My brother-in-law (a native South Texan) was telling me about a time when Houston experienced what they call a heat wave. It was when the outside temperature went over a hundred degrees and stayed above a hundred - day and night - for thirty straight days. That’s what Houstonians consider to be weather hot enough to be worth mentioning.
On the other hand, if the temperature drops below thirty, expect special bulletins on all the TV stations warning you of the dangers of freezing cold temperatures. And any snowfall is considered newsworthy.
Two more things you’ll notice in Houston. They don’t stop for yellow lights. And nobody has a basement.
This is not an exaggeration - schools will be closed at the mere prediction of snow. Which sounds ridiculous until you realize that we have no real tools to remove it. So even a little ice creates dangerous driving conditions to the point most people prefer just to stay home until the ice melts. Fortunately, we’re rarely snowbound more than a day.
I live in Texas and have some friends who have moved to Houston, and I have to echo some major concerns others have already said - both from anecdotes and my experience when I go to visit.
The traffic and heat / humidity are unbearable. I feel like the former might be something that you can adapt to, once you learn side-streets, alternate routes, peak traffic times, etc. Hell, I know that if I’m driving somewhere that is going to make me go through Austin around a heavy traffic time, it’s faster if I take 130 as a detour than stay on 35 through the heart of Austin.
The humidity? Well, that just sucks. I tell people that if they don’t understand the concept of a “dry heat” to go to Houston in the summer. 102 there versus 102 in Las Vegas is the difference between night and day. Bring lots of towels and deodorant.
Also, I’ve been to some of the gay bars in Houston and my friends who live there seem to enjoy them as well. How old are you? (Or, what’s your age range?) Preferred type of bar?
Yes, but you will regret it. Houston has a huge poor underclass that crowd the busses, and the bus service is spotty.
$40k or so. Houston has one of the lowest cost of livings in the United States.
There are gay bars in the core of Houston, but the gay community is not open. If the job in question is in the petroleum industry or others, you probably want to stay in the closet regarding your sexuality at work. If you want a good experience and a supportive gay community to be a part of, go to Austin.
Lots of folks in Houston don’t even speak English. This is a non-issue.
The temperature got over 100 degrees every day save the 26th of August 2011 and was well over 80 degrees almost every night. It hit the Houston record of 109 twice. The 26th was the only day it rained the entire month (for maybe 15 minutes at that) and the temperature “only” hit 95 degrees due to the cloud cover.
That summer was brutal and August 2011 was easily the single warmest month on record in Houston. To this day, I see every drop of rain as a blessing.
Eh. Depending on your definition of “decent”, there’s plenty, unless you’re a NYC pizza purist. Gino’s East opened up a shop in the Woodlands. Star isn’t bad. But those primarily do deep dish.
There are a few Grimaldi’s, and Russo’s is reasonable. For the ultra-purist foodie, there are even authentic Neapolitan pizza places in town.
It is true that you aren’t going to find a decent pizza joint on every corner. Or even every other mile.
It’s one of those stereotypical things to complain about. Like not finding decent iced tea north of the Mason-Dixon (though I still haven’t found one yet) or good Tex-Mex more than 100 miles outside of Texas, neither of which are really true.
What we do lack are decent German places. There are only a couple German restaurants in the entire metropolitan area. It’s easier finding an Ethiopian joint or three. Surprising in a city where there are so many affordable food options made by people from everywhere else in the world.
Unless you’re a roughneck on the rigs, this isn’t an issue.
Even in the petroleum industry, professionals in office buildings act like professionals. It’s really not an issue in an office setting.
That is, unless you’re having gay sex on your desk in front of your colleagues. But even straight sex at work is usually frowned upon. I guess we’re puritanical like that around here.
Houston is so large and diverse that it should be easy to find kindred spirits, plus people largely mind their own business and won’t be looking over your shoulder to dictate your behavior. That’s small town stuff.
Just don’t scare the livestock at the annual show (and rodeo) and you’ll be fine.
*I lived for several years south of Houston in a rural area and got along fine with the neighbors. Of course, it helped that that we didn’t live within shouting distance of anyone. If you do live out of town, be aware that the region boasts some impressively large snakes, including of the poisonous variety. :eek:
Yes, it really is that shockingly hot during the (very long) summer. Other cities in the country like Phoenix record higher temperatures but Houston and New Orleans are the hottest cities in the country for personal perception for my money. It isn’t just a little hot. You probably think, “Oh, it gets hot and muggy sometimes in New York sometimes too!”. No, it is nothing like that. It is like calling Antarctica a little chilly sometimes except the opposite. When you get your (almost mandatory) car, you can get 2nd degree burns if you just sit right down on leather or vinyl seats during the summer without letting them cool down first. Metal chairs left outside in the sun can also also leave skin behind when you jump up in pain if you are jump enough to just plop down without thinking. OTOH, every house and public space is perfectly air conditioned so you can just stay at 70 degrees all the time if you don’t take to the outdoors that much.
That said, Houston isn’t my favorite city in Texas from an aesthetic stand-point but I like everyone that I have ever met from there. The stereotype of Texans being friendly and unusually accommodating is mostly true. It is the 4th biggest city in the country after Chicago so it is hardly some backwater. The advantages it has over the others is a thriving economy, a very low cost of living and extreme diversity. You can find whatever you want there and make it work affordably as long as you have a car.
I am not gay myself but I have gay friends in both Houston and Dallas that moved there by choice and they wouldn’t consider living anywhere else.
After the great Bum Phillips had been coaching the New Orleans Saints for a year (after being fired in Houston) he said, "Hell yes I’m happy, the worst meal I’ve had in New Orleans was better than the best meal I ever had in Houston.) All big cities suck, but Houston’s only redeeming quality is that it’s closer to NOLA than most cities.
Texas is the most conservative place you’ll ever find, but Gays are okay in Texas because most of them are Republican and go to church.
You need a car, public transport is for the poor and mostly just goes where poor people are going.
A decent place to live is going to start about 1500.00 a month. No state income tax, you can spend a little or a lot on night life, there’s not a lot to do in a Texas city except eat out, go to clubs, or get out of town, if you want to save for retirement start at 60k and you’d better not be in the trades because outside of the better oil jobs wages here are a disgrace.
Houston is endlessly ugly and has the worst weather in Texas, sometimes in a rainy summer the moosequitos are so thick you can hold a dixie cup up in the air upside down and turn it loose and it won’t fall.
But if you’re happy with yourself you can be happy anywhere.
If you’re anything like me, you’ll always miss New York, to some extent.
I lived in or around NYC for 25 years, then relocated back in the Cleveland area in 1995, for family reasons. I still wish I didn’t have to. But I realize the New York I remember has lost many of the things I miss the most.
Like having a strong and vital gay community. Sure, there are gay people here, but it’s scattered. And if you’re single, it doesn’t have as many opportunities to meet guys as in NY. In my case, my partner moved with me (he bought the house next-door); otherwise, I’d probably still be single . . . and lonely.
For the money question, you can use a salary conversion calculator like this even though they aren’t perfect:
Just to make the math easy, I picked a $100K salary in Brooklyn. To get the equivalent in Houston, you would need about $58K. A 40% cost of living discount is extremely significant and a reason why I want to move out of the Northeast as soon as I can as well. Jobs sometimes pay slightly lower in low cost of living areas but you usually still make out quite well. If you can score a raise in your new job, your standard of living could take a substantial jump by making such a move but it depends on what you value. Houston as about as much food diversity as NYC but you need a car to access it. OTOH, typical Houston housing is much larger and nicer than NYC housing for the same (adjusted) money. Paying the same exact money for housing would get you accomodations many steps above the same amount in NYC ( a nice house or a veritable mansion in many cases).
As everyone says, you’ll need a car. Texas cities are sprawling, and you very likely won’t want to live close to your place of business. Rents are cheap here, but you have to be able to get where the cheap rents are.
50K is pretty comfy.
Hmm, I’m not gay, but I’m an odd fellow in other ways. The average person is pretty tolerant, but you will run into the random asshole, they become more frequent when you get to the rural areas. An example I can give is an incident with the cops assaulting the patrons at a gay bar here in Ft. Worth. It’s rare, but that bullshit still happens here occasionally.
This will just show that you’re a transplant, which isn’t rare these days. You will pronounce about 1/3 of the city names wrong (Waco, Waxahachie, etc.). Some folks will giggle, don’t sweat it.
And let me echo the answers to the un-asked questions. If you haven’t experienced this heat, you’re absolutely unprepared for it. The 100+ heat can hit any time from early May to late September. On a bad day, it can kill you in a couple of hours or so, and we have at least a few bad days every summer. The upside is that winter only comes by and visits for a weekend or so, then goes back north.
The roaches are actually waterbugs, but that doesn’t really mean much. Horrible bastards that yes, fly, and they’ll sometimes attack when threatened. They’re not as unpleasant as the heat, but they’re nasty.
Tornadoes. They’re not really a common event, but having the sky open up and want to kill you randomly is kind of defining statement of the climate of the south/midwest.
Houston currently has a lesbian mayor (re-elected multiple times), for what it’s worth. Texas is a Republican state, as we all know, but like most big cities (and it’s VERY big) Houston is solidly Democratic.
We have good friends who thought they needed to get away from NYC, for the wife’s health. They moved to Arizona and bought a house and hated their life for two years. Then they moved to Portland and tried to make a go of it. Now they’re back in NYC, much poorer, but thrilled with their lives.
True New Yorkers are an odd bunch though. They definitely exist for personal reasons but not entirely rationale ones. For every New Yorker that loves it there, there are several more that can’t leave for immediate financial concerns or simply because they can’t drive some place more suitable. NYC would be a personal hell on earth to me. There are lots of people that are mismatched to their current location so I encourage everyone to get out and explore when they can to get the right fit because the U.S. is so huge and varied. NYC to Houston is a little extreme because they are so different but it could work for certain people.
For the vast majority of the U.S., you still have to learn to drive and get a car though.
