheap windows, many had cheap door hardware, and the HUGE surprise was NONE had nice kitchen or bathrooms. They looked nice, but when you pull a drawer or 2 out they have those CHEAP metal drawer glides and they are made of cheap materials, something I would not even put in a garage.


The Good
- Everyone was nice as can be
- Katy to me was the nicest area I found. I thought I would like Cypress, but I did not like it at all.


I am so glad I went down for the weekend, it absolutely gave me a new appreciation for what I currently have.

Thank you all again for your advice

You pretty much hit the nail on the head.....I like Houston, but it's not as nice as most folks on this forum make it out to be.