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There are a number of well made points above. The head scratcher to me is why Fort Worth gets so little love.
a). Who really cares and why if Fort Worth has an uninspiring skyline relative to Dallas and Houston?
b). To my way of thinking Fort Worth would be a great place to live, work and raise a family.
c). For a night of boozing and whatnot I'd take DT Fort Worth over Austin, with a nod to SoCo, every single time, and have for that matter.
Agree with this. Add the note that Austin has made an intentional focused appeal to the age 20-32 upscale Anglo demographic and acts like it ignores or even snubs most other groups.
Agree with this. Add the note that Austin has made an intentional focused appeal to the age 20-32 upscale Anglo demographic and acts like it ignores or even snubs most other groups.
Precisely. Austin feels like an early 20s, upper middle class "basic" white girl's take on everything. Even the "authentic" taco trucks look very hipsterish and the prices match what you would expect from a hipsterish taco truck.
It's very blah, to me. I certainly would not pay what they want for housing to live there.
Austin: In many ways, its the most fun city in Texas. Its quirky, young, liberal, outdoorsy, and creative. In many ways, its a walking contradiction. Its pretentious and can be politically tone deaf especially on issues of race. Its the favorite city of people from the West Coast and I can honestly see why. The positives and negatives Austin has are more similar to the same of the Bay Area, Seattle, and especially Portland. Traditionally seen as a white city, it is diversifying quickly but a little unevenly as the black community has not grown nearly as fast as the other racial/ethnic groups.
Dallas: On the positive side, Dallas is the most well rounded city in Texas. It is diverse, has good nightlife and restaurants, it has a very diverse economy, and excellent shopping and gay nightlife. Like Austin it is pretentious but unlike Austin its very formal. On the downside, the only thing that stands out about Dallas is that it doesnt really stand out in one specific category. Its an inoffensive place that is still a work in progress. Anyone from anywhere can make a good life there. Dallas is a city that you could put in any state and it would fit in fine. Its quintessential Middle America albeit far more liberal and international than most places in Middle America.
El Paso: New Mexico but in Texas. It's separated from the rest of Texas by such a large distance that its not comparable to the rest of the state. Its a cute Southwestern desert city that is cheap, friendly, and the people cling closely together. Im not a desert person but if I was this may be my top choice.
Fort Worth: Along with San Antonio, this is the most unique city in Texas. Its a city that clings closely to its Western heritage. Fort Worth has never pretended to be anything it isnt and doesnt seem to care what others think. Fort Worth is what happens when you take West Texas (east of the mountains), make it into a big city, add lots of culture, and more diversity.
Houston: A city that is extremely international and diverse, it wears these characteristics on its sleeve and they are the defining characteristics of the city. While there are some beautiful neighborhoods in the city as well as some urban forests and parks, overall its a very ugly city and easily the least attractive of the major cities in Texas. Its much more industrial than the other Texas majors and a large portion of the city is covered by smoke stacks and factories. Its an extremely unorganized city with no zoning and this is a turnoff for many people but other (such as myself) dont really care. Its extremely cultural with an amazing culinary scene.
San Antonio: Along with Fort Worth, the most unique city in Texas. Its a city full of Mexican Americans who are generations removed from Mexico. This is different from the other major cities in Texas since their Mexican communities tend to be more directly tied to Mexico. Its a military and tourist city surrounded by some of the best landscape in the central part of Texas. Its a very friendly and unassuming city.
Ft Worth is 10x uglier than Houston.
Ft Worth has some nice attractions downtown and near their museum district...but most of the city is an unattractive wasteland.
Its not an accident that no one outside Texas (and for that matter in Texas) ever speaks about going to FT Worth.
Don't tell anyone from Dallas......but IMO the nice areas of Houston are superior to their Dallas counterparts. Houston just has much rougher looking areas than Dallas that offset some the things they do that is superior to DFW.
Agreed, Woodlands & Conroe look better than most Dallas suburbs.
My take:
Austin
Positives:
-- Best job market for tech workers, especially software engineers.
-- Very outdoorsy, outgoing, fun place to live and work, plenty of hiking and biking options. Local to Hill Country and Water recreation
-- Despite becoming corporate, still carries a relaxed and easy going culture. I can go to work in Blue Jeans and a T-Shirt, don't have to be 'in office' at 8am and the daily grind is fairly relaxed for much of the workforce.
-- Awesome skyline for a city its size.
-- Californiasque cliche (for better or worse) while most Austinites will not agree that they carry a similar California vibe, it is VERY similar to California.
-- Has the stronger University in the state (UT) - not sure but I think RICE surpasses UT but I could be wrong about this.
Negatives:
-- The politics are practically leading down the same tracks of LA, San Fran, Portland, Seattle. All of which have proven to do nothing but increase taxation, cost of living, homelessness, and decrease quality of life.
-- It's alittle 'too' liberal in some areas which worries me because some are so opinionated that they are not very good listeners or open to hearing other view points outside of their own, even if their own view points very well could harm others unintentionally should they become enforced.
-- Homelessness has gotten out of control, largely due to my first negative, the politics.
-- It is the queen and capital of virtue signaling of any place I've ever been to.
-- Infrastructure is absolute garbage for a city its size. It would literally need to be rebuilt from scratch to solve its traffic issues. Traffic signals here are horribly coordinated and the city council absolutely loathes automobiles or doing 'anything' that may assist anyone's commute in their grand scheme to push transit. I'm not against transit, I'm pro the $7 Bill transit referendum but cars should not be alienated as a commuting method.
-- If you need a professional sports team, you better like Soccer.
Dallas
Positives:
-- Probably the best planned city of any Texan city, Excellent road system.
-- Corporate foundation making it nearly impossible to find yourself unemployed here regardless of what field you're in.
-- Excellent selection of suburbs, great K-12 schools
-- Attempt at a transit system. It technically is possible to live without a car, albeit, not convenient.
Negatives:
-- Is overshadowed by its suburbs.
-- It is EXTREMELY sprawling and uncentralized as it is not just a metro, but a metroplex - a collection of multiple urban entities in one geographic region merged into one mega urban region.
-- While DFW is very well planned, they do not want to end the sprawling pattern. There is very little emphasis in core urbanization vs sprawling further out into the ranches. This is a terrible land-use idea.
-- Dallas proper is very underwhelming, especially downtown.. ..for a metro area that is pretty much runner-up to Chicago.
-- Transit system leaves alot to be desired, its great that they atleast have it, but they went the cheap route instead of the effective route.
-- It's an extremely segregated city by both wealth and race. There's a massive starking difference between the Northern and Southern suburbs where the prestige and glamor goes north while south gets left in neglect.
Houston
Positives:
-- A true international city. It's kind of a diamond in the rogue in this aspect. Its primary industry attracts culture from around the globe.
-- Contrary to popular belief, Houston is 'not' a broke city. Some of the wealthiest people in the state live in Post Oaks.
-- Galleria is to die for, I absolutely love that mall.
-- Also has diverse industry much like Dallas, but not as clarity as Dallas. Like Dallas, it is also a transportation hub as its a port of entry and hosts a harbor. It also hosts a strong bio-med and emerging tech scene.
-- While this is brushed under the carpet by Austin, it hosts more events than any other city in the country.
-- Very good culinary scene. You can get just about anything you want here.
Negatives: -- Houston this is what makes me cry because Houston would be a fantastic city should it not have these major drawbacks.
-- Total neglect of planning for the terrain it encompasses for natural disasters such as Hurricanes and flooding. They literally build subdivisions on flood plains and use highways to funnel water. If this isn't the pure spitting image of American $ Greed in the lust of growth and economic developer and investor prosperity, I don't know what else is.
-- Did I mention that they seriously need better planning to mitigate flood waters AWAY from residents aboding there?
-- For better or for worse, lack of zoning. Some like it, some hate it.
-- Heavily industrial, some areas are blotted in soot so bad you begin to wonder if there's really any Oxygen in the air you're breathing.
-- Mold issues
-- When god finished building the world, on the 7th day, when he rested, he suddenly jumped and realized he forgot to make humidity .. .. being that this was his day off, he created it and put it all in one place and forgot about it. That place is modern day Houston.
San Antonio
Positives:
-- Also adjacent to Hill Country much like Austin, has very scenic areas.
-- Is actually a very beautiful city with supporting architecture as well.
-- Riverwalk
-- Probably the most concentrated on tourism out of any city in Texas
-- Strong freeway system for a city its size, note that I said 'freeway' and not 'tollway' hint hint the rest of Texas.
-- Maintains its traditional Texan culture and embraces its history rather than sacrificing it in the lure of growth and prosperity
Negatives:
-- It gets a bad rep for being blue collar and military. Personally I haven't had an issue with these people and see most of them as people just seeking to live earnest lives.
-- It does have crime issues.
-- It's not as humid as Houston but its HOT AS HADES in the summer.
-- The only major Texan city that does not have a single passenger rail service.
FortWorth
Positives:
-- Like Dallas, Great infrastructure
-- Maintains its traditional Texan culture while also embracing growth, keeping the two at balance
-- Maintains the most elite suburbs in the DFW metroplex (Westlake and Southlake)
-- Seems orientated toward a younger audience
-- Downtown is much cleaner and lively than Dallas
Negatives:
-- Like the rest of DFW, its suburbs are very lopsided in terms prosperity.
-- It kind of gets overshadowed by Dallas and the rest of the metroplex in terms of outsiders looking in.
Last edited by Need4Camaro; 09-08-2021 at 12:50 PM..
[quote=As Above So Below...;61864780]
Houston: A city that is extremely international and diverse, it wears these characteristics on its sleeve and they are the defining characteristics of the city. While there are some beautiful neighborhoods in the city as well as some urban forests and parks, overall its a very ugly city and easily the least attractive of the major cities in Texas. Its much more industrial than the other Texas majors and a large portion of the city is covered by smoke stacks and factories. Its an extremely unorganized city with no zoning and this is a turnoff for many people but other (such as myself) dont really care. Its extremely cultural with an amazing culinary scene.
The bolded is so overblown, but whatever. If it's what you perceive then it is what it is.
If you're a bird then I guess you would care, but you could literally spend your entire life in Houston and never see a smoke stack and factory. The visual doesn't match the reality.
Houston: A city that is extremely international and diverse, it wears these characteristics on its sleeve and they are the defining characteristics of the city. While there are some beautiful neighborhoods in the city as well as some urban forests and parks, overall its a very ugly city and easily the least attractive of the major cities in Texas. Its much more industrial than the other Texas majors and a large portion of the city is covered by smoke stacks and factories. Its an extremely unorganized city with no zoning and this is a turnoff for many people but other (such as myself) dont really care. Its extremely cultural with an amazing culinary scene.
The bolded is so overblown, but whatever. If it's what you perceive then it is what it is.
If you're a bird then I guess you would care, but you could literally spend your entire life in Houston and never see a smoke stack and factory. The visual doesn't match the reality.
yeah....I'm A Dallas resident that thinks the idea of Houston being "ugly" gets way over blown.
Houston is a typical big city with parts of town that are very nice, and parts of town that are not so nice.
When I think of unattractive cities the first places that come to mind are places like Memphis, Newark, Jackson Mississippi, Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Detroit....etc
Houston is nowhere close to being as poor or unattractive as the above cities.
Houston's forestry (Palm, Pine and Cypress trees), and affluent neighborhoods inside 610 make it easily more attractive than Ft Worth, or for that matter any other city in West Texas.
Precisely. Austin feels like an early 20s, upper middle class "basic" white girl's take on everything. Even the "authentic" taco trucks look very hipsterish and the prices match what you would expect from a hipsterish taco truck.
It's very blah, to me. I certainly would not pay what they want for housing to live there.
And that taco truck is probably owned and run by Anglos.
Austin, like the West Coast (or maybe more so), is where stuff by non-Anglos goes to get "legitimized" as "cool" by Anglos who appropriate and copy it while claiming "authenticity."
Ft Worth is 10x uglier than Houston.
Ft Worth has some nice attractions downtown and near their museum district...but most of the city is an unattractive wasteland.
Its not an accident that no one outside Texas (and for that matter in Texas) ever speaks about going to FT Worth.
Don't tell anyone from Dallas......but IMO the nice areas of Houston are superior to their Dallas counterparts. Houston just has much rougher looking areas than Dallas that offset some the things they do that is superior to DFW.
I like some of your posts but aren't you the guy who said there are no/very few trees in Preston Hollow?
Also, I'm guessing you must not know Fort Worth very well.
To the Dallas homer who claims Fort Worth is "ugly" (which FW is far from an ugly city).
As the city of Fort Worth, what I would say to Dallas in the words of Matt Damon from the bar scene in Good Will Hunting: Maybe, but at least I won't be unoriginal.
yeah....I'm A Dallas resident that thinks the idea of Houston being "ugly" gets way over blown.
Houston is a typical big city with parts of town that are very nice, and parts of town that are not so nice.
When I think of unattractive cities the first places that come to mind are places like Memphis, Newark, Jackson Mississippi, Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Detroit....etc
Houston is nowhere close to being as poor or unattractive as the above cities.
Houston's forestry (Palm, Pine and Cypress trees), and affluent neighborhoods inside 610 make it easily more attractive than Ft Worth, or for that matter any other city in West Texas.
Ironically, Houston has areas that resemble parts of Baton Rogue and Detroit imo. In my opinion, cities like Detroit, Newark, and Memphis suffer from a lot of blight. Now I think there’s a difference between blight and parts of Houston that were developed poorly or heavily centered around a blue collar industry. For example, believe it or not Detroit because of its history has some beauty in a lot of their neighborhoods. Beautiful homes with plentiful character. Problem is when the auto industry left and after the riots, Detroit started to lose a lot of its glitter and gold.
New Orleans has has a lot of blight but a lot of neighborhoods and architecture that are simply imo more attractive than any neighborhood in Houston. And that’s despite the blight.
Houston imo does have an image problem. Houston is not a metropolitan area that has a poverty issue like those cities you mentioned, but it’s a booming bustling city that has a lot of unattractive parts due to the way they intentionally developed parts of the metro. Granted there’s a lot of truly beautiful neighborhoods in the metro. I think the bulk of unique beautiful neighborhoods are located within the loop. There’s also some nice looking communities outside the loop as well. Problem I have id all throughout the metro is just some straight up ugly to bland city and landscapes throughout the metro. Not even talking about the obvious East half of the metro. I’m talking the bland boring subdivisions and roadways like FM 1960/Hwy 6/249/2920/ Westheimer(past the Galleria headed west), the list goes on and on. On both sides of roads like this is strip mall/shopping center after another. Cluttered on both sides.
Don’t get me wrong Dallas has areas like this as well but it’s roadways are generally more uniformed and organized. Bland but not a cluster mess like Houston.
Also just my opinion but outside of The Woodlands, Conroe, Kingwood and Atascocita I don’t think Houston’s forestry (outside the loop) is that impressive. You have pockets of nice forestry outside the burbs I named but Houston’s built in environment does nothing to compliment it’s forestry. Now is it better than Ft.Worth or West Texas? Of course. I don’t ever recall Ft.Worth being praised for its natural or built beauty outside of downtown.
And maybe my forestry standards are just different. I grew up in Northeast Texas the Piney Woods. I prefer that look of darker green Pine Trees w/ rolling hills and red dirt complimenting neighborhoods that were built before the 70s.
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