Why is Houston so ghetto? (Dallas, Austin: upkeep, tax rates, cost of)

[LocalPlanner]

Originally Posted by jfre81

Maybe someplace where that Venn diagram overlaps.

Houston was one of the originators of the suburban-sprawl-type perceived ghetto.

[Vacanegro]

Maybe you should visit Miami sometime...

[Juventud Guerrero]

Originally Posted by LocalPlanner

Houston was one of the originators of the suburban-sprawl-type perceived ghetto.

I think many people don't realize that sprawled out suburban areas can also be low in come and high crime...

[Celiene61]

Originally Posted by Juventud Guerrero

I think many people don't realize that sprawled out suburban areas can also be low in come and high crime...

I agree, the only problem I ever noticed is that some people living in the "far out surburbs "did not believe there was any crime in their area. I experienced that when I lived in The Woodlands years ago.

Which, BTW had areas of low income and higher income. Areas where more crime happened, and areas with less crime. Typically it was the areas closer to the freeway. The theory was that it was easier to hop on the freeway and get out of the area, without getting caught. There might have been something to that theory.


Anyway, People believed that " the crimes were often made up" why, IDK.

I heard a few people suggest Insurance scams and the like.

There was an incident on the street where I lived, and it made the area newspaper. Later on, a mass email went around, stating that the incident never happened. Via one of the HOA presidents. There were HOAs at the time. I tend to believe those have ceased to exist out there?

The homeowner, a gal who was a O+G attorney at a large concern in the Galleria area, got ahold of the police report and posted it via the same methodologies.....so it was in just about every home owners E-box.

It was a Houston Sheriff who was passing thru the area at the time, took the call, and made the report.

This Sheriff did not care for the sugggestion that the event was erroneous.

[Mr. Clutch]

Originally Posted by philopower

Houston is ghetto as hell because of all the ghetto Mexicans and blacks. There’s a difference between being poor and being ghetto. You can be poor and still have class — keeping your house maintained, being pleasant, living your life. Being ghetto is way different; there are tons of blacks and Mexicans who lack class and respect for themselves and their environment. Dallas is a similar city but has less of these undesirables. Source: I’m Mexican American and grew up around blacks and Mexicans.

I grew up in Houston around poor blacks and poor Mexicans as well. It's no different than the summers I spent in Montgomery County with family being exposed to poor whites who littered, didn't take care of their properties, and exhibited the same type of antisocial behavior. Regardless of race, some people take care of things, some don't.

Houston actually has a better educated, higher-earning population of blacks than Dallas, Texas as a whole, or the United States does as a whole. For Hispanics, the bag is a little more mixed, but they generally tend to do better here than in Dallas and Texas as a whole as well. (Texas is actually behind the United States in both Hispanic wages and Hispanic educational acheivement, but the cities are a bit better.)

I mean this to say that just because you grew up around Mexicans and blacks doesn't mean what you say makes sense. A ghetto is a place anyway, not a person.

The vast majority of the people I've met in Houston are pleasant and live their lives. Most are probably classy enough not to stereotype entire groups of people behind a computer screen, but there quite obviously are a few classless people here.

[Juventud Guerrero]

Originally Posted by philopower

Houston is ghetto as hell because of all the ghetto Mexicans and blacks. There’s a difference between being poor and being ghetto. You can be poor and still have class — keeping your house maintained, being pleasant, living your life. Being ghetto is way different; there are tons of blacks and Mexicans who lack class and respect for themselves and their environment. Dallas is a similar city but has less of these undesirables. Source: I’m Mexican American and grew up around blacks and Mexicans.

It's sad that in this day and age there are people that still think like this... Btw San Antonio is majority Hispanic and it's not ghetto at all.

[jfre81]

Really, I don't even know what to say about evaluating cities (as singular, monolithic entities) based on an ill-defined quality (that largely depends on the speaker's worldview) described by a colloquialism that originally referred to where Nazis sent Jews in Warsaw to be rounded up later.

[Celiene61]

Originally Posted by jfre81

Really, I don't even know what to say about evaluating cities (as singular, monolithic entities) based on an ill-defined quality (that largely depends on the speaker's worldview) described by a colloquialism that originally referred to where Nazis sent Jews in Warsaw to be rounded up later.

That's quite a mouthful

[ADCS]

Jeez.

When people say Houston looks "ghetto", I'm inclined to think that they mean it's not cohesive, and poorly maintained.

Houston's a place where upkeep is very, very difficult on account of the hot, humid subtropical climate. The infrastructure is shoe-string given the City of Houston's massive area, upkeep requirements, and (particularly Anglo) Texans' aversion to taxation. This means, from the start, that the built-out environment will not be what it would be where there are more resources (higher taxes), and more concentrated resources (lower area). This is compounded by the CoH historically outsourcing infrastructure construction to private developers.

[LizzySWW]

Originally Posted by ADCS

Houston's a place where upkeep is very, very difficult on account of the hot, humid subtropical climate. The infrastructure is shoe-string given the City of Houston's massive area, upkeep requirements, and (particularly Anglo) Texans' aversion to taxation. This means, from the start, that the built-out environment will not be what it would be where there are more resources (higher taxes), and more concentrated resources (lower area). This is compounded by the CoH historically outsourcing infrastructure construction to private developers.

Can you (or anyone) provide links to data supporting the claim that it's primarily white people causing Houston to have a ghetto appearance because of an aversion towards taxation?