Houston's obsession with LA....can we analyze this please? (Los Angeles: real estate, high crime)

[bounty80]

Yes. Houston is awesome and way better than anywhere in California - go there!

[Ankhharu]

Originally Posted by munchitup

Houston does sprawl more than Los Angeles. The city itself is much larger than Los Angeles, and the metro area is even larger.

Where in the world did you get that info from?


Houston Metro - 599 square miles with 2.1 million people
LA Metro - 4850 square miles with over 12.8 million people. If you look at just LA and not the metro, it's still larger than Houston with nearly 4 million people.


Houston has a population of over 2.1 million people within a land area of 599.6 square miles (1,553 km2 Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of Houston–The Woodlands-Sugar Land, the fifth-largest metropolitan area in the U.S. with over 6 million people.

Los Angeles, the second-largest metropolitan area in the United States. It is entirely located in the southern portion of the U.S. State of California.

Los Angeles metropolitan area is defined by the Office of Management and Budget as the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), consisting of Los Angeles and Orange counties, a metropolitan statistical area used for statistical purposes by the United States Census Bureau and other agencies. Its land area is 4,850 sq. mi (12,562 km²).
The Census Bureau also defines a wider region based on commuting patterns, the Los Angeles-Long Beach, CA Combined Statistical Area (CSA), more commonly known as the Greater Los Angeles Area, with an estimated population of 18,238,998. This includes the three additional counties of Ventura, Riverside, and San Bernardino. The total land area of the combined statistical area is 33,955 sq. mi.

[Fontucky]

Originally Posted by BarcelonaFan

Your thoughts on this Houston obsession with LA.

The same reason so many Texans haunt the California fora: little brother syndrome. Personally, I'm not even certain there's a Houston forum here at C-D. That's how much interest I have in anything to do with Texas.

[jm1982]

This is the first i've heard of Houston really being compared to L.A . With the jobs though and much lower cost of living I could see that people might consider Houston if they want to live in a bigger city without the crazy cost of L.A living, and actually want to own their own home in a decent area.

I think it's more Austin that is mentioned as a "new L.A" .

I just don't view Houston being obsessed with L.A and they honestly shouldn't be looking to L.A as their economy is a lot better than ours. Texas seems to be a lot better run than California.

[eastontracks]

its not really an obsession, texas cities in general are getting lots of media bc of the amount of jobs that are here. there are still many posts anywhere you look on these forums of "city vs city"

as one who has lived in houston and LA (like you barcelona), i like them both and would go back and forth if i could. both are fun and great in their own ways

[munchitup]

Originally Posted by Ankhharu

Where in the world did you get that info from?


Houston Metro - 599 square miles with 2.1 million people
LA Metro - 4850 square miles with over 12.8 million people. If you look at just LA and not the metro, it's still larger than Houston with nearly 4 million people.

I'll concede that perhaps I was wrong, and the Houston metro area is slightly smaller than the Los Angeles metro area (which is LA-Santa Ana-Long Beach).

However, the Houston metro is not 599 square miles. The city of Houston is.

Los Angeles - Santa Ana - Long Beach: 4,850.3 sq. mi.
Greater Houston: 1,295.3 sq mi

Greater Houston - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Los Angeles metropolitan area - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

But either way, Houston is still a larger city compared to Los Angeles. Additionally, a greater percentage of its city limits are made up of suburban sprawl (low density SFH neighborhoods, huge retail centers with up-front parking, lots of cul-de-sacs and non-grid layout). I'd say Houston sprawls more than Los Angeles, though the Los Angeles area is larger in size.

The LA area can feel more sprawling because it is butted up against what is perhaps the most sprawling metro in the nation, the Inland Empire (there is literally no "there" there).

Originally Posted by Ankhharu

Houston has a population of over 2.1 million people within a land area of 599.6 square miles (1,553 km2 Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of Houston–The Woodlands-Sugar Land, the fifth-largest metropolitan area in the U.S. with over 6 million people.

Los Angeles, the second-largest metropolitan area in the United States. It is entirely located in the southern portion of the U.S. State of California.

Los Angeles metropolitan area is defined by the Office of Management and Budget as the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), consisting of Los Angeles and Orange counties, a metropolitan statistical area used for statistical purposes by the United States Census Bureau and other agencies. Its land area is 4,850 sq. mi (12,562 km²).
The Census Bureau also defines a wider region based on commuting patterns, the Los Angeles-Long Beach, CA Combined Statistical Area (CSA), more commonly known as the Greater Los Angeles Area, with an estimated population of 18,238,998. This includes the three additional counties of Ventura, Riverside, and San Bernardino. The total land area of the combined statistical area is 33,955 sq. mi.

I think the bolded sentence is in reference to population, but I could be wrong.

And the 33k square miles is also extremely misleading. That includes vast uninhabited parts of San Bernardino and Riverside Counties. They are part of a different MSA, and only included in the CSA which counts entire counties when measuring the land area. Houston's at 10k is also misleading I would imagine.

[ZonaZoo]

I'm a senior at the University of Arizona. Recently, I've been looking into graduate programs in Texas. Every time I share that information with someone from Arizona, California, Washington, etc., I either receive blank stares or I'm told some horror story about Texas. Although I take these stories and their associated negative opinions with a grain of salt, one thing is certain: the transition from the western states to Texas must be quite difficult. IMO, Easterners tend to have slightly higher opinions of Texas than Westerners and seem to have an easier time transitioning, at least that's the case with the folks I know from back East who wound up in Texas.

On the other hand, if I moved to Texas from either Rhode Island or Florida, then I don't think the transition would be as difficult. In fact, I would most likely be upgrading.

[Trae713]

Originally Posted by Fontucky

The same reason so many Texans haunt the California fora: little brother syndrome. Personally, I'm not even certain there's a Houston forum here at C-D. That's how much interest I have in anything to do with Texas.

The only reason why I am in this section is because I plan on moving to LA once I graduate. I made a thread to few responses. You should check out the Texas section though. It is absolutely littered with California posters.

Originally Posted by munchitup

Houston does sprawl more than Los Angeles. The city itself is much larger than Los Angeles, and the metro area is even larger.



This is sort of like winning the silver in the Special Olympics (sorry for the offensive analogy, couldn't think of a better one). By standard density, Los Angeles is the densest metro in the country, and by weighted density (the density an average resident lives at), it is number three behind NYC and the Bay Area (and barely behind the Bay).

No, Houston does not sprawl more than Los Angeles. Someone above just posted the facts. And before you say Riverside and San Bernardino counties are huge, realize Texas has some big counties around Houston too. Even looking at urban areas, LA is larger, though its also denser. Houston has pretty consistent density starting from Downtown going W/SW. Then there is that huge area of density in Southwest Houston. You can say its like the special Olympics if you want, but the truth is Houston doesn't spread out like Atlanta or DFW. Those areas have areas have large gaps in density.

Los Angeles is exponentially more dense than Houston. I'll take Los Angeles' medium-to-high densities over Houston's patchwork low-density mixed with scattered high-rise districts. The problem with Houston's high-rise areas is that they are totally scaled for the automobile with little to no thought for the pedestrian. The Galleria makes Century City look like Lower Manhattan.

No not exponentially denser, but still denser. Never said otherwise. And I don't think you know how Houston is setup. The three largest employment districts are all roughly six miles apart from each other in a triangle shape (Downtown, Uptown, Texas Medical Center). There are other districts like the energy corridor. Uptown area has really been changing these past few years. You guys just don't know how much Houston has changed. The google streetviews are outdated in a place like it.

I've seen a handful of locations in Houston that look a little bit like Los Angeles. What areas in Houston look like Los Angeles, especially on the surface streets?

There's nothing wrong with Houston aspiring to grow in density like Los Angeles did in the middle of the century. But for now Houston seems to be a transitioning Southern / Sun Belt city while Los Angeles is a maturing West Coast city. Houston has way more in common with Dallas than it does with LA, and Los Angeles has way more in common with San Francisco / Oakland / San Jose than it does with Houston. In fact, I think Dallas has more in common with Los Angeles from a built-environment standpoint than Houston does.

Westheimer from Midtown all the way to the Beltway. Washington avenue. Some side streets in the loop. The parts of dfw that look like the la area are the suburbs, since it looks so sterile and planned.

[Fontucky]

Originally Posted by Trae713

The only reason why I am in this section is because I plan on moving to LA once I graduate.

I was referring to the members of the Houston (and Texas in general) Booster Club who hang out here constantly.

Originally Posted by Trae713

You should check out the Texas section though. It is absolutely littered with California posters.

(A) I have no reason or need to do that and (B) I'll take your word for that.

[BarcelonaFan]

Houston is obviously larger and wider city due to the massive, massive sprawl. There is no saying in Houston like in LA that it takes 20 mins to get anywhere. It feels like everything in Houston is super far away. The giant parking lots that take over much of the space, the suburban little enclaves in the middle of the city, etc. I mean it does not look seriously dense, at least not as much as LA. The Galleria is very much spread out and does make Century City look like lower Manhattan by comparison.