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California Cities vs. Texas Cities which cities are best. These two states are in opinion some of the best of the U.S.A, which top cities rep that G status. Rated on the following...
People (peoples character, atitudes, and style)
Buisness Centers (stores, buisnesses, restauraunts, malls, etc)
Downtown (skyscrapers, tall and large buildings, nice view)
Entertainment and Places of Interest (theme and water parks, movie theaters, historical places, parks, etc)
Nightlife (clubs, bars, partys, cosmo, etc)
Houses and Living (areas to live, houses, and aprtments, etc)
Price ($$$$$$)
Metro (metropolitan statistical area)
Public Advantage (public transportation, airports, etc)
Goverment (mayors, governors, judges, senators, etc)
And Just the city being plain out EPIC AND AWSOME... so whos better?
Texas or California cities, whos the best!!!
I know this is the TX forum, and I live in TX and mostly like it, but the big TX cities (Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, Austin and San Antonio) cannot hold a candle to the big California cities ( L.A., S.F., S.D) topographically, architecturally, i.t.o food options, cultural amenities - popular and high, outdoor activities, fashion, sexiness etc and nightlife (in SF and LA.) TX cities can compete with the dumpier CA cities - Sacramento and San Jose, but not the big 3 glamour cities. TX cities are generally cheaper - which is nice - but then you get what you pay for, have better BBQ and Southern food and slightly less traffic, but otherwise, it is not even a fair fight. I think - bang for your buck - parts of TX cities can be pretty great, but if money were no object, I would a thousand times rather live in Malibu or Knob Hill or Marin County or Pacific Pallisades or anywhere on the beach in San Diego than any of the "best" neighborhoods in TX cities. I like the friendliness of most Texans, but I would no want to put up any of our cities against some of the most beautiful and/or powerful cities in the world.
Many CA cities score in things I don't care much about. I really don't care about pro sports - too expensive for me. Dining that costs me $100 per to eat? Not too important either. Holywood? I despise most of it.
Natural beauty - CA has lots of it, and great weather.
Government - CA fails big. State, local, legislature, almost every which way.
I think San Diego is where I can see myself living. Beautiful, more genuine than LA, and less arrogant than SF.
But if I had lots of money, I would choose Hawaii, not California.
I think San Diego is where I can see myself living. Beautiful, more genuine than LA, and less arrogant than SF.
You are idealizing San Diego. Just as most people do. i used to think exactly the same way. Then i got to live there. For 5 years. House, golf course, mountains and all. San Diego has possibly got the most ideal year-round weather.
But SD is only slightly less superficial than LA. The whole So Cal area has got this Hollywood effect. Everyone wants to be a movie star. Or a surfer
It is very hard to raise kids in that environment. i don't know how people do it. Then there is traffic, taxes, COL, government breakdown. Need i go on?
For sheer natural beauty, California scores high. But then i have seen places in the North East that are ever prettier.
So we left after 5 years in San Diego. Mainly for a better QOL.
That was 6 years ago. It was one of the best decisions we ever made.
I'm not sure if I understand this right but Texas has the most Fortune 500 companies.
Yep that's correct! Also Houston NFL teams 1, LA NFL teams 0.
However - I've never been to California, but no way I'm gonna argue that Houston or Dallas are more world class than LA or SF. Still I am happy to live in Houston, where I could easily afford a nice house on waterfront property with the mediocre salary I make
People--Probably Texas
Business Centers--Toss-up
Downtowns--California's probably
Entertainment and Places of Interest--California
Nightlife--Likely Calif.
Houses and Living--Same in both states probably
Price--Texas, without question
Metro--Very large msa's in both states, if that's what you're asking
Public Advantage--Depends on which cities.
Government--Texas
I've been to California many times. The traffic and cost of living are extreme by any measure--both of which cut into the quality of life, unless you're worth $20 million and have a chauffeur.
Thanks to the posters on this thread for keeping it real. I agree with hofffano and pjoseph2 (among others) that if you want a regular middle-class life and especially if you are raising a family, TX cities would be better, but that is not what the OP asked. But to follow the OP's list, here goes:
People (peoples character, atitudes, and style): Even - and a mix - both states are too big to generalize, and California wins on diversity of people, character and attitudes: S.F is way more different from L.A. than Dallas is from Houston. Also many Texans tend to hate their cowboy roots. Californians are fine with being hippies, surfers, hucksters. And in terms of style, walk around Melrose, West Hollywood, Oakland, Montrose, Olmos Park, West Campus and tell me which people are better dressed. Dallas may very well be the worst-dressed city I have ever been in, largely because people try too hard!
Business Centers (stores, businesses, restaurants, malls, etc): California cities by leaps and bounds - businesses a wash, but in terms of retail for everything - California cities at every price point - much better variety and quality - TX is heavy on national chains and definitionally national chains are everywhere! Restaurants - not even close - TX cities have better BBQ and Tex-Mex(not insignificant cuisines) , and maybe Cajun and Southern Comfort food, but every other kind of cuisine, CA cities have more and better at every price point - Chinese, sushi, Italian (with the exception of 2 restaurants in San Antonio of all places, Italian food in TX makes me want to weep - Houston gave the nation Johnny Carino's and Carrabbas for which they should be shot - who inflicted the travesty of Olive Garden?), Portuguese, tapas, Korean, Ethiopian, Mexican of all regional varieties, obviously Calmex, the locavore movement (Chez Panisse, anyone) and on and on. Ito raw produce, TX is the home of the biggest organicish supermarket chain in the nation - Whole Foods, but CA cities have much better farmer's markets and while TX produce is pretty damn good, the produce in most CA cities is better. Food in TX cities is good and getting better but not anywhere CA cities' level yet. CA cities have WAY more Michelin star restaurants than TX. Does TX have any? Tell me, I wanna go there. Expensive food is way better in the big CA cities, and so is cheap food! And the wine - let's not even go there! Becker's Iconoclast is the only drinkable TX wine! Beer is wash, but both TX and CA beer pale before Oregon beer. Titos out of Austin is the best vodka made in the U.S. that I have ever dunk, but otherwise CA booze is much, much better. Despite all its troubles, if CA were a country, it would be the 8th largest economy in the world. Where's Texas?
Downtown (skyscrapers, tall and large buildings, nice view) Houston, Dallas and increasingly Austin have impressive skylines. None of them have impressive natural backdrops and none of them have a distinctive building like the Trans America tower in S.F. Big TX cities have good skylines, so do big CA cities and the latter are helped by mountains and/or oceans in the vicinity. Compared to NYC, Chicago, or even Philadelphia, both CA and TX cities have mediocre skylines. A wash, but if you are talking about nice views, it gets laughable, the best urban view in the state of TX is from Mt. Bonnell Park in Austin. It is a very pretty view, but if you compare it to the view from the Griffith observatory in L.A., or from every second street corner in S.F., it becomes somewhat mediocre.
Entertainment and Places of Interest (theme and water parks, movie theaters, historical places, parks, etc) Not remotely close. San Antonio has some beautiful Spanish colonial missions, but every California mission is bigger, better preserved, and architecturally more significant. That said TX has the most historically significant mission in the U.S. - the Alamo- which is very small and musty compared to any of the California missions. Dallas has the mound where JFK was shot, but neither TX nor CA cities, relatively speaking, have historical sites of huge national significance. Ito theme and water parks, do you really want to compare Schlitterbahn or 6 Flags to Disneyland? Not a good idea. Art Museums: quality-wise - and perhaps surprisingly, I would go with TX - the Kimball in FW is the best small art museum in the country - perhaps in the world, and there is nothing in CA that I have seen that compares with the Menil Collection and the Rothko chapel in Houston. But quantity wise, CA cities - if you just add the Getty and the Huntington together in LA, you have more art than in the entire state of TX, and I am not even including the SF museums. which are not weak.
Nightlife (clubs, bars, partys, cosmo, etc). CA cities by a gazillion. Name me one world famous nightclub in TX. L.A. alone has 20 plus. Austin had a few nationally significant music venues - the Armadillo World headquarters etc, but they are mostly gone now. Erykah Badu, at least, continues to live in South Dallas. Beyonce is long gone from Houston. TX has been a good place to start a rock and roll career from Buddy Holly to Janis Joplin and the above mentioned, but if you wanna make it big you have to leave.
Houses and Living (areas to live, houses, and apartments, etc) Architecturally in the suburbs of the big cities of both states, we are in a lose, lose. All the major cities of TX and CA have some of the ugliest tract housing in the world, but CA cities, even the much maligned L.A., have a spectacular variety of urban neighborhoods. I would say that only King William's Town/ Southtown in San Antonio, and it is tiny, can compare with the Victorian architectural splendor of most of San Francisco- the East End of Galveston, while falling down and waiting for the next hurricane, is lovely, but there is not enough of it to really take seriously. Swiss Avenue and the Park Cities in Dallas are the most spectacular collection of 1920s mansions in the U.S. after Hancock Park in L.A. For a variety of housing options, CA cities win huge.
Price ($$$$$$). This is the only criterion you posted where TX cities really win. TX cities are way cheaper places to live, and while you get what you pay for mostly, when I get back to TX from CA, and I order a margarita in a bar in Uptown, or the Montrose, or downtown Austin, and its a six dollar long sip of heaven, and I remember that i would have paid at least double for a way worse margarita in San Diego, I am happy to be home.
Metro (metropolitan statistical area) Wash - both states have two MSAs in the top ten in the U.S. But L.A. is way more fun and sophisticated than DFW, and frankly, I think for the fourth largest MSA in the U.S., DFW is a little tragic. It's big enough so it is all there, kind of, but many smaller MSA's feel bigger - Seattle, Philly, Miami, heck even Pittsburgh. All that Houston and the Bay Area have in common is the excellence of dining options. Houston has better Vietnamese food - but I am stretching. San Diego beats San Antonio viciously, but TX wins the fourth largest MSA spot. Austin is a thousand times more interesting than Sacramento!
Public Advantage (public transportation, airports, etc) CA cities easily. There is no TX city that has anything like BART, even though BART always closed to early for me! And even L.A. - the queen of sprawl and public transportation dysfunction has better public transport then Dallas - the only city in TX that has anything resembling a viable public transportation system. Airports - equivalent - you can fly almost anywhere in the world from LAX and DFW non - stop or with one transfer. Ditto for Houston and S.F. Less so for S.D., and S.A or Sac and Austin
Government (mayors, governors, judges, senators, etc) All vile, Ahnold or Governor Goodhair. Talk about being btw a rock and a hard place. CA is bankrupt. TX is not - so I would give the edge to the Texan retard, but the bar is low here. Dunno enough about mayors, but I think it is kinda cool that Houston elected the first openly lesbian mayor in the U.S.. Senators - TX loses, Kay Bail-Out Hutchinson has to be one of the most despicable women in U.S. political life, with none of the integrity or intelligence of either Boxer or Feinstein from CA, and while he is gone, it would be harder to find a more crooked senator in U.S. history than Delay. Look forward to seeing him in jail. TX is a low tax, low service state - seems to be working for now, but, once again you get what you pay for. Top CA universities - public or private are way better than their TX equivalents - some fine institutions themselves, and TX has more children without health insurance than any other state in the U.S.
I guess I had too much time on my hands tonight. I have lived in and loved cities in both states. In many ways, they have more in common with each other than any others states in terms of economies of scale - huge diversified economies, a preponderance of big cities, both having been part of Mexico, oil, dreams of the frontier. They are also very different. There is nothing like Yosemite in TX. There is nothing like Big Bend in CA - though both places have extraordinary beauty. I love Palm Springs. I love Marfa.
But for the O.P.,finally, if you wanna talk city smack, in the terms you outlined, I would have to say CA cities beat TX cities like a red-headed step-child. If you shifted your terms, we could have a different conversation! But in terms of all your criteria, except price and government, all the cards were hugely in favor of CA cities!
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