Well obviously LA NY and Houston will all be neck and neck on the dirtyness level. But any way you look at it Houston is a strip mall, concrete, trashed out town. Its a given anywhere you are or any thing you do you will begin to adjust to your surroundings. I would like to compare it to country musis. If you listen to it enough you will begin to like it. All and all Houston wouldnt be a horrible place to live. But I like trees and some natural things to look at every once and a while. Or maybe water that isnt black because of pollution. (Gulf) Maybe that is why people in Houston are so fat. Because no one wants to go for a walk or hike, because there are not that many places to do it. And by the way Houston has beatuful girls but not as many as other cities.
I really liked living in Houston, there is something unique about the city. But...I am wondering...how many of those who say "Houston is the best city in the world" or something similar have actually been outside of the United States (or Texas)? Not trying to be a smartass, just really wondering how you would rate other nice cities if you have seen them, compared to Houston. By the way, I thought the guy's site was rather funny and some of the stuff is true...
I just came across this funny Houston story and figured this would be a great place to post it. From the <a href="http://www.guster.com/artists/board/show?artist_id=5&topic_id=2&show_jump=0&table_width=&sort=reverse&end_date=%2B1m&start_date=2003-04-01">Guster Road Journal</a>: <blockquote> Fri Apr 18 '03 6:39 am april 18th, 2003 - houston tx Of all the cities I'll miss visiting when my drumming days are through, I'll miss Houston Texas the least. I mean this, of course, in the "best possible way." Here was tonight's situation... I was in Houston, I was hungry, and it was 11:30 pm. Discuss. It doesn't seem like such a desperate set of circumstances, but we have very little mobility on the road. Our bus is always anchored where it is, I wouldn't know how to drive it if I were even allowed to, and we can rarely get Michael to pull over at Wattaburger or anywhere else when we leave at two in the morning for the next town. The Hickory Hollow BBQ place where we ate lunch was closed, so I went into a bar called Cosmos Cafe and asked if they were still serving food. They weren't. I asked where I might find something to eat in the neighborhood and learned there was a Jack In The Box up Washington Street a ways. Is it within walking distance? This question stumped them. Who would ever walk somewhere in Houston? I would. I walked a goddam mile and a half with my shirt stuck to my back and sweat rolling off my forehead until I found the Jack In The Box, and when I got there the door was locked. They closed at 11, so my only hope was the 24 hour drive thru. But I wasn't in a car. And so I did the thing that many of us have done at some point in our lives... I pretended I was a car. I inched my way along the drive-thru line between two pick-up trucks until I got to the menu. I decided I would have two Jumbo Jacks and two chicken sandwiches. I was "hungry" and I'd just walked a long way in the humidity. I said hello to the speaker and the speaker said nothing to me. What the ****? I kicked it, because that oughtta get their attention. Nothing. Sensing that the pick-up truck with the gun rack behind me was growing impatient, I decided to continue up the line to the window to actually talk to a human. A few minutes later I got there and a woman with a Jack In The Box hat and headset rolled her eyes at me and said "sorry, no walk-ups." Wait a minute. Walk-ups? There's a ****ing name for people like me? This pretending-you're-a-car phenomenon has a name!? I tried to make this woman understand... I'd walked for a half an hour past barbwire-enclosed car dealerships with doberman pinchers barking at me the whole way, just to come to this very Jack In The Box so I could spend my four dollars on four meat and mayonnaise sandwiches. My money's no good here just because I'm on foot!? She closed the window on me. I ****ing loved when she did that. I had no choice but to plead with the cars in line behind me to let me tack on a few sandwiches to their orders. I was determined. But no one even rolled down their window for me. In fact some of them rolled their windows up as I approached. Even after I showed them my money and everything. They must have thought I was nuts. True, I was sweaty, angry, and my shirt was missing a few buttons so I may have been showing some nipple. But come on Houston. Have a heart. I spent the long walk back to the bus wondering what I would do if I were in a car and a walk-upper approached me. I know what I'd do now. Back on the bus I found some bread and cheese and a George Foreman grill to make me happy.</blockquote> <a href="http://www.guster.com">Check out Guster!</a>
Funny story. This is how I felt when I first came to Houston...and didn't have a car...it's really true, without a car, one is NOTHING in Houston... That being said, the guy should have called a cab and should have gone to IHOP to get some Rooty-Tooty-Fresh'n-Fruity.
I lived in Houston for about 10 years. and am currently living in Austin for about 9 years now. I didn't read the article, but I do find Austin to be a better city then Houston in a lot of categories. It's less populated, lower crime rate, less humid, but still very hot. Live music capital of the world, is home to one of the biggest party universities in the nation, which translates to a lot of NICE college chicks. Is hilly in just about every area of Austin, where as most of Houston is flat, and ugly. Austin actually has scenery with lots of greenery and trees, where as Houston the last I remember it, was a place full of freeway construction, and lots of empty open lots full of dried out yellow grass. This doens't pertain to all of Houston, but definitely the majority of it. Houston is definitely a more culturally diverse city then Austin, but aside from all the professional sports, it just doesn't appeal to me all that much. And while the Loop may be a beautiful side of Houston, the rest of the city I find to be flat out ugly. The majority of Austin I find to be beautiful, without all the clutter of terrible pollution, worse humidity, overpopulation, and freeways galore. Hell the crimerate is so slow here some days, that there will be special segments in the news dedicated towards buying presents early for Christmas, and it's just the summer! Not to mention this is statistically a city full of fit women which translates into less fat chicks. There's so many parks and walkways out here, as well as Lake Austin, which is beautiful as well by the way. I dunno, Houston has it's upside, but anything that Austin lacks in terms of it's own zoo, or enormous museum can be found on an hour drive away in the direction of San Antonio, where there's amusement parks, zoos, and plenty of museums for those with more artistic value. And the Austin museums are pretty good as well, but Austin is located very well and offers everything a bigger city has, without all the negatives. If you can afford to live in Austin, it's worth it.
Major amen!! I finally found some place that makes me wish longingly for Houston traffic.. They are one of the largest cities in the US, and they only have 3 freakin freeways....no frontage roads...and lights on every block on their major roads thru the city... Talk about some MAJOR MAJOR amounts of traffic.. They had to have mass-transit just because of their lack of decent roads and freeways.. The El indeed.. at least in Houston we have enough freeways to get you where you need to go in a relatively short amount of time even with traffic. anyone that thinks our traffic is bad needs to try to drive from Joliet to Downtown Chicago by car..you will see what the TRUE meaning of traffic is.
I'd just as soon go without a car in Houston as I'd go without an air conditioner in Houston. Hard to believe there are cities up north where you can live without either one. Any large city is going to have beautiful sections and ugly sections. If Houston is such a hell-hole, why do so many professional athletes (who don't play in Houston) choose to live here during and after their playing days, when they have enough money to live anywhere in the world?
From what I understand it is our Strip clubs, and availability of primo Weed that makes Houston so popular with pro athletes.
Rockets2K -- my experience driving in Boston was the same. a nightmare. i'll never complain about Houston traffic again...i'll never complain about driving in our downtown again.
You mean you had to put up with driving through tha...........................BIG DIG! I feel for you man, I really do.
LOL!! I don't know how I missed this. Trust me, as someone who worked for a major paint company during college & made many delivery trips to job sites, those suburban homes are so poorly constructed (& with such cheap materials), it's not even funny. Those homes may "look" better, but give them 10-20 yrs. Talk about maintenance and repair issues! But I can't argue that the Inner Loop area is starting to price out a lot of people. Hopefully, we'll start to see some more affordable, quality Inner Loop housing in the near future.
You gotta wonder about a subdivision full of new houses that can be started and completed in a couple of weeks. My folks had a house built in Cypress and it was a nighmare for them. Cabinets falling apart, bathtub cracking, carpet coming up, etc. Too many builders go for quantity instead of quality. Don't underestimate those 40 year old houses!
