Anyone here familiar with Houston, TX and surrounding areas?

[walker1962]

Originally Posted by Mr. Matt

I'm from Portland, OR. Born and raised. I am in search of someone who has knowledge of both Portland and Houston Metro and surrounding suburbs and outer lying areas just beyond the burbs.

I'm from Houston and visited Portland several times. Not much similarities:
Metro Houston is 3x larger, more latino, more black, but a lot of Asians as well.
less expensive, more humid, not as good as PDX on public transportation, not as environmentally conscious as Portland.

[Mr. Matt]

Portland has an old North and East side. The South and West sides are newer. Is there sections of Houston that are partitioned like this or is it a scattered mix of old and new. I'm talking predominantly. Obviously there are older homes amongst newer ones and vice versa.

[texasdiver]

Originally Posted by Mr. Matt

Portland has an old North and East side. The South and West sides are newer. Is there sections of Houston that are partitioned like this or is it a scattered mix of old and new. I'm talking predominantly. Obviously there are older homes amongst newer ones and vice versa.

Portland is a much older city. In 1910 Portland's population was over 200,000 while Houston was only about 70,000. Houston didn't pass Portland in size until the 1940s.

Houston didn't really explode in population until after WW2 and after air conditioning became widespread. So it was developed mainly with the 1950s auto-centric suburban sprawl model. Most of Portland was completely built out by WW2 along streetcar corridors (Burnside, Bellmont, Hawthorn, Division etc.) before the auto was the predominant development force.

Houston is really more like other sunbelt cities like Atlanta and Phoenix. Portland is really more like older east coast cities

[pnwguy2]

Originally Posted by texasdiver

Don't think you can actually do that. In terms of size and population, you would have to take the entire Seattle metro area and drop it down around Salem and create a combined Seattle-Portland metro area to equal the size and population of greater Houston.

Portland is also defined geographically by the rivers and hills. The upscale neighborhoods like the Portland West Hills and Lake Oswego are defined by fixed geographic features. Houston has none of that. The poor and rich areas of Houston are all equally nondescript and only differ based on the built environment not geography.

That said....

Exclusive old money neighborhoods of Houston such as River Oaks and parts of Memorial would be roughly equivalent to the old money parts of the Portland West Hills like Bridlemile, Hillsdale and Forest Park.

Denser more urban neighborhoods of Houson like Rice Village, Uptown, Montrose, etc. would have their equivalents in inner SE Portland. Houston doesn't really have any equivalent to the Pearl District that I'm aware of, but that could be changing rapidly. Whole neighborhoods crop up almost overnight.

Lake Oswego would be most equivalent to the Woodlands

Beaverton and Hillsboro with lots of Asian immigrants and Asian families who moved there for the schools would be roughly equivalent to Sugar Land

Camas WA with lots of young families, big-time HS football, and lots of newish upscale subdivisions highly regulated by HOAs would be roughly equivalent to Katy.

But Houston is really a LOT different from Portland. It is a MASSIVE immigrant city and the southern gateway to the US. Houston is a majority-minority city with millions of Hispanics, blacks, and immigrants from every part of the world. Portland is perhaps the whitest major city in the country. The wealthy areas in Houston are wealthier and larger than anything in Portland and there are huge swaths of run down poor slums that have no real equivalent in Portland. Houston also just has literally endless expanses of suburban sprawl and suburban subdivisions. And ever increasing ring freeways and toll roads to accommodate all that sprawl. Portland has MUCH less of that due to the urban growth boundaries and limits on rural development and sprawl.

I had to look this up, but you are correct. Seattle MSA + Portland MSA = < Houston MSA.

I have never been a resident of Houston, but have spent some time there. It is a majorly sprawling city that has little in common with Portland. As mentioned above the demographics are totally different with a large Hispanic and African American population.

The city is freeway-centric, but is working on light rail. Like Seattle, Houston got a somewhat late start on this compared to Portland.

Interestingly, Houston is one of the most gay-friendly cities in the U.S.

Of course the obvious is the different climate and geographic features. Houston has extremely humid weather from May through September, and mostly mild winters. Natural disaster threat: Houston flooding and hurricanes, Portland earthquakes. Flat vs. Portland's hills and mountain views.

Houston has a lower cost of living overall.

Two very different cities at the end of the day.

[Yellow buttercup]

No, Houston does not partition by older vs newer. There are distinct neighborhoods, but they are defined by the local large employer (for example, NASA defines Clear Lake or there is a Hospital district inside the 610 Loop) or by economic status or demographics. Neighborhoods are not defined by building style.

Galveston is the only place in the Houston area that has a sizable amount of older Victorian style buildings, since that is the area that was built in that era. Galveston is now a beach town, with very few jobs.

There aren’t that many homes in Houston that are “older” in the way that someone from Portland would think of “older”. If you ask someone from Houston about “older” homes, they will think that you are talking about 1960s / 1970’s era single story ranch homes. The 1920’s era homes in Houston weren’t built like older homes in Portland. One of my friends lived in an original old home in West University Place. That neighborhood is expensive, but their older home wasn’t charming or grand like older homes in other cities. It felt like it was built for hobbits. The home had low ceilings and doorways. At 5’6”, I had to duck my head so I wouldn’t hit my head going through doorways. There was no central air conditioning, so the house was miserably hot even with the beautiful old trees shading the house. Most of the original homes in that neighborhood have been torn down and completely rebuilt with large houses that have modern amenities including central air conditioning and full sized kitchens, baths and closets. I would not recommend living in Houston without central air conditioning. It would be like living in Portland without heat. You can survive, but it wouldn’t be pleasant.

People decide where to live in Houston based on proximity to their job or fitting in demographically with the neighborhood. Neighborhoods aren’t defined by architecture, but by the people who live there.