I'm another Houstonian that lives elsewhere (Austin for the last 35 years) and I love the city. Not enough to live there, but I go to Houston as often as I can. Mark me down as someone else who thinks the lack of zoning, something the city had briefly during the 1940's, is a tragedy. Yes, the Oilers are gone and I miss them a great deal, as I miss the Astros playing in the National League, the league that plays baseball as it should be played, but Houston is still a great city. Great enough to survive the "Texans" and the American League.
What's ugly? Not having any mountains or bodies of water to look at? Then yeah, I guess Houston is ugly. I live in downtown, right down the street from the Buffalo Bayou. What they've done with that area is incredible. Memorial park is also awesome. I love the downtown view of our city -- especially at night (like most cities). Those who complain about everything being 40 minutes away probably like in Cypress/Katy. Everything I could need or want is 15-20 minutes away.. good luck with that in Chicago (and when you do get there, have fun paying $30 to park). One thing I'd like to see is the continued revitalization of downtown. I think we should be aiming for a shopping district downtown that will lead to increased pedestrian activity.
Live some place else and you'll see Houston's weather sucks, traffic is horrible, and the affordability factor has diminished severely.
I recently talked to a person that thought Houston was "beautiful" (non texan native). I had to do a double take but he mentioned he loved how green it was/is. To each his own.
Houston is no different. I lived in Midtown/Downtown for 10 years. Parking now for like a Taylor Swift concert is $80, in 2013 the Heat tickets parking was $15. Average 1br's are expensive, too. Nothing's cheap in Houston anymore. It's not New York, but the prices have driven up so much. Rent in midtown in 2010 was like 750, now for the EXACT same unit it's 1773. My other unit in downtown was 1270 in 2012, now it's 1980. My family leases out a townhouse in that area, in 2010 we rented it out at $2,700 it's a 3br. Now, if we put it below $4200/mo, it's considered below market value. The food scene, the energy industry, the medical industry, those are all top tier. But the city is extremely corrupt, traffic is HORRIBLE. When I recently moved away, my gym was 1.7mi from me yet it took 45 mins to get there if went after work. Then, I couldn't find parking. And the weather sucks compared to most other cities.
What? Houston is a lot different. Do you pay parking to go to Star Pizza? What about Uchi? Papa's Steakhouse? I said in Chicago you have to pay $30 just to park to go to a restaurant. You can't say "Houston is no different" then compare it to a specialty concert like Taylor Swift that you have to use a pay lot for lol. What was your backup comparison, Astros playoff parking? :grin: If you're leasing your townhome for $4,200 minimum, I apparently need to get in on this action. Also, as someone who has lived up north for several years, I will take Houston's weather all day. Is it better than California? Of course not. But give me Houston weather over Chicago weather any day of the week! There's nothing worse than being freezing cold to where your face hurts walking outside.. and have the roads be dangerous in addition to that.
Yes, they had a lot of brownstones, better public transportation, and generally seemed better manicured - particularly Albany.
My friends from the northeast always comment on that. They can't believe how green (not environmentally friendly, but actually green w/ trees) Houston is. It's both the weather & that everything is so spread out. ^false.
I lived in Clear Lake for about 20 years and loved it. It had such a small town feel. Then I eventually moved downtown to Westcott & Washington and really enjoyed the proximity to the parks, midtown, and everything else. Now I live outside the loop on the westside. Eldridge is nice but everything else seems like such a dump.
Maybe people don't want to feel like they live on a basketball court or in a scary movie with squeaky creaky wood. Do air conditioners and fans not work above or below a certain height?
I believe rocketsjudoka covered the heat stack effect here in a thread about better living through architecture. Essentially in a hot-humid climate like Houston, the best home interior-design is to have tall ceilings coupled with a thermally transmitting floor material - the underlying ground stays relatively cool during the summer. Do you have some sort of phobia related to tall ceilings?
In Chicago at least you can take the train downtown. The Metro in Chicago is pretty good. I could go from the lake shore to Wrigley field I don't think I could do that in Houston. We could have had a decent transport system if not for guys like bob lanier
