NYT thinks Houston is "The place to go" in the U.S. (and the world) in 2013 (Alamo: theatre, place to live)

[worldlyman]

Houston is unique compared to the other predictable darling cities with the same old cute, arranged commercial streets.

Last night I drove around after work, went past the interesting busy corner of nocturnal Taft/Fairview and that ODDBALL intimate arrangement of nightlife structures there...sorry, you just don't really find that type of backstreet in LA, NY, Dallas, Atlanta, San Diego, Phoenix and so on.

Houston is happening. Not in a trite way at all. I love seeing substantial nightlife foot traffic on lower Westheimer between Dunvale and Montrose with all the new spots. I love seeing it in Midtown. We went to eat at The Fish on W. Gray...lots of folks walking around Midtown at night (oops, could have been a section of San Fran, Chicago, whatever). Downtown with new bars and old bars...is coming back. Lots of people standing around Hearsay, Dean's, Batanga, Clutch City Bar, etc...(those who say downtown is "dead" really don't get out much or simply don't want to enjoy what Houston has to offer).

Rice Village on Morningside with all those CROWDED bars. For a different type of street texture, the lively pedestrian-orientation on White Oak in the Heights. Urban downtown Main St. as opposed to the outdoor energy along open Fountainview. What other city offers this VARIETY of texture?

In NY, Chinatown is texturally the same as Little Italy except for signage. In LA, there is no real textural difference among popular streets like Robertson, Melrose, La Brea, Westwood (except its curve), Sunset, Santa Monica Main, etc. In Houston, we don't have that problem of visual monotony. I will take variety of spacing over density any day (or night).

There is definitely nightlife energy down Sage in the Galleria area. Yet it is a DIFFERENT type of street facade than the Inner Loop thoroughfares. Greek bars to upscale "gentlemen's clubs" to dance clubs, they're there down Sage. You can have great VARYING nightlife inside or outside the Loop.

I scoff at those who say Houston is "family-oriented" therefore has "lack" of nightlife. Those varying nocturnal activity areas which ABOUND in Houston where I saw sexy mini-skirts walking all over...I don't think so.

Houston is DEFINITELY a unique city to see. Period. Perhaps not a "must see" in the conventional tourist sense since people have different tastes but US cities are generally lame compared to what I've viscerally experienced in Western Europe and in the Philippines. So how's them apples?

Houston is a great place to visit in an of itself but not in the traditional vacation sense. But it still works.

It has amenities on par with the the heavyweight cities...but Houston's commercial facades while decentralized have the uniqueness of differing types of architecture to house these shops/cafes in SPADES. The assortment of commercial clapboards, palapas, bungalows in addition to traditional block buildings in the Houston metro is relatively unique.

Not like the other cities who offer generally same old same old block type buildings and same old sidewalks. Yeah, the haters who scoff at Houston's unique collection of HUGE and COLORFUL party patio decks that STILL thrive and are packed on Richmond Avenue (Diablo Loco is off da chain!)...until they can tell me where that collection exists in those prim and proper cities like Chicago or Denver or San Diego or San Fran...they can zip their pieholes on the subject. Houston can offer gritty urban environments yet gritty yet vibrant edge city style environments like no other. Our variety and diversity trump, man.

Indeed, the Texas Medical Center is an intellectual tourist attraction. Thousands of people from all over the world come just to visit and see how the venerable institutions operate. Celebrities have come here to be treated. 'Nuff said.

The Galleria isn't just some "suburban mall." It is only one of the few stylish architecturally-sophisticated indoor malls WITH BUZZ in the country if not the world. It is a shopping DESTINATION for high-powerd money cards people from ABROAD. Not that it matters to me; I don't go there, can't remember the last I went, but apparently visitors from out of town love the place. (Again, we have the haters who like to under-rate Houston's offerings.)

Westhou professes Houston's "not even close to the level" of Miami, San Fran, NYC yada yada? LOL! Like I will find late night neon Asian spots en masse in Miami right on the level of Houston, right? Like our fellow citizens of African-American and Latino-American persuasion will find spots appealing to them en masse in San Francisco, right? Gotta love diversity in certain other darling places compared to "not even close to the level" Houston!

Houston has the higher level of cultural offerings that the likes of Miami, Vegas, San Diego and New Orleans cannot match. Houston has the collection of vibrant outdoor, "get-down", open space party padsites that the likes of NY, Chicago, San Fran and such cannot match. Is that hard to comprehend?

If the detached one-fits-all tourists can't find the good stuff here, that ain't my problem. But my visitors whom I show the good stuff in H-town, they say things like, "I love Houston! This is awesome! Why can't the Chicago suburbs have lots of late night eateries outside the central area like Houston?"

[bruivik]

Homerism at its best. Worldlyman ain't so worldly.

[testmo]

the list is obviously pointed towards under appreciated, little tourism, trying to catch your eye by a list that at the surface doesnt make any sense.

everyone in the world with some money has been to NYC, SF, LA, New Orleans, Chicago, Seattle etc. They aren't going to be listed. Houston over something like Grand Forks? No ****. We are incredibly undervalued and have been getting a lot of positive news lately.

Other than Amsterdam, Rio, Istanbul and New Delhi the other places listed are X large city in frequently toured country or country Americans have never heard of that has some cool stuff/history but isn't a prime spot.

of the above mentioned 4 I imagine only New Delhi is not often visited by Americans. India hasnt been getting such positive news coverage lately. Betting that is why they are mentioned. Same with Istanbul, although nearly every cruise line has a stop there

[Trae713]

Originally Posted by Spade

Nobody is saying that. Houston is a great city. It's just not a city that people would fall over to visit. There's a reason why the quote "It's a great city to live, terrible city to visit" exists. Houston in many cases offers a higher QOL than Chicago and NYC depending on what you are looking for. Houston is not a craphole city. Don't take it personal. It's a city that was built by business for business but made mistakes while growing which they are now correcting them.

What set cities like New York, Chicago, Miami, New Orleans and others apart from cities like Houston is that they didn't ignore their natural boundaries and/or build over them. Houston did this. Houston had one starting in their face with the bayous but decided to concrete them and ignore them. Manmade, Houston unforgunately, at least for me, grew mostly in the suburban spread out model of development era. People like visiting dense walkable vibrant places such as downtowns, South Beach, French Quarter, Center City Philadelphia, etc.

The Army Corps of engineers decided to concrete the bayous, not the city. I agree with you on mass transit. The inner loop and at least Hobby should be connected with rail by now. Maybe the potential theme parks add in some tourist dollars.

[Spade]

Originally Posted by Trae713

The Army Corps of engineers decided to concrete the bayous, not the city. I agree with you on mass transit. The inner loop and at least Hobby should be connected with rail by now. Maybe the potential theme parks add in some tourist dollars.

Did they decide to do concrete that on their own? Just asking.

[Spade]

The Galleria isn't just some "suburban mall." It is only one of the few stylish architecturally-sophisticated indoor malls WITH BUZZ in the country if not the world. It is a shopping DESTINATION for high-powerd money cards people from ABROAD. Not that it matters to me; I don't go there, can't remember the last I went, but apparently visitors from out of town love the place. (Again, we have the haters who like to under-rate Houston's offerings.)

Yeah it's a suburban mall. Nobody is going to fly to Houston to experience a mall. I don't care how neat you portray it as. People will not fly to some random mall that is equivalent to what other major cities have. The galleria or 5th ave. The galleria or Rodeo Drive. The galleria is nice. But there's nothing terribly exciting about it.

Also, there's many other parts of your posts that are wrong but in reality, you described why Houston is a great place to live. Not to visit so you honestly proved our points.

Indeed, the Texas Medical Center is an intellectual tourist attraction. Thousands of people from all over the world come just to visit and see how the venerable institutions operate. Celebrities have come here to be treated. 'Nuff said.

[tebor79]

People with money to travel frequently have done NY, Chicago, and LA to death by now. Which is why Houston makes the list.

[worldlyman]

Originally Posted by Spade

Yeah it's a suburban mall. Nobody is going to fly to Houston to experience a mall. I don't care how neat you portray it as. People will not fly to some random mall that is equivalent to what other major cities have. The galleria or 5th ave. The galleria or Rodeo Drive. The galleria is nice. But there's nothing terribly exciting about it.

Also, there's many other parts of your posts that are wrong but in reality, you described why Houston is a great place to live. Not to visit so you honestly proved our points.

"Random" suburban malls are typically surrounded by an endless vast sea of asphalt/concrete parking lots. By that standard, the Houston Galleria is not, where parking is much more measured and obscured.

Suburban malls totally have non-mitigating horizontal qualities. The Houston Galleria while certainly horizontal also, does have UNIQUE elegant vertical features, within and nearby.

Suburban malls do not have the striking architectural sophistication of the Houston Galleria. Even the celebrated indoor malls in the Los Angeles area like South Coast Plaza (which reminds me of an upscale version of Countryside Mall in Clearwater, Florida) and Beverly Center cannot touch the Galleria in that aspect.

Rodeo Drive is an outdoor construct whose street texture is like Melrose or Robertson...more akin to Miracle Mile in Chicago. No, the Houston Galleria is an indoor uber-swank architectural phenomenon no matter how you cut it, no matter how some of us may find indoor malls unfavorable.

Suburban malls do not typically have dense surrounding, adjacent and BUZZING commercial synergy. The Houston Galleria (as well as the Beverly Center) does.

The Houston Galleria is very attractive to affluent Latin American, Middle Easterners and Asian shoppers from abroad. We need not be ignorant of the fact that foreigners-in-the-know DO come to Houston just to shop, Galleria included.

I mean really, what "random...suburban mall" was the "envy among retailers around the world" like the Houston Galleria?
D Magazine : ANATOMY OF A SUPER MALL



It's interesting though, how the Anal Urbanists might go through the trouble of extolling the virtues of something such as cute public outdoor markets though a great many may look and smell quite the same in different cities, yet criticize indoor malls as all being one and the same. Golly, I didn't know that Memorial City Mall randomly looked like the Houston Galleria.

The Texas Medical Center is an international magnet, so let's not even address any hater's snide remarks against it. Houston is the city NY Times architecture critic Ada Huxtable once said "that scholar's flock to for the purpose of seeing what modern civiliation has wrought." The Med Center is one manifestation of that.

Actually, there are travelers who would find Houston an interesting visit BECAUSE of its unique qualities I mentioned.

One of my Florida visitors was impressed by the downtown tunnels in his first visit because he said that most any tourist can go to the Statue of Liberty or Golden Gate Bridge, but something so functional AND unique like the downtown Houston tunnels, not many "tourists" can claim to have observed them. His second visit, this time with his significant other, ANOTHER tour of the downtown tunnels was his request just to show her.

[stoneclaw]

Houston has made some major strides. I hope we can eventually get the Olympics!

[Pine to Vine]

Originally Posted by worldlyman

Houston is unique compared to the other predictable darling cities with the same old cute, arranged commercial streets.

That trouble is most tourists want to visit cities that are cute and accessible. They do not want to visit cities where they have to rent cars, are difficult to navigate and drive to strip centers looking for clubs or fine dining. Nor do they consider stretches of sidewalks along west Houston great for evening strolls, though yes, they are "walkable." Further, people flock to medical facilities in every large city, but it's hardly a vacation for most. The tunnels do in fact exist, but after a few minutes of looking at burger joints and drug stores, the novelty wears off pretty quickly. I am glad your friends find them more fascinating than the GG Bridge or the Statue of Liberty. Alas, mine did not. Finally, the Galleria is a mall. While high end and luxury, it is hardly the largest, plushest, most sophisticated or architecturally interesting in the US.

Many of Houston's attributes you repeatedly post about are what make the city a great place to live. As for a visiting, however, I can see why it is not on the short list of most folks outside of business travelers needing to visit and Mexicans wanting to get to a nearby city to shop. For me, when I'm deciding where to spend time and money on vacation, cities that come to mind are those with a compelling image drawing me there. Think about the first thing that might pop into your mind when you hear about the following cities mentioned:
NYC - Broadway?
DC - museums and monuments?
Boston, Philly - history?
SF - Fisherman's Wharf?
LA - Hollywood?
Seattle - Space Needle?
Miami - beach?
New Orleans - French Quarter?
Chicago - Navy Pier?
Las Vegas - strip?
San Diego - zoo?
etc.

Even less touristed cities have iconic images (Cleveland - R&R Hall?, St Louis - arch?).

When folks hear "Houston," I'll bet most draw a blank or the first image that comes to mind is "oil" or Enron. Not something that would make me want to visit.

Houston's' problem is not a lack of things to do. It is perhaps the fact that the city doesn't offer enough attractions unique to the city that would compel people to visit it instead of these other places. Cities of every size have museums, performing arts, parks, restaurants, shopping, malls, night spots, quirky neighborhoods, etc. Are Houston's offerings unique enough to make someone want to spend limited time and money there over other places? If so, let's hear about them.