# Poor Houston, so misunderstood **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 30, 2011, 9:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poor-houston-so-misunderstood/607819 "2011-12-30T09:24:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![lavenderviolet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/cdc98d/32.png) [@lavenderviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lavenderviolet)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2011, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poor-houston-so-misunderstood/607819/41 "2011-12-30T22:48:20Z")
I don’t really picture Houston being particularly redneckish. I know people from Austin so I know not all of TX is “like that”. However, when I think of Houston, the main mental association I have is that I remember hearing it is one of the nation’s fattest cities. So if asked to think about Houston, I picture that file footage of obese people filmed from the neck down that news shows will always run when they’re doing some story about obesity. And, also, they’re sweaty, because I also imagine Houston being very warm and muggy. I’m not trying to be insulting or anything. That is just my honest mental image of Houston. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2011, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poor-houston-so-misunderstood/607819/42 "2011-12-30T23:07:12Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > We’re the 4th largest city in the country and right now, our economy is picking back up and it looks like we’re starting another boom cycle. It’s going to need more than that. Here are some previous “4th largest cities in the country.” Philadelphia Los Angeles Detroit St. Louis Brooklyn Chicago Baltimore > [@joebuck20](#): > > But the problem with Houston is that it doesn’t really conjure up much of anything in the popular imagination, aside from perhaps the Stetson-wearing oilman archetype. Even Dallas got the Stetson-wearing oilman archetype first. Houston simply doesn’t have a personality. ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poor-houston-so-misunderstood/607819/43 "2011-12-31T20:57:01Z")
> [@Lamar\_Mundane](#): > > Did you look at the map? There’s a dozen of them. No, I don’t live in Omaha. I also don’t know how to Google for a Serbian restaurant, unless there’s a restaurant called “Serbian restaurant.” I was just making the point that the OP’s idea of cosmopolitan isn’t any different from a small city anywhere in the country. Vietnamese restaurants? A gay community? C’mon. The Asian markets in your link are, to the best of my knowledge, little stores about one bay across in strip malls. That doesn’t quite foot with what the OP said about Houston. ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2012, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poor-houston-so-misunderstood/607819/44 "2012-01-02T07:11:28Z")
> [@StusBlues](#): > > The Asian markets in your link are, to the best of my knowledge, little stores about one bay across in strip malls. That doesn’t quite foot with what the OP said about Houston. And Houston is ten times bigger than Omaha. Do you also wonder why Omaha doesn’t have an airport the size of Houston’s? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2012, 9:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poor-houston-so-misunderstood/607819/45 "2012-01-02T09:26:25Z")
My personal feeling is that Houston has a complicated relationship with the rest of Texas. On the one hand, Houston is the biggest city in Texas so it could go for being the First City of Texas. But Houston also wants to be recognized as a major American and World City and when it’s in that mood, it feels being seen as just a Texan city is holding it back. Look at cities like New York or Chicago or Los Angeles. They basically don’t care about the states they’re in - they’ve formed their own independent identity as cities. But Houston still wants to be a part of Texas while also wanting to be bigger than Texas. ---
**Author:** ![Ca3799](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9f8e36/32.png) [@Ca3799](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ca3799)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2012, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poor-houston-so-misunderstood/607819/46 "2012-01-02T14:44:12Z")
I’ve lived in Houston almost all my life and I like it here. I work in the Texas Medical Center: “All of the institutions of the Texas Medical Center are not-for-profit, and are dedicated to the highest standards of patient care, research, and education. These institutions include 14 renowned hospitals and two specialty institutions, three medical schools, six nursing schools, and schools of dentistry, public health, pharmacy, and virtually all health-related careers. It is where one of the first, and still the largest, air ambulance service was created; a very successful inter-institutional transplant program was developed; and more heart surgeries are performed than anywhere else in the world.”…which is totally awesome. In my specialty medical field, we do more cutting edge, life saving and just plain interesting things in a day than some places do in a year. On any given day at work, I work with people from all over the world- yesterday, my coworkers were from Nigeria, the Philippines, Persia (that’s how she likes to style it), the Czeck Republic, Israel, South Africa, Italy, India, Peru, Mexico… etc. I live on the extreme south side and sometimes, when I’m traveling and trying to get out of town, it can take an hour and a half to drive across this city from the south to the north or west sides. That’s not necessarily because of bad traffic, it’s just because this city is huge. I don’t consider this a disadvantage at all, just something that needs to be accommodated when making travel plans. If there is anything in the world you could think of that you wanted, chances are you could drive to some place in Houston and find that thing today. ---
**Author:** ![cerodragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b3f665/32.png) [@cerodragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cerodragon)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2012, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poor-houston-so-misunderstood/607819/47 "2012-01-03T05:27:17Z")
see i live in Houston its one of the safest place to be in the world because anywhere in the world got natural disasters that can hit at any moment while we got hurricanes that we know well into the future is coming and the hot and cold weathers alow us to dress both winter fresh or summer cool. 🙂 just saying ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2012, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poor-houston-so-misunderstood/607819/48 "2012-01-03T13:59:34Z")
> [@cerodragon](#): > > see i live in Houston its one of the safest place to be in the world because anywhere in the world got natural disasters that can hit at any moment while we got hurricanes that we know well into the future is coming Matter of preference, I guess. I wasn’t too fond of a week or more of having the National Hurricane Center and local panic-spreading forecasters map out hurricanes and tropical storms and speculate about whether they would or would not hit the area (there were several tropical storms, including one doozy that nearly flooded us out during the time I lived there). One critical factor that must be taken into account when rating any metro area (at least for me) is suitability for gardening. On the plus side Houston doesn’t get much frost (especially in the urban heat core). On the negative side the soil is some of the worst in the world (think gumbo clay) and the heat and humidity batter down many desirable plants. There is also no dependable “average” climate to plan on. For instance, you typically end up with either horrendous droughts or incredible flooding rains (no dependable moisture). There is basically no such thing in Houston as “rain showers”, just frog-strangling downpours. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2012, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poor-houston-so-misunderstood/607819/49 "2012-01-03T14:57:21Z")
> [@cerodragon](#): > > see i live in Houston its one of the safest place to be in the world because anywhere in the world got natural disasters that can hit at any moment while we got hurricanes that we know well into the future is coming and the hot and cold weathers alow us to dress both winter fresh or summer cool. 🙂 just saying Silly Houstonians. Thinking that thing they have in February is winter. As my native Houstonian brother-in-law once said, “Hell, we have winters down here too. We even get snow most years.” So we invited him to come up and visit northern New England in December. ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2012, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poor-houston-so-misunderstood/607819/50 "2012-01-03T15:06:14Z")
> [@Lamar\_Mundane](#): > > And Houston is ten times bigger than Omaha. Do you also wonder why Omaha doesn’t have an airport the size of Houston’s? Dude, you said above that you could find everything in Omaha that you could in Houston. That’s just not true. Get off it. ETA: Surprised the thread has gotten this far without a mention of Houston’s Lesbian mayor. ---
**Author:** ![brocks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7feea3/32.png) [@brocks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brocks)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2012, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poor-houston-so-misunderstood/607819/51 "2012-01-03T15:18:37Z")
> [@grude](#): > > People who have never been to Texas imagine its some kind of redneck mecca where people wearing cowboy hats ride horses to work while their kids learn about god creating the universe in school I did a contract job there in 2008. Had no real expectations; I figured since it was a city of several million people, it would be OK. I guess my final impression was, Typical for Texas. My nominal boss there was a great guy, seemed perfectly normal, got along well with people of all shapes, sizes, and colors. Then one day we were standing at adjoining urinals, and he asked me who I liked for President (this was a few weeks before the conventions). I said I thought Obama was probably the best of a sorry lot. He laughed heartily, and then when he realized I wasn’t joking, said, “You wouldn’t really vote for a nigger, would you?” I know, anecdotal, but that was my experience. I _will_ defend its weather. I visited Indiana for a wedding, and the humidity there was much worse than anything I encountered during a summer in Houston. ---
**Author:** ![Ca3799](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9f8e36/32.png) [@Ca3799](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ca3799)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2012, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poor-houston-so-misunderstood/607819/52 "2012-01-03T17:40:04Z")
> [@StusBlues](#): > > ETA: Surprised the thread has gotten this far without a mention of Houston’s Lesbian mayor. I met and talked to her a couple of months ago. She’s one sharp cookie! When she was running for her for both her first and second terms as Mayor, certain groups really tried to play up the fact that she’s gay, but it didn’t work because most folks just don’t care about that. She’s a native Houstonian, a product of our public schools, worked her way through one of our great local colleges (Rice), worked in the Energy sector for a long time, then served in City Council since forever and was Comptroller for a while, too, before getting elector Mayor. She’s also been with her partner for more that 20 years and has raised a couple-three kids. She’s mostly a boring, hard-working accountant type, but also very, very good. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2012, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poor-houston-so-misunderstood/607819/53 "2012-01-03T22:18:41Z")
I’ve never been to Houston, but my impression is that it is a city with a lot of sprawl and is not very walkable. A friend from there described it as a bunch of strip malls and housing developments they decided to call a city. Is that unfair? ---
**Author:** ![MysteryFellow63427](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e4f/32.png) [@MysteryFellow63427](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MysteryFellow63427)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2012, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poor-houston-so-misunderstood/607819/54 "2012-01-03T22:22:42Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > I’ve never been to Houston, but my impression is that it is a city with a lot of sprawl and is not very walkable. A friend from there described it as a bunch of strip malls and housing developments they decided to call a city. Is that unfair? Not really. There is an inner core that is somewhat walkable/bikeable in a few places, but the vast majority of the city (including absolutely everything beyond the 610 “inner loop”) is a complete sprawl. ---
**Author:** ![mo50](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@mo50](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mo50)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2012, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poor-houston-so-misunderstood/607819/55 "2012-01-03T22:47:24Z")
Too close to New Orleans (sorry). 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de053/32.png) [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackknifed_Juggernaut)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2012, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poor-houston-so-misunderstood/607819/56 "2012-01-03T23:06:37Z")
I lived there for 2 years while attending Rice U from '96 to '98. Being from the NYC-area, I didn’t expect much. But after a couple months, I fell in love with the city. I don’t know if I would have felt the same if I didn’t have an air-conditioned car. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2012, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poor-houston-so-misunderstood/607819/57 "2012-01-04T00:06:28Z")
> [@Little Nemo](#): > > As my native Houstonian brother-in-law once said, “Hell, we have winters down here too. We even get snow most years.” > [@brocks](#): > > I visited Indiana for a wedding, and the humidity there was much worse than anything I encountered during a summer in Houston. :dubious:😃 ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2012, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poor-houston-so-misunderstood/607819/58 "2012-01-04T00:13:21Z")
> [@StusBlues](#): > > Dude, you said above that you could find everything in Omaha that you could in Houston. That’s just not true. Get off it. Ah, I see. You were being literal. Since there’s no Astrodome in Omaha, Omaha doesn’t have the same things as Houston. I get it. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2012, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poor-houston-so-misunderstood/607819/59 "2012-01-04T03:08:45Z")
> [@Lamar\_Mundane](#): > > Ah, I see. You were being literal. Since there’s no Astrodome in Omaha, Omaha doesn’t have the same things as Houston. I get it. No, the claim is that, since the \ presence is smaller, Omaha isn’t as cosmopolitan as Houston. A place with a big Asian market place is more cosmopolitan than a place that has a few one room shops scattered around. ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2012, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poor-houston-so-misunderstood/607819/60 "2012-01-04T03:40:40Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > No, the claim is that, since the \ presence is smaller, Omaha isn’t as cosmopolitan as Houston. A place with a big Asian market place is more cosmopolitan than a place that has a few one room shops scattered around. No, it’s just bigger. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poor-houston-so-misunderstood/607819.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poor-houston-so-misunderstood/607819.md?page=4)