Best and Worst of Houston (Dallas, Austin: college, income tax, zoned)

[eric3781]

Originally Posted by macchiato

I keep hearing MSNBC say "lean forward" and the Democratic party rebranded as "progressive". What would you like to see changed in Texas?

They want it to be run into the ground like everything else they have touched. But at least the subways will run on time.

[eric3781]

Originally Posted by Techwired

I bet you'd like living it in Somalia - no unions, zoning laws or environmental regulations to stifle prosperity.

You forgot no restrictions on firearms.

Do you plan to add anything substantive, or just blurt incoherent twit absurdities?

[Oildog]

Originally Posted by Techwired

I bet you'd like living it in Somalia - no unions, zoning laws or environmental regulations to stifle prosperity.

gets us closer to a finish of the topic.

I don't think Somalia is nearly as lifestyle tolerant as Houston. But given its location and some Western management it could be a nice place, like Cuba will become.

[HoustonRonnie]

I think having pirates in Houston (like Somalia, only in the ship channel) would be WAY cool! Top stories in the news would be about pirates instead of drive-by shootings and Sheila Jackson Lee being an idiot.

Just sayin'...

Ronnie

[Alpha_Dog]

Originally Posted by eric3781

You forgot no restrictions on firearms.

Do you plan to add anything substantive, or just blurt incoherent twit absurdities?

It's always entertaining when a narrow minded regressive knuckle dragger keeps pushing their false narrative -nothing new here.

[Vicman]

Maybe every time a seemingly regressive person makes an obvious flamebait post, maybe it's really "I agree with everything you say. By the way I love you and I want to get married, NOW, plz"

[eric3781]

Originally Posted by Techwired

It's always entertaining when a narrow minded regressive knuckle dragger keeps pushing their false narrative -nothing new here.

Finally. Someone who is entertained and not plagued by uncontrollable yawning fits.

[elnina]

Originally Posted by Oildog

Lets keep this as 'best and worst in Houston' rather than political labeling.

Please stick to this ^^^ or thread will be closed.


Or start a political thread in Politics and Other Controversies.

[PedroMartinez]

Best: Red letters.
Worst: Closed threads.

[bu2]

Originally Posted by dendrotriton

Instead of listing best or worse Ill list one-liner traits that describe Houston and you can decide what you like or don't like.

- Big on spectator sports
- Big on sports bars, clubbing, anything bar scene - If these are your primary hobbies as they are for many people here, then you can stop reading here, you will love Houston.

- Big on suburbia, nuclear family, culture. Big on religion especially baptist.

- Friendly people

- You can own a pet tiger

- NASA space center - great activity to impress all your out-of-town visitors.
- Galleria mall - to impress you lady visitors.

- Convention centers, concerts, theater

- Has all the basic conveniences of any big city... but nothing exceptional. Don't expect it to be anything like NYC, Chicago, Miami, Seattle or LA. Especially don't expect it to be Paris.

- Contrary to what arm-chair-intellectual national stats say, It's a myth that our cost of living is cheap when all things considered. It's a big city and has big city prices. If you find a really cheap house, it's cheap for a reason.

- Great place to start a business, lots of niches waiting to be filled, especially good if you're willing to do manual labor jobs. Most city slickers and hipsters can't stand manual labor. This assumes you can deal with all the local government over-regulation which around here tends to apply more to small business than to big business. Depending on what you do, your permits and licensing costs will likely be your biggest business expenses. Which brings me to another point...

- Strong Neoliberal culture - (look it up) - I'd call TX the neoliberal capital of the US. In a nut shell, strong political beliefs that support a marriage between corporation and state which favors & fights for the "free market capitalist" rights of the largest corporations at the expense of the free market rights of individuals and smaller businesses.

- Prominent 30k millionaire culture among 20 somethings.

-100+F on many summer days, and gets to 28 degrees on some winter days. This shouldn't bother anyone who isn't a gardener; I go out in all kinds of weather; But I find most cant take the heat. And cultural lifestyle has adapted around it. Houston not really a midday outdoorsy city; but early morning and evening workout meet-ups are popular for the crowd that likes to refer to themselves as "young professionals".

- Highly segregated - segregation is the primary factor influencing housing prices. Different races mix and get along fine when out and about; but don't try to move into each others neighborhood or animosity might follow. This is more to an extreme than most other cities you might be familiar with.

-We have fresh water, ocean, and bays. It's silty and don't expect much scenery but at least you have easy access to water for kayaking, jet-ski, boating, sailing, wake surf, beach barbeques, fishing etc.. And the option of living on waterfront for decent cost.

- You can drive on beach (which is becoming increasingly restricted outside Texas)

- Very spread out - unless you live near your work, and only patron businesses near work and have hobbies/interests that can be fulfilled in the vicinity of where you live (which is unlikely if you have any hobbies at all), you will be spending a lot of your life driving. i.e. many times I find myself driving all over town to find ingredients for a recipe Im following.

- Just a few hours from most Caribbean paradises. Direct flights to Roatan, Jamaica, Trinidad, Cayman, Bze, Sal, Hnd, Nic, Gua, C.R., CZM, CUN, Pan etc.

- Direct flights to UK, Frankfurt, Paris, Amsterdam, Dubai, Qatar, Nigeria, China, Japan, Russia.

- 2 large airports for convenience and lots of smaller airports if you wish to charter a flight. Lots of landing strips right outside Houston, a lot people here don't bother with traffic for out of town excursions, they just fly.

- Our traffic situation isn't the worst in the country, Chicago, LA and Denver are worse to name a few, but it's still unacceptable considering what we pay, and how easy it would be to fix. We don't need to build new highways we just need to connect through streets and expand to more than 3 lanes at highway junctions in the middle of the city.

- Any of the large cities that have really bad traffic problems also have carcinogenous levels of pollution (benzene etc) the closer you get to downtown. It's not really a matter of "if" you or a family member will get some crazy disease being "within" such a big city, more practically, it's a matter of when. And this happens to be a place where many people don't believe in the effects of pollution yet. Consider this in determining what part of town to live in.

- Chain stores

- High paying jobs for ambitious or educated people - IOW homeless and hippies wont find good work.

- HOAs galore

...And

- Pride

These are the things that stand out to me and people I bring here, different things might stand out to you.

You can't really own a pet tiger. I was out running one time in the 80s and saw a guy walking his 6 ft long several hundred pound tiger on a leash, but read about a month later he had to move it out of town because it wasn't allowed in city limits.