Dirty hippies who'd rather be in San Francisco or Dallas (have you seen downtown Austin lately??) never win.
Yeah, none taken I've driven all over both cities at all times of the day.. the congestion is just as bad both places on their most heavily used highways, only its more widespread in Houston. Austin's traffic problem will be fixed MUCH sooner than Houston.
It's hard to go bar / club hopping in Houston unless you have lots of $ to dispense. In Austin.. most of bars / clubs are free to get in.
1. Diversity.. Maybe so.. just because the population in Houston is much higher. 2. Big city with more to do? What can you possibly do in Houston that you can't do in Austin? 4. Traffic is 10 times worse???? so if it takes 10 min to get from place A to place B in houston.. it would take 100 min in Austin? Get outta here. Traffic is always bad during rush hour in almost any major cities. 5. Oh yeah.. go to Main St. and look at all them bling bling cars.. bling bling this.. bling bling that.. very laid back huh? There are more girls with fake boobs in Houston than Austin it seems. Superiorty complex is what it sounds like. 6. Open late? How late? There are lotta places in Austin that opens 24/7.. or till 2am - 4am.. There are couple after hour clubs as well. 6th street is not overrated.. it is rated as it is. Nobody really praise 6th being the badest place to party. Beside.. nightlife sux in Houston because it's too fuking expensive to get drinks / to enter. 7. ... where did you get that?.... there are only few restaurant. that allows pets. You make it sound like majority rest in austin allow them.
Wow, this has really turned into a traffic thread! That's fine, I suppose that's just as important issue as any when regarding overall quality of life in a city. Based on the construction alone in both cities, it sounds like both cities are trying deserately to "help alleviate" this problem. Based on the sheer size and density of Houston, the city should almost always have these sort of "transportation" problems at any given time, especially during rush hours. I mean, doesn't LA, Chicago, and New York all have similiar issues? Won't they always?
How do you figure? Austin has many more evironmental barriers to traffic management both physical and legal. Neither city will 'solve' traffic but Houston does have a massive freeway plan underway; 59 is done, I 45 north is done,, I-10 is halfway done, 610 is half way done and 290 is about to begin. We've built the Hardy tollway and the Westpark tollway though they are already undersized. The only plan I know about for Austin is the I-35 bypass tollway East of town. Say what you will about Houston traffic but this city will lay down the pavement (and highways without stoplights ) In the 70's Austin was plannned to keep it's small town charm and environmental quality by limiting freeways. A reasonable ideal but it didn't anticipate the population quadrupling.
I can see Austin embracing alternative modes of transit, which Houston is not so good at... It's a lot easier to model a transportation system around 750,000 people than it is 4 million.. Houston's method is build a giant highway, then once that is finished, build another.. it never seems to get better.. If Austin has a lot of red tape to cut through then you might well be right, but from a developers standpoint, Austin seems a lot more plausible to fix..
You're kind of making my point for me. Houston takes its sweet time adapting to and fully utilizing other methods of transportation..
Traffic is crap in both cities, period. Not sure why all these figures and numbers are being brought into it. Houston has much bigger freeways and much more of them, but we are also the 4th largest city in the U.S. and I think we are the biggest city size wise. Austin basically has 2 freeways that are quite small. We don't have anywhere near the population Houston does nor our we anywhere the size of Houston. There you have it, one has bigger freeways and more of it, but the population and the longer driving distances make the traffic bad. The other has less people and smaller diving distances but there are only 2 freeways and they are small. Advantage? Gasoline Companies.
My experience has not been like yours. I grew up in Houston. I was there from 1979 to 1991. I live in the Dallas area now. But I still have family and friends in Houston. I also have friends in Austin. I enjoy visiting Austin much much more, and find that there are more things that I enjoy doing in Austin. So I think your number 2 is a matter of personal preference. As for attitude, I find the general populace in Austin to be much more laid back and care free. That's one of the reasons I enjoy it so much. I'm not sure how one would develop the opinion of it being a city infatuated with itself.....but again, this is just my experience. I think the dogs in restaurants thing is funny....but you're right! I think Austin nightlife is fabulous. It is the Live Music Capitol of the US!! I can always find some live music or comedy show that I really enjoy. There is always something going on, and if you walk into a place and don't enjoy the music.....hop next door, and there's a good chance you will!
Exactly. When you take into account size, structure, population, etc.. the relative difficulties are pretty even.
Wow, did I hit a nerve here? Let's try this 1 - No. Population has nothing to do with it. In Austin, I-35 divides the city into the "Whites" and "Non-whites" sections. The city is 10 times ( ) more segregated than Houston. In Houston, there is diversity ANYWHERE. 2 - See a pro sports game, visit one of the best museum districts in the country, goto the zoo, Battleship Texas, San Jac, take a short drive to the beach...shall I go on? 3 - I'll skip this one too 4 - Wow, because that is EXACTLY what I meant!!! The city of Austin was designed in feet instead of meters/yards. That's why all the exits seem to pop up out of nowhere. This is what causes a lot of traffic problems because people come to their exits before they expect it. The city has bad traffic especially considering there are only 1 million people there. 5 - Bling bling cars (as you put them) and fake boobs don't mean a city is infatuated with itself. You have no idea what I meant. What I meant was that Austin thinks it's God's gift to Texas. You'll tell people here where you're from and if it's not Austin you'll hear either "I'm sorry" or a 10 minute speech on how great Austin is. Houstonians like their city but they're not in your face about it. Austin is. 6 - By things to do after midnight I meant non-bars/clubs which tend to suck by nature wherever they are. Do me a favor and try to goto a movie after 12 in Austin as an example. 7 - How many Houston restaurants allow pets? If it's less than Austin, Houston wins. Like I said before, it is my opinion that Houston has more advantages than Austin. I didn't say Austin was the worst city on the face of the planet so don't get so bent out of shape about it.
I think that the conclusion we can all draw is that the traffic sucks in both places. It's kind of turned into a "who's **** smells worse?" contest. Who cares? No matter who's **** is worse, it all stinks.
I can't believe people are complaining about Houston being too high-priced. I guess it's just the places I go in both cities, but Austin is more expensive for me when I go out than Houston. Of course, my general rule is if there's not a band playing, no ****ing way in hell am I paying to get in. That, and if I have to stand in line. No way in hell.
i banged my fair share of chicks in houston but i banged a whole lot more in austin. case closed. just kidding ...about the case be closed at least but seriously, believe it or not, brooklyn has many of the advantages of both those cities and more. fairly laid back, ultra diverse, public transportation, great food, unbelievable music scene, 20 minutes to the beach, gazillions of cultural attractions, bars/clubs, parks, and close to mountains and rivers. but yeah, i forgot, winter and snow are the worst things in the world so nothing else matters.
