NB/SA vs. Houston Area, soon to be a grad (Dallas: condos, townhomes)

[UKUKUK]

I like Mexican food, I speak Spanish and German, I love the heat, hate the cold, I don't mind 100+ as long as I've got a bottle of water at hand. I'm moderately conservative and like my guns. I see that the two areas I'm looking at are both growing rapidly (I'm an urban and regional planning major) and have low unemployment.

So I ask you, City-data.com, New Braunfels-San Antonio, or Houston, TX?

I plan to visit soon, but just a preemptive question, which city is better to settle down with the misses in? Why?

Any other recommendations?

[713 to 210]

Well, you're posting in an SA forum so expect the "my city is best" argument. However, I've lived in both and would immediately recommend Houston over SA for you. Here are the reasons:

1) Houston has significantly more and varied job opportunities, especially for a college grad.
2) Houston is much more urban than SA, but still much less than NYC or Chicago.
3) You have many more planning opportunities in Houston due to its size and the many bedroom communities around the city (Sugar Land, Pearland, Katy, Bellaire, West University, Conroe, Richmond, Clear Lake, etc. etc.).

Weather is pretty much the same except for much more rain in Houston. You can eat great Mexican food as well as speak Spanish in both cities. German is equally represented N and NW of both cities, not sure you'll be able to speak it with anyone though.

Please feel free to ask any questions, I'll be as helpful as I can.

[makiten]

Originally Posted by 713 to 210

Well, you're posting in an SA forum so expect the "my city is best" argument. However, I've lived in both and would immediately recommend Houston over SA for you. Here are the reasons:

1) Houston has significantly more and varied job opportunities, especially for a college grad.
2) Houston is much more urban than SA, but still much less than NYC or Chicago.
3) You have many more planning opportunities in Houston due to its size and the many bedroom communities around the city (Sugar Land, Pearland, Katy, Bellaire, West University, Conroe, Richmond, Clear Lake, etc. etc.).

Weather is pretty much the same except for much more rain in Houston. You can eat great Mexican food as well as speak Spanish in both cities. German is equally represented N and NW of both cities, not sure you'll be able to speak it with anyone though.

Please feel free to ask any questions, I'll be as helpful as I can.

I lived mostly in SA, but I was in Houston from 2005-2009. I was a Cougar, though that's not entirely something I care about.

That said, I agree that you'll have varied job opportunities, but I had little success in getting any in my field. I spent most of my time in Houston working at Internet marketing agencies and if that's where I wanted to stay, I could move around easily.

But I consider each city to be more urban than each other depending on how I define "urban." San Antonio's an older city, so the core is more urban in the sense that there's older architecture and more condensed. In Houston, they offered a lot of condos, townhomes, and other urban features, but mostly in Midtown and Uptown. Downtown should have more to me. Like the inner suburbs in Houston, SA's are fairly affluent (relative to each area) and urban, and outer suburbs are representative of sprawl. But Houston has more. I lived in/near Cypress, Spring, Humble/Kingwood (even though that's incorporated in Houston)/Atascocita which reminded me of the outskirts of SA and its NE suburbs. But I don't know if I'd recommend too many suburbs to a recent grad. And I'm someone who hates "city."

One interesting thing about San Antonio, particularly outer suburbs, is that they really feel like strict bedroom communities (e.g. Shavano Park, Hollywood Park, Hill Country Village, China Grove, etc.) and don't have the corporations like Sugarland have. So from that perspective, I'd recommend SA if you're not expecting suburbs to have any form of corporate profile and can think creatively on how to look for jobs. If not, I'd recommend Houston because you have a better chance of landing some kind of job since it's a larger population.

[dvlpr]

Originally Posted by 713 to 210

Well, you're posting in an SA forum so expect the "my city is best" argument. However, I've lived in both and would immediately recommend Houston over SA for you. Here are the reasons:

1) Houston has significantly more and varied job opportunities, especially for a college grad.
2) Houston is much more urban than SA, but still much less than NYC or Chicago.
3) You have many more planning opportunities in Houston due to its size and the many bedroom communities around the city (Sugar Land, Pearland, Katy, Bellaire, West University, Conroe, Richmond, Clear Lake, etc. etc.).

Weather is pretty much the same except for much more rain in Houston. You can eat great Mexican food as well as speak Spanish in both cities. German is equally represented N and NW of both cities, not sure you'll be able to speak it with anyone though.

Please feel free to ask any questions, I'll be as helpful as I can.

To the OP:

I don't necessarily agree with 713 to 210's claims.

1) Houston is a big, big city. It's almost triple the size of SA. So it's undeniable that there are a greater number of jobs in Houston. I mean, there's a greater quantity of everything in Houston.

2) I don't agree that Houston is "much more urban" than SA. Frankly, neither city can claim to be very urban. Houston's made greater progress in bringing higher-density mixed-use redevelopment to it's downtown and near-downtown areas, but SA has a greater quantity of in-tact historic neighborhoods that surround the central city (SA's downtown is heavily geared towards tourism). So it really depends on what you mean by "urban" (I don't think tall glass office buildings have anything to do with it). Plus, Houston can rival Atlanta or Dallas for having the most/worst sprawl of any major American city, and all the associated crap that comes along with that.

3) There will be more jobs in Houston overall (again, simply as a function of its size). But the greater quantity of "bedroom communities" doesn't mean there will be more "planning opportunities". Houston doesn't do much applied urban planning (and neither does SA). In both cities, most planning is done by civil engineers (yeah, I know, it sucks).

If you're interested in pursuing a career in planning, one thing you should know about TX is that state law supersedes local authority in many applications that relate to centralized urban planning. Cities and counties have limited control here on regulating development/construction. Most planners I know and respect work in the private sector for architectural/landscape architectural firms. A few work for civil engineering firms. Virtually every 'planner' that works at a city is just a bureaucrat who processes permits.

I have great friends in both cities. Houston is more dynamic and professional, and has more of just about everything. I think it can be relatively charmless, though, compared to SA.

SA is much more laid-back & slow-paced (and that's not always a good thing). It's a place with a great and unique history, and has a joyful sense about it. SA doesn't take itself too seriously, and for that reason, some people consider it to be too sleepy and/or not progressive. This is something that single & young people routinely complain about (with some justification).

You'll be able to have a nice life in either place. Good luck.

[makiten]

Originally Posted by dvlpr

To the OP:

3) There will be more jobs in Houston overall (again, simply as a function of its size). But the greater quantity of "bedroom communities" doesn't mean there will be more "planning opportunities". Houston doesn't do much applied urban planning (and neither does SA). In both cities, most planning is done by civil engineers (yeah, I know, it sucks).

But probably less so with Houston. I never heard or read any attempts to revitalize an area, which bothered me because if any parts of Houston could've had any charm, they were east or north of downtown, not west. Sugar Land is the only city I can think of where there were white collar jobs IN Sugar Land. The Woodlands had one or two (Anadarko comes to mind) and Kingwood had some large recruiting firm based there. Katy had Igloo containers and Academy. Politics in all of those areas, as you said, don't allow for planning.

Originally Posted by dvlpr

I have great friends in both cities. Houston is more dynamic and professional, and has more of just about everything. I think it can be relatively charmless, though, compared to SA.

SA is much more laid-back & slow-paced (and that's not always a good thing). It's a place with a great and unique history, and has a joyful sense about it. SA doesn't take itself too seriously, and for that reason, some people consider it to be too sleepy and/or not progressive. This is something that single & young people routinely complain about (with some justification).

You'll be able to have a nice life in either place. Good luck.

Agreed. Though I've had many struggles with the "not taking itself too seriously" part, in Houston I felt like people wanted and made a lot of grassroots initiatives but nothing changed. Possibly the lack of urban planning?