Do you like living in Houston?

[Bilal Toure]

Ah, Houston. Lived there for two years after having lived for 11 years in a much smaller city (Bryan-College Station) and having grown up in a smaller city than that (Victoria, Texas). And let me tell you, I loved it. Houston was very good to me.

Houston is:

- HUGE. It's the fourth largest city population-wise in the U.S., and it sprawls forever.

- hot and humid, like living in an armpit

- lately, a lot of flooding. It is near sea level, and sinking slowly

- very diverse. LA and NYC have nothing on Houston for diversity. Just about every major ethnic and national identity in the world can be found somewhere in Houston- not to mention a lot of minor ones (I can recommend a good Bosnian restaurant for you if you'd like...)

- compared to other cities I've been to, very easy to navigate. Learn the highways and about a dozen major surface streets and you can get anywhere without too much trouble. Traffic can still be a problem, but figuring out how to go from A to B is pretty easy compared to, say, Austin or San Antonio or even Charleston or NOLA or St Louis

- mediocre public transit, just like most places in the U.S.

- if you live in Houston and get bored on any given weekend (or weeknight for that matter), well, you're just not trying. All kinds of things to do, from cultural events to family-friendly venues to clubs. And tourist enclaves like Galveston or Spring or Conroe aren't far away at all.

- Houston metro area has its fair share of craft and regional breweries if you're into that: St Arnold's, No Label, Karbach, 8th Wonder, B-52 Brewing Co, Southern Star, and Buffalo Bayou to name a few.

- plenty of job opportunities, as you can imagine in a city that large

Like I said, Houston was good to me. I enjoyed it there, and would be there still if I didn't have family obligations back in Victoria to contend with (caring for my elderly mother).

[Tumbleweed_Tx]

When I used to have facebook, I posted something about how i hated living in Houston because it was 100° and 100% humidity at midnight. A friend from Sweden said, "But you get to look at rockets on the way to work"

So, yeah, we have that going for us.

[s3mh]

Been here for 21 years.  When I first got here in 2000, everyone was talking about how much Houston had changed over the past 20 years.  So, this city is certainly dynamic.  

I like living in Houston.  I take my family to the beach on the weekends.  Road trips on weekends to Hill Country for camping, tubing etc.  Very diverse city.  My white kids are at best a plurality in their schools and often a minority.  The city has come a long way with new bike paths, park improvements and lots of great restaurants.  

My favorite thing about Houston is that it is mostly a laid back, come as you are city where everyone has room to be who they want to be.  I am originally from the East Coast and all everyone does is talk about getting their kid into an Ivy and working for the top law firm, corporation, or medical practice.  I have had bbq's with an O&G engineer, artist, pastor and environmental non-profit organizer.  

I am concerned about the future in Houston.  I have been through Allison, Ike, Harvey and all the other big floods and hurricane near misses.  I am concerned we are living on borrowed time with a direct hit that could destroy the ship channel refineries and cause an environmental disaster that would take years to recover from.  I hope the winter freeze is a once in a lifetime event, but I am concerned that we are going to have another grid failure either in the summer or during another cold snap.  I am lucky to live in the Heights and to have flood waters flow quickly down towards the bayous.  But it is hard to see so many people get hurt and have the city paralyzed during Harvey, Ike, etc.  And it has been almost 13 years since Ike and the Ike dike is still in the planning stages.  

 

[Montrose1100]

On 6/22/2021 at 11:02 PM, Bilal Toure said:

- very diverse. LA and NYC have nothing on Houston for diversity. Just about every major ethnic and national identity in the world can be found somewhere in Houston- not to mention a lot of minor ones (I can recommend a good Bosnian restaurant for you if you'd like...)

In terms of percentages, sure, we are more evenly spread between. As far as total numbers and languages/cultures/nationalities go? NYC and LA blow us out of the water.

I'm Houston's biggest fan but also our biggest hater. So I'll start with what I like:

 

• Food
  • We have an abundance of excellent food. It's a major thing that sticks out to me when visiting other places. Yes, there are wonderful places in this world that have great food options but I always draw this comparison to our restaurants as a place hold. Generally many other cities lack what we have. Not just fine dining. and it's amazing how less expensive our food and drinks are compared to other towns. Do we lack specific things? Yes. Fire House Pizza being the only decent "NY" Pizza place in town is evidence of this. Doesn't mean you can't get a good pie.
• Pools
  • Everyone has one or knows someone that has access to one. Private, Public, Neighborhood, Apartment, Hotel, that's one thing I really enjoy having access to. Particularly those 2-3 weeks in August. 
• Greenery
  • It's so green here. Trees of all types everywhere. This is a blanket statement as there are new development areas and obvious parking lots that lack them. 
• Direct Flight Options
  • Can't stand to waste any minute of time in a layover. Our direct flight options are great and I never take it for granted. 
• Diversity of Things to Do
  • This is what it's really about. Do you want to go to the Beach for the day? Go Karts? Taco and Marg crawl? Hang out at the pool all day? Traveling exhibit at one of the Museums? Concert? Picnic in the Park? Cycle? Hike & Camp Sam Houston Forest? Gawk at some new building? Production at a theater? Drink $17 beer at a sports game (Let's go support our Rugby Team the Sabercats)? Throw a dart on the map and check out the closest coffee shop? Additionally there's a branching of options of each thing I've mentioned. Do I want to appreciate a different culture and see how they celebrate a specific holiday or religious event? 
• Interesting Citizens
  • Apart from the worst drivers in the US - Houstonians are interesting. We're not as shallow as LA, but, also not as tightly wound up like New Yorkers. When we look past our differences is when we have a good time. We kind of capture that. At least I've witnessed it. 

 

Edit: There's more. Just what comes to mind anytime I tell myself I hate it here and need to move away.

[Houston19514]

22 hours ago, Montrose1100 said:

In terms of percentages, sure, we are more evenly spread between. As far as total numbers and languages/cultures/nationalities go? NYC and LA blow us out of the water.

 

Curious about this... can you provide a source?

[Montrose1100]

2 hours ago, Houston19514 said:

Curious about this... can you provide a source?

You want a source for our country's two giga alpha cities being more diverse than Houston? Alrighty.

 

2019 Source with links NYC

Same source but updated to +700 2021

World Atlas says 800

 

I'm having a hard time finding updated sources for LA, but the last shows 2015 almost 250 languages spoken. Visit Houston says:

Quote

More than 145 different languages are spoken in Houston. That's the third largest number of languages spoken in a U.S. city behind New York (192) and LA (185). More than a third of Houstonians older than five speak a language other than English at home.

Visit Houston

 

There's a ton of different metrics to rate a city "diverse" or not. Similar to how we get to claim We're the world's busiest port* *in terms of foreign bound tonnage.

Wallet Hub has a good break down and rates us as #1. 

 

If the 800 languages in NYC is true, and ours is only 145, then my statement isn't farfetched. 

[Houston19514]

1 hour ago, Montrose1100 said:

You want a source for our country's two giga alpha cities being more diverse than Houston? Alrighty.

 

2019 Source with links NYC

Same source but updated to +700 2021

World Atlas says 800

 

I'm having a hard time finding updated sources for LA, but the last shows 2015 almost 250 languages spoken. Visit Houston says:

Visit Houston

 

There's a ton of different metrics to rate a city "diverse" or not. Similar to how we get to claim We're the world's busiest port* *in terms of foreign bound tonnage.

Wallet Hub has a good break down and rates us as #1. 

 

If the 800 languages in NYC is true, and ours is only 145, then my statement isn't farfetched. 

FYI, I was in no way challenging or arguing with your assertion, Merely looking for more information. As your response suggests, it's a little difficult to find good information to compare.  (However, after reviewing the data, one might fairly quibble with your "blow us out of the water" characterization.)

The best (and only one that compares similar data) seems to be the numbers you quoted from GHP, which appear to be from the US Census Bureau circa 2009-2013, and counts the number of languages spoken in homes.  (NYC: 192.  LA:  185. Houston: 145)   I counted NYC: 193.  LA:  186.  and Houston:  148 in the linked census spreadsheet.

https://www.census.gov/data/tables/2013/demo/2009-2013-lang-tables.html

Edited April 7, 2022 by Houston19514

[Montrose1100]

21 minutes ago, Houston19514 said:

FYI, I was in no way challenging or arguing with your assertion.  Merely looking for more information. As your response suggests, it's a little difficult to find good information to compare.  The best seems to be the numbers you quote from GHP, which appear to be from the US Census Bureau circa 2015.

Dare challenge me? 😉

I've been on this site long enough to know I should have provided a source in my post initially. However, spent too much time reflecting on what I like about this city. 

[mattyt36]

1 hour ago, Houston19514 said:

FYI, I was in no way challenging or arguing with your assertion, Merely looking for more information. As your response suggests, it's a little difficult to find good information to compare.  (However, after reviewing the data, one might fairly quibble with your "blow us out of the water" characterization.)

The best (and only one that compares similar data) seems to be the numbers you quoted from GHP, which appear to be from the US Census Bureau circa 2009-2013, and counts the number of languages spoken in homes.  (NYC: 192.  LA:  185. Houston: 145)   I counted NYC: 193.  LA:  186.  and Houston:  148 in the linked census spreadsheet.

https://www.census.gov/data/tables/2013/demo/2009-2013-lang-tables.html

56 minutes ago, Montrose1100 said:

Dare challenge me? 😉

I've been on this site long enough to know I should have provided a source in my post initially. However, spent too much time reflecting on what I like about this city. 

Great question actually, 800 languages spoken?  Do these include languages spoken in one's head?!

Yes, I know there are more than 3,000 spoken languages in the world . . . Wiki lists the number of speakers for the top 100 (that being Konkani, which has 7.4 million native speakers, or 0.11% of the world's population).  If Houston has ALL of those along with ALL of the next 48, well quite a remarkable achievement in the history of human civilization in terms of global "melting pots."  Since we're a little bit newer than NYC and LA, I'll just assume numbers 149-192 must be speakers of Ancient Konkani and Middle Konkani. 🤣

A full 800?!  Well, maybe they are referring to the number of paranoid schizophrenics in NYC and LA.

List of languages by number of native speakers - Wikipedia  

Edited April 7, 2022 by mattyt36

[zaphod]

On 4/6/2022 at 2:35 PM, Montrose1100 said:

Pools

• Everyone has one or knows someone that has access to one. Private, Public, Neighborhood, Apartment, Hotel, that's one thing I really enjoy having access to. Particularly those 2-3 weeks in August. 

So, actually there is a severe paucity of publically accessible ones outside the city proper. The HOA pools, which are residents only, tend to dominate. I disagree completely. Other metro areas usually have municipal or county run aquatic facilities.