Why does Houston think its not a southern city? (Center: 2015, apartment)

[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.

[SanJac]

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.

I grew up on the NE side of what is known as the Aldine District which was and is unincorporated Harris County. We had ditches growing up...no sidewalks whatsoever.

I now live in the Heights which for the most part does not have ditches but there are small pockets of streets that do have small ditches - nothing like what I grew up with.

The commonality between these two locations is that neither area floods, other than some minor street flooding. It is rare for houses to take in water in these two locations...and that fact spans hurricanes and floods since Hurricane Alicia in 1983 all the way through Harvey in 2017.

You're right about the rural aspect of Houston...not unusual at all to see horses around my neighborhood when I was growing up... went to school in Acres Homes and oftentimes saw horseback riders on the streets there...

[DabOnEm]

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.

I brought up Detroit, but it doesn't stop there. Detroit is the MOTOR city meaning it's built for automobiles. They had a plan for grand boulevards and a grid layout with sidewalks and went through with it. Even expanding beyond the city of Detroit, the newer suburban areas were built much better than anything in Houston not in an incorporated city or until recently master-planned communities. You can take a look at SoCal which exploded with suburban growth in the 50s, yet the planning then was much better. All of these places developed before Houston experienced most of its suburban boom.

Along with what you said about expansive city limits, Houston developers and city leaders were also just very lazy with the planning and let the city grow as if it was a small Gulf Coast town versus a soon-to-be top 5 metro area in the US.

Originally Posted by SanJac

I grew up on the NE side of what is known as the Aldine District which was and is unincorporated Harris County. We had ditches growing up...no sidewalks whatsoever.

I now live in the Heights which for the most part does not have ditches but there are small pockets of streets that do have small ditches - nothing like what I grew up with.

The commonality between these two locations is that neither area floods, other than some minor street flooding. It is rare for houses to take in water in these two locations...and that fact spans hurricanes and floods since Hurricane Alicia in 1983 all the way through Harvey in 2017.

You're right about the rural aspect of Houston...not unusual at all to see horses around my neighborhood when I was growing up... went to school in Acres Homes and oftentimes saw horseback riders on the streets there...

The ditches are fine to me honestly, but they could have added sidewalks between the houses and ditches. I've seen this in South Florida quite a bit and it's safer for pedestrians too. Anything over the street.

[detachable arm]

People around here say Houston is not "The South" because most people (mainly white people) from Mississippi and Alabama... The REAL South... tell us this.

Originally Posted by DabOnEm

I brought up Detroit, but it doesn't stop there. Detroit is the MOTOR city meaning it's built for automobiles. They had a plan for grand boulevards and a grid layout with sidewalks and went through with it. Even expanding beyond the city of Detroit, the newer suburban areas were built much better than anything in Houston not in an incorporated city or until recently master-planned communities. You can take a look at SoCal which exploded with suburban growth in the 50s, yet the planning then was much better. All of these places developed before Houston experienced most of its suburban boom.

Along with what you said about expansive city limits, Houston developers and city leaders were also just very lazy with the planning and let the city grow as if it was a small Gulf Coast town versus a soon-to-be top 5 metro area in the US.

So in a nutshell... dumb, lazy, cheap and dismissive of those awful Yankee ways... built like some semi-developing-world type place with a spit shine. Sounds like the South to me, and stereotypically so.

[jfre81]

Originally Posted by SanJac

Good grief if you want a master planned community experience then go to The Woodlands.

*blinkingwhiteguy.gif*






The Woodlands is your model of walkable urbanity?

At least say "go to the Strand" or something

[turf3]

Originally Posted by detachable arm

People around here say Houston is not "The South" because most people (mainly white people) from Mississippi and Alabama... The REAL South... tell us this.



So in a nutshell... dumb, lazy, cheap and dismissive of those awful Yankee ways... built like some semi-developing-world type place with a spit shine. Sounds like the South to me, and stereotypically so.

Your location indicates Houston. I take it you're a carpetbagger, then?

[detachable arm]

Originally Posted by turf3

Your location indicates Houston. I take it you're a carpetbagger, then?

Houstonian, born and raised.

However I have lived in a few other places and traveled the world.

And due to both of those points I am allowed to criticize, even though it might twist your panties in a knot.

[turf3]

So, a self-hating Southerner.

Gotcha.

[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)

[detachable arm]

Originally Posted by turf3

So, a self-hating Southerner.

Gotcha.

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.