Why does Houston think its not a southern city? (Center: elementary school, population)

[DabOnEm]

Originally Posted by detachable arm

Yes, because criticizing how certain things are shoddily done here compared to the rest of the developed world obviously means I hate myself. Makes perfect sense.

Please go pleasure yourself, and please get out of the house.

Lol. If anything it's the other way around. You allow "your house" to get so bad because you don't have much self-confidence, etc. Happens all the time to people going through things. If you care about yourself then you want the best, not half done BS.

[Johnhw2]

Originally Posted by DabOnEm

Actually you can... I can show you some places in LA like this but point well taken because Houston is pretty unique with stuff like this. Which is weird considering a lot of the initial settlers came from the NE and Michigan. At least in Michigan they have well planned streets and neighborhoods. I wonder why that never happened in Houston for the most part. A Detroit-style layout in Houston would have been nice, just maybe a little more space between the homes.

Space between homes is set by zoning. Houston is the largest US city without zoning. So developers built what sold not what some planner thought people should buy. It's nice not every city and state are the same. Choices and variety are good. You just aren't cut out fir Houston is plan accordingly.

[DabOnEm]

Originally Posted by Johnhw2

Space between homes is set by zoning. Houston is the largest US city without zoning. So developers built what sold not what some planner thought people should buy. It's nice not every city and state are the same. Choices and variety are good. You just aren't cut out fir Houston is plan accordingly.

Space between homes isn't always zoning. Besides you read my comment all wrong. Houston already has more space between homes than Detroit. How close Detroit homes are isn't my style. I still love Houston so I can criticize it if I want. You moved away too didn't you? I guess you weren't cut out for Houston?

[Spade]

Originally Posted by Redlionjr

The sidewalks and amount of ditches in the city of Houston is pretty unreal still for a city it's size. But when you look at the history of Houston's growth you kind of understand why it is the way it is now. A sprawling cosmopolitan city with some exurbs/rural aesthetics within the city. I think simply put Houston just grew way too fast and annexed too much after WW2 before it could really establish and properly focus on developing communities within the city the right way. Like when you get out the loop for instance, you can still see remnants of the farm lands that surround the actual city. So you have these communities with cookie cutter subdivisions, apartment complexes, strip malls with farm land features still surrounding these areas.

Someone brought up Detroit but the difference with Detroit and Houston is Detroit had over 1,568,662 people in 1930. Houston had 292,352 people that same year. Detroit experienced tremendous growth before influx of American highways, suburbs and the automobile. That's what really killed the aesthetic of cities. Ironically those very things helped accelerate Houston's growth and it shows in the way the cities built.

Bingo. I understand the annexation but I also think it has its disadvantages. This is one of them.

[Spade]

Originally Posted by GrandviewGloria

I think of Houston as (and in this order):

Center of a cosmopolitan megalopolis

The Capital of Latin America

A Caribbean city (and certainly the most viable one, although our national situation is ending that)

Mississippi West (a huge percentage of my home state's 160-year-long brain drain, settled in Houston)

Too hot for my huge, hairy husband (which is why we're in PNW/Wyoming/NY, instead)

Whoa. I definitely wouldn't go this far on either.

[Dopo]

Every time this question comes up .... I ask ... what do you mean with Southern?


Geographically? Yes
Culturally (South = Confederacy) = No .... Every single day I hear people speaking Spanish and Vietnamese in Houston ... not exactly "culturally Southern"

[DabOnEm]

Originally Posted by Dopo

Every time this question comes up .... I ask ... what do you mean with Southern?


Geographically? Yes
Culturally (South = Confederacy) = No .... Every single day I hear people speaking Spanish and Vietnamese in Houston ... not exactly "culturally Southern"

Yeah but this is where you have it completely wrong. Southern culture does not equal confederate culture.

[Johnhw2]

My wife loves tropical and therefore Houston climate. I prefer colder four season weather and the flooding concerns are why I'm glad we moved after I retired. I am not cut out for Houston but liked my career there.

Houston has not been a big gov city where extensive planning has been done. Zoning is a concrete example of Houston's free market approach.

This question comes up all the time. The definition of what is southern differs a lot. Some say it's a function of geography and immigrants with different culture heritages do not change a cut it state from being southern to something else. Also even at a simple geography level, Texas is not called part of the southern region very often by our all knowing fed gov which has different regions for Texas more often than they call it southern. I think parts of Texas today have a stroo her southern culture but not most of Texas today. I think Houston was southern feeling 50 years ago but not now as the massive growth with transplants from non southern cultures changed the cultural feel of today's Houston.

[NoHyping]

Originally Posted by Johnhw2

Space between homes is set by zoning. Houston is the largest US city without zoning. So developers built what sold not what some planner thought people should buy. It's nice not every city and state are the same. Choices and variety are good. You just aren't cut out fir Houston is plan accordingly.

It should not take a outsider to know there are numerous links on how Houston Ordinance s can and are like a de facto zoning without the Z-word.

Title: Forget What You’ve Heard, Houston Really Does Have Zoning (Sort Of).

https://kinder.rice.edu/2015/09/08/f...zoning-sort-of

From the 2015 link from the Rice/Kinder Institute.

- For all that’s been made of Houston’s infamous lack of zoning, Festa said it increasingly seems that reputation isn’t deserved or even accurate.

- “We do have a lot of land-use regulations,” Festa said. “We still have a lot of stuff that looks and smells like zoning.”

- To be more precise, Houston doesn’t exactly have official zoning. But it has what Festa calls “de facto zoning,” which closely resembles the real thing. “We’ve got a lot of regulations that in other cities would be in the zoning code,” Festa said. “When we use it here, we just don’t use the ‘z’ word.”

- Houston’s lack of zoning is an interesting quirk among American cities, in part because even those who’ve studied the topic don’t know exactly how it emerged.

- One hypothesis is that it came from a stereotypical Texan attitude: an independent streak, combined with skepticism of government and a hatred of regulation.

- Except that can’t possibly be the case because every other major city in Texas has zoning.

[As Above So Below...]

Originally Posted by DabOnEm

Yeah but this is where you have it completely wrong. Southern culture does not equal confederate culture.

It does and it doesnt. In the modern day, Southern Culture has very little to do with it but there is absolutely no denying the Confederate roots of the culture.