This actually depends on how one defines inside a metro area. Then one has to ask, what's the park acreage per citizen and what percentage of the city is open space versus developed. Houston has the one big park then nothing sizeable for about 90 minutes of driving time in any direction. I loved going to Memorial Park almost every day when I lived inside the loop but after about 10 am it was pretty crowded...
Hey, I said there was no tangible connection, and admitted I was being irrationally biased. I was merely lumping my one actualized complaint about the city of Houston in with others about which I have zero knowledge. Sensible argument? Not in the least.
Who cares about editorial pages. They are all garbage anyways. The WSJ is still primarily a business newspaper.
fair enough... i just hear people judge different cities around the country by that kind of stuff all the time. you know you've made it when you own a product that people feel compelled to buy in order to increase the stature of their city
I think to really judge any city honestly, you need to get a local to give the REAL tour... hit up the club no minors, the goode compnaies, the el pueblito's... all the spots you won't find in a damn tour guide. Give me two days and I can show you why I love Houston... you may not think it is better then your hometown, but I can promise you when people ask you about Houston, you will say that you had a great time when you were there. That's what we should aim for. I have lived in Nashville (loved it) and freaking Bakersfield, CA (loved it) and the way I got to love those places was to absorb the community and the locals and find out the little things that make the place special to those people. It's too easy to hate Houston because of the traffic or the smog... All I ask is for people to look a little harder and TRY to like something before you say you hate it.... That goes for life in general if you ask me... if all you see is the negatives then you will never be satisfied.
Ok, this might be kinda a touchy question, but MB how old are you? I think age has a lot to do with how one views a city. As a female who is young and single, I just think that Chicago is more attractive to someone with my lifestyle. And what about the city is pretty?! You HAVE to be kidding me. The skyline is amazing, the arcitecture is absolutely ridiculous, they have the entire city on a lake with a "river" running through. There is art EVERYWHERE and the culture is outstanding. As for property values, I am learning that few cities can compete with Houston in that regard. And the weather? Summer in Chicago can not be beat. Granted the winters almost kill you, but it is something that you must adapt to.
How about that big park that has the Houston Zoo, the Museum of Natural Science, free ballet, opera, symphony, theatre and community dance at Miller Outdoor Theatre; that sits right next to the rail line and is directly across the street from the Museum of Fine Arts, and not far from the Children's Museum?. . Rice University is right there, and there's at least three jogging and bike areas nearby. A personal favorite is North and South Boulevards. I also like riding on Lovett Blvd. It's good to ride and stop off at Berryhill for a drink. You got to make an effort, man. It's all right there.
I used to volunteer at the Children's museum, never really thought it was that much of park around there unless they moved it, it's been about fifteen years. I used to ride from Memorial hit the Buffalo Bayou Trail, ride around Rice, then to the bad side of town (which was the most exciting part of the ride). Yes, there's stuff there, I just think it just pales in comparison to other cities, but that's just a difference of our opinion at this point.
I've only been to reliant once. The cool thing was that it was next to the astrodome. Dwarfing it. But this is the thing... Where are all these people going to sleep and eat? First of all the East coast airport is like an hour and half away from the stadium. It took me a long ass time to get to the hotel. Second there was no where to eat near the stadium in my opinion. Although I did not venture much further than the little stretch of highway next to the parking lot. Thirdly, do you have hotels near the stadium? I saw some really small ones. I'm just concerned that this stadium is next to nothing. That was just my observation. The Strip clubs were great. A+. Some of the best ever, but I was not impressed with the surrounding area around the stadium. Maybe I missed something tho'.
The problem is that when you get outside the loop, you run into the crap. But, in truth, most cities have problems when you get outside the city center. There is blight and crappy development everywhere. I'm glad they forgot to mention that Memorial Park is the second largest urban park in the country after Central Park and that we have more theatre seats per capita than any city other than NYC or that Houston is not only one of the most diverse cities for people, it is also one of the most diverse for plants. Oh, and the fact that, when completed, Houston will have more bike pathways than any city in the US. Did I mention the cost of living, the no state sales tax, three of the most well-respected publically-supported arts programs in the country (the ballet, grand opera and symphony), the three brand new state-of-the-art sporting facilities and the fact that despite representing only about 1 percent of the population of the US, Houstonians represent 11 percent of the total volunteer hours in the country? No? Oh, well.
I was born in Houston, and I've lived here my whole life. Here's my opinion of it: THE GOOD Houston has great restaurants, and a lot of 'em. Some of the best are small hole-in-the-wall mom-and-pop joints. Houston actually has very nice theatre, arts, museums, symphony and ballet. There are also over 150 golf courses in the Houston metro area, and you can play golf year-round. Houston has a ton of rich people in it, and subsequently there are an abundance of rich-people stores (restaurants, fashion stores, etc.). I guess that's a good thing. Houston's freeway system, though overcrowded, is actually very well laid out and ....(drumroll)... our freeways have U-turn lanes! (those of you who have done extensive driving in other cities will greatly appreciate this). Being such a big city, there are tons of stores available for all kinds of shopping. I think we big-city-folk take this for granted sometimes. You can buy a big fat brick home in Houston for about half the price it would cost in other cities. Houston has pro football, pro basketball, and pro baseball teams, and has top-of-the-line facilities for all of them (though it's questionable whether or not we should ever have built any of them). THE BAD Houston IS filled with strip malls, car lots, and topless clubs. It also has a ton of traffic jams and billboards. But wait, there's more... The traffic jams occur constantly because the only suburban mass transit the city has to offer is a bus. Instead of building commuter trains, we like to widen freeways. Homes are relatively inexpensive in Houston - but not as much as they used to be: property taxes have increased over 73% over the past 5 years thanks to a crappy mayor (Brown). Can't blame him too much - we're the ones who elected the crook (and re-elected him, too. Houstonions aren't known for their political savvy). The people are pretty good - we've got millions of the friendliest illegal mexicans in the country, and most of 'em work really hard. Houston's very underrated as a rainy city, and about once every two or three years our entire city floods and our freeways turn into rivers. It hasn't snowed here in about 10 years and when it did, the snow melted before it could hit the ground. Summers aren't just hot - they're very humid, and make it pretty miserable to be outdoors. The spring and autumn seasons bring little relief, as they only deliver very few weeks of nice weather. THE UGLY Our smog is some of the worst in the country (if not the worst - depends on how bad LA is doing), we're overrun with mosquitos and cockroaches, there's around 500 or 600 murders a year, and our bayous (there's lots of 'em) frequently turn up dead bodes here and there. Our public schools (HISD) are aweful and filled with corruption as students fail or dropout at alarming rates, and faculty falsifies info on national reports in order to save face. They're filled with drugs, violence and crime, and their facilities are old and dilapidated. We're an illegal drug hub for the southern section of the USA. Houston seems to have zero control over the illegal contraband (whether it be drugs, weapons or even aliens) that gets smuggled in from Mexico and South America. <br> I'd say that it has a few bright points, but one bad element eclipses ten good ones, making Houston really look like a dump. But there are worse places. Take Dallas. Dallas is such a turd, it makes Houston seem like Xanadu. -- droxford
Here's another article related to this thread: http://www.charleston.net/stories/012304/sap_23gene.shtml Houston, we have a Super Bowl problem HOUSTON--Everything is big in Texas, even bigger in the Lone Star State's biggest city. Malls. Traffic congestion. Women's hair. The big demand for tickets to Super Bowl XXXVIII, the Carolina Panthers vs. the New England Patriots on Feb. 1 at Houston's state-of-the-art Reliant Stadium, is too big for Luis Lucero. "At $500 (per ticket), I think I'll be watching on TV," Lucero, 37, said from his seat at Shipley Donuts, almost literally within the shadow of Reliant Stadium. "But this is great for Houston." On Texas Avenue in Houston's Theater District, Dianne Raymond could hardly wait. "We don't have tickets to the Super Bowl but we have tickets to just about everything else, I think," said Raymond, who plans to attend the NFL's Super Bowl Experience fan festival with her husband. Consider how football-starved Houston was before Bob McNair, a University of South Carolina graduate and a Kiawah Island property owner, bought rights to own the Houston Texans, a 2-year-old franchise that remains the NFL's newest team. The Oilers took their powder blue jerseys to Tennessee in 1997 and eventually became the Titans. Some scars remain. THE RICE BOWL No wonder people from Galveston to Waco are scrambling for tickets, invitations or well-connected new best friends. A-list parties include those hosted by ESPN, Maxim magazine, Warren Sapp and CBS broadcaster Jim Nantz, a former University of Houston golfer. McNair can feel the anticipation. "It's exciting, and one of the most exciting things is to see how excited the fans of these two teams are," McNair said. "That's thrilling, and there's a lot more excitement here in Houston. I know everybody is going to love our stadium." Reliant Stadium was the NFL's first retractable-roof facility. The football jewel is nearly adjacent to the world's first indoor stadium: the Astrodome. If this works out, Houston is likely to slip into the NFL's regular Super Bowl site rotation -- a huge boost for a city that hasn't hosted a Super Bowl for 30 years. This is also a shot at redemption; Super Bowl VIII at Rice Stadium, the Miami Dolphins' 24-7 victory over the Minnesota Vikings, was one of the most boring games in Super Bowl history. Super Bowl XXXVIII figures to be closer, if not high-scoring (coincidentally, the over-under line is XXXVIII). YO, IT'S YAO Most Texans fans once invested their loyalty in Bum Phillips, Earl Campbell, Elvin Bethea and other Houston Oilers icons. But, as they know all too well, the Oilers never made it to a Super Bowl. Baseball's Houston Astros have never played in a World Series. America's fourth-largest city doesn't have a National Hockey League team. The Houston Rockets' red glare is back-to-back NBA titles in 1994-95. With the help of a 7-5 Chinese center, the Rockets are back in the playoff hunt. But pity the poor guy who spends $500 or more on a Super Bowl ticket only to sit down behind a seat occupied by Yao Ming. Now that's a Texas-size problem.
Dumbest points ever related to describing a city. Ooooh, Houston doesn't have a hockey team. Darn. The NHL is overexpanded anyway. I salute you, Mr. Stupid Ignorant Beat Writer.
