Slick Vik

Tough way to go out

been a few years, not to say the river walk is not nice but to say the east end proposal has the potential to dwarf it

The riverwalk is 10 miles long now with bike paths along the sides. It was a long project done by the use army core of engineers with habitat restoration. Absolutely beautiful.

Really happy to see the bayou revitlaion been taking serious..I really hope the plans for the east end come to pass..if done like they propose it could make the san Antonio river walk look like a cute little ditch...if it comes out like they plan

Have you seen the riverwalk recently it's quite nice after the expansion

City to convert a lane of Lamar to bicycle lane:

http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/City-to-convert-lane-of-downtown-street-to-bike-5714260.php?cmpid=twitter-premium&t=0379f94a86c2d51ab3

I haven't seen anything on lamar to indicate anything has even started on this

If it's a battle of cool the question is where would you live all things being equal?

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

To get your MBA without having to travel to another city?

To get your MBA at nights and on weekends so you don't have to quit your job?

Because many employers will reimburse you for higher education you pursue, particularly when useful to the employer?

To be able to pay your way instead of having to take out loans and be a full-time student?

To be able to carry on with your life without having to take a couple years off and go back to school full-time?

To be able to stay where you are and not have to sell your house and uproot your children so you can move to where the main college is?

Should I go on?

From my observations they don't have the same prestige as a normal MBA and they're not exactly cheap. My friend is doing the UT one for $95,000

Interesting I was always under the impression Atlanta was sprawling and boring like houston

Brooklyn bridge park, joes pizza, high line, Bronx zoo, king of falafel and shawarma, himalaya cafe, Bronx zoo, brooklyn botanical gardens, punjabi deli, transit museum

It is a great city indeed

Just noticed this tearing down one house and building three townhouses there is a meeting to discuss coming up also

I don't understand the point of the distance MBA programs

Again, lots of subjectivism. Statue of Liberty is fun to see (don't pay go in) just because it's so iconic, and likewise ESB is expensive too. But as for Houston, there's JPMorgan Chase Tower (and the skylobby is free), the downtown tunnels, Hermann Park, the Museum District, and the Rice Village a short walk away. And that's just on the rail line.

If you do take the subways in NYC (and the buses, since the subway stations are kinda far apart), you're obviously not too good enough for public transportation, and METRO will take you to other places not mentioned and beyond.

I wouldn't compare metro to MTA

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, etc the list goes on and on.

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

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That sounds about as boring as the San Jacinto Monument, Herman Park, The Fred Hartman Bridge, Discovery Green with a view of downtown Houston, The Pennzoil Building, Galveston Island, S.W. Houston ect the list on on and on... And not everyone wants to wait for a cab, bus, or train.

It's all about 'seen that, done it'. Boring is relative.

Stop

Crystal clear beaches and mountains?! Almost no city has that. Certainly not New York.

Paris, France is entirely landlocked, and it's a city that is often fantasized over for its beauty and attractiveness. Are you going to disregard it because of its landscape?

Paris is also a dense walkable city with history.

If you go to a ski resort or a crystal clear beach and decide that you want to do some shopping, you will be bored too.

'Bored' is relative to what the individual wants, their personal taste (or lack of), and what turns them on. There is a variety of places and activities to keep people in Houston from being bored. But if you want to be bored, you can be bored in Houston and anywhere on earth, even the most beautiful beach or highest mountain or prestigious museum. I knew people from L.A. who thought L.A. was boring so they went to Vegas, Palm Springs and San Diego all the time. Go figure?

I agree on your last point

Yes, NYC has wonderful beaches...oh wait. They don't.

By your own admission, you almost never venture outside the inner loop...and as for your what tourist attraction makes Houston stand out, I want to counter with "what tourist attraction makes NYC stand out"? A bunch of grotesquely overpriced tours to famous buildings like the Statue of Liberty?

To answer your question, there's lots to do in Houston. The Galleria and other areas offer shopping (a tourist thing for certain), very good museums, fantastic dining opportunities, and tons of places to explore. If you want to sneer at the fact that there's no subways, you can. But the "Houston has nothing to do for tourists" statement is completely wrong.

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.

Why? Because you can't go to beaches or Pleasure Piers in Dallas or Atlanta.

My point is that if you are in Houston, there is no reason to be bored unless you want to be. And 'better quality' is a matter of opinion. What's so fascinating about Statue of Liberties, jumbotrons? There is very little you can do in other cities that you can't do in Houston and if you are 'bored' with those things in Houston, you will be 'bored' with those things in other cities.

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

Also there isn't much historic stuff either.

Houston isn't a tourist mecca. It's unlikely it ever will be. However, we still get a fair number of people coming here for visits, whether that be for a convention, an event (superbowl, nba all-star game, etc), to visit family, or for business. Those are what mostly draw people here. Once they are here, though, they would have to try very hard to not be able to find things to do and to visit. That's why you so frequently hear comments like, "Wow, I didn't know Houston had all this".

I hope you're right I have a lot of family coming in and thinking of where to send them

I doubt that the Fiesta on Bellaire and Hillcroft is on any tourist's list of places to see. In the places tourists are more likely to go, Downtown, Montrose, the Museum District, TMC, NASA, the Galleria, up and down Westheimer, etc, etc, etc, Houston's diversity is on full display.

I've been to plenty of places in Houston where I was the only white, Anglo-American to be seen (including the Fiesta at Bellaire and Hillcroft). The opposite is rarely true, though. I can't think of anyplace I've been here where everyone was white.

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

Houston has great museums, great theaters, great shopping, great restaurants, great stadiums, nearby beaches, bays, bayous, forests, parks, hiking trails, biking trails, nightlife, concerts, music, festivals, culture centers, professional football, professional baseball, professional basketball, professional soccer, water parks, amusement parks, planes, trains, automobiles, big bridges, ferries, tunnels and the fastest growing, fastest changing, most dynamic construction landscape in America. Most people already know that if you are bored in Houston and can't find something to keep you entertained, its you.

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.

I guess since NYC isn't as diverse as Houston it's only natural that he might not be as impressed...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/05/houston-most-diverse_n_1321089.html

Unless you go to certain areas of houston the diversity wouldn't be so apparent. And it's fair to say many don't go to those areas for whatever reason. For example, I've been to the fiesta on bellaire and hillcroft numerous times and not once seen a white person.

If anyone is bored out of their minds in any major city they are just to lazy to do some research.

There are many major cities that are boring houston is just one of them

Houston is a great city, and it is getting more tourist-friendly. I think NYC is a good city with a lot to like, but it's got many flaws and it gets annoying when others hold it up as the gold standard as to what all cities should strive for (mostly in terms of density and trains, two things that admittedly go together) and anything else contrary to that is a negative thing.

Both Slick and Citykid, while not "complete idiots" as Metro West's sock has said, are afflicted with a "grass is greener" problem in which case they ignore their own very good city (it's not like they live in some college town like I do) in favor of NYC, which they idolize.

NYC and cities like it are a gold standard. Not saying houston can or will reach it but if it makes improvements to get to an acceptable level I'll be ok with it. A lot is happening already in certain parts of the loop but infrastructure will have to improve with the amount of people moving here.

So I had a chance to discuss Houston with my new flatmate, an Italian tourism major who had spent the last few years in Hong Kong, and was in Houston (Montrose, which he described rather accurately as "alternative") as his first city in the States (it's so strange hanging out with someone who's never been a Taco Bell). Contrary to popular belief, he didn't complain about the whole trains vs. highways thing as some people obsess over, but did mention the fact that Houston seemed more "American" than cities like NYC are made out to be and was impressed by the diversity of people.

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

When you say crappy landscape, do you mean the flatness of the terrain or the endless vehicle oriented development?

More the landscape but I don't like endless strip malls either. However to be fair those aren't limited to only houston.

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.

Hmmmm.... might have had more to do with who they were meeting than with the City of Houston. ;-)

They were here for a convention