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Location: The land of sugar... previously Houston and Austin
5,429 posts, read 14,857,465 times
Reputation: 3672
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Quote:
Originally Posted by joejitsu
Case and point of Austin bashing.
You mean case in point?
Anyway, please don't accuse me of something with nothing to back up your accusation. I just gave you a dictionary definition of "bashing" above, but apparently you failed to either read or comprehend it.
It's not bashing. It's sharing of an opinion of someone who has lived there. If you don't agree when others think it's not the perfection some make it out to be, fine, but don't act like it's bashing. It's just honesty.
And if you simply can't handle it if someone says something about Austin that's not 100% positive all the time, thinking that's bashing, you're being way too sensitive and unrealistic.
Austin is a wonderful city, but there are people who have never even been there or even the state and think that Austin is some perfect place lying in a hellhole.
It's just that the rest of Texas and the other big cities (Austin is a big TOWN) get sick of hearing about how Austin is the only bright spot in Texas. I know in Dallas and Houston we have some very Austin-like neighborhoods (mine for one).
Houston has lots of diversity, if your talking about that it has lots of people from different cultures living here, but if you are saying it is not a segregated city then I am betting that you probably grew up in the suburbs.
Living in the suburbs or in the country you will see some Mexican, some Asian, some African American and think that this is diversity in Houston. But if you live OUT of the suburbs closer to downtown and the ACTUAL city of Houston you will see that Houston is pretty segregated in where the majority of these cultures live.
There are many huge pockets of segregation all throughout Houston if you really started looking at it closely. Some one posted mostly because of the zoning and I agree. And they are all located off the major freeways because that is were the money is in Houston, just right off ANY freeway - you could open the back of your pickup truck and start selling stuff in Htown.
So, for example, if you come out of the suburbs, going North on I-45, you will hit South Houston. South Houston is largely Hispanic. You will see white people, too. But this area is predominately Hispanic. And is all the way into downtown Houston. Which has been predominately Hispanic until the 1990's when they started gentrifying the downtown Houston area and it's immediate surroundings. Now more white families and families with more education and money are moving in. Which is kind rough for the little families that can't afford the property taxes anymore and move out. Cause Houstons property tax laws are wack. And they don't lock the taxes of people that have been living in once place for a long time. You taxes just go up every year you are in that home, until you are 65.
Anyway, I would say it's about 40% hispanic, 40% white, and 10% other around downtown...which is where we live now. But I grew up in the suburbs of Friendswood, League City.
You have heading toward downtown Houston, after South Houston, Sunnyside, and those areas where a huge popluation of mostly poor African Americans live. There is a lot of poverty there. The same as in of the "wards" they have around Houston. 4th and 5th wards etc. where mostly all the really poor Africans American live. You don't see any white folk there.
South of 45 in the suburbs of Friendswood, Clear Lake, League city it is mostly all white. There are some other cultures mixed in but mostly white. Go North of I-45 past the freeway and you hit The Woodlands, all white and a snobbier version of the suburbs. Yikes. I-10 to Katy, Sugarland all white. Except off I-10 you have a pocket of Asian people, China Town, with Asian street signs and such.
So true diversity....I don't think so. You would have to live in one of these pockets to be truley integrated with THAT perticular group. Or make friends with people from differently cultures and get involved with their culture and pockets of diversity.
But you do run into lots of cultures in ONE place if you go shopping at the Galleria or something. ha ha Which is fun, I might add!!! You will see REAL diversity at Houston International Airport and places like that. But once you start picking and choosing where you will actually live....that's a TOTALLY different story. Which is one reason we liked moving INTO the city so we could have fun with MORE of what Houston has to offer than just the cookie-cutter, same ol', suburbia stuff that got pretty boring after 33 years. But both have it's advantages and disadvantages..............and that's just a whole OTHER story!
Houston has lots of diversity, if your talking about that it has lots of people from different cultures living here, but if you are saying it is not a segregated city then I am betting that you probably grew up in the suburbs.
Living in the suburbs or in the country you will see some Mexican, some Asian, some African American and think that this is diversity in Houston. But if you live OUT of the suburbs closer to downtown and the ACTUAL city of Houston you will see that Houston is pretty segregated in where the majority of these cultures live.
There are many huge pockets of segregation all throughout Houston if you really started looking at it closely. Some one posted mostly because of the zoning and I agree. And they are all located off the major freeways because that is were the money is in Houston, just right off ANY freeway - you could open the back of your pickup truck and start selling stuff in Htown.
So, for example, if you come out of the suburbs, going North on I-45, you will hit South Houston. South Houston is largely Hispanic. You will see white people, too. But this area is predominately Hispanic. And is all the way into downtown Houston. Which has been predominately Hispanic until the 1990's when they started gentrifying the downtown Houston area and it's immediate surroundings. Now more white families and families with more education and money are moving in. Which is kind rough for the little families that can't afford the property taxes anymore and move out. Cause Houstons property tax laws are wack. And they don't lock the taxes of people that have been living in once place for a long time. You taxes just go up every year you are in that home, until you are 65.
Anyway, I would say it's about 40% hispanic, 40% white, and 10% other around downtown...which is where we live now. But I grew up in the suburbs of Friendswood, League City.
You have heading toward downtown Houston, after South Houston, Sunnyside, and those areas where a huge popluation of mostly poor African Americans live. There is a lot of poverty there. The same as in of the "wards" they have around Houston. 4th and 5th wards etc. where mostly all the really poor Africans American live. You don't see any white folk there.
South of 45 in the suburbs of Friendswood, Clear Lake, League city it is mostly all white. There are some other cultures mixed in but mostly white. Go North of I-45 past the freeway and you hit The Woodlands, all white and a snobbier version of the suburbs. Yikes. I-10 to Katy, Sugarland all white. Except off I-10 you have a pocket of Asian people, China Town, with Asian street signs and such.
So true diversity....I don't think so. You would have to live in one of these pockets to be truley integrated with THAT perticular group. Or make friends with people from differently cultures and get involved with their culture and pockets of diversity.
But you do run into lots of cultures in ONE place if you go shopping at the Galleria or something. ha ha Which is fun, I might add!!! You will see REAL diversity at Houston International Airport and places like that. But once you start picking and choosing where you will actually live....that's a TOTALLY different story. Which is one reason we liked moving INTO the city so we could have fun with MORE of what Houston has to offer than just the cookie-cutter, same ol', suburbia stuff that got pretty boring after 33 years. But both have it's advantages and disadvantages..............and that's just a whole OTHER story!
Izzy
I disagree with 99% of what you had to say. Houston is one of the least segregated large cities/metros in this country. No zoning laws in Houston actually help integrate less desirable ares of the city in with the ritzy ones IMO & no, you can't just start a "business" on the side of a freeway out of the back of your pickup truck, that is completely false & on top of that its illegal. People get caught doing it all the time & it can result in city fines, even jail time depending on how severe the violation/s. You have to have a permit that allows you to start a legit business. There is structure in Houston, the thing is its just more lax than most cities on some things simply because it so big.
About the suburbs...you couldn't be anymore wrong. Fort Bend County (Sugar Land) is THE most diverse county-suburb in Texas. Alief is also a very diverse area in suburban Houston & it is in Harris County. Pearland is already on its way to being the next Sugar Land. The Woodlands, Katy, Friendswood, Humble...not so much diversity.
I-10 is not Chinatown either, that would be Koreantown or "K-Town" as the locals call it. Chinatown is MUCH larger & is located off of Bellaire Blvd. from 59 S. stretching all the way to Highway 6. There are even smaller Asian areas off of Veterans Memorial in Northwest Houston & South Houston off of Scarsdale.
Last edited by Metro Matt; 11-18-2009 at 12:14 PM..
I disagree with 99% of what you had to say. Houston is one of the least segregated large cities/metros in this country. No zoning laws in Houston actually help integrate less desirable ares of the city in with the ritzy ones IMO & no, you can't just start a "business" on the side of a freeway out of the back of your pickup truck, that is completely false & on top of that its illegal. People get caught doing it all the time & it can result in city fines, even jail time depending on how severe the violation/s. You have to have a permit that allows you to start a legit business. There is structure in Houston, the thing is its just more lax than most cities on some things simply because it so big.
About the suburbs...you couldn't be anymore wrong. Fort Bend County (Sugar Land) is THE most diverse county-suburb in Texas. Alief is also a very diverse area in suburban Houston & it is in Harris County. Pearland is already on its way to being the next Sugar Land. The Woodlands, Katy, Friendswood, Humble...not so much diversity.
I-10 is not Chinatown either, that would be Koreantown or "K-Town" as the locals call it. Chinatown is MUCH larger & is located off of Bellaire Blvd. from 59 S. stretching all the way to Highway 6. There are even smaller Asian areas off of Veterans Memorial in Northwest Houston & South Houston off of Scarsdale.
I live right outside of New York City. I have never been to Austin and I visited my son in Katy once but I never spent any time in Houston. Based on what I have read and heard my impression is that Austin is a "happening" party town with great music and Houston is hot and humid.
I will most likely be moving to Katy some time next year and I would like to hear what people think is good about living there and also in Houston.
Location: The land of sugar... previously Houston and Austin
5,429 posts, read 14,857,465 times
Reputation: 3672
Quote:
Originally Posted by norm
I live right outside of New York City. I have never been to Austin and I visited my son in Katy once but I never spent any time in Houston. Based on what I have read and heard my impression is that Austin is a "happening" party town with great music and Houston is hot and humid.
Not surprising. This is the problem we are talking about.
Houston is hot and humid. Austin is slightly hotter but slightly less humid.
Hopefully my informing you that Austin is still in Texas and has Texas weather won't be taken as Austin bashing.
Quote:
Originally Posted by norm
I will most likely be moving to Katy some time next year and I would like to hear what people think is good about living there and also in Houston.
I haven't lived in Katy. But I have lived in both Austin and Houston. In my opinion at least, moving to Houston was an upgrade from Austin on many levels, but I won't go into it further so as not to "offend" anyone with my experience and opinion.
I suggest you try the Houston forum for more information.
I live right outside of New York City. I have never been to Austin and I visited my son in Katy once but I never spent any time in Houston. Based on what I have read and heard my impression is that Austin is a "happening" party town with great music and Houston is hot and humid.
Sounds about what Austinites would say about Houston. Sadly they still think higher of Houston than Dallas.
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