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I have moved to Houston for the fourth time in 30 years just last summer. I have lived on four continents and traveled across seven. There is no perfect place in US nor the world. Every place has it's issues and compromises. We all have to be clear on what is most important to us and what sacrifices we are willing to make regarding our "quality of life", e.g., family, friends, climate, jobs, culture, schools, politics, etc. I put those in rank order as well! Politics is the last and stupidest reason to move to or from anywhere.
I agree with whoever said you chose a terrible part of Houston given your requirements. The inner loop neighborhoods, Heights and suburbs are quite walkable and full of green space. We walk minimum an hour per day in Montrose and can hit three parks within four blocks of home. The Galleria is a dead zone with horrific traffic. We lived there also! Best we managed parkwise was the area around the Transco Tower on weekends or biking to Memorial Park. But it was a hotbed of restaurants and retail. We walked to the gym. I was five minutes from work.
Hope you are happy wherever you fled to (and then rolled this grenade back under the circus tent).
I haven’t left Houston but I know many folks that have. Houston is the country’s largest archipelago of blue-collar workers and salesmen of every ethnicity. Houston is Los Angeles if Los Angeles had no entertainment industry. Houston is like a parking lot with no signs or painted lines of any kind.
Last edited by Snapper_head; 07-10-2019 at 09:05 PM..
Yea if your not interested in watching the city grow and develop Houston may not be for you. Houston is still a work in progress and not a finished product like Boston or Philly.
You make a good point. Exactly what will Houston develop into, though?
Someone should have had the sense to say “F off, we’re full!”, way before concrete paved over all the land that once soaked up the rains. That’s all I hear about from coworkers after a heavy rain. “My street never flooded like this before!” All I can say is, “Hope you enjoy your neighbors!”
Someone should have had the sense to say “F off, we’re full!”, way before concrete paved over all the land that once soaked up the rains. That’s all I hear about from coworkers after a heavy rain. “My street never flooded like this before!” All I can say is, “Hope you enjoy your neighbors!”
That's not that big a yard. I live inside the Loop on a 1/4 acre lot. There are still lots of large lots if you look hard enough.
I left Houston 7 years ago for LA. I was 32 and had spent over 20 years in Houston. I still go back for Holidays and most of my family is there. I recently moved out of LA and down to Orange County which is like Houston if it had nice beaches on one side and mountains on the other. I much prefer California weather. I do not prefer California overpopulation and Houston is definitely headed there.
Luckily, Houston is actually building the infrastructure for it.
Take the Katy freeway for example. Up until a decade ago, it was 3 lanes in each direction and a total traffic nightmare. Houston tore it down, quadrupled its capacity, and now has enough capacity for west Houston/Katy to keep on growing. Before that, Katy was literally choked and I don't think you'd have nearly the demand out there if they hadn't fixed the 10 freeway.
Los Angeles has a similar freeway, the Santa Ana. For over 50 years it has had 3 lanes in each direction and LA is JUST NOW expanding it. It is an awful horrific nightmare. I was working near central LA up until the first week in June and I moved down here in early May so I commuted for four weeks. I would leave my place at 5:30 and it took until 7:20 most mornings to go the 35 mile trip. I eventually switched over to the commuter train then the LA subway system and it took about an hour fifteen going that route. I also saw homeless fights, arrests, and even stepped around a dead body just outside the Westlake subway stop! fun!
All that to say, The Katy freeway was awful for about 20 years before Houston fixed it and did so within 2 years at the most. The Santa Ana freeway was a nightmare for over 50 years and they started working on it four years ago. It still has another 2-3 years just to bring it up to 5 lanes in each direction with 1 carpool lane on each side... and no feeder road.
Houston gets things done. Like it or hate it, it is a solutions-oriented town. Houstonians don't just sit around and complain, they get to work.
Just like after Hurricane Ike in 08 when I saw my neighbors out in the streets clearing trees and cleaning up the mess. Compare that to the recent Malibu fires we had last year where millionaire residents were screaming at LA Firefighters in a town hall because their mansions didn't get saved in time. I just can't see that scenario happening in Houston.
Ultimately I'd like out of LA and hope to retire in Arizona with my big California pension! But Houston will always be home!
I left Houston 7 years ago for LA. I was 32 and had spent over 20 years in Houston. I still go back for Holidays and most of my family is there. I recently moved out of LA and down to Orange County which is like Houston if it had nice beaches on one side and mountains on the other. I much prefer California weather. I do not prefer California overpopulation and Houston is definitely headed there.
Luckily, Houston is actually building the infrastructure for it.
Take the Katy freeway for example. Up until a decade ago, it was 3 lanes in each direction and a total traffic nightmare. Houston tore it down, quadrupled its capacity, and now has enough capacity for west Houston/Katy to keep on growing. Before that, Katy was literally choked and I don't think you'd have nearly the demand out there if they hadn't fixed the 10 freeway.
Los Angeles has a similar freeway, the Santa Ana. For over 50 years it has had 3 lanes in each direction and LA is JUST NOW expanding it. It is an awful horrific nightmare. I was working near central LA up until the first week in June and I moved down here in early May so I commuted for four weeks. I would leave my place at 5:30 and it took until 7:20 most mornings to go the 35 mile trip. I eventually switched over to the commuter train then the LA subway system and it took about an hour fifteen going that route. I also saw homeless fights, arrests, and even stepped around a dead body just outside the Westlake subway stop! fun!
All that to say, The Katy freeway was awful for about 20 years before Houston fixed it and did so within 2 years at the most. The Santa Ana freeway was a nightmare for over 50 years and they started working on it four years ago. It still has another 2-3 years just to bring it up to 5 lanes in each direction with 1 carpool lane on each side... and no feeder road.
Houston gets things done. Like it or hate it, it is a solutions-oriented town. Houstonians don't just sit around and complain, they get to work.
Just like after Hurricane Ike in 08 when I saw my neighbors out in the streets clearing trees and cleaning up the mess. Compare that to the recent Malibu fires we had last year where millionaire residents were screaming at LA Firefighters in a town hall because their mansions didn't get saved in time. I just can't see that scenario happening in Houston.
Ultimately I'd like out of LA and hope to retire in Arizona with my big California pension! But Houston will always be home!
We don’t call it “the 10” here. LA is showing on you. Don’t forget where you came from.
I left the City of Houston 12 years ago because I was tired of the way the city was run and the direction it was headed in. I moved to Montgomery County but I've maintained a residence in Houston until recently, I'm going to be putting it on the market soon. I couldn't be happier with my choice, Houston is a nice place to visit but I'll never live inside the loop again.
Lived in Houston from 1965 to 1971, went to college there from 1973 to 1977, lived there from 1986 to 1992, and again from 1999 to 2006. Lived in the far exurbs of Houston from 2006 to 2013.
In 2013 we decided to move to our eventual place to retire.
Reasons why we chose against Houston.
Biggest of all - I wanted a four seasons climate where even in the summer it frequently cools off at night. I was willing to take on a little more winter in exchange for a lot less summer. And the spring and fall are glorious here.
The walkable neighborhoods in Houston with safety and easy access to city amenities are have become very expensive. The affordable safe neighborhoods are way way out and might at any time transition to undesirable neighborhoods.
The aesthetics. We are so happy living in the Blue Ridge Mountains. And I detest the sprawl of Houston.
The politics. I lived through the anti-Obama hysteria in a small Texas town for several years and it was so over the top, I pretty much decided I needed to be in a different state. (I probably would have been driven just as crazy living in an extreme liberal environment, but I find living in a purple state to be a good fit.)
After living in the Houston metro for seven years and then in a "one grocery store" town for seven years, I decided that I wanted to live in a small city that had a reasonable level of amenities but without the outrageous sprawl of a Houston area. I had a hard time thinking of a mid-size metro area in Texas to which I would want to relocate. (The Texas metros that are comparable in population are Lubbock and Beaumont. Enough said.)
This sounds so negative but I am actually am a big Houston booster, and I have to go back once or twice a year, if only for the authentic Texas bbq, the good Mexican food options, and the awesomeness that is Pappadeaux.
1. You know there are numerous apartments walking distance from Memorial Park?? If that was your number 1 priority you could have planned a bit better.
2. This is an exaggeration about sprawl all the way to Brenham. In fact, the sprawl pretty much ends in Katy... then you get to Brookshire which has a little bit of development... past Brookshire there is nothing but rural ranch land. I know because I drive this route every weekend.
For the rest it's a matter of opinion, but good feedback and I applaud your decision to leave. Life is too short to be miserable over something you can change!
Regarding sprawl, the Houston urbanized area is actually smaller and denser than Boston's. Boston's core is denser (city of Boston is slightly smaller than the area inside 610, but about 1/3 more people), but the burbs are not. Houston's is 2979/sq mile while Boston's is 2232 based on the 2010 census. Boston's sprawls into 4 states. And for that matter, it is a version of urban sprawl from Boston all the way to Virginia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...es_urban_areas
Over 30 years in Houston, and it has been very good to my family and me. Moved to Houston for the jobs, and after marrying a Houston girl we started out living in the Heights. Loved living in the loop, but my job moved to Clear Lake so we eventually moved that way when we had children as it was way less expensive, and we had heard good things about the schools. After several years, I really grew to dislike the suburbs. The schools were not what we had hoped, neighbors were not as friendly, we felt isolated from the city, the area was totally a car-only culture with no walkability, and we no longer wanted to live in a hurricane susceptible evacuation zone. So we moved back into the loop over 10 years ago, purchasing a smaller house at 3x the cost of our old home, with the intention of perhaps making the city our "retirement" home in the future.
We had everything we were looking for - close to amenities and parks, good public school for our oldest, established neighborhood with friendly and engaged neighbors, the best walkability Houston had to offer, and easy access anywhere in the city. We were ok with the sketchiness of nearby areas, and we knew Houston wasn't perfect but we knew this was the best we could hope to afford for what we got.
But, over time our experiences and perceptions changed. Houston used to be a 10-minute city inside the loop, but over the last several years we have become house-bound during certain hours of the day as not only freeway traffic but local traffic has become horrendous as the area has become more crowded and popular. We dropped our downtown Y membership as a 3 minute trip turned into over 20 minutes, only to arrive at an overcrowded facility. Over the last 12 years we have seen little to no improvement in simple things like missing and broken sidewalks (Richmond), or some streets which remain rubble-strewn (Woodhead, Dunlavy). Many of the small businesses and restaurants we enjoyed are now gone. Oversized $1M+ homes have replaced the bungalows on the small lots, and are filled with unseen neighbors who disappear in and out of front loading garage doors never to be seen again. The homeless situation nearby has ebbed and flowed, but has been on an upswing in our area for the last 2 years due to relocations in EADO and Midtown.
But the nail in the coffin is the cost versus what you get. Property values have doubled, which is only great if you are a seller, but taxes regularly increased by 10% a year most years, and we basically came to the conclusion that in retirement we would no longer be able to afford the house, especially with all of the deferred maintenance on it. And outside of a couple of expensive inner loop neighborhoods, there are really no places in the Houston area to live in with walkability (if you have to drive to get there it then it is not walkable from your home). We have found nothing appealing in living in another Houston suburb, and decent urban neighborhoods in other Texas cities can even be more crowded and expensive.
So, with family connections, we have left Houston and moved to an affordable and walkable neighborhood in Buffalo. Our access to walkable amenities has improved by at least 5x, and we are actually looking forward to enjoying 4 distinct seasons again. Summers are usually 15 degrees cooler than Houston, which is very welcome at this point in our lives. Being retired means no issues with snow, and taxes here are very reasonable for retirees (we will pay no state income tax here at our pension levels, sales taxes are equal, property tax is 1/3 what we paid in Houston (based on lower cost of housing), car insurance 25% less, and homeowners insurance less than half). We have access to beaches, parks, lakes, rivers, and of course are right on the border with Canada. The city itself in undergoing a renaissance, but is not (and likely will never be) growing at the fast clip that strains the services in cities like Houston and Austin. And we never have to deal with tropical weather again in any of its forms.
For anyone moving to Texas, I would still recommend Houston as my preferred city, as it has the most welcoming people and opportunities. But, the city it is and continues to grow into is no longer one I want to live in.
Last edited by RocketSci; 07-11-2019 at 12:02 PM..
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But Houston will always be home!
