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Interesting take. I don’t think these things are requirements of being a world class city but it is definitely an interesting take. Igloo coolers, Yeti coolers, TI calculators, Dell laptops, Dr Pepper, (although this isn’t huge outside USA) are all associated more with Texas than they are these individual cities. But I think that has more to do with Texas in general being the bigger brand than Houston, Dallas, Austin and San Antonio individually. Versus Chicago which is a bigger brand than Illinois and Miami which is equal to Florida as well as LA/SF to Cali.
Products/Brands aren't just it. But more of like a lifestyle choice that often get's commercialized into a product.
In the same way Jeans were popularized in California, first as what miners wore during the gold rush, and Levi's is renown for being an important American cultural export as a result, with Jeans upgraded to casual wear that it's blue collar/California cultural origins are largely forgotten.
So for example with the rise of rock music, especially the Beach Boys in California, so did certain associations and items of clothing also get associated with California.
For Igloo coolers to be relevant in that way, their would be a just as popular stereotype of the Houstonian, that has a hunting rifle and an Igloo cooler or something along those lines. Igloo doesn't orient itself as hip branding wise, and while Igloo could have greater cultural relevance, it's just unlikely.
NASA for example was a great way the city could have capitalized on a subculture. But largely because space travel is still expensive and not accessible. It's something folks don't casually do yet. Their is no subculture around folks who go to space, although Houston has already done good branding with having every single sports team be related to space in some way (Excluding Texans).
Uptown is basically the last time Houston made a concerted effort to promote that futuristic/space aspect of itself.
But I do imagine, maybe in 20-30 years when space travel is far more common (likely still gonna be rare), their might be an interesting subculture that spawns around the Space industry in Houston/Texas.
Elon Musk is already changing the narrative, by turning parts of the RGV, into the first space-centered beach town since Cape Canaveral. But because it's largely driven by a company, and it's private land, I don't know if theirs's going to be any cultural relevance from Space X being located there. NASA has the same issue being a government organization.
The Texas Cowboy, as you mentioned is the most iconic part of Texas culture, even though the stereotype is ancient and outdated it has lasting power.
I definitely think, with all the history, and the fact that Texas is currently the Pioneer state for Private Space Travel, maybe an era of Space Western influenced cultural traditions could give Texas cities some cultural relevance. The concept of Space Westerns have been in media for decades, now and both Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk are kind of in their own way promoting that idea in the state of Texas.
If Houston can keep Space City, and actually make the tradition into being the Energy Capital rather than the Oil/Natural Gas Capital. https://abc13.com/space-x-houston-ci...-nasa/6209253/
Those are two things that could truly help the city separate itself from it's competitors economically in a way that would lead to cultural relevance.
Last edited by NigerianNightmare; 11-14-2021 at 04:01 PM..
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I think it has elements of it that are world class like the economy and the culinary scene.
I think Houston is in a group along with Miami, Atlanta, Dallas, Philly, Seattle, etc. where they have elements of being world class but they aren't fully world class.
I think it has elements of it that are world class like the economy and the culinary scene.
I think Houston is in a group along with Miami, Atlanta, Dallas, Philly, Seattle, etc. where they have elements of being world class but they aren't fully world class.
I think Miami is definitely world class. But I agree with your second paragraph other than that.
Uptown is basically the last time Houston made a concerted effort to promote that futuristic/space aspect of itself.
No it’s not. The TMC3 that just broke ground a few weeks ago is the last time. CityCentre is also definitely a more recent futuristic investment along with the Ellington space port. Uptown is a lot of developments behind being the last futuristically architectured neighborhood. And of course not to mention the Ion.
In response to your last paragraph, if Oil & Natural gas doesn’t give Houston a distinction neither will any other energies even if they eclipse O&G in Houston. The closest cultural ties Houston has to the world are space and hip hop. I don’t think any city will eclipse Texas in branding any time soon. I often hear travelers confuse Houston and Dallas while being in the city itself. Texas is Texas in most peoples book. King of the Hill is the image of Texas. SpongeBob mimics the Texas image. the Houston Rodeo is Texas. The Texas State Fair is Texas. The Texas brand is a strong known cultural brand. And for now, it’s what our Texan cities are tied to when we thing of a subculture. They come here to eat BBQ and Tacos. The closest things to have any distinction is Houston Hip Hop/Htown, the Austin hipster and the San Antonio “Tejano”. But all of these are a shell of the much more powerful Texas image.
Many, many times, when a convention or event hits Houston (or Dallas or Austin), they’ll do “Texas edition” while they generally name city editions for other places. This won’t change any time soon. The Top Chef Houston season is a rare time they specified Houston for a thing of this nature (previously they did a Texas season).
Last edited by ParaguaneroSwag; 11-14-2021 at 05:28 PM..
All I know is that if I arrive to the airport of a city
And my only option to go to downtown is renting a car or taking a taxi
I would never call that city “World class”
No it’s not. The TMC3 that just broke ground a few weeks ago is the last time. CityCentre is also definitely a more recent futuristic investment along with the Ellington space port. Uptown is a lot of developments behind being the last futuristically architectured neighborhood. And of course not to mention the Ion.
In response to your last paragraph, if Oil & Natural gas doesn’t give Houston a distinction neither will any other energies even if they eclipse O&G in Houston. The closest cultural ties Houston has to the world are space and hip hop. I don’t think any city will eclipse Texas in branding any time soon. I often hear travelers confuse Houston and Dallas while being in the city itself. Texas is Texas in most peoples book. King of the Hill is the image of Texas. SpongeBob mimics the Texas image. the Houston Rodeo is Texas. The Texas State Fair is Texas. The Texas brand is a strong known cultural brand. And for now, it’s what our Texan cities are tied to when we thing of a subculture. They come here to eat BBQ and Tacos. The closest things to have any distinction is Houston Hip Hop/Htown, the Austin hipster and the San Antonio “Tejano”. But all of these are a shell of the much more powerful Texas image.
Many, many times, when a convention or event hits Houston (or Dallas or Austin), they’ll do “Texas edition” while they generally name city editions for other places. This won’t change any time soon. The Top Chef Houston season is a rare time they specified Houston for a thing of this nature (previously they did a Texas season).
Maybe we can agree to disagree. But CityCentre has never given me the vibe of any Outer Space/futuristic influence. I didn't even know it's supposed to give that vibe, honestly.
While, Gaudy, this is something unique to Uptown, that you don't see in other cities, let alone Houston neighborhoods.
I do not think any of the projects you mention, have Space inspired named streets, rocket/satellite inspired Architecture. Some of them haven't even been built out. Like the spaceport will obviously have some of that, but it's still under construction as far as I know. I think maybe because I used futuristic, rather than space-themed you got the wrong idea. But a lot of those neighborhoods/areas are new, they aren't too me futuristic, in any way. Far more similar to an area like Mueller/The Domain/Las Colinas in development than actually portraying a futuristic image.
For example, SF which is arguably our most Chinese and Asian major city, had white architects design the Chinatown architecture, without much Chinese input. To this day that is one of the most well-known neighborhoods even though it's wholly inauthentic. It's inauthenticity makes it far more iconic than if we had placed a random Shenzhen neighborhood in SF.
We hadn't had the vision to do this with any areas yet, even though we claim we are the "Space City". Uptown is interesting but largely muted, outside of those gaudy intersections.
BTW, what I meant by energy, is that more creatives are into energy versus just Oil and Natural Gas. One of the best and worst aspects of Natural Gas/Oil folks is that they are laidback/ not uptight. Rich Houstonians are some of the chilliest people you meet for that reason. But because of that, the Oil baron culture never developed the quirky characters that would lead to a certain cultural style coming out of Houston. They're all right brained folk. Their fine with things looking a little trashy, and their fine with tearing down old for new (which is actually something I think Houston can capitalize on better).
I feel like folks who are into Solar/Wind and other forms of energy, are more likely to have a love of all things renewable and be environmentalists in their own way, and thus have an outsized cultural impact, because rather than a job. It's more of a lifestyle choice for them.
Those in oil being the wealthy members of Houston society is why Houston looks like this today versus those who became wealthy in a city like Austin or Milan.
Maybe we can agree to disagree. But CityCentre has never given me the vibe of any Outer Space/futuristic influence. I didn't even know it's supposed to give that vibe, honestly.
It’s not. What I figured you meant by Uptown being futuristic is that it’s a business district developed with the modern suburban-urban hybrid mix. Uptown doesn’t in any way shape or form make me think of Space. Only NASA, Ellington Spaceport and the occasional space city themed street art.
I'm talking about the combination of museums, theater, zoo, parks, shows, nightlife, resorts, amusement parks, and other 'big city stuff'. No city will dominate in all of these but Houston isn't in the top 5 really in any category so IMHO it isn't even in the running for having world class recreation. I think twenty years ago the strip club scene was top tier but I doubt it is anymore.
You sound like you have never been to Houston.
Houston is one of the top cities in the country in museums after NYC and DC (which are way above anyone else). It has all the major performing arts, one of the few cities in the country to have them all and some of them are outstanding, and a good theatre scene. The Alley is one of the top regional theatres in the country. Obviously in theatres its not NYC or LA, but pretty good. Never thought of amusement parks as big city stuff. That's Orlando and San Antonio sort of stuff. But yes, we aren't big on amusement parks. Same with resorts. Big city?
It’s not. What I figured you meant by Uptown being futuristic is that it’s a business district developed with the modern suburban-urban hybrid mix. Uptown doesn’t in any way shape or form make me think of Space. Only NASA, Ellington Spaceport and the occasional space city themed street art.
Uptown, has moved significantly away from it. But that was one of the sub-themes when it was first developed. Hence the "UFO" street signs. Like I said some pictures of it, you could see more Space input. But , as a Space City, and one where people generally don't care about their neighbors house as much as they probably should the city, could really capitalize off it's nicknames. A space themed district would be one of those things, that like San Francisco's Chinatown would just bring eyes to Houston. We are already actively trying to channel, the Bayou city with millions of dollars invested into parks along the cities Bayou's and a lot more things down the pipeline. But we haven't yet actually done anything to represent Space City either besides changing the Sports teams names, to represent Space, as well as encouraging the private Aerospace industry to move here.
Uptown, has moved significantly away from it. But that was one of the sub-themes when it was first developed. Hence the "UFO" street signs. Like I said some pictures of it, you could see more Space input. But , as a Space City, and one where people generally don't care about their neighbors house as much as they probably should the city, could really capitalize off it's nicknames. A space themed district would be one of those things, that like San Francisco's Chinatown would just bring eyes to Houston. We are already actively trying to channel, the Bayou city with millions of dollars invested into parks along the cities Bayou's and a lot more things down the pipeline. But we haven't yet actually done anything to represent Space City either besides changing the Sports teams names, to represent Space, as well as encouraging the private Aerospace industry to move here.
Now this is where we agree to disagree. There are neighborhoods that make me see a space city theme but never in a million years would it be uptown.
What I think of Uptown is shopping, office towers and the glamorous post oak. Those UFO street signs never made me think of space but just a fancy street sign along with the fancy neighborhood it’s in. Eating at Mastro’s steakhouse at the Post Oak while seeing the ultra modern sky scrapers on my view make me think uptown. If I see anything space related, it would be out of place. I guess I’ll take your word for it that at some point the city tried making uptown a space city theme but they backfired for the better. Those UFO signs just look like a fancy glitzy marker. Uptown is a fancy glitzy neighborhood. That’s the correlation people see.
Montrose and EaDo on the other hand make me think of space city theme way more then Uptown. Their space city street art is apparent. I can go in a quirky bar and order a space themed local brew. Or catch an Astros Rockets game. Etc.
If I really want to experience space any more than that, I’ll go to NASA or Ellington in the future.
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