COMMENT BY
C from Houston, TX
COMMENT ABOUT PLACE
Houston, TX
COMMENT
Can't recommend a single thing to see for visitors
I've lived in Houston's Galleria neighborhood for the last two years and I lived in Galveston for eight years before that. I enjoy the international community here in Houston and I used to appreciate the fact that it usually doesn't freeze in winter. I'm also happy to say that I don't have to hear many people's political opinions here in Galleria, but I can't say that I like living in Houston. Let me illustrate why coming here for a nice new job may not be worth it...
Floods. This is paved over marsh land. People commonly have their homes and cars destroyed by water here. It's also mosquitoe infested even in Galleria.
Pollution. It impacts our fertility and our cancer rate in Houston. Once I was woken up by a "small" chemical plant explosion that happened 8 miles away from my home. They call the respiratory issues caused by pollution "allergies" here and blame them on the humidity. It's a mixture of humidity, bacteria, and probably every airborne chemical the EPA will allow.
Freezing to death so that the skysc****rs don't lose power. The grid went out for most people here and they slept in 30 something degree homes for three days and nights while every empty office building downtown was lit twice as brightly as usual. So, it isn't just the street criminals who will kill you for money here. Other cities had rolling blackouts, but Houston was lights out for people, lights on for empty office buildings.
The street criminals. Statistically not quite as bad as Chicago.
The drivers. Remove the muffler and alter the car suspension to make it more dangerous. Drive that nightmare as a vendetta against all of humanity. They often shoot each other if they don't crash first. It's like there's some sort of PTSD culture going on here just from all of the traumas I've described and then add all of the national problems on to that.
And, yes, when people come here from out of town to visit it's very embarrassing to say that you live in a city with nothing to see except for restaurants and stores.
Galveston has problems too, but I like Galveston and wish it the best. It's come a long way. I don't even like to think about Houston though.