Is the Houston Metro "Beautiful?" (Bellaire, Katy: homes, employment)

[Mezter]

Hey Houstonians. I was just looking at a thread on the City Vs City forum and it was listing cities in order from Most-Least beautiful. There were only 12 cities listed, but Houston was at the bottom of a few peoples lists. I'm from Houston, but I've been away long enough to look at the city objectively.

I personally think Houston's a very beautiful place. Trees, greenery, bays, ocean, bayous, swamp, Pine forests, and rivers make for a pretty setting. What do you think of Houston's natural setting? Do you think it's underrated?

[Trae713]

It's stunning.

[diablo234]

Houston does have some relatively nice areas but the metro area as a whole is by no means "beautiful" especially when you compare it with other cities such as San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago, Boston, Denver, or even Atlanta. People mostly live in Houston because of the good employment opportunities here and the low cost of living not because of the scenery.

[EasilyAmused]

Honestly, if you can't afford the lot with a view of the bayou or the brown gulf, you are going to get a view of a cedar fence. So...yeah...no view. Is that beautiful? No. But if you land in an area with an old oak canopy, its going to be prettier than most of Manhattan.

But driving around, compared to the other top three Metros , its green. And no, we aren't talking the burbs here, but the actual cities.

[War Beagle]

Houston (and really Texas as a whole) has a lot going for it, but aesthetics are not at the top of the list.

[ToyYot]

Originally Posted by Trae713

It's stunning.

Totally. Absolutely. Without Question.

[Nairobi]

Naturally, yes. It has that Gulf Coast charm going for it, and there is a way to bring out the beauty in even the flattest of landscapes (look at Chicago), but we didn't capitalize on that potential.

[jerbear30]

Pluses: The Houston city skyline is very impressive and imho very much underrated nationwide. I particularly like BG Group Place. I also like the flora/fauna here much more than I thought I would. It is very lush, almost tropical at certain times. I love Discovery Green (although it is much, much too small for the main downtown park of a city the size of Houston). The medical center skyline constitutes almost a second city kind of feel and not (again imho) in a bad way. It looks nice. I also love the museum district. Minute Maid park and Reliant stadium are both decently attractive (from the inside, Minute Maid is great). The rich people in River Oaks generally have trusted their opulence to competent architects.

Minuses: Most of the metro area has a kind of nondescript strip-mall kind of feel. Since most of us live in spaces like this, the feeling of being in a kind of nowhere zone is pretty hard to shake at times. The Galleria area or "uptown" has mostly awful looking mid-rises that do little for the eye and even less for the soul (for god's sake, building a major attraction out of a mall is already probably a bit misguided). The rich people in the Memorial villages and Bellaire seem to have hired architects whose aim is to reference about twelve or thirteen different architectural styles all in the same garish structures. Finally, I know Heritage Plaza was designed to look like a Mayan pyramid but it doesn't work for me. It's too "new" and too lego-like for my taste.

That's my 2 cents anyway.

[Schumacher713]

It has improved a lot. Some areas are gorgeous and others not. I have seen cities that are in worse shape. I do think it is under rated.

[HookTheBrotherUp]

For example, in Katy, one has views of a sleepy streets with huge mature oaks, and homes on large lots..., not exciting, but peaceful. In Montrose, which is within two miles of downtown Houston, you have views of the downtown skyline which is stunning at night.