"I love Houstonians, but Houston...

[Truth713]

Originally Posted by GTRdad

I do! I do! But you can tell they weren't happy. Luckily I have connections in Dallas and Austin so we had to share the burden of finding something interesting for them

why does everything have to be tourist spot ?? a

[crbcrbrgv]

Originally Posted by Nairobi

Again, something else that isn't unique to Houston.

We can't really get a definitive answer if we're just discussing problems that Houston shares with other cities.

Houston has this times 10. Does this help?

[crono_clone]

Meh, Houston is such a young city compared to all those other cities everyone always compares it to. Of course it doesn't have much character yet -- most of the people here aren't even from here anymore. People don't come here to "find themselves" like in NY or to "make it big" like in LA -- they come here to make a fresh start because it's a "new" city and you can still make it what you want it to be.

Houston looks like a hodgepodge because that's exactly how it grew, especially when you consider that most of that growth came only within the last 2 or 3 decades instead of the last hundred or so years -- yet people act like all those other cities became that way overnight.

I'm not too worried about it. I can already see signs that Houston is following the trajectory that all those other cities long before. People are moving back into the city and even downtown is starting to boom again. It's just not going to happen overnight like most of you are wanting it to.

[houstan-dan]

Originally Posted by texas7

Well for a city that "sucks" people are snapping up available homes within 24 hours, so must not "suck" to everyone.

A LOT of that has to do with there being a lot of work here. If you can make double in one city that you can anywhere else in the country, where are you probably going to pick? I used to live in Jacksonville. I loved the night life, I loved the beaches, I loved the malls. However, there was little work there in my field. Struggling paycheck to paycheck isn't something people will generally prefer as compared to living somewhere else they don't enjoy as much, but jobs and money was plentiful.

Originally Posted by statisticsnerd

It's a concrete jungle that was built on pancake-flat, ugly land. The city has no character. Sure, we have the Museum District which is kind of nice, but other than it's just urban sprawl 50 miles across in every direction..

Have you been to Memorial Park? I went mountain biking on their mountain bike trails twice last week and was very very impressed. It's not Denver, or Austin, but considering what the rest of Houston is like, it was definitely NOT expected. Can't wait to go back some more.

[GTRdad]

Originally Posted by Truth713

why does everything have to be tourist spot ?? a

They weren't 'tourists'

[Pine to Vine]

Originally Posted by Nairobi

This certainly isn't unique to Houston, and it's something you can easily see in virtually every Sunbelt city.

I think this is the insight. Houston is a sunbelt city, and your visitor from DC perhaps doesn't like sunbelt cities. I don't like them either, hence I moved away after retirement to a dense pedestrian-centric city. That said, aside from the climate I enjoyed Houston very much when I lived there: great performing arts, museums, restaurants, shopping, and people. I was happy that I lived in Houston as opposed to other sunbelt cities such as Dallas, Phoenix, Tampa, Orlando and the like. While those of us who know Houston recognize its uniqueness, I can see why visitors might see it as just another variation on a sunbelt theme: a "cookie cutter" cluster of office towers, backed-up freeways, strip centers, big box stores and gated communities.

[Jack Lance]

When I first checked CD this morning I found the two most active threads of the past weekend were both threads about what's the deal with Houston. One thread based on a poll that Houston was snobbish, and the other based on a friend of the OP's personal opinion of Houston. Two diametrically opposing trains of thought. What does this say about Houston?

Maybe Socrates explains it best "The unexamined life is not worth living."

The most interesting and influential thinker in the fifth century was Socrates, whose dedication to careful reasoning transformed the entire enterprise. Since he sought genuine knowledge rather than mere victory over an opponent, Socrates employed the same logical tricks developed by the Sophists to a new purpose, the pursuit of truth. Thus, his willingness to call everything into question and his determination to accept nothing less than an adequate account of the nature of things make him the first clear exponent of critical philosophy.

Socrates: Philosophical Life

Are we examining life here, or is this merely competitive rhetoric

[GTRdad]

Originally Posted by Jack Lance

When I first check CD this morning I found the two most active threads of the past weekend were both threads about what's the deal with Houston. One thread based on a poll that Houston was snobbish, and the other based on a friend of the OP's personal opinion of Houston. Two diametrically opposing trains of thought. What does this say about Houston?

Maybe Socrates explains it best "The unexamined life is not worth living."

The most interesting and influential thinker in the fifth century was Socrates, whose dedication to careful reasoning transformed the entire enterprise. Since he sought genuine knowledge rather than mere victory over an opponent, Socrates employed the same logical tricks developed by the Sophists to a new purpose, the pursuit of truth. Thus, his willingness to call everything into question and his determination to accept nothing less than an adequate account of the nature of things make him the first clear exponent of critical philosophy.

Socrates: Philosophical Life

Are we examining life here, or is this merely competitive rhetoric

dude.

[Oildog]

closed. Another trolling Houston bashing thread.