Which Texas City could reach world class status first. (Houston: apartment complexes, new home)

[Jack Lance]

Originally Posted by AK123

^^Above quotes were not by me.


I know what you said, and I said it's a major exaggeration.
So what percent is it actually? I don't know, and some of this is subjective. But anyone who says it's 90% is, quite obviously, either exaggerating or inexperienced with Houston. Driving through on the freeways isn't a representative way to make the judgement.

Sorry AK I hit the quote on Komeht's post but somehow got mixed up..

[HtownLove]

Even the highways are not that bad.

Houston does not have hills but hills are a facet of nature, not cities.

The neighborhoods in this city are quite attractive.
Houston has the most lush neighborhoods of any major city in Texas.

Even the hoods here are as attractive as some of the higher income neighborhoods in the other major Texas cities.

People are harping on montrose, but i could probably name about 30 that look better. Conversely i cannot name five neigborhoods that are ugly.

And i challenge the op to post five google map links showing us the butt ugly he is talking about.


Sounds like someone spent one minute too many gazing in the mirror

[AK123]

Again, the below is a good starting point.
So, will world-class mean leaping ahead of Los Angeles? Sydney? I'm not sure. But for Texas, it would be Houston and Dallas that could do it eventually perhaps... and unless there is an unforeseen change in one or both, it would be both of them around the same time.

Global city - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Global City Competitiveness Index: In 2012, the Economist Intelligence Unit (The Economist Group), ranked the competitiveness of global cities according to their demonstrated ability to attract capital, businesses, talent and visitors."

Rank City Score

1 New York City 71.4
2 London 70.4
3 Singapore 70.0
4 Hong Kong 69.3
4 Paris 69.3
6 Tokyo 68.0
7 Zurich 66.8
8 D.C. 66.1
9 Chicago 65.9
10 Boston 64.5
11 Frankfurt 64.1
12 Toronto 63.9
13 Geneva 63.3
13 San Francisco 63.3
15 Sydney 63.1
16 Melbourne 62.7
17 Amsterdam 62.4
18 Vancouver 61.8
19 Los Angeles 61.5
20 Seoul 60.5
20 Stockholm 60.5
22 Montreal 60.3
23 Copenhagen 59.9
23 Houston 59.9
25 Dallas 59.8

[AK123]

Originally Posted by HtownLove

Even the highways are not that bad.

I-45 is bad, if not the worst. And unfortunately, that's the one most visitors use from the big airport to downtown, so it's a bad first impression.
But yes, not all of the highways are bad. And why would one judge the whole city (or 90% of the city) because some of the highways/feeder roads?

Originally Posted by HtownLove

And i challenge the op to post five google map links showing us the butt ugly he is talking about.

I wouldn't hold my breath...

[Komeht]

The vast majority of Houston is lifeless soulless sprawl. It has a wonderful inner city that doesn't get near enough credit. But outside those older inner neighborhoods, its crap. A picture f Houston sprawl looks identical to sprawl in Atlanta, etc.

But I like Houston a lot. The parts worth caring about anyway.

[Johnhw2]

Originally Posted by Komeht

The vast majority of Houston is lifeless soulless sprawl. It has a wonderful inner city that doesn't get near enough credit. But outside those older inner neighborhoods, its crap. A picture f Houston sprawl looks identical to sprawl in Atlanta, etc.

But I like Houston a lot. The parts worth caring about anyway.

Your bias is showing again. where did you get this density and train fetish? College from professors of like mind? Why would any one listen to your view of Houston when you admit you don't care about most of it and more importantly you insult the vast major living in it. FYI no city is worth caring about its people are....cities are concert and steel and wood without souls... we need urban planners who care about people not the city, which is in fact soulless as all cities are

[llmrkc07]

I think Houston has the best chance. It has the largest port in the country, that's a world class trait IMO.

[HtownLove]

You were right AK.

Instead of doing it all he came back with was more erroneous generalizations.

[Cowboys fan in Houston]

Originally Posted by Komeht

The vast majority of Houston is lifeless soulless sprawl. It has a wonderful inner city that doesn't get near enough credit. But outside those older inner neighborhoods, its crap. A picture f Houston sprawl looks identical to sprawl in Atlanta, etc.

But I like Houston a lot. The parts worth caring about anyway.

Alright, its not even my job to defend Houston, but I feel obligated to on their behalf. The description above applies to Dallas and Austin just as much as it does to Houston.

This is pretty absurd. Houston, Dallas, Atlanta, Los Angeles, and Austin (whether they want to think so or not) are all sprawl for the most part. All of the above have walkable places in their cores and maybe a couple outside of there and the rest is suburban and strip malls (even if those neighborhoods have a Dallas or Houston address attached to them). That isnt a bad thing to me. I like suburban living and I could give a (insert expletive) if that makes them not world class. Ill take the diversity and excellent ethnic food options that a place like Plano or Sugar Land offer over living in downtown Austin any day of the week even if they arent as cool and cant be walked.

Again, to answer the question, what in my mind may give Houston a edge over Dallas in world classness has everything to do with the cities excellent fine arts scene which Dallas simply cant match. The other things (dining, walkable neighborhoods, shopping, nightlife, etc.) are pretty well even with maybe Houston or Dallas having a slight edge in some of the mentioned categories.

Are Houston and Dallas world class? Doesnt matter who thinks so to me. I love em both!

[Ag77845]

Originally Posted by Komeht

None of the cities are world class and Austin is particularly laughable. It has not a single museum of real import or note, no financial center whatsoever to speak of, the tech industry here is ok but competes with half a dozen othe tech centers that are equally or more impressive, and the "live music capital of the world" is a bit of self aggrendizing promotion, an in any case hardly qualifies it as a world class on par with Tokyo and London.

Tokyo and Londo are horrible places to live. Many "world class" cities are "world class" simply because of its large population. I know some guys from Hong Kong, a "world class" city, visited Houston and they were jealousy of Texans.

The definition of world class status is not clear.