Why does nobody walk around in this city? (Houston, Galveston: day care, landscaping)
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Houstonian mentality does play into this a bit. The city is 600 sq. miles. If you say you're going to go walk somewhere, people will probably think you're insane, poor (IMO this actually coincides with American mentality) or just plain stupid. (I think there's a similar thing here about having roommates--it's considered more of a college phenomenon while in many other cities its not uncommon to have roommates.)
I know you're probably tired of Boston stories, but even though I didn't live in the most walkable neighborhood in Boston--actually less walkable than my current one in Houston, I found it much easier to envision myself walking home from a place there (60 sq. miles), than here. You could attribute that to the built environment, I guess.
And since people like to bring this up so much, what about the TERRIBLE ozone levels? Most people wouldn't want to be walking around in that and unfortunately Houston is way up there in terms of dangerous days to be outside.
Last edited by theSUBlime; 05-12-2009 at 10:18 PM..
Houstonian mentality does play into this a bit. The city is 600 sq. miles.
....which means nothing. I don't have to walk to Kingwood or Westchase for anything. Nobody in Montrose has to go to Clear Lake to do anything, besides see NASA I guess. Everything they need on a daily basis is a short distance away, nothing that a walk, bike ride or maybe a bus trip couldn't cover. There's no excuse for the way people think here, and the size of the city limits is no exception.
I bet if gas shot back up to >$4/gal people will start walking their lazy ass to the gym that's right around the corner.
This a good point... in India, namely Hyderabad the Part im from is having a HUGE ASS problem with traffic. There are so many narrow streets and the stores and restaurants are right on the street because they never anticipated such a huge rise in the middle class. Now more and more people have cars and what used to be 2 wheeler traffic(which is quick and flowing) has become huge jams and stops. The walking is still there; even people that have a car walk around because its just the mindset. A 10min. walk(DESPITE THE FLIPPIN HEAT) is really nothing but here its a taboo
SO IT IS ABSURD THAT PEOPLE COMPLAIN ABOUT THE WEATHER AND HOW IT INDUCES LESS PEOPLE TO WALK... ITS MUCH MORE OF AN ATTITUDE PROBLEM THAN A WEATHER PROBLEM!
....which means nothing. I don't have to walk to Kingwood or Westchase for anything. Nobody in Montrose has to go to Clear Lake to do anything, besides see NASA I guess. Everything they need on a daily basis is a short distance away, nothing that a walk, bike ride or maybe a bus trip couldn't cover. There's no excuse for the way people think here, and the size of the city limits is no exception.
I bet if gas shot back up to >$4/gal people will start walking their lazy ass to the gym that's right around the corner.
Houstonian mentality does play into this a bit. The city is 600 sq. miles. If you say you're going to go walk somewhere, people will probably think you're insane, poor (IMO this actually coincides with American mentality) or just plain stupid. (I think there's a similar thing here about having roommates--it's considered more of a college phenomenon while in many other cities its not uncommon to have roommates.)
I know you're probably tired of Boston stories, but even though I didn't live in the most walkable neighborhood in Boston--actually less walkable than my current one in Houston, I found it much easier to envision myself walking home from a place there (60 sq. miles), than here. You could attribute that to the built environment, I guess.
And since people like to bring this up so much, what about the TERRIBLE ozone levels? Most people wouldn't want to be walking around in that and unfortunately Houston is way up there in terms of dangerous days to be outside.
Same mentality in the Sooner State..well..in some places..you're either insane..weird..poor...strange...if you're walking, or using transit.
I don't know about that. I think it's pretty easy to walk from downtown to the TMC or to the Galleria. It's all urban. There are sidewalks and crosswalks the entire way. I DO hate walking under 610, but even that cross has crosswalks. I regularly walk from Montrose to Hermann Park and see bikers and walkers all the time. I think the OP's problem is that he's in midtown, not Montrose. Much, much fewer people live in Midtown currently. Midtown is not dense. Pedestrians come with density.
The driving three blocks to the gym thing is pretty amusing in its irony though. It's a mentality I don't understand, but it's not exclusive to Houston. Once, while in another sizeable southern city I went for a walk down the main drag and some hillbillies shouted insults questioning my sexuality through the open windows of their pickup truck. My wife would probably disagree with their assessment of my sexual proclivities, but perhaps that's the reason people don't like walking here. I suppose they don't want to be called gay.
Or for some of us brethren, of the darker persuasion...choosing not to walk due to being called..the N word..from.."hillbillies....through open windows of their pickup truck" Again..not unique to Houston..this was Tulsa! Back in the late 80's/early 90's..
....which means nothing. I don't have to walk to Kingwood or Westchase for anything. Nobody in Montrose has to go to Clear Lake to do anything, besides see NASA I guess. Everything they need on a daily basis is a short distance away, nothing that a walk, bike ride or maybe a bus trip couldn't cover. There's no excuse for the way people think here, and the size of the city limits is no exception.
I bet if gas shot back up to >$4/gal people will start walking their lazy ass to the gym that's right around the corner.
I never said there was an excuse for it. Just stating the obvious. I'm not so insulated that all of my friends live in Montrose. I mean for many of us here in Montrose, a walk is nothing, but walking is just not the 'norm' here in the city, driving is. I think people tend to do what others around them do.
They might get a scooter and go around the corner to the gym. I remember that short period of time when scooters became very popular here in Houston, hell, I walked past a fairly new scooter shop today on the way to my boyfriend's job.
I really do hope that Houstonians will surrender their auto-powered vehicles (it would make this place a billion times better), but until the rails come, I don't see any other sort of effective intervention in the works.
Last edited by theSUBlime; 05-12-2009 at 11:27 PM..
I never said there was an excuse for it. Just stating the obvious. I'm not so insulated that all of my friends live in Montrose. I mean for many of us here in Montrose, a walk is nothing, but walking is just not the 'norm' here in the city, driving is.
Didn't mean you necessarily, just that anyone who offers that excuse is full of it. Same thing with the people who claim the size of the city limits as being why "it takes an hour to get anywhere." Everything I need on a day-to-day basis is within a couple miles and/or accessible via METRO, and I'm not even inside 610. Driving to the grocery store takes maybe 5-10 minutes, depending on what grocery store I go to. (I have a choice of eight that I can get to in that time.) Yes, I do drive, but not everywhere. I never drive into downtown if I can avoid it. I find getting around over there to be more of a hassle in a car than on foot. Same with much of Montrose, Westheimer especially.
....which means nothing. I don't have to walk to Kingwood or Westchase for anything. Nobody in Montrose has to go to Clear Lake to do anything, besides see NASA I guess. Everything they need on a daily basis is a short distance away, nothing that a walk, bike ride or maybe a bus trip couldn't cover. There's no excuse for the way people think here, and the size of the city limits is no exception.
I bet if gas shot back up to >$4/gal people will start walking their lazy ass to the gym that's right around the corner.
I completely agree..........where I previously lived gas was at $5/gal. People were walking everywhere and that was a town way back in the sticks where it was 20 miles to get to town from our place. It is human nature to avoid situations or things that they just don't want to do. If someone doesn't really want to get into shape they won't, until a doctor says they are going to die in 2 weeks if they don't.....even then....some don't. It's the same thing really.....people say "we'll do it tomorrow, in too big of a rush today" or "well it's really hot and muggy, mabey when it cools down" Here's a news flash, this is Houston and it's summer....it doesn't cool down! Lol.....Now i'm sorry but I live in Richmond and if I want to go to Katy Mills for something, I don't see me walking, partially because I have a 6 months old child. But if I go into the city somewhere there's no reason why I can't take my stroller out and walk around the city and do what I have to do....which is exactly what I do. Amazing I know!
There are "islands" of pedestrian activity, Rice Village, lower Westheimer, the area around the Post Midtown apartments, some of the faux Main street centers like Market Street in the Woodlands, but for the most part no, Houston isn't a very pedestrian friendly place beyond a few isolated places.
It is what it is.
Certainly the heat and humidity plays a big factor, and of course the attitudes and culture, (If a Houstonian needs to borrow a cup of sugar from their next door neighbor, they'd drive to do it), and poor infrastructure (sidewalks), doesn't help.
"Gaps" or "holes" in pedestrian environments can also be somewhat intimidating for people who do go out and walk. These gaps can come in the form of a block of boarded up storefronts or sidewalks that suddenly end at an overgrown vacant lot, things like that. it doesn't take very many of these things to sort of ruin the feel of a pedestrian environment & generally be enough of a deterrent for a lot of people.
The lack of zoning in Houston fits into the equation as well. We don't have all the businesses regulated into certain areas, creating a solid district of a certain character. In Montrose for example, you may have some restaurants facing Westheimer, but you will also have clubs and restaurants a few blocks off of it scattered back into the neighborhood. In a zoned city these type businesses would be forced into one district or zone and be more "shoulder to shoulder" and hence more pedestrian friendly.
As for being close to downtown, while I appreciate that, downtown is not the... epicenter of all things you might expect a downtown to be in such a large city. Much has been done to improve it in the last few years, the very recent addition of Discovery Green being a very important step in the right direction. There are two factors that IMO may explain a pedestrian environment downtown that is different than what a lot of people from other cities are used to.
First is the tunnel system. Most of the major buildings downtown are connected by air-conditioned (of course!) underground tunnel systems. There are miles of these tunnels with some retail and places to grab lunch. The pedestrian traffic you would expect to see street level is in the tunnels.
Secondly, I could be wrong but I think the Galleria area usurped downtown in many of the roles of a central business district. It certainly did/does as far as retail goes. Say what you will about the Galleria and surrounding area as nothing more than a glorified suburban office park, but at the end of the day it is where Houston's concentration of major retail is. Certainly the higher end stores. I believe there was as much office space in the Galleria area as some cities like Denver had in their downtowns. Many of the nicer restaurants were and still are in this area, and at one time the hot spot night club area was just to the southwest of it on Richmond. So for many years Houstonians came to think of this area as more of the "center of town" than downtown. With it being the higher end retail strong hold, having much of the prime office space, the luxury hi-rises were here, not so much downtown, along with the other amenities, it is easy to see why people had that perception.
Compare this to the roles the downtown of 10 years ago was left to play in the overall scheme of the city. Much as I hate to say it, but talk about your glorified office park. There was no retail to speak of, save the old Foley's (now Macy's) which was the last hold out of the old downtown retail episode. There were few restaurants and fewer night spots. There was nothing there but office buildings and except for the Houston House, the small Beaconsfield on Main, and 2016 Main, no residential. It wasn't until the Rice lofts opened in the 90's that things started to roll downtown again. Soon after we had the lofts, the restaurants, etc.
As for Midtown, it is pretty much a 21st century invention in its present state. Find the worst, run down blocks in there, and that was absolutely everything in there until Perry homes starting building some town homes back in '98. Look around, see what apartment complex or strip center or townhouse looks older than ten years. Think about that for a moment & you begin to appreciate Houston's ability to turn on a dime and evolve. This may very well be one of the upsides of Houston's lack of zoning.
the Pavilions, Discover Green, the stadiums, most of midtown, the residential and much of the night life scene in both downtown and midtown, is all pretty a much an invention of just the last ten years. It is hard to compare that to older cities with dense, walkable environments that have been built like they are since God was a boy.
Jfre, wouldn't you say downtown WAS taking off 10 years ago....and then they ripped up the streets and set it back 5 years again. It's taking off again, let's hope they leave the street alone for a while.
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I concur. 
Again..not unique to Houston..this was Tulsa! Back in the late 80's/early 90's..
Amazing I know!
