You can say the same thing about any other U.S. city not named Boston, New York, San Francisco, or Chicago. What do they all have in common? Their boom happened a long ass time ago.
Houston is an ugly city, let's just accept that. The lack of zoning laws is dumb, with a city as big as Houston, its downtown is really lame, if there were actual zoning laws, our downtown might be 2x bigger and more vibrant than it is now.
Probably the least walkable city I've ever been to. Miles and miles of strip mall shopping centers and parking lots linked by highways. Lack of greenspace needs to be addressed.
Anyone that writes one sentence and adds discuss is a tool. It is quite possibly the laziest and weakest waste of a new thread. Add a little more substance next time brah. Discuss. By the way, we have a lot of strip malls, cause go to a lot of strip malls.
Pretty much. This city has a population of 2 million spread over 600 square miles. It's just a big sprawl.
I agree. As much as I love this city for its friendly people, amazing variety of restaurants, relatively vibrant economy, and low cost of living, it's mostly a flat expanse of freeways intersecting major roads with McDonalds, Chase banks, Chevrons, Murphy's Delis, Best Buys, etc. Houston is great for making money and flying on random weekends to better cities like Vancouver, Denver, NYC, and Chicago. That being said, I love most of the neighborhoods inside the loop in addition to the Galleria area (the space in between Woodway to 59 and from 610 to Voss).
Right... it is what it is. I think the greenspace is underrated, actually. Memorial and Hermann parks are great, and there are other options if you look hard enough. However, even then, compared to Austin, it doesn't measure up on greenspace. Also, I know multiple people in Austin that live downtown, and rarely venture out. I knew no one in Houston that really did that. I'm sure there are, and I'm sure that number increases if you include midtown, but even then, I recall tons of midtowners that would hop in the car to drive to the other side of midtown. And frankly, while living there, it didn't seem THAT ridiculous. Austin clearly isn't NYC or San Francisco, but it's downtown is definitely walkable, and enjoyable to do so.
