Reviews & Comments
Seattle, WA
re: Wet and gray, need I say more! - 4/10/2011 -
9/4/2011Why do people jump to the conclusion that no one wants to have a lot of rain and clouds? I do, and so do others I know. Am I insane for that? Please tell me. :)
Houston, TX
Now I could say a lot of bad about Houston -
9/4/2011However, I'm going to try to be as nice (as well as honest) about the city.
To start off I'm going to go with the weather. It's hot and humid for 5 months out of the year, which I personally can't stand. Thunderstorms do happen a lot during this time of year as well, thus limiting outdoor activities in the summer. Winter however, many Houstonians will claim that winter doesn't exist in their city. While it's not extremely cold or snow like the Midwest or Northeast, it can get as low as 30F in January easily, and snows once every decade. So it's 5 months of cold, 6 months of extreme heat, and only 2 weeks out of March and November of tolerable, California-like weather.
Transportation. Expect a lot of SUVs, although this is changing because of gas prices, it's still quite common believe it or not. As well, the only public transport is a bus system, and a light rail Downtown (which for some weird reason people crash into all the time because they're too dumb to read signs or see they're RIGHT UNDER A FREAKING TROLLEY CABLE. C'mon people, they do it in Portland with the MAX, why can't Houston?) Supposedly the MetroRail is being expanded, but not by much. Expect to use your car ALL THE TIME because you won't want to deal with the heat or heavy rain, and not many things are within walking distance. In other words the attitude of "if it's more than 2 blocks, I ain't driving". (If you live within 610, this is most likely a different story, since I didn't live there nor was I there much.)
Food...Houston does have good food, unfortunately more than half of it is fast food. No joke, go anywhere in Houston, there's fast food within a few blocks. There are plenty of good local Chinese, Mexican, and Vietnamese within Houston however. Keep in mind though, if you are on a special diet and/or dislike fat, greasy foods altogether, it won't be as enjoyable.
Along that subject, Houston has plenty obese people, and many will argue against making food more healthy by law because "it's our bodies, we can do what we want" when they are uneducated about trans-fats and other such organ-damaging ingredients. Again, if you want a healthy, fit city, don't move to Houston. With how hot, humid, and rainy it is all the time, you'll see why people turn into big chunks of meat just living there, because they end up sitting on their sofa doing nothing.
People are friendly, but this isn't always true if your a minority. Politics are generally conservative, however if you live within the 610 it gets more liberal, as well as the fact that their current mayor is a lesbian.
Now lastly, on the subject of housing and such, just take a look around most residential areas. You'll noticed most houses older than 40 look at least somewhat run down, due to the fact that everyone builds cheap housing, and then gets bored, so they get abandoned new, 'better' houses are built even further from Downtown, so currently all the rich people live an hour from work for this reason, that or a condo in Downtown. Most neighbourhoods in between these two seem to look a bit haunted and with overgrown plants. Another thing to blame for this is no zoning laws. Do you like having a manufacuturing plant next to your school? Or a school in an office buliding? If you do, this is your paradise. Keep in mind with lower prices comes lower quality. The wood siding on my house was made of cheap plywood, and the windows were formatted for Colorado, which doesn't make sense why they would sell cold weather formatted windows in a semi-tropical climate.
So there you go, that's my take on Houston, I know it was probably a lot more negative than it was intended to be, but I tried to remained as unbiased as possible. Remember, these are only my experiences, yours could end up being completely different for all I know.
Cheers!
Portland, OR
re: Portland - not what it use to be - 3/7/2010 -
9/4/2011You complain about Portland having property taxes? Are you freakin' kidding me ?!? Houston, and Texas in general, has MUCH higher property taxes. When my family and I moved there when I was little, I recalled my parents complaining so much about the property taxes in Houston. Also, wake up! $300K is the average house price in all of America. This isn't the Philippines. Houston's homes, yes you get bigger houses for less, BUT the houses are much less quality. The wood siding of my house was made of cheap plywood, the windows in the house were formatted by Colorado standards, and thus would expand and contract due to the heat. At least in Oregon they build quality housing. The other reason is Houston is not as desirable. Maybe I'm weird, but I'd prefer to suffer a little to live in a nice place than be in such a boring place where it's piss easy to make a living.
Portland, OR
re: Racisim and Cloudy - 4/6/2011 -
6/22/2011"2% black and 70% white and 38% illegal aliens"
Exaggeration much? About 10% of the population is Hispanic, and what about the Asians? They don't count even though they are Portland's most sizeable minority? And it's probably about 10% black according to the US census, and it all depends on where you go.
Portland, OR
I would just like to say -
6/22/2011Guess what? Some people ACTUALLY like rainy weather. Is that such a problem? People always say "you shouldn't move here because of all the clouds and rain". But some people WANT to move here because of it. Did that ever occur to you? And to all those who say it limits outdoor activities? Portland people are some of the most outdoor type people I know. The rain doesn't stop them, and come on, it's not like it's thunderstorming and down pouring, typically it's light rain and more cloudy than actual rain, which is nice when you're outdoors because it prevents you from being sunburnt. Don't call us dirty just because we're rugged by nature either. Another thing, if you think all Portland people think this and that they all purposefully think alike, I disagree. Being originally from Portland and now living in LA, so many of my old friends say how jealous they are that I live in a sunny climate. The sun I can stand, the heat I can't, therefore I can't wait to move back.
Los Angeles, CA
LA and my Love/Hate relationship -
6/22/2011Well, I've lived in LA since 2006. Before that, I spent 7 years in Portland, OR, and 3 years in Houston, TX. Now what I do like about LA is that there is lots of great food, plenty of diversity, politically open-minded people, though in the suburbs are typically more conservative than those in the city, but still open-minded in their attitudes. Plenty of places to see and things to do, and great beaches and great mountains. However, the main downside is that it is DIRTY, just filthy. It's rated the dirtiest city in the US, and to me it's possibly the dirtiest in any developed country. The fact that there is not enough inner-city nature makes the place even more disgusting, and every time there is a space of land that you can build on, city developers will build on it! I also don't like how it is a city of no-opinion. When a trend hits LA, everyone follows it. If you don't, you look like a black sheep. Also, the weather. As a person who prefers cooler and rainier weather (being from Oregon originally), not my place. If you like sunny and hot, be my guest. You could live in the beach towns, but it is horridly expensive. And on that note, yes, really expensive place to live. You might make five times as much as anywhere else, BUT you'll be paying ten times more just to even live. Don't get me started on the houses too, oh and the taxes, we have high sales tax and state income tax. BOTH! It seems like it's impossible to have a different opinion of this place without being ridiculed. Also the traffic, and the fact that it's virtually unavoidable. There is hardly any mass transit, the metrolink is not the most efficient light rail, yes there's buses everywhere, but they're not that efficient either. In other words, it is almost a legal requirement to have a car here, not joking on this one. I miss having the MAX train of Portland, that went almost anywhere. Once I have my chance, I'm leaving this place, most likely it'll be San Francisco or New York, or some place like those.