Houston: City Gone Wrong or Model of Urbanity for the Future?

[Highlander]

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[chingon]

If memory serves, Dave doesn't famously doesn't care for Mexican food because he has a truly tragic defect of the taste-buds, but there's got to be some stellar Vietnamese spots.

[Highlander]

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[chrizow]

headed to houston, for the first time ever, this weekend. will post my thoughts upon return!

WELL?!

[DaveKCMO]

not as bad as i was expecting! will post more details later.

[moderne]

Great Houston story from 1949 at the grand opening hoopla of the Shamrock Hotel parodied in the movie and novel "Giant'"  Frank Lloyd Wright entered with his student Fay Jones (much later to design the buildings at our Powell Gardens) saying"That, young man is an exapmle of the effects of venereal disease on architecture."  The 1000 room hotel was torn down less that 40 years later for an expansion of the med center.

[DaveKCMO]

this was a quick trip for a wedding, so it was by no means an in-depth experience. here we go:

friday was a wash. we were scheduled to arrive at 8:30, but a thunderstorm rolled in. we were grounded in OKC, then dallas, for hours. when we finally landed at hobby, well after 2 am, the enterprise car rental desk had closed and city bus service had ended. the line for taxis was atrocious, but they wised up and started pairing people up who had similar destinations. our taxi partners were traveling for business and offered to pay the majority if they could get dropped off first ($56!), so we ended up paying $6 for our hour-long ride from hobby to hotel derek near the galleria.

the galleria was exactly as described here. good to see they are running a light rail line to this area.

saturday was all about the wedding, which was in round top. still without a car, we located an enterprise and scheduled a pick-up. time was short, so we ordered room service breakfast (expensive, but excellent). a quick stop at dillard's for a new white shirt and a suburban target for new headphones and a greeting card, then we were on our way...

FREEWAYS OMG! everywhere. i hate driving and would never do it again if i ever return to houston. two speeds: 60 and 80. why are the highways all elevated and wavy? does TxDOT hate underpasses and flat things? end rant.

round top is a quaint little town. the wedding was at festival hill and we spent the night at the belle of round top B&B.

sunday was our only real day in the city, unfortunately. we drove from round top straight to the light rail park-and-ride and rode the entire line (pics below). that medical center is massive; whomever the wise guy was that decided to cluster all that stuff together deserves a medal. midtown... meh. downtown was your typical business district... not much going on on a sunday afternoon, although we stumbled upon a big bike event in sam houston park. we took a dump in front of the shell building (just kidding, highlander!). the amtrak station, tucked under a freeway in a gravel lot, is a disgrace.

returning to the car, we decided to hit up the place we had originally planned for saturday brunch (shade, in the heights neighborhood), but didn't realize how far away it was. driving through montrose, we stumbled upon a fabulous french restaurant (brasserie max & julie). we shared our first souffle.

overall, the city made a decent impression. like KC, it's a place people go when they have to and discover it's really not all that bad (except for the weather... the climate of miami without the ocean view). honestly, with such a large population it would be impossible to not find a decent restaurant or hotel. however, if i had to do the trip all over again i probably would have flown in to austin instead (which is the same distance from round top).

gratuitous light rail pictures (there were no collisions this day!):

[Highlander]

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[warwickland]

I've always had a fascination with Houston - how can a city that seems like it would be so dysfunctional presumably work well enough? Not to mention the boom town mix of people. It interests me in a "koyaanisqatsi" kind of way, I just can't look away. However, I hate screwing around on expressways - metro areas approaching or around 3 million are pretty at my limit of my tolerance (with built out expressway systems no less). I get worked up in a car like in no other situation, not so much at slowdowns but at the behavior of people in heavy traffic. See, the nature of my job ensures that I spend lots of windshield time going to job sites, I just couldnt live in a place like Houston even though there is a crapload of work there - it sounds like a nightmare. I still really want to visit, it's the largest city that I havent visited.

[FangKC]

My stress levels driving in Phoenix always well-exceeded my stress levels living in New York City.

[kcjak]

I love the fountains over the light rail track - does the water stop when the train approaches?

Texas has an unhealthy love affair with their freeways, interchanges and access roads (which are basically smaller freeways next to larger freeways in some aspects).  Anyway, enjoyed your pics.

[moderne]

What I find fascinating about Houston is its large and popular arts scene, both performance and visual.  And all the little odd gems of museums like the De Meneil and the byzantine fresco museum and even the orange show.  And the medical centers and universities.  You expect some redneck refinery town and find a lot of very rich and smart people.

[chrizow]

You expect some redneck refinery town and find a lot of very rich and smart people.

and we're surprised when people are ignorant or stereotypical of KC?!  haha.  houston is a giant, diverse, wealthy city with all the usual attributes.  i've never even been there and i'm sure it has some top-notch culture.

[DaveKCMO]

I love the fountains over the light rail track - does the water stop when the train approaches?

it didn't when we rode through. it seemed to spray regularly.

[warwickland]

Texas has an unhealthy love affair with their freeways, interchanges and access roads (which are basically smaller freeways next to larger freeways in some aspects).  

Sounds like St. Charles County, MO, where there is also iconography on the retaining walls (instead of big texas stars its a blue state of missouri) with those stupid, stupid access roads with the worst of the worst sprawl lining them. Ugh. An absolute soul crushing environment. Doesnt JoCo have access roads further south? Ive only been down I-35 towards Olathe a handful of times.

[FangKC]

Houston: Model City
Joel Kotkin, 05.20.10, 09:00 AM EDT
Forbes Magazine dated June 07, 2010
Innovation, job growth and immigration put this Lone Star city ahead of New York and Boston.

http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2010/0607/ ... tcommented

[KC Sporting Life]

I haven't been, but Houston made #2 on a list of most boring cities to visit.

http://opentravel.com/blogs/worlds-most ... -to-visit/

[KCMax]

Houston: Model City
Joel Kotkin, 05.20.10, 09:00 AM EDT
Forbes Magazine dated June 07, 2010
Innovation, job growth and immigration put this Lone Star city ahead of New York and Boston.

http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2010/0607/ ... tcommented

Joel Kotkin, either to be contrairian, or because that is where his bread is buttered, has been on a "sprawl ain't so bad" kick.

[chrizow]

joel kotkin has always been an apologist for sprawl.  he also has a bizarre fixation with houston.

[aknowledgeableperson]

Joel Kotkin, either to be contrairian, or because that is where his bread is buttered, has been on a "sprawl ain't so bad" kick.

I take his statements to be somewhat different than that.  To put it into simple terms modern urban planners do that - plan and hope it happens.  Joel does not plan.  He looks at what is happening and then projects that to the future.

Urban planners hope to fight sprawl whereas Joel explains it.  Simplistic summary.