Houston's Sprucing It Up

[111486]

hmmm.. if our roads are smooth, I am afraid to drive on those in Boston 

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That's why they have subways. Something this city could use more of, except using freeways to escape to the sprawly suburbs.

[HOUCAJUN]

That's why they have subways.  Something this city could use more of, except using freeways to escape to the sprawly suburbs.

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shouldn't the roads be smoother since they have a great subway system? lesser drivers on the road, right?boston has no excuse for bad roads.

[citykid09]

The snow weathers the roads down. Boston is a great city, but the winter ruins half of the year, so it's not worth living there like that. I would much rather have Houston's summers than Boston's winters.

[Lowbrow]

Weather is the factor. The constant change in temperature is hard on the materials. There is still a ton of traffic there. Hard to maintain the roads when they are all iced under. I'm not sure how much salt they use there but snow plowing is rough on the roads aswell.

I loved the winters up there but I'm kinda weird like that.

[citykid09]

I know plenty of people from, up north that would love to live in Houston over their city. They say the old northern cities may seen nice to live in, but that is looking at it from a visitors perspective. They also said the quality of life is much better in Houston than any northern city. Everybody that I have talk to has said this.

[Gary]

These people are insane.

j/k

But no city can compare with Boston, and it feels a lot larger than Houston.

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What?

[Gary]

Boston is a great town. If they had a job market in my field, I'd be there. But it is an unfair comparison. Houston is now my third favorite place to live in america. Immediately following Boston and San Francisco. While San Francisco and Boston are comparible in many ways. Houston stands alone.

Then again I was paying 5k a month for a 3 bedroom flat in a run down building. Boston can be mad expensive. I'd probably be paying $775 here for the same place.

Did you mean water-locked? 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

This is a good point that I think needs to be addressed. Coming from LA I can tell you that Houstonians should REJOICE over many things including the fantastic cost of living here. For a two bedroom 1 bath home (about 1200sf) in Hurmosa beach (where I lived) you would pay over $300,000.00. I bought my home in Katy which is a four bedroom 2 1/2 bath (2750 sf) for $130,000.00.

I also don't think some understand how conveniant Houston is either. Man theres a gas station, grocery store or coveniance store on every corner, well at least almost.

When I moved here I fell in love with these things immediately, of course at that time I was living in Uptown. What I'm trying to say is Houston is unique in a lot of ways, it may not have the old school charm of the East Coast cities but there are many great things here that they don't have either.

I love Houston and have no plans of leaving.

[Parrothead]

I love Boston, but don't think that it can be compared to Houston in any way just because they are so different.

I have noticed the outer parts of Houston have always been nice. Spring, Woodlands, Cy-Fair, Katy, Kingwood, Sugar Land. That's not really Houston, though. Here on the west side, we have a growing grafitti problem that no one seems to want to do a thing about and it's getting worse by the day. I haven't noticed any difference in trash or anything else, frankly.

[kzseattle]

I love Boston, but don't think that it can be compared to Houston in any way just because they are so different.

I have noticed the outer parts of Houston have always been nice.  Spring, Woodlands, Cy-Fair, Katy, Kingwood, Sugar Land.  That's not really Houston, though. Here on the west side, we have a growing grafitti problem that no one seems to want to do a thing about and it's getting worse by the day.  I haven't noticed any difference in trash or anything else, frankly.

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What part of west side is that? I have driven through nearly every neighborhoods bounded by I-10, Wesheimer, West loop and Highway 6 as well the area bounded by Westheimer, Gessner, West Park and Highway 6. The problem areas, as far as trash is concerned, are the feeder roads along BW8 and I-10, the open ditches along Rodgerdale road, and Westheimer. In other parts, you may occasionally see a paper cup, can or a bottle here and there and there but that isnt unusual. However, so far, I havnt seen any graffiti in these areas.

Now, south of West Park, we have the real problem areas such as Gulfton, Sharpstown and Alief. For now, I pretend they dont exist!

Like I said, the only way to reduce the amount of trash is to track and PENALIZE those responsible for it.

[The Great Hizzy!]

You have to focus on the property owners. The trash throwers are random and could be anyone. Moreover, trash is byproduct of absent-mindedness, like someone carrying a bag with trash in it but not having it tied properly and a couple of pieces of trash fly away; or someone in a car or truck has some trash blow from inside of it (that's happened to me before); or truckers who don't properly cover up the trash in their beds--aluminum cans, construction debris and so forth.

Then you have those weekend jackasses who throw their 24 oz Busch beer cans in the medians, mainly because they're concerned about incriminating themselves if they happen to get pulled over.

So in lieu of all of these factors, it's much more effective to nail down the property owners who allow the trash to just linger on their property for weeks at a time. The worst offenders, I believe, are a) apartment complexes and b.) strip mall retailers/renters/owners.

Poor management of the surroundings.

[Parrothead]

What part of west side is that? I have driven through nearly every neighborhoods bounded by I-10, Wesheimer, West loop and Highway 6 as well the area bounded by Westheimer, Gessner, West Park and Highway 6. The problem areas, as far as trash is concerned, are the feeder roads along BW8 and I-10, the open ditches along Rodgerdale road, and Westheimer. In other parts, you may occasionally see a paper cup, can or a bottle here and there and there but that isnt unusual. However, so far, I havnt seen any graffiti in these areas.

Now, south of West Park, we have the real problem areas such as Gulfton, Sharpstown and Alief. For now, I pretend they dont exist!

Like I said, the only way to reduce the amount of trash is to track and PENALIZE those responsible for it.

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I live right at Beltway 8 and I-10--and there is grafitti everywhere. It's spraypainted on concrete supports, on the now-abandoned Igloo headquarters, all over the buildings and fences that line the Autumn Oaks subdivision, and in a few other choice places I have never seen before--one of them is the entrance to our subdivision. It has only happened within the past year. On one of the parking garages at Town & Country someone spray painted "JIHAD" in huge letters on the side. Lovely. Thankfully the management or owners came out and spray painted over it. Unfortunately, I think as long as the horrible rat-infested Skyline Apartment complex is standing there near the corner, we will continue to have punk kids (and adults) who have nothing better to do.

I don't know about the trash situation, but I will tell you guys I was absolutely BLOWN AWAY last night when hubby and I were leaving Walgreens at Town & Country center--you know, really nice, upscale people....yeah RIGHT! We were waiting for this guy to pull out of his space right in front of the building and in plain sight, he rolled his window down and dumped a huge amount of trash that was in his car OUT THE WINDOW into the parking lot. Candy wrappers, a plastic bag, and wadded-up papers. I almost fell over. I really irked Matt because I wouldn't let this guy pull out and I rolled my window down and told him "Uh, you need to pick that up, sir." Matt was like, "Polly, just go...." the guy was just kinda sitting in his car and waiting for me to leave, it pis*ed me off SO BAD! I have never seen anyone that blatent about it, especially when there is a trash can RIGHT there!! I was soooooo mad. So we pulled out of the parking lot, and just as we did the security guy pulled in and I told him what happened and pointed to the guy in the car who was trying to figure out what the heck I was doing, I guess, because he was still sitting there. We left for home and hopefully that guy picked his trash up, doubtful but oh well!

Later Matt said we should have not said anything, followed him home just to see where he lived and then go back and dump a bunch of trash on his lawn with a note. I loved that idea! I said, "Why didn't you think of that sooner!?!"

[kzseattle]

You have to focus on the property owners. The trash throwers are random and could be anyone. Moreover, trash is byproduct of absent-mindedness, like someone carrying a bag with trash in it but not having it tied properly and a couple of pieces of trash fly away; or someone in a car or truck has some trash blow from inside of it (that's happened to me before); or truckers who don't properly cover up the trash in their beds--aluminum cans, construction debris and so forth.

Then you have those weekend jackasses who throw their 24 oz Busch beer cans in the medians, mainly because they're concerned about incriminating themselves if they happen to get pulled over.

So in lieu of all of these factors, it's much more effective to nail down the property owners who allow the trash to just linger on their property for weeks at a time. The worst offenders, I believe, are a) apartment complexes and b.) strip mall retailers/renters/owners.

Poor management of the surroundings.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I think the property owners can only do so much. A few times, I have seen a particular location being cleaned up and only a few hours later the trash is back.

After all, it takes only a second to throw something out of the car but takes a lot more effort to pick it up. I agree that property owners should clean up their premises more regularly. That should help in reducing the amount of trash we see on a given day. However, the city also need to attack the source of the trash. If people know that they are really going to be penalized if caught, it could go a long way in discouraging this habit.

I agree that some of the trash could be due to absent-mindedness. However, the most common type of trash I have seen is related to fast food. You see items such fast food wrappers, soda cups/cans, napkins etc which indicate that people simply threw them out the window when done eating. Moreover, some people do clean up their cars in parking lots by throwing all their garbage out there.

Having said this, the city is really too easy on businesses. There are no zoning laws. Apparently, there are no ordinances or planning guidelines that commercial properties must comply with (or if there are, they don

[LTAWACS]

I have noticed, maybe its just me, that Houston is becoming more "attractive".

I have been spending (for the greater part of) the weekend around Spring. FM 1960 is a traffic + retail hub! Some of the Strip Centers, are actually really nice! Like the one with Pei Wei, Barnes & Nobles, Rockfish (etc). FM 1960 holds a very great future, there is tons of construction there, including a new Hospital (St. Lukes @ Cypresswood).

Not just in Spring, but all around town, things seem to getting better. I think were on the verge of not being ugly. I know there still alot to do, to even consider Houston "beautiful", but I think its a good start.

Thoughts?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

So you're all for sprawl eh?