Mixed bag - good and bad
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6/25/2006
Houston has its pros and cons, sure. I live in the inner loop area, ahich (I think) is MUCH preferable to the sprawling suburbs (where I work, actually) because of access to things to do - both family activities (wonderful zoo, beautiful Hermann park, excellent Children's Museum, fantastic free shows and concerts at Miller Auditoriom, amazing variety of cheap interesting restaraunts, etc), and the bar/club/restaraunt scene, which I can't say I know much about.
Schools are iffy - you really have to be careful. I am already a little stressed about the prospects of moving into a) a more expensive neighborhood than I can afford b) the suburbs c) send my child to private school or d) be a pushy mom and work the magnet/ gifted system, which appears to be pretty stratified as far as socioeconomic/ race status goes. This is a big detractor, but it is a problem with any big urban system, and I have heard that Houston is better than most - not as impossible as NYC for sure.
Weather - what can I say, you like it or hate it. I like it (other than mosquitos) because I love humidity, hate cold weather, love the rain, and can stand the months of July, August, and September to have the months of November through April. My husband hates hot weather, hates humidity, misses snow, and thus hates Houson's weather.
The biggest drawbacks, for me, are little conveniences I miss from living in admittedly idyllic towns like Boulder, CO. 1) The lack of sidewalks. This sounds like a small thing - trust me it is not. The most dependable parts of town for sidewalks are prohibitively expensive to most Houstonians. Sadly, the poorest parts of town, where many people don't have cars, have it worst. Our part of town (the Heights) is not walkable with a baby if you don't have a jogging stroller (unless you only stay in the street) because the sidewalks are a mess from tree roots, and stop and start erratically.
Bottom line? If you have to come here, it's workable. You can find things to do, there are enough people literally everyone can find their niche - you really do just have to work a little harder than some parts of the country to do so.
brooke | Houston, TX