Houston the next mega city? (Dallas, San Antonio: credit, school, cost of living)

[tstone]

Originally Posted by _Charles_

One of the wisest things Houston ever did was annex land to circumvent suburban encirclement. Older cites encircled by suburbs have huge problems - directly for that reason. They loose their tax base to pay for infrastructure and schools and decline follows.

Perhaps, but it's not like HISD is a penchant for safe, exemplary schools either. For the most part it's actually quite the opposite.

[Guerilla]

Originally Posted by tstone

Perhaps, but it's not like HISD is a penchant for safe, exemplary schools either. For the most part it's actually quite the opposite.

Depends on where you are. They are a lot of good schools in H.I.S.D., but they are mostly on the west side. To name a few, Westside HS, Lamar HS, Bellaire HS, etc. They are many great magnet schools, too.

[tstone]

Originally Posted by Guerilla

Depends on where you are. They are a lot of good schools in H.I.S.D., but they are mostly on the west side. To name a few, Westside HS, Lamar HS, Bellaire HS, etc. They are many great magnet schools, too.

Sure, there are definitely several great schools in HISD, if you want to pay out the nose (relatively) to live in an area where your kids are zoned to the above schools. HISD is exceedingly larger than most people can fathom. When you look at the overall picture, the good schools in HISD are the exception not the rule.

[Guerilla]

You don't have to be zoned to the schools to go there in HISD.

[tstone]

I didn't know that one.

However, living where the schools are not desirable means the neighborhood is likely the same.

Sounds very inconvenient carting your kid to school and back, esp mixing work and daycare in there!

[Guerilla]

They have buses that do that.

[glorplaxy]

I cannot see Houston becoming a mega-city. There are absolutely no attractions here. What is there to do that you can't do in pretty much any other moderately sized city? Theater? Dining at expensive restraunts that aren't even that good? Wine bars? Why would anyone come to Houston for anything other than business? Galveston's puke-green shores? Our inadequate zoo? Hermann Park? There's nothing unless you come here to make money!
All of the mega-cities have attractions and people actually would consider going there just for tourism. Who walks out the door one day and goes backpacking to Houston, Texas?

[txstate]

I thought it was a mega city because its the 4th largest city in the country.

[tstone]

Originally Posted by glorplaxy

... Galveston's puke-green shores?

Puke green? Have you even been there?

Any honest local will tell you it's more of a diarrhea or Ovaltine brown.

[nana053]

Originally Posted by davidt1

I don't want to turn this into an immigration thing, but the groups you mentioned came legally in much smaller numbers, assimilated and became Americans.

Actually, they did not all come legally, though most did. And as for assimilating, it is much overrated. My grandfather came here from Italy. He spoke 5 languages and was educated, but had to take factory jobs because of the prejudice against Italians. His children assimilated all right. They never learned any language but English and lost many of the traditions he could have passed down. They were not allowed to speak Italian in school ever.

Dorothy