Houston's obsession with LA....can we analyze this please? (Windsor: to live, areas)

[PedroMartinez]

Houston just plain sucks as does Texas. You would be a fool to move there from LA.

Don't fall for the propaganda and hype, it's a literal mirage in the desert.

[1AngryTaxPayer]

Originally Posted by Trae713

Bad example. You can't just up and move an entire industry like that. It had to grow organically out there. It wasn't big all at once.
Not disagreeing with anything you said here, but this:
Is pretty stupid.
Anyone can say anything on the internet. Your post below doesn't really show that, so I'll try to keep it short.See, this is the problem with some of you out there. You're so arrogant and think you're so well traveled and classy just because you live in LA. I hope I don't encounter too many folks like this when I move out there (because I haven't on times visited), but I most definitely will. Just an FYI, the energy industry is a pretty global industry. You should check the destination list at IAH, before spouting BS like "they aren't very cultured or even interesting.....don't travel outside of Texas". Yeah, and no one in LA leaves the Valley. They all just stay there and can't get out.
No, Houston doesn't have the profile of a NYC, Chicago, San Fran, or even LA. The humidity sucks here. It sucks in many places in the country. People still flock to Disney World even though Orlando has worse humidity than Houston. Grow a pair. I see old 80 year old Asian ladies doing just fine in Houston with the humidity. LA's climate is pretty awesome (Basin only of course), but I can do without the June gloom. Houston has blue collar roots. You can get a job at a refinery paying nearly $20 an hour fresh out of high school if you want.
Look, you guys talk about income disparity and all that but do you realize that LA has it worse than Houston? NYC too. Different studies have shown different things.
It depends on where you are. Not even in the East End, just across the freewaay from Downtown, do you smell refiniries. Only in parts of Pasadena, Deer Park, Baytown, or Texas City. You don't smell them in Galveston, Kemah, or any areas South, West, or N from Downtown. Not even a pinch. The rest of your post reads like the 1980s. You also sound like a New Yorker or San Franciscan describing LA, but I digress....
A lot of the poverty added was from New Orleans after Katrina. And the fattest city ranking only comes from Men's Fitness. There are plenty of other publications with different rankings and Men's Fitness' way of ranking is pretty bad. But, if that is the gospel you would like to go by, then go ahead. lmao.

Oh, you well and it will usually be a transplant too.

[ZonaZoo]

I really enjoy the live-and-let-live vibe of Arizona. I've been told the same vibe can be found in the major Texas cities and their suburbs, and I've been told Texas is nothing like Arizona.

I just hope that if I end up in Texas in the future for graduate school and/or a job, I'm not disappointed by the lack of this vibe and overwhelmed by the prevailing vibe, whatever that may be.

[HarryKerryJr]

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).



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.



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.

LA and NYC have more in common, as well.

[HarryKerryJr]

Originally Posted by jm1982

It doesn't matter as much if it's low wage work if you can rent an apartment for $500 a month , pay no state income taxes,etc. Not all jobs in L.A are high paying either. Many many people working at your local fast food joint aren't making the big bucks for example.

Actually CA income tax is pretty good to low wage earners who always end up paying far more in federal income tax. It's the wealthy in CA who feel the sting of the CA Franchise Board, and who, naturally, complain.

[JoninATX]

Originally Posted by BIGBLUE 909SUR

Texans are so stubborn they swear up and down that houston is better than la i had to hear it the whole time i lived in texas. Houston sucks la is more exclusive its very expensive houston will always be cheap to live in because of the high black population.

That's racist... You need to check your facts next time. Also Texans are not the only people that can be stubborn, I met people from Canada that come down here and think there god's greatest gift.

[JoninATX]

This whole thing is ridiculous, so what if some Houstonian's want there city to be like Los Angeles. People from LA should be proud that they have an admirer. Also Houston is not the only city that looks up to a bigger city try Chicago & New York.

[HarryKerryJr]

Originally Posted by munchitup

This is exactly what I am talking about. Personally, the meddlesome personal agendas of Texas' laughably partisan state-level politicians are enough to make it a place I would never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever want to live in, high job growth or not. Atlanta is another city that has this problem.



I don't think Houston has the density levels to support HRT. The San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles is more densely populated than the vast majority of Houston - however the ridership figures were too low to warrant a Red Line extension. If Houston gets anything, it will be a Dallas-esque LRT system.

Not to mention, have you ever seen the pricetag for a heavy rail line? No way that is every going to happen in the state of Texas.

Actually, the Red Line was to be extended further into the SFV and the numbers back then could support it. The problem was NIMBY's who were against ANY mass transit next to their SFV neighborhoods and the economic downturn of the 1990's that just left no money for an extremely expensive subway extension, although them Mayro Riordan tried to "get it out of the ground" to bring construction costs down such as a trench design or elevated. However, even those ideas were still financial impossible with the 90's economic slump. So, Zev Yaraz. pushed for "something" to be done with the Chandler ROW, and the only thing that MTA could afford was BRT, and Zev pushed for it saying,"We paid for it [Chandler ROW]; we're gonna do something with it." Now we have a completely over-saturated Orange Line BRT that just can't handle the large numbers and heavy demand. Everyone keeps talking about a conversion to rail, but the SFV got it's east-west mass transit, and now it's too late as other areas of the city and county have lined up for their project, Crenshaw LRT among them, and the Westside subway extension along with completing the Expo line. Zev blew it.

[HarryKerryJr]

Originally Posted by munchitup

This is exactly what I am talking about. Personally, the meddlesome personal agendas of Texas' laughably partisan state-level politicians are enough to make it a place I would never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever want to live in, high job growth or not. Atlanta is another city that has this problem.



I don't think Houston has the density levels to support HRT. The San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles is more densely populated than the vast majority of Houston - however the ridership figures were too low to warrant a Red Line extension. If Houston gets anything, it will be a Dallas-esque LRT system.

Not to mention, have you ever seen the pricetag for a heavy rail line? No way that is every going to happen in the state of Texas.

Folks in Houston are absolutely against subway only because of its cost, no matter the advantages of subway, including the elimination of car vs. LRT collisions in Houston and addressing complaints of those in Houston who complain their LRT is too slow for many of them.

However, far more in Houston are open to more LRT, but no necessarily elevated or ROW because, again, of cost. Meanwhile, other states and cities gladly take the piles of federal $$$ to construct such expensive projects that are superior to streetcars. It isn't the fact folks in Houston find spending that amount of money beyond their sensibilities, that can be a good thing indicating Houston's frugality, but why not Texans and those in Houston feel that it's about time they get their share of Federal $$$, as they surely believe the Texas and Houston economy fattens the Federal pot of money more than many other states and cities, and Houston would be getting back much closer to what they contribute to the Feds as getting that Federal grant money probably came from Texas and Houston in the first place. Houston would be getting Fed $$ that is Houston's to begin with, anyway.

[MB8abovetherim]

I've read this entire thread and two things:

"The Galleria makes Century City look like Manhattan". WTF? are you serious? WOW. lol because other than Santa Monica blvd and Olympic, CC seems pretty damn dead to me. But hey I could be wrong lol

And second:

Can we PLEASE stop giving Houston credit for NASA and the space program? Please? Because last I checked, if it weren't for the large portion of Aerospace Industry in SoCal and other innovative entities like Skunkworks in Palmdale and North American Corp in SoCal, Grumman (in NY), Lockheed and Martin Murrietta in Maryland...the Space Program would have NEVER gotten off the ground. There's a reason why Los Angeles, New York City and Washington DC each got their very own Space Shuttle exhibit. Houston didn't, because just being the place where the Astronauts lived wasn't good enough.