People Say Houston's ugly but not cities like Chicago, NYC, etc? (Dallas: big house, costs)

[Spade]

Originally Posted by PedroMartinez

SF wouldn't be much different than Houston without the hills, ocean and climate.

You can pretty much do this with every city. There are flat cities that are beautiful.

[LocalPlanner]

Originally Posted by radiolibre99

I never liked that either but Texans love it. They think driving is liberty and don't mind living far away from work or the urban core and commuting. They think public transport is socialist and living so close together is a lower standard of living. I agree to a certain extent but I just don't get how so many are comfortable living out in the exurbs of Ft Bend county and committing into Houston.

For many, they'd like to live closer to the center but turn up their nose at the middle suburban schools because there's too many working class children.

Others just like the idea of living as far out as possible, whatever the commute. To each their own.

[Spade]

Originally Posted by radiolibre99

Yes one thing I will agree on is that most of the architecture in Texas cities is very Soviet block looking lol. It's so practical looking it hurts. I think of Texas A&M campus looking buildings. It's as though the state was trying to be so practical it laughed at the thought of adding on any aesthetic appeal. Just get her done, none of this fancy stuff.

Yep. That's Texas to a t. Or capital T. The infill looks nice but the battle for Houston is now trying to become a dense urban city. The latest estimates for the inner loop has the population at 490,000. That's over 5,000 ppsm. Higher than even the city of Atlanta and the density is increasing in both cities.

[PedroMartinez]

Originally Posted by Spade

You can pretty much do this with every city. There are flat cities that are beautiful.

Does it add beauty?

[PedroMartinez]

Originally Posted by Othello Is Here

Never thought about that but you are absolutely right. Houston definitely has a "eighteens" feel to it.It feels very "Eastern Bloc Architecture".
Of course not so stark but the way many of the buildings are far from the sidewalks reminds one of that.

Like I said earlier the timing and type of boom hurt Houston. Buildings, roads, housing and stores were in short supply and major demand. It was a "I'll take anything" time.

As Radiolibre says, those are being replaced over time.

[Spade]

Originally Posted by PedroMartinez

Does it add beauty?

What ever you have as natural adds period. If Houston built around it's bayous or used them to their advantage and created something innovative around them, I think most people would have a different opinion of the city. Created waterways and bayou walks and watch nature work. I read a comment from a Boston comment a few years ago that said he was impressed that you could hear frogs croaking in the middle of a city. IMO, a city should hardly ever ignore what you have no control of. Imagine if SF ignored the hills and ocean. Imagine if Chicago ignored the lake and even the river. Imagine if DC and Alexandria ignored the Potomac. Climate is what it is. There are many great cities with similar climates. Buenos Aires being one of them. Sydney being another one. Houston could make that work for them.

[PedroMartinez]

Originally Posted by Spade

What ever you have as natural adds period. If Houston built around it's bayous or used them to their advantage and created something innovative around them, I think most people would have a different opinion of the city. Created waterways and bayou walks and watch nature work. I read a comment from a Boston comment a few years ago that said he was impressed that you could hear frogs croaking in the middle of a city. IMO, a city should hardly ever ignore what you have no control of. Imagine if SF ignored the hills and ocean. Imagine if Chicago ignored the lake and even the river. Imagine if DC and Alexandria ignored the Potomac. Climate is what it is. There are many great cities with similar climates. Buenos Aires being one of them. Sydney being another one. Houston could make that work for them.

Our little bayous won't ever compete with an ocean, mountains, lakes or rivers.

The point is that other cities with such attributes automatically get points. People will overlook the homeless camps in LA due to the mountains way off in the distance.

[radiolibre99]

Originally Posted by AI0N

Actually, they can, especially in the areas East of Downtown; the Buffalo Bayou in that area is of similar width to Berlin's Spree River, or Paris's Seine. Read my previous post above yours.

Good point. I always forget the bayou runs through the city like that and that it's pretty large. All of it does get lost in the sprawl. Its going to be amazing to see what Houston does with it.

[PedroMartinez]

Originally Posted by AI0N

Actually, they can, especially in the areas East of Downtown; the Buffalo Bayou in that area is of similar width to Berlin's Spree River, or Paris's Seine. Read my previous post above yours.

I actually took a boat from the turning basin all the way to shepherd drive. Starting from turning basin it will vary fro 50 to about 100 feet staying closest to about 70 feet wide on the east side.

The Seine is between 300 and 500 feet wide depending upon the section.

The Seine also doesn't wind like Buffalo Bayou making it seem even larger due to trees not obstructing it around every bend.

I'll tell you one thing, it was a really cool trip. It's a beautiful ride going into the city. It's quiet and quite tranquil. You don't even know you're down town until you're right on it.

You can still see some old piers from way back when goods moved on it and old bridges. There were a few homeless camps as well.

Somewhere I have some photos of us doing it.

I did have to get in the water to clear debris out of the intake.

[Spade]

Originally Posted by PedroMartinez

Our little bayous won't ever compete with an ocean, mountains, lakes or rivers.

The point is that other cities with such attributes automatically get points. People will overlook the homeless camps in LA due to the mountains way off in the distance.

That's really not the point I was making. I'm saying use what you have naturally and use it to your advantage by fusing it with the city's fabric. Your city's natural wonders is not competing with another city's natural wonders unless you want to do so economically and even then, it really isn't competing that much. It also really doesn't matter if your bayou can't compete with rivers, lakes, sounds, oceans, mountains, hills, w/e. You have no control of that. You do however have the bayous in your backyards. Many of them.