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A Tourist's View Of Houston


brian0123

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You're right but my point was to appreciate the full diversity you really have to go to where the most number of groups of people live which is southwest houston

I would say my workplace in addition to the schools I went to growing up were about 80-95% white

 

you are so out of touch with reality it's absurd. i live in montrose and the diversity there is unbelieveable - the restaurants, bars, shops, parks, grocery stores, etc etc etc

 

i overheard a conversation at a restaurant in upper kirby where the girl was proclaiming how she had sat down at another restaurant in the area and realized there were 7 different languages be spoken in the tables immediately surrounding her and it amazed her - a situation i find myself in on an almost daily basis.

 

you're letting your disdain for this city cloud your perception amigo.

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you are so out of touch with reality it's absurd. i live in montrose and the diversity there is unbelieveable - the restaurants, bars, shops, parks, grocery stores, etc etc etc

i overheard a conversation at a restaurant in upper kirby where the girl was proclaiming how she had sat down at another restaurant in the area and realized there were 7 different languages be spoken in the tables immediately surrounding her and it amazed her - a situation i find myself in on an almost daily basis.

you're letting your disdain for this city cloud your perception amigo.

I live near montrose too but I wouldn't call it overly diverse like southwest houston. If anything it's becoming mostly white

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You want to see true diversity?

 

Go sit outside the University Center or Satellite at UH and watch the lunch hour crowd on parade. 

 

30.7%  white

25.8% Hispanic

19.4% Asian American

10.7% African-American

9.4% International students

2.8% Multiracial

.8% Unknown

.2% Native American

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Do you take a bore-o-meter and ride around town taking measurements with it?

 

 

Why yes, you do.  

 

It's typically mounted in a five year old, beige Camry, so as not to skew the results.  :ph34r:

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Houston, just two years ago was ranked the 2nd most boring city in the WORLD!

http://blog.chron.com/newswatch/2012/04/most-boring-cities-and-houstons-ranked-no-2/#4435101=0

Yes Houston may have a lot to do, but most of its just corny attractions that no one would travel to Houston to see unless you lived within about 200 miles of it. For example the Downtown Aquarium is nothing more than a small town carnival with a few sea animals and animals that don't even fit in with the theme of the place. White Tigers? WTF does that have to do with an aquarium? Now if the Downtown Aquarium was like the Georgia Aquarium that would bring in people from all over the world. Not to hate on Tilman Fertitta because he is responsible for most of the entertaining attractions in the Houston Area, but in my opinion he has too many small attractions. A guy with the type of money he has could build a world class Disney type attraction for Houston that would bring in people from all over.

 

If Houston had adequate public transportation and was more walkable in its core and all of the attractions were located in close to each other and for the most part walkable then I don't think we would be having this conversation. I have been to plenty of other cities were I have been able to take their heavy rail transit from out in the suburbs (which were pretty walkable themselves) into the city and just walk around with no plan just getting a feel for the city and the culture of locals. I didn't even need to go to an attraction, just being in the crowed was satisfying enough for me. This is not possible in Houston. To experience the local culture in Houston you have to drive to the Galleria or one of the other malls or a grocery store like HEB or one of the many shopping centers like the Marq*E Entertainment Center.

 

Don't get me wrong, I have fun in Houston most of the time, but the excitement doesn't compare to a city that is lively at its core and where I can wake up hop on a train, get off at any stop and just explore the area.

 

http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/morning_call/2014/10/national-magazine-names-houston-one-of-americas.html

 

#2 in America's Best Cities list held by TRAVEL + LEISURE magazine with over 50,000 respondants.

 

Culture

  • Art scene and concerts — No. 5
  • Free attractions — No. 4
  • Galleries — No. 2
  • Museums and theaters — No. 3

Shopping

  • Antique stores, flea markets and luxury stores — No. 3
  • Bookstores — No. 2
  • Boutiques, home decor/design stores and specialty food markets/food halls — No. 1

Quality of life

Houston only made the affordability subcategory under quality of life, with the city ranking No. 5.

People

  • Intelligent — No. 2.
  • Stylish — No. 4

Nightlife

  • Cocktail bars — No. 2
  • Singles scene — No. 2
  • Wine bars — No. 1

Food and drink

  • Bakeries — No. 2
  • Barbecue, bars and sandwiches — No. 4
  • Brunch and hamburgers — No. 1
  • Coffee and craft beer — No. 5
  • Diners and wine — No. 3

man Houston sure is a terribly boring city... it definitely ain't no Atlanta, that's for sure!

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Just bumped into some guys here for the public transportation conference. They said they've been extremely bored every evening here. Besides food no redeeming qualities.

 

What a load of crap. I bumped into two people from New York yesterday and they said just the opposite.

Culture

Art scene and concerts — No. 5

Free attractions — No. 4

Galleries — No. 2

Museums and theaters — No. 3

Shopping

Antique stores, flea markets and luxury stores — No. 3

Bookstores — No. 2

Boutiques, home decor/design stores and specialty food markets/food halls — No. 1

Quality of life

Houston only made the affordability subcategory under quality of life, with the city ranking No. 5.

People

Intelligent — No. 2.

Stylish — No. 4

Nightlife

Cocktail bars — No. 2

Singles scene — No. 2

Wine bars — No. 1

Food and drink

Bakeries — No. 2

Barbecue, bars and sandwiches — No. 4

Brunch and hamburgers — No. 1

Coffee and craft beer — No. 5

Diners and wine — No. 3

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If you could do everyone a favor a stop posting that would be swell.

 

People like you are the problem. Get so defensive if anything resembling criticism is said. But people like me actually love the city. We are honest, admit Houston's faults, instead of, no, Houston is perfect, screw you, how dare you say something bad about it. Be realistic, not delusional, and a path forward can be formed.

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People like you are the problem. Get so defensive if anything resembling criticism is said. But people like me actually love the city. We are honest, admit Houston's faults, instead of, no, Houston is perfect, screw you, how dare you say something bad about it. Be realistic, not delusional, and a path forward can be formed.

That last post was harsh, admittedly.

But the last part of your post, it sounds great, though judging by your posts in the last 12 months (and even on this thread!) you could've had me fooled...one would get the impression that you try to seek out people that say Houston is boring to confirm your worldview and that you really love places like Atlanta and New York City more. You sure that's not the case?

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I met some from New York one time that were at hilton Americas and they were bored out of their mind

  

The best part of houston to me is the theatre district it's criminally underrated by the vast majority of the population. The biggest part of all this though is houston has a crappy landscape. It'll never be able to compete with the west coast or even east coast because of that in terms of landscape.

They were here for a convention

  

He wasn't impressed with the diversity of New York?

  

Which one of those stand out to a tourist? If you were picking a place to go why would you pick houston when you can have all of the above with better quality? What tourist attraction makes houston stand out? Our beaches and bays are polluted, every big city has museums and sports teams and festivals and these days theatre companies travel. Nobody is coming to look at cranes.

  

If very little means going to crystal clear beaches and mountains maybe we agree.

Also there isn't much historic stuff either.

  

Let's see

Statue of Liberty, Central Park, brooklyn botanical gardens, Brooklyn bridge, Brooklyn park with view of manhattan, Empire State Building, Ellis island, little Italy, Chinatown, Bronx zoo, etc the list goes on and on.

And the lack of subways has a huge impact it makes it very difficult to get around. Not everyone wants to rent a car.

  

Just bumped into some guys here for the public transportation conference. They said they've been extremely bored every evening here. Besides food no redeeming qualities.

Or maybe you're just so blind to what Houston isn't that you can't see a lot of what it is. Oh but wait, you "bumped into some guys here for the public transportation conference" and they were "extremely bored every evening here." I guess that settles it.

I'm plenty critical of houston, the difference between you and me is that I'm not a troll about it.

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@ swtsig - Not that I disagree with your last post, but if you could stop telling people what to do that would be even sweller. BREAKING NEWS: YOU DON'T OWN THE INTERNET. But it will be fun watching you 'think' that you do.

If you had been here longer than a week you would see that this is a common reoccurrence with Slick.. What do you have against swtsig?

If you could stop acting like you run HAIF that would be swell..

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How does calling Houston 'boring', improve it? It's just someone's opinion. How does saying 'it's not boring' hurt it. It's just someone's opinion too. What could they build or do that would make it not be boring? A subway? A Statue of Liberty? A central park? You said earlier something about mountains and crystal clear beaches. Since no amount of internet bitchery is going to ever make mountains rise or turn the water blue - how does complaining about that going to get you any relief?

Just cut the crap. We all know why you're here and it has nothing to do with 'improving' Houston.

That's your opinion. A great mass transportation system would be the biggest step to improvement and also more walkable neighborhoods.

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rsb out.  There is no useful information revealed on this last page.

 

Reminder to self - stay out of this topic in the future.

 

Wait.  Here's some relative information to the topic.  I know many that have relocated here from other cities, states & countries.  Most like/love it, but there are always buts.  Too hot, too humid, too many bugs...  What's new?

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I had a couple from London and came to Houston last year in April.  They had a great time.  We went horseback riding.  They never saw guns, so we took to Carter's to shoot!  We took them shopping down Harwin and to eat In Chinatown off Bellaire.  The most hilarious day was we took them to the big Fiesta of I-45, and drove up Airline.  They said are we in Mexico?  Oh they loved all the food and they are coming back in late February to go to the Rodeo cook of.  They were very impressed with our architecture and the museums.  We took them the Chase Tower 60th floor observation deck and could not believe how big Houston is.  They were also impressed how friendly people are here.  So tourist that say Houston is boring are totally wrong.    

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rsb out.  There is no useful information revealed on this last page.

 

Reminder to self - stay out of this topic in the future.

 

Wait.  Here's some relative information to the topic.  I know many that have relocated here from other cities, states & countries.  Most like/love it, but there are always buts.  Too hot, too humid, too many bugs...  What's new?

 

Hey now.... those Palmetto Bugs that frequent parts of town are a state institution in their own right!

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Just bumped into some guys here for the public transportation conference. They said they've been extremely bored every evening here. Besides food no redeeming qualities.

 

Visiting a town for a conference always brings with it boredom.

 

Places I've been to work related conventions:

San Diego

Palm Springs

Las Vegas

Denver

Orlando

Dallas

San Antonio

Anaheim

 

They all had one thing in common, from the hotel room, and convention hall I was stuck in for 3 days (not including the cab ride to/from hotel/airport) was exceedingly boring. But I made the most of it and drank at the bar with other conference attendees and we had a dandy time of it.

 

To recap, I've been to conferences where I was...

so close to Disneyland I could watch the fireworks from my hotel room

so close to Universal Studios I could see the people in the rollercoaster cars from my hotel room

so close to casinos I could smell the cigarette smoke in my hotel room

so close to the river walk I could see the drunks falling in from my hotel room

so close to golf courses a golf ball landed in the balcony of my hotel room

in Dallas?

 

point is, conferences are boring if all you do is stay for the conference events. At a typical business conference, you may as well have be in some un-named bunker somewhere (with a bar for the evenings, of course) for all of the attractions most people have time to experience while in town. You end up in the hotel bar talking to other attendees and drinking.

 

If I had never been to Houston before and had a conference here, I'd stay a few extra days and get a car to take a day trip to Galveston, NASA, the Galleria, museums, zoo. Many other things, but during a business conference, it's hard to find time to actually get out and enjoy wherever you are.

 

Finally, it's their own fault anyway, usually conferences have additional details about the city they are being held in, the hotel gives you fliers for the city wanting you to stay a few extra nights and enjoy the surroundings. the people you talked to obviously didn't do that, skipped out on the hotel bar experience and didn't even ask the concierge what they should do for a good time. Idiots.

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Visiting a town for a conference always brings with it boredom.

 

Places I've been to work related conventions:

San Diego

Palm Springs

Las Vegas

Denver

Orlando

Dallas

San Antonio

Anaheim

 

They all had one thing in common, from the hotel room, and convention hall I was stuck in for 3 days (not including the cab ride to/from hotel/airport) was exceedingly boring. But I made the most of it and drank at the bar with other conference attendees and we had a dandy time of it.

 

 

 

I've been to most of those for conferences too. I agree. Las Vegas, Orlando, Dallas, etc... I was bored in all of them. Conferences usually are not conducive to having time to do anything fun.  I was bored when I went to India for 2 weeks. I was bored in South Korea. The only place in the world that I would really like to go back to is the South of France.  Every where else I've been I can't wait to get back to Houston so I can have some fun and eat good food. 

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@ sv - Walkable neighborhoods and a large mass transit system make a city less boring? Ridiculous.

I can see how they would make a city more livable and appealing or make some people want to move there, but I certainly don't see how a train or walking down the street would make city less boring than say having a large theatre district, a prestigious museum district or a Galveston nearby - all of which this city has. Plus. How much stock are you going to put in convention travelers? They're already the most boring individuals you could possibly associate with. Just send a hooker to their room and they won't care what city they're in.

One day it will hit you that there is more to life than hanging out in bars, riding mass transit and crossing the street.

I think you are wrong. Not everybody can drive and most people will not take a bus......

 

What I'm trying to get at is who wants to visit a city where nothing is within walking distance of the next attraction, and when it is its a desolate, unvibrant street scape. Yeah there is the musem district, but the streets are wide world record wide and bland and the sidewalks are skinner than the suburban sidewalks you would find in any other city. What the city needs to do is implement complete streets in its "tourist atraction" areas to bring vibrance to the city and get rid of the stale Pyongyang, North Korea feel. I don't care what you say, weather people are visiting a city for a convention or just as a tourist, they would much rather visit a city where they can get around on a heavy rail transit system and or be able to walk around the city to see the attractions.

 

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@ ck - If they're downtown, they have a car. But just in case they took a bus downtown...

The rail line we do have in Houston connects EVERY downtown hotel, Discovery Green, the theatre district, the dozens and dozens of museums in the museum district, hermann park, the zoo, medical center, GRB Convention center, downtown tunnels, Miller Outdoor Theatre, NRG Stadium, Minute Maid Park, Toyota Center and BBVA Stadium. All of this is walkable from red line stations, not to mention the new residential stuff going up daily in the center of Midtown.

There you go, instant tourist destination thanks to the red line.

If they can't rent a car to hold all the stuff they could buy in uptown, uptown didn't want them anyway. If they are too good get on a bus to Galveston, they wouldn't like it to begin with and they aren't much good to the business down there either.

But you're right, some people don't have a car and are too good to travel on buses. Luckily for Houston, most do have cars and the parking lots out in front of everything welcome those types (the one's with plenty of cash to spend on renting a car) with open arms.

Blah blah blah houston is perfect and doesn't need to change. Give me a break when people travel they want to go somewhere where it's easy to get around the whole city and also besides museum district which is a marginal tourist attraction at best I wouldn't call any of those tourist attractions. Houston is what it is a place with jobs but lets not exaggerate.

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Blah Blah Blah. Yes. Let's PLEASE not exaggerate. Those things I listed on the red line are all legitimate things to do in Houston to keep people from being bored. They are all accessible from the light rail stations and relatively easy walks if thats the way they want to do it. Tourists and locals have gone to those places and enjoyed them by the millions for years and years.

I'm not even the slightest bit interested in what YOU consider a tourist attraction (I get the feeling you won't stop harping until Houston has the world's largest ball of string or something). There have been several postings on this thread where people have mentioned hearing tourist praise our city for what it has to offer. I believe them, because I have heard it too.

Houston is not a major tourist destination compared to New York City, Orlando or Vegas. It is far from perfect and positive changes are welcomed and happening. But the idea of walkable neighborhoods and light rail having anything to do with boredom or tourism is asinine. Only urban enthusiasts would travel to other cities to see that crap and how many of those are there in the world? You and City Kid? LOL!

Most major cities in the world have excellent rail systems and walkable neighborhoods

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I wasn't bored today. Had a great day at work. Went for a trike ride around Rice's campus and Hermann Park. Met for a beer at Gingerman. Picked up korean tacos at Chilantro truck. Enjoyed absolutely perfect weather. 

 

If you were bored in Houston today, then you might be a boring person.

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Most major cities in the world have excellent rail systems and walkable neighborhoods

 

Most?  Most really big cities do have some transit, and a few walkable neighborhoods (believe it or not so does Houston).  Not every neighborhood is walkable, or walkable and interesting.  In fact, I've been to a city some would say is one of the worlds most pedestrian friendly - Amsterdam - and found it had neighborhoods that were every bit uninteresting.

 

I do take offense at the slight against our museums.  While the MFAH is not the worlds greatest art museum, it is a very fine institution.  The HMNS is a world class institution!  It is.  I've been to the Field Museum, to Museums in Germany, France and Holland, to museums of the Smithsonian (which are greatly overrated - particularly for someone who actually knows a little something about science or history).

 

Houston has a lot of problems, it does.  No lie.  But to say that our museums are dumpy (which is basically what you said) is not only overly harsh, but said ONLY for the purpose of causing people to be angry with you.

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Most? Most really big cities do have some transit, and a few walkable neighborhoods (believe it or not so does Houston). Not every neighborhood is walkable, or walkable and interesting. In fact, I've been to a city some would say is one of the worlds most pedestrian friendly - Amsterdam - and found it had neighborhoods that were every bit uninteresting.

I do take offense at the slight against our museums. While the MFAH is not the worlds greatest art museum, it is a very fine institution. The HMNS is a world class institution! It is. I've been to the Field Museum, to Museums in Germany, France and Holland, to museums of the Smithsonian (which are greatly overrated - particularly for someone who actually knows a little something about science or history).

Houston has a lot of problems, it does. No lie. But to say that our museums are dumpy (which is basically what you said) is not only overly harsh, but said ONLY for the purpose of causing people to be angry with you.

I didn't say our museums are dumpy. They are quite good, perhaps world class and comparable to many others. But what I said is museums alone won't make houston a tourist attraction. A very small segment of the population even goes to them in the first place.

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Most?  Most really big cities do have some transit, and a few walkable neighborhoods (believe it or not so does Houston).  Not every neighborhood is walkable, or walkable and interesting.  In fact, I've been to a city some would say is one of the worlds most pedestrian friendly - Amsterdam - and found it had neighborhoods that were every bit uninteresting.

 

I do take offense at the slight against our museums.  While the MFAH is not the worlds greatest art museum, it is a very fine institution.  The HMNS is a world class institution!  It is.  I've been to the Field Museum, to Museums in Germany, France and Holland, to museums of the Smithsonian (which are greatly overrated - particularly for someone who actually knows a little something about science or history).

 

Houston has a lot of problems, it does.  No lie.  But to say that our museums are dumpy (which is basically what you said) is not only overly harsh, but said ONLY for the purpose of causing people to be angry with you.

 

The musems are nice, its their bland surroundings thats not very friendly to a tourist. Where are the near by sidewalk cafes? Where are the gift shops? Where are the street performers? Where are the people period?

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I didn't say our museums are dumpy. They are quite good, perhaps world class and comparable to many others. But what I said is museums alone won't make houston a tourist attraction. A very small segment of the population even goes to them in the first place.

Quote me something from this thread by you that inferred that "museums alone won't make Houston a tourist attraction". Apparently, you think that when people travel "mass transit" is the first thing that comes to mind, otherwise it's boring and droll.

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