Hopelessly Devoted to Houston or Just Passing Through?

[Subdude]

Just being a Nosey Parker here I suppose, but I got to wondering how committed people were to Houston. Would you consider living elsewhere, and if so why and where? Or do you want this to be home for life? I would guess that if you post on HAIF you're pretty much in love with Houston.

[IronTiger]

This sounds like my previous post, "Why do you live in Houston?"

It was surprising how many people didn't really like Houston very much.

[20thStDad]

We're on vacation this week in Chicago. I would much rather live here (weather, niceness, architecture, public transportation, etc.). Houston is nice though, from October through April or so.

[bachanon]

i'm olivia newton john and houston is john travolta.

[CoolBuddy06]

Thought I'd just pass thru, but after checking out DC, New York and St Louis, Houston became home for life.

[AtticaFlinch]

I'm pretty much in love with Houston, but I'd leave if my job takes me elsewhere.

[UrbaNerd]

If things don't get better here (In terms of crime, development patterns, etc), then I'm looking elsewhere after graduation.

[jmancuso]

no, i have no compelling reason to stay here. it's been good to me but don't want spend the rest of my life here.

[sowanome]

We're on vacation this week in Chicago. I would much rather live here (weather, niceness, architecture, public transportation, etc.). Houston is nice though, from October through April or so.

Hmmm..I'm living in Chicago now and the weather kills this city. Pretty much mid-June through September is all that you get and it's down hill from there, esp October through April, but if it wasn't for the weather, the downtown/neartown area would be the greatest city in the states. Now, once you get outside of the closer areas, the city is really unimpressive.

[brijonmang]

Been here all my life and I love Houston, but don't think I wouldn't pass up an opportunity to live in the mountains.

[seoid]

I'm new to Houston (just hit 8 months on Friday) and I love it here. The humidity is probably my only complaint but that's why we have A/C.

I might live somewhere else if there was a job opportunity I couldn't pass up. I don't regret moving here and if this is where we stay, then I'm really happy.

[20thStDad]

Hmmm..I'm living in Chicago now and the weather kills this city. Pretty much mid-June through September is all that you get and it's down hill from there, esp October through April, but if it wasn't for the weather, the downtown/neartown area would be the greatest city in the states. Now, once you get outside of the closer areas, the city is really unimpressive.

How far outside? We're staying in Lakeview, and have publicly transited from here to south of downtown, and all of it is still great and walkable. I don't see why you'd need to go outside of that huge area. You just can't beat the style of early to mid 20th century dense urban growth. Any city trying to do it now isn't going to come up with near the same result (Houston), it's all strip malls, crappy apartment complexes instead of highrises, and master planned communities in BFE. Cold weather is fine. I don't think it kills the city near as much as the hot weather kills all the southern ones. The heat is the main reason they weren't developed as truly walkable, which is why they never had public transport worth a crap, etc.

[BryanS]

I'm new to Houston (just hit 8 months on Friday) and I love it here. The humidity is probably my only complaint but that's why we have A/C.

I might live somewhere else if there was a job opportunity I couldn't pass up. I don't regret moving here and if this is where we stay, then I'm really happy.

...check back with us in about 10 years...

[TheNiche]

Just being a Nosey Parker here I suppose, but I got to wondering how committed people were to Houston. Would you consider living elsewhere, and if so why and where? Or do you want this to be home for life? I would guess that if you post on HAIF you're pretty much in love with Houston.

Houston has been good to me, but I'd be willing to move pretty much anywhere in Texas (except for Dallas or the urbanized border counties). If I could find a good job in or telecommute from a predominantly rural area or in a coastal town, I'd aggressively pursue that kind of opportunity.

I'd also be willing to move outside of Texas for a short pre-defined duration if properly motivated, but not within the United States or Canada. England, Australia, or New Zealand would be acceptable if employed there. Russia or Mongolia if I'm in a position to drink vodka and piss money.

[crunchtastic]

Russia or Mongolia if I'm in a position to drink vodka and piss money.

If only they had a need for mail-order husbands. Win-win!

[TheNiche]

If only they had a need for mail-order husbands. Win-win!

WOW, it took four (4) minutes for someone to shoot down that trial balloon. Mongolia and the Lake Baikal region of Russia are at the top of my travel and foreign living list of awesome places, but every time I mention it I get very strange and negative responses. Especially from women and especially from family. I suspect that they suspect a less-than-altruistic rationale, not that most people would ever say anything that may even indicate their awareness or concern over such an issue. I guess I need to shut up about it, then, and just tell them that I'm in Australia when I (eventually) go.

[names]

They took my saddle in Houston

I voted that I expected to leave at some point.

This is partially not entirely my own decision. It's more so my legacy. There's a part of me that is hopelessly devoted to Houston. Not just as place but even as an idea unto itself. As a capitalist laboratory, Houston was catalyst in architectural thought during the boom years in re engineering architectural skin as brandscape. I had to take that history into account everywheres I rode around in town. It would elude me most as a child. Growing up with downtown since getting my driver's license was to allow myself a succinct era of time to not only value developed land but also the cracks and fissures of vacancy. I liked how I could compare any generic place in the US that I had visited over the years, most especially the coasts and compare it's generic-ness to the "simcity" like generic-ness of the "Houston" skin.

I was reading in another thread today:

He distilled and codified its virtues into simple principles: domestic normality, relaxed landscape, oblique orientations, and off axis sequences

Those principles have a lot of sway here and make for a good overall description of Houston; but in my own introspection they have proven to be not enough to keep me from searching for greater meaning in my life. The oblique orientations and off axis sequences are most disturbing of life's newfound informality paradigm. You know it when your driving up I-45 and every acute angled parcel has some monster inward looking apartment complex/motel or splash commercial warehouse/office building gaping for attention. At least the sex shops, graffiti covered dealerships, and inflatable gorillas give it some hollywood character in an otherwise blanket crime scene. It's a brutal balance that I have just lived with.

[Subdude]

Been here all my life and I love Houston, but don't think I wouldn't pass up an opportunity to live in the mountains.

I just got an email yesterday from an old friend who is planning to pack it up and move to Colorado. I think the weather this summer was enough to finally make her snap.

[JLWM8609]

We're on vacation this week in Chicago. I would much rather live here (weather, niceness, architecture, public transportation, etc.). Houston is nice though, from October through April or so.

I visited Chicago in May. While it has things we don't have here such as Lake Michigan, a VERY dense urban residential population, and a subway system, it reminded me very much of Houston. I suppose it was its mostly flat topography, the fact that both cities are similar in size, the Dan Ryan which reminded me of the 288/59 dual freeway but only on a grander scale, and their bumpy streets.

[august948]

...check back with us in about 10 years...

We just passed the 10 year mark in Houston and have long since determined we couldn't live anywhere else for long. The food is way too good here.

Houston has been good to me, but I'd be willing to move pretty much anywhere in Texas (except for Dallas or the urbanized border counties). If I could find a good job in or telecommute from a predominantly rural area or in a coastal town, I'd aggressively pursue that kind of opportunity.

I'd also be willing to move outside of Texas for a short pre-defined duration if properly motivated, but not within the United States or Canada. England, Australia, or New Zealand would be acceptable if employed there. Russia or Mongolia if I'm in a position to drink vodka and piss money.

Amen to 'except for Dallas'. We'll probably always have a place here, but maybe someday we'll buy a second home in the hill country.

[AtticaFlinch]

WOW, it took four (4) minutes for someone to shoot down that trial balloon. Mongolia and the Lake Baikal region of Russia are at the top of my travel and foreign living list of awesome places, but every time I mention it I get very strange and negative responses. Especially from women and especially from family. I suspect that they suspect a less-than-altruistic rationale, not that most people would ever say anything that may even indicate their awareness or concern over such an issue. I guess I need to shut up about it, then, and just tell them that I'm in Australia when I (eventually) go.

I doubt it makes any difference to you, but I get it. Some people think if your trip doesn't take you to an inclusive resort beach or an inclusive resort cruise ship, it's not a real vacation. I think if the trip doesn't challenge you and you don't learn something about yourself and your abilities, preferably in an exotic locale, then it wasn't a real vacation. To each their own. I hope you make it to Mongolia some day. Maybe I'll meet you there. For now, I'm sticking to the western hemisphere though. Plane tickets are cheap to South America right now.

[seoid]

...check back with us in about 10 years...

We just passed the 10 year mark in Houston and have long since determined we couldn't live anywhere else for long. The food is way too good here.

Exactly! I think anywhere is what you make of it.

BrianS seems to be the Debbie Downer of the forums.

[crunchtastic]

WOW, it took four (4) minutes for someone to shoot down that trial balloon. Mongolia and the Lake Baikal region of Russia are at the top of my travel and foreign living list of awesome places, but every time I mention it I get very strange and negative responses. Especially from women and especially from family. I suspect that they suspect a less-than-altruistic rationale, not that most people would ever say anything that may even indicate their awareness or concern over such an issue. I guess I need to shut up about it, then, and just tell them that I'm in Australia when I (eventually) go.

Aww, I was merely taking an easy opportunity to make a joke, not pass judgment.

When I've expressed an interest in the former eastern bloc and the balkans, people tend to wrongly assume it's only because I like swarthy men, so I know what you mean.

[TheNiche]

Aww, I was merely taking an easy opportunity to make a joke, not pass judgment.

When I've expressed an interest in the former eastern bloc and the balkans, people tend to wrongly assume it's only because I like swarthy men, so I know what you mean.

I know you didn't mean anything bad by it. Hell, the split second before the seriousness set in, I had two retorts come to mind. The first was: "Who ever said there wasn't? Russia has plenty of oligarchs with...ahem...exotic tastes." The second was: "I wonder whether the government of Russia would consider an attempt at 'mail order husbands' a legitimate business purpose for the sake of obtaining a long-term visa."

The thing that was vital about your comment is that it does seem to indicate what I think is the most prominent reaction when I express my weird travel fantasies. "If it's east of Germany, it's very dangerous, and if he manages not to get off'ed by a Russian mobster on the way to Siberia or mauled by a bear in Siberia, then he's probably a sex tourist or some desperate pervy guy that's gonna bring back a slab of slavic meat that plans on divorcing him eventually and taking all his assets."

I would hope that the folks that know me would consider my oddball international travel aspirations in the context of my actual domestic travel experiences and realize that in fact this is just kind of my MO. ...but then again, most people mouth banjo noises and ask whether I've seen deliverance when I tell them I'm kayaking deep east Texas alone in late December. I guess most of society is just that hopeless.

[AtticaFlinch]

I know you didn't mean anything bad by it. Hell, the split second before the seriousness set in, I had two retorts come to mind. The first was: "Who ever said there wasn't? Russia has plenty of oligarchs with...ahem...exotic tastes." The second was: "I wonder whether the government of Russia would consider an attempt at 'mail order husbands' a legitimate business purpose for the sake of obtaining a long-term visa."

The thing that was vital about your comment is that it does seem to indicate what I think is the most prominent reaction when I express my weird travel fantasies. "If it's east of Germany, it's very dangerous, and if he manages not to get off'ed by a Russian mobster on the way to Siberia or mauled by a bear in Siberia, then he's probably a sex tourist or some desperate pervy guy that's gonna bring back a slab of slavic meat that plans on divorcing him eventually and taking all his assets."

I would hope that the folks that know me would consider my oddball international travel aspirations in the context of my actual domestic travel experiences and realize that in fact this is just kind of my MO. ...but then again, most people mouth banjo noises and ask whether I've seen deliverance when I tell them I'm kayaking deep east Texas alone in late December. I guess most of society is just that hopeless.

I stand by what I wrote earlier. Most people are too fearful to step very far outside of their box. I applaud your goals. Next time you intend to kayak in East Texas in December, let me know. I'm game for the trip.

[BryanS]

I stand by what I wrote earlier. Most people are too fearful to step very far outside of their box. I applaud your goals. Next time you intend to kayak in East Texas in December, let me know. I'm game for the trip.

Word of caution there. He was out of communication long enough to cause concern. As TJones said then:

"His canoe probably tumped over and now he's a sing'n and pick'n!"

tump = turn or tip (over) + dump = tump

[TheNiche]

I stand by what I wrote earlier. Most people are too fearful to step very far outside of their box. I applaud your goals. Next time you intend to kayak in East Texas in December, let me know. I'm game for the trip.

Cool. I prefer that most of my trips be fairly long ones; piddling around in West Galveston Bay gets old pretty quickly. I'm thinking that a trip from Lost River at I-10 (an offshoot of the Trinity near its mouth) to the Port of Galveston via Anahuac, Redfish Island, and Port Bolivar would be an interesting journey. Another trip of interest is the Colorado River below the Town Lake Dam to Quintana Island, but I'll probably go that one alone. I'm tied up until December, again, though.

Word of caution there. He was out of communication long enough to cause concern.

Yeah, after I got laid off (while afloat) and scheduling constraints loosened up, I really took my time with the whole trip.

[AtticaFlinch]

Cool. I prefer that most of my trips be fairly long ones; piddling around in West Galveston Bay gets old pretty quickly. I'm thinking that a trip from Lost River at I-10 (an offshoot of the Trinity near its mouth) to the Port of Galveston via Anahuac, Redfish Island, and Port Bolivar would be an interesting journey. Another trip of interest is the Colorado River below the Town Lake Dam to Quintana Island, but I'll probably go that one alone. I'm tied up until December, again, though.

Yeah, after I got laid off (while afloat) and scheduling constraints loosened up, I really took my time with the whole trip.

One trip I'd like to make before I die is a canoe trip the entire length of the Mississippi, from Lake Itasca in Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico. At 2300 miles, that trip should take at least eight or nine months.

[totheskies]

I like Houston alright, and it's a pretty exciting time to live here with all of the recent additions like Discovery Green, HP, OPP, and now the crop of new stuff going up. At the same time, I doubt I'll live here forever. I've got to leave town to get my Doctorate b/c I just don't feel like dealing with UH or Rice. So where I go for that and after that... who knows? But I'm glad for the time that I have here, and I'll always be willing to come back and visit Houston. It's a great town with great people.

[brijonmang]

I just got an email yesterday from an old friend who is planning to pack it up and move to Colorado. I think the weather this summer was enough to finally make her snap.

Funny since that's where I would want to move as well. Colorado Springs or Estes Park...something along those lines. Not b/c of the weather though, I just want a little topography in my life. Going to school in Lubbock didn't quite provide enough contrast.