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Old 06-07-2010, 07:54 PM
 
Location: ATX-HOU
10,216 posts, read 8,076,869 times
Reputation: 2037

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Quote:
Originally Posted by kate_she View Post
and Dallas has better public transportation.
Don't be a sheep.

 
Old 06-07-2010, 08:12 PM
 
Location: Austin, TX/Chicago, IL/Houston, TX/Washington, DC
10,138 posts, read 15,950,632 times
Reputation: 4047
I give the credit to Scarface713 for the Phase II and Phase III pictures, the Phase I and Commuter Rail pictures I found on my own.

Houston Light Rail
Houston Now: (Phase I)
http://www.urbanrail.net/am/hous/houston-map.gif (broken link)

Houston in 2012: (Phase II)


Houston 2015-2018: (Phase III)


Okay I know this thread is only about Light Rail, but I think seeing a map for the future Commuter Rail is important too.

Houston Commuter Rail
Houston Commuter Rail (2016-2020):
http://www.ctchouston.org/blogs/christof/wp-content/commrailhphase1/overall.jpg (broken link)

^^ The Commuter Rail lines are in Orange and Purple, the ones in Blue are the Light Rail lines for Phase II. (See Phase II map above for detail)

The Commuter Rail lines will be connecting Houston to Galveston, Fort Bend County (Sugar Land, Missouri City), Tomball, The Woodlands, Conroe, etc...

I know Dallas has some beautiful plans for expansion too, perhaps one of the Dallasities can provide a map of what it looks like now and what it will look like in the future?

They're both great cities, I have tons of fun in them both.
 
Old 06-07-2010, 08:34 PM
 
165 posts, read 137,704 times
Reputation: 15
Quote:
Originally Posted by dv1033 View Post
Don't be a sheep.
What? That doesn't even make sense?
 
Old 06-07-2010, 08:42 PM
 
1,534 posts, read 2,755,239 times
Reputation: 3593
Ok. I think the whole premise of this thread is wrong. There are no REAL cities in Texas. There are huge collections of suburbs in search of a city in the DFW and Houston MSA's. The DFW MSA is particularly tragic for the 4th largest MSA in the U.S. All the amenities may be there but they are monstrously spread out. You need to get in a car to blow your nose in 95% of the metroplex. Houston is a little better but not much. For urban and urbane living in Texas, downtown San Antonio and downtown Austin are the only truly urban neighborhoods in the state, i.e places where you can walk to a hundred plus bars and restaurants, a few art galleries, grocery stores, clothing shops, dry cleaners, libraries, schools etc - i.e. everything you need for your everyday life is no more than half a mile away from your home. The inner ring neighborhoods of east Dallas and faux urbanist Uptown in Dallas, Montrose, Rice Village and the Heights in Houston are not there yet. Dallas has potentially great urban infrastructure. Deep Ellum could have been the Soho of the 21st century - the bones are there, but instead it became an entertainment district of dubious viability. While DART is good for TX, it is shockingly bad compared to NYC, Chicago, Boston or BART for public transportation. In real cities, subways run 24/7, which means as far as I am concerned only NYC, Chicago and Mexico City count as real cities in North America. (Sorry Toronto). A real city is a place where the most expensive residential real estate is in or right next to the heart of its business and commercial vitality. In TX, this is true only of Austin. If you want an urban as opposed to a suburban life in Texas, downtown Austin and downtown San Antonio have way more to offer than anywhere in Houston or DFW. Heck, you can live more like a city person in the East End of Galveston than you can anywhere in Houston or DFW. You can live a great suburban life in the two biggest MSAs in Texas, but let's stop pretending they are cities in any historically meaningful definition of the term. Ditto for Phoenix, Atlanta and Denver, and most of L.A., though L.A. has some wonderful urban pockets!
 
Old 06-07-2010, 09:17 PM
 
Location: Willowbend/Houston
13,384 posts, read 25,610,803 times
Reputation: 10590
^^^If youre going to toot your horn about San Antonio and Austin like that, you have to include Fort Worth. Its downtown is every bit of what youre describing about San Antonio and Austin and its every bit as good (if not better than Austin).
 
Old 06-07-2010, 09:26 PM
 
Location: Austin, TX/Chicago, IL/Houston, TX/Washington, DC
10,138 posts, read 15,950,632 times
Reputation: 4047
Fort Worth's downtown is more lively than Austin's.
 
Old 06-07-2010, 09:31 PM
 
1,534 posts, read 2,755,239 times
Reputation: 3593
Quote:
Originally Posted by LAnative10 View Post
^^^If youre going to toot your horn about San Antonio and Austin like that, you have to include Fort Worth. Its downtown is every bit of what youre describing about San Antonio and Austin and its every bit as good (if not better than Austin).
Not really - while downtown Fort Worth is fun for a weekend, and more of an urban space than downtown Houston or Dallas - it is still too tourist and entertainment oriented to be livable. It is basically too small- just Sundance Square and a few adjacent blocks. You cannot walk to a decent grocery store like the Whole Foods flagship on 6th and Lamar in Austin, and most of the restaurants in downtown Fort Worth won't deliver to your apartment! I have also never managed to hail a cab off the street in downtown Fort Worth, though I have seen one or two!
 
Old 06-07-2010, 09:42 PM
 
Location: Austin, TX/Chicago, IL/Houston, TX/Washington, DC
10,138 posts, read 15,950,632 times
Reputation: 4047
Quote:
Originally Posted by homeinatx View Post
Not really - while downtown Fort Worth is fun for a weekend, and more of an urban space than downtown Houston or Dallas - it is still too tourist and entertainment oriented to be livable. It is basically too small- just Sundance Square and a few adjacent blocks. You cannot walk to a decent grocery store like the Whole Foods flagship on 6th and Lamar in Austin, and most of the restaurants in downtown Fort Worth won't deliver to your apartment! I have also never managed to hail a cab off the street in downtown Fort Worth, though I have seen one or two!
It's still a ever growing city, I'm sure they'll make accommodations for those things eventually. I think they will skip out on the cabs and go straight to LRT, IMHO.
 
Old 06-07-2010, 09:54 PM
 
Location: ATX-HOU
10,216 posts, read 8,076,869 times
Reputation: 2037
Quote:
Originally Posted by homeinatx View Post
Ok. I think the whole premise of this thread is wrong. There are no REAL cities in Texas. There are huge collections of suburbs in search of a city in the DFW and Houston MSA's. The DFW MSA is particularly tragic for the 4th largest MSA in the U.S. All the amenities may be there but they are monstrously spread out. You need to get in a car to blow your nose in 95% of the metroplex. Houston is a little better but not much. For urban and urbane living in Texas, downtown San Antonio and downtown Austin are the only truly urban neighborhoods in the state, i.e places where you can walk to a hundred plus bars and restaurants, a few art galleries, grocery stores, clothing shops, dry cleaners, libraries, schools etc - i.e. everything you need for your everyday life is no more than half a mile away from your home. The inner ring neighborhoods of east Dallas and faux urbanist Uptown in Dallas, Montrose, Rice Village and the Heights in Houston are not there yet. Dallas has potentially great urban infrastructure. Deep Ellum could have been the Soho of the 21st century - the bones are there, but instead it became an entertainment district of dubious viability. While DART is good for TX, it is shockingly bad compared to NYC, Chicago, Boston or BART for public transportation. In real cities, subways run 24/7, which means as far as I am concerned only NYC, Chicago and Mexico City count as real cities in North America. (Sorry Toronto). A real city is a place where the most expensive residential real estate is in or right next to the heart of its business and commercial vitality. In TX, this is true only of Austin. If you want an urban as opposed to a suburban life in Texas, downtown Austin and downtown San Antonio have way more to offer than anywhere in Houston or DFW. Heck, you can live more like a city person in the East End of Galveston than you can anywhere in Houston or DFW. You can live a great suburban life in the two biggest MSAs in Texas, but let's stop pretending they are cities in any historically meaningful definition of the term. Ditto for Phoenix, Atlanta and Denver, and most of L.A., though L.A. has some wonderful urban pockets!
I'm not seeing how Austin or SA is any better? They have cohesive downtown areas but that is it. The public transit in Austin and SA is lacking, even for cities their size. I'm not really sure what your definition of urban is? It seems you base it off of how many bars and restaurants you have in your downtown.
 
Old 06-07-2010, 09:55 PM
 
Location: Pasadena
882 posts, read 2,237,326 times
Reputation: 466
Quote:
Originally Posted by homeinatx View Post
Ok. I think the whole premise of this thread is wrong. There are no REAL cities in Texas. There are huge collections of suburbs in search of a city in the DFW and Houston MSA's. The DFW MSA is particularly tragic for the 4th largest MSA in the U.S. All the amenities may be there but they are monstrously spread out. You need to get in a car to blow your nose in 95% of the metroplex. Houston is a little better but not much. For urban and urbane living in Texas, downtown San Antonio and downtown Austin are the only truly urban neighborhoods in the state, i.e places where you can walk to a hundred plus bars and restaurants, a few art galleries, grocery stores, clothing shops, dry cleaners, libraries, schools etc - i.e. everything you need for your everyday life is no more than half a mile away from your home. The inner ring neighborhoods of east Dallas and faux urbanist Uptown in Dallas, Montrose, Rice Village and the Heights in Houston are not there yet. Dallas has potentially great urban infrastructure. Deep Ellum could have been the Soho of the 21st century - the bones are there, but instead it became an entertainment district of dubious viability. While DART is good for TX, it is shockingly bad compared to NYC, Chicago, Boston or BART for public transportation. In real cities, subways run 24/7, which means as far as I am concerned only NYC, Chicago and Mexico City count as real cities in North America. (Sorry Toronto). A real city is a place where the most expensive residential real estate is in or right next to the heart of its business and commercial vitality. In TX, this is true only of Austin. If you want an urban as opposed to a suburban life in Texas, downtown Austin and downtown San Antonio have way more to offer than anywhere in Houston or DFW. Heck, you can live more like a city person in the East End of Galveston than you can anywhere in Houston or DFW. You can live a great suburban life in the two biggest MSAs in Texas, but let's stop pretending they are cities in any historically meaningful definition of the term. Ditto for Phoenix, Atlanta and Denver, and most of L.A., though L.A. has some wonderful urban pockets!
Some truth to what you said, but for the average American family Houston and Dallas(DFW) are the place to go. For the urbanite, I think they'll be ok in DT Austin or DT San Antonio, but Dallas and Houston are better cities, with more diversity, more amenities, better public transportation, better shopping(not that I care), etc.

And while you won't get as much of the urban neighborhoods in Houston and Dallas as opposed to DT Austin and SA, you will get the better city, and at the end of the day, Houston and Dallas will be the better cities.

The city life is better in the Houston and Dallas, while Austin and San Antonio can have the better urban life in one neighborhood of the entire city.

Austin and San Antonio are mid-sized metros, and Dallas and Houston are major/big metros, so while their one urban neighborhoods might be better than the "urban" neighborhoods of the bigger metros, Dallas and Houston offer a lot more than ATX and SA ever will.
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