Why doesn’t Houston attract as many Calif businesses as Dallas? (Austin: crime rates, neighborhoods)

[mkwensky]

Originally Posted by Mr. Clutch

I'd agree that for a visitor DFW is a little more polished, but I'm not seeing how anyone could see the cultural institutions or food scenes between the two as equal. True cultural institutions like museums, parks, colleges, etc. Houston definitely has the edge. Food - it is very good there but they have not generated their own indigenous food scene to the extent we have here.

DFW attracts more companies because 1) they try harder and 2) they are closer to nearly everywhere in the US when compared to Houston. Theres maybe a little hurricane fear there too but I think after 2-3 years post hurricane, most people outside of the region don't remember it much anyway.

Physical differences between the two are overstated - I think Houston is the better looking of the two because it generally is much greener but there's no doubt quite a few prefer DFW's more landscaped, manicured look. I just don't think that has a thing to do with relocations tbh.

Aside from Viet-Cajun fusion what else are in the indigenous food scene here?
If you break food by categories I don't see how Houston wins overall by any significant margin. For example Dallas has better Korean and South Indian food as many here have testified.

I'll agree that MFAH and Museum of Natural Science in Houston are better, but the Dallas area has more of these types of museums because FW tries so hard to be its own city. They even have their own Botanic Garden. I don't know enough about the colleges to comment. But like you said these differences have little to do with relocation.

[ParaguaneroSwag]

Originally Posted by mkwensky

Aside from Viet-Cajun fusion what else are in the indigenous food scene here?
If you break food by categories I don't see how Houston wins overall by any significant margin. For example Dallas has better Korean and South Indian food as many here have testified.

I'll agree that MFAH and Museum of Natural Science in Houston are better, but the Dallas area has more of these types of museums because FW tries so hard to be its own city. They even have their own Botanic Garden. I don't know enough about the colleges to comment. But like you said these differences have little to do with relocation.

I agree with you but that’s not the narratives. Houston is seen as far culturally superior to Dallas. In my opinion it’s as overt stated as this thread. Houston since 2019 has been attracting west coast companies (as if that alone makes the economy better which is also wrong) but people believe something when people say it enough.

[ParaguaneroSwag]

Furthermore, Dallas has been trying to recruit companies for decades. Houston hasnt started making real pushes since Turner which is why we have been getting them more recently. But Dallas has been doing it for decades compared to Houston so it’ll continue to leads for while.

To put perspective, look at ther flip side. Houston has made itself thre medical, medical research and bioSciences capital of the south for decades now. That’s why these types of companies are investing so heavily in Houston as opposed to Dallas. Were Dallas to make a real push, it’s still a long way behind so Houston would still lead for a long time. Corporate relocations are the same story

Edit: for those saying crediting Turner too much, I’m not crediting him. Wether it’s his efforts or not, during turner’s tenure, we’ve attracted a lot More non O&G companies than prior. Wether thats him or someone else’s efforts, it’s still the case. It’s up to you to decide who you want to credit

[Mr. Clutch]

Originally Posted by mkwensky

Aside from Viet-Cajun fusion what else are in the indigenous food scene here?
If you break food by categories I don't see how Houston wins overall by any significant margin. For example Dallas has better Korean and South Indian food as many here have testified.

I'll agree that MFAH and Museum of Natural Science in Houston are better, but the Dallas area has more of these types of museums because FW tries so hard to be its own city. They even have their own Botanic Garden. I don't know enough about the colleges to comment. But like you said these differences have little to do with relocation.

"Aside from".

What type of indigenous food scene is there in Dallas, period? There's your answer.

And yeah I agree with you about Dallas and South Indian and Korean food (and I would add Laotian and Ethiopian as well), but Houston does pretty much everything else better foodwise imo.

Dallas is no slouch here, that's for sure, but I don't see it on the same level.

[shanv3]

They can move to wherver they want for the cool factor of austin or the cirporate factor of austin, but beware that they ll have the location shock asvif they moved to kern county. If dallas was so attractive i m not sure why xom would build such huge campus herevin houston .

Having lived in la and houston, houston is the ministure version of cali in terms of culture, cnvenience, infrastructure( better) and connectivity.

Scenery and entertainment wise only san antonio resembles the landscape of cali to some extent.

[WRM20]

Originally Posted by shanv3

They can move to wherver they want for the cool factor of austin or the cirporate factor of austin, but beware that they ll have the location shock asvif they moved to kern county. If dallas was so attractive i m not sure why xom would build such huge campus herevin houston .

Having lived in la and houston, houston is the ministure version of cali in terms of culture, cnvenience, infrastructure( better) and connectivity.

Scenery and entertainment wise only san antonio resembles the landscape of cali to some extent.

XOM built the campus in the Houston area because there were 15,000 XOM employees here in Houston. Why would they build a campus in Dallas and move that many people?

[HTownNearNative]

Originally Posted by shanv3

They can move to wherver they want for the cool factor of austin or the cirporate factor of austin, but beware that they ll have the location shock asvif they moved to kern county. If dallas was so attractive i m not sure why xom would build such huge campus herevin houston .

Having lived in la and houston, houston is the ministure version of cali in terms of culture, cnvenience, infrastructure( better) and connectivity.

Scenery and entertainment wise only san antonio resembles the landscape of cali to some extent.

Houston is not pretentious enough to CA elite. XOM’s top brass is fine in Dallas. The rank and file can live in “lowly” Houston lol.

[LocalPlanner]

Originally Posted by ParaguaneroSwag

Furthermore, Dallas has been trying to recruit companies for decades. Houston hasnt started making real pushes since Turner which is why we have been getting them more recently. But Dallas has been doing it for decades compared to Houston so it’ll continue to leads for while.

To put perspective, look at ther flip side. Houston has made itself thre medical, medical research and bioSciences capital of the south for decades now. That’s why these types of companies are investing so heavily in Houston as opposed to Dallas. Were Dallas to make a real push, it’s still a long way behind so Houston would still lead for a long time. Corporate relocations are the same story

Edit: for those saying crediting Turner too much, I’m not crediting him. Wether it’s his efforts or not, during turner’s tenure, we’ve attracted a lot More non O&G companies than prior. Wether thats him or someone else’s efforts, it’s still the case. It’s up to you to decide who you want to credit

My earlier post spoke to much of what you're saying, with the addition that firms were also afraid of O&G labor poaching during booms.

Also, for those who think the hurricane / flooding thing has already left people's minds: Harvey has been thing for which Houston got the most publicity since Enron and probably more so since it was the lead on the national news for several days straight with dramatic, harrowing images. And it became well-publicized during that time that Houston was exceptionally flood-prone and lots of folks played up the "out-of-control development" narrative. Don't think for a second that all this didn't damage our corporate relocation appeal.

[shanv3]

Originally Posted by mkwensky

Aside from Viet-Cajun fusion what else are in the indigenous food scene here?
If you break food by categories I don't see how Houston wins overall by any significant margin. For example Dallas has better Korean and South Indian food as many here have testified.

I'll agree that MFAH and Museum of Natural Science in Houston are better, but the Dallas area has more of these types of museums because FW tries so hard to be its own city. They even have their own Botanic Garden. I don't know enough about the colleges to comment. But like you said these differences have little to do with relocation.

What south indian? Saravana bhacan is the most authentic and is there in equal numbers in both the cities. There are 2 more - kumar and sangam thats high quality.

I dooubt if dallas can beat houston in latin and douth american .

[ParaguaneroSwag]

Originally Posted by LocalPlanner

My earlier post spoke to much of what you're saying, with the addition that firms were also afraid of O&G labor poaching during booms.

Also, for those who think the hurricane / flooding thing has already left people's minds: Harvey has been thing for which Houston got the most publicity since Enron and probably more so since it was the lead on the national news for several days straight with dramatic, harrowing images. And it became well-publicized during that time that Houston was exceptionally flood-prone and lots of folks played up the "out-of-control development" narrative. Don't think for a second that all this didn't damage our corporate relocation appeal.

While I agree with your second paragraph, I don’t think that’s what they are saying here. Of course it’s damaged to some degree. What they are mentioning is after a few year(2-3 as clutch mentioned), It becomes no more than those who don’t want to live in a Hurricane prone area already won’t move here and already wouldn’t have before. Even one year after Harvey, a lot of campuses From West Coast and European companies (ABB robotics, Amazon, Bill.com), We’re already beginning to take place. And this was less than a year fresh after Harvey. And this trend has continued. In other words, despite the image you are describing they are still coming. The best way put is “those who would leaver have left by now”. In the meantime, to lessen the impact over time, what Houston can do is work on flood control which so far they’ve made big improvements, but this has to continue.