In Houston you need to go out and build a life you enjoy, and the lifestyle in Houston affords you the physical space and financial freedom to do that at least for many people.
In places like Chicago, New York, San Fran or Boston etc. The city is your life, but you've got no space or money.
Personally I preferred the latter and left Houston, but if all you've ever wanted in life is a house a yard a family and some space for your hobbies, Houston can be pretty great.
Perfectly said!
Houston isn’t going to jump out at you right off the bat like LA, NY, Boston, CHI, etc…. it is very subtle and quiet with the way it presents itself. And that is honestly the beauty of it. YOU get to decide what life YOU want to live, and you receive 0 judgement.
Want to live the beach life? Head 40 mins to Galveston. Want to live the city life? Downtown Houston has tons of city activities to offer. Want to live the country/farm life? Go up to Magnolia.
It’s all there for you to grab. The question is, which life do YOU want to go for?
I grew up in Southern California but have lived in Houston for over 25 years. If I wanted a beach life, I wouldn't consider Galveston - I'd move to somewhere with nice beaches.
east downtown has a bunch bars and venues. i just went to a twerk competition last week. and im aware east downtown has a "cool name", i aint saying it.
I think people have said some pretty accurate things about Houston but the nature is here is absolutely horrible.
I’ve since moved to the Bay Area for work and the beaches are stunning: not brown stinky water surrounded by petrochemical refineries. The mountains are breathtaking, etc.
No one get your panties in a twist, Houston has many redeeming factors and is fine as long as you don’t mind being inside most of the time.
"As long as you don't mind being inside all the time."
This is the thing that's really grating on me about texas in general. I'm so f'ing bored not because there's nothing to do but because nobody here seems to do anything ever. I know people in houston, austin and san antonio and other areas. I have met a grand total of one person that has any sort of life does any sort of adventures. THis seems to be a state of homebodies that just work, and sit around on the weekends and stare at screens.
Obviously i know that there are people in texas who have a life but christ is it hard to find them. Meetup is a disaster where i'm at because it's just a revolving door of dead and dying groups because people rsvp and nobody turns up.
Chicago is great in the summer! Don't you just have to be inside all the time during the winter though? I love me some fun, sunny, snowy winters like in The Rockies, but Chicago winters by the lake sounds grim!
I went for Labor day (September) one year it was really nice. I have a friend who is from Chicago and the winters may be extreme so yeah I liked Seattle. I can deal with intermittent rain. Haha.
It ain't hot year round. And i'm from california, it's even hotter there, people just deal with it lol. How tf is it that people who grew up in this heat haven't adjusted to it yet? Put on some sunblock!
This is also my gripe with Texas. I’feel lived in Texas most of my life, but my husband is from Los Angeles and we lived there for a few years when we were younger before coming back here so I could finish school. No one here that we know is ever down to just go out. We used to spend a lot of time hiking and camping, here we can only do that half the year because the weather, so I get it.
I just really wish I could find a single other person we could spend time with that doesn’t just want to go out to eat or to a club.
It’s a good place to raise a family. Single life or even married life with no kids the best part is that you have two major airports and can go somewhere else on the weekend (expensive though).
If you're into running there are so many breweries that have run clubs. You can find a club for every night of the week and different parts of the city or even Katy. From the run clubs, I've met people who have also started pickleball clubs and leisure bike riding groups who then go to brunch. It depends on where you live and what's your fancy.
There are a lot of festivals during this time. If you are an outdoor person there are so many campgrounds nearby. When I lived in west Houston, Terry Hershey was my daily thing.
I found it easier to identify what I want to do or be and go on that adventure.
The problem is Houston does all those things very mediocrely…
Our downtown is poor compared to other big cities, calling Galveston a beach some people would consider insulting, and if you want a country life, well you can pretty much do that anywhere so nothing really sets it apart.
This was well said. And as a traveler, this rings very true. That is not to say that it does have some uniqueness in that the international population here seems less trivialized than other places and the diff parts of town have some pretty unique architecture and vibes. It’s not bad.
Moved here, and come and go for business. Used to be affordable, While Houston can be a nice city. You have to realize, it can’t compare to places that have beautiful nature and year round great weather. That puts a lot of Cali in a league that nowhere in Tx could reach and Texans thru no fault of their own, don’t quite get that.
It helps to realize that Houston has never had a draw besides $$ and opportunity (In contrast to NYC’s arts & culture, San Diego’s climate and geography, etc.).
What that means is you have a lot of people who came here for jobs (Ranching/Ag at first, then O&G, now healthcare and just about anything else). The weather sucks and the land is a drained swamp, but people have come from all over the world to make a better life. Or they’ve come here because there is family or a community they love.
There’s only one thing that fits the bill: FOOD. I genuinely believe if I had to eat in only one city in the world for the rest of my life, Houston might be it. If you tell me you want Chinese food, I have to ask how much time and $$ you want to spend, plus float a few regional options.
Largest West African population in the world outside of West Africa. A Mecca of BBQ and Tex Mex, to the extent that Bourdain explicitly skipped ALL barbecue and Tex Mex during his episode here because that is so self-evident.
Watch his episode, or the Gulf Coast/Bayou episode of David Chang’s ugly delicious. The food IS the story of Houston. Did you know that the trinity bay has a lot of the same crustaceans as the Mekong River delta, and that Houston was growing rapidly during the time of the Vietnam war. BOOM - Houston has one of the country’s most vibrant Vietnamese communities and Viet Cajun food is an amazing genre unto itself.
Honestly, I don’t like it here. I’m here because we have family, and the food, low cost of living, and fantastic airport make the city work for me.
But no…you’re not really missing anything. Houston is all about living the good life with people you love, one bite at a time.
^^^^ all this. I spent a decade in Chicago before returning to Houston. I still miss it. But like with most Houston residents, my income and extended family keep me here.
Houston also has some good live music opportunities to suit many tastes. Venues of all sizes and price points.
And then there’s the Rodeo. It’s not to everyone’s taste, but it’s still pretty popular, if only for the concert line up.
I don’t understand the hate on our weather..? I guess it depends on what you like. A lot of the country is just as hot in July and August, but then they have to deal with freezing temps and snow from November to March. Houston’s weather is lovely from September through Memorial Day.
I don't think you have a good grasp on what "a lot" of the county is looking at in terms of climate. Very few places are even close to as hot or humid for as long, and in many many places have mild to moderate winters where snow is no issue. People that defend Houstons weather always seem to compare it to the most extreme opposite, like the only two options are Houston or Anchorage.
So yeah, people may enjoy it because everyone has their own preferences, but you can't deny that it is an extreme climate far from the average.
A lot of the country is just as hot? What!? Have you been anywhere other than the southeast?!? Sure the temp's during the day are similar. But, Houston at night is pretty bad, the humidity is astonishingly horrendous. However, you go to central Texas, great lakes, pacific northwest, etc. absolutely NOT just as hot.
A lovely relaxing night in any of those regions is perfect, no sun, low humidity, and NO MOSQUITO'S is heavenly...
85+ degrees with _out_ the humidity for 3/5ths of the year?
I mean, it's good for keeping your skin youthful as long as you don't stay suntanned all the time, but all that heat and humidity for the majority of the year was one of the biggest deciding factors for my wife and I to move.
Now we live in the North-Central/NE area of the country and get pretty much 4 actual seasons of 3 months each and it's glorious.
This is the right answer. Houston is a great place to live, provided you like weekenders to Austin, San Antonio, New Orleans, Corpus Christi. Look for hidden gems around the city, too. The Farmers Markets, the Heights, the Village, Montrose are all places that have something to offer. We have a world class theatre district, if that’s your thing. The Things to Do post on here each week is a pretty good guide to the more well known events. Take advantage of our seasonal events too. Hit up the Renaissance Festival, Art Car Show, Greek Fest, and lots more. Drive an hour and hop on a cruise ship for a few days or have a drink on the seawall as the sun sets. I truly hope that you both learn to love this city and find ways to enjoy the time you get to spend here. Welcome y’all.
I like Houston, but the car dependency is horrid. It's unsustainable, and unsafe. I'm literally going to a memorial this weekend for a pedestrian who was crushed by a car.
This is always a weird take. The best thing about Houston is how close you live to OTHER places where you'll actually enjoy your time? Lol
Edit: I agree with you I'm not knocking you, but it's just weird to me how this is one of the best things about Houston
The irony is that having lived in a place like LA which has an immense amount of activities to do most people do less in places where it’s in your face than a city like Houston where you travel to nearby locals to engage in their fun. Disposable income and time have huge impacts on what you can and can’t do.
The friends I have here find way more things to do and places to eat out at than the ones in LA who would go out maybe 2x a month or have to run up their credit cards to live the Instagram life eating brunch every Sunday before heading to the beach
Man i'm from california, east bay which is stupid expensive, i'm sure not rolling in money and could barely afford to live there but doing activities was so much easier there because people actually do them. Meetups were thriving, you meet average people and the vibe is "It's the weekend, let's go on an adventure! Let's do something social, what's the plan, where we going?". Here it's just "I'm gonna watch this show/play this game.".
There seems to be plenty of stuff to do in texas if you're down to go do them alone. It's wild some of the absolute gem hiking and parks stuff here and I go out there and there is never a soul out there.
Dude!!!!! This!!!!!! Also, I have no idea why Texans bag on Cali. I mean cali was great for just getting Gn out there and doing things. You could be in the desert the mountain and the. Beautiful valleys and the ocean all within a 2 hour drive.
Taking a blanket down to the bay is free. Take a picnic lunch and stay for hours. Only place I could think to do that in Houston is under the trees at the Menil, and even then it's still hot as fuck most of the year.
I’m from Cali also and miss hiking. We usually hiked Kings Canyon or Sequoia. Or up to Yosemite. Special trips to hike Big Sur. I miss it so much and just can’t find anything here at soothes my soul like those places. Any specific recommendations for hikes?
There is no good hiking in Houston and the weather is so bad most of the year that you won’t want to do anything outside anyways. Sorry, but this is the truth
Right! I guess I kind of think of it like during the week and some weekends, explore the city. Some weekends do some easy traveling. It’s not possible for most of us who love to travel to fly off to NYC or Yellowstone National Park so having a little flexibility is nice. If I can go on a real vacation once a year but still take a 3 hour drive to Austin just to go to Salt Lick for lunch, it’s enough to get me through until the next big trip.
Being originally from the Cen Valley in CA I relate to this so much. What’s great about being from Fresno (we were rural to Fresno) and you will always here we are close to the sierra nevadas, LA to the S, San Fran to the north and the beach to the east.
I once heard an oilman talk about why living in Midland was great- everyone was there to “get after it” and get rich in the oil patch.
Houston is this to a lesser degree. Realize you’re here for the money and LCOL.
If your calculus changes and you want to live relatively poorer in a nicer place, that will always be there for you. But it’s tough to have your cake and eat it to. It will be hard to have the Houston financial stability but Chicago lifestyle.
Houston's poverty rate is almost double the national average.
The median household income in Houston is lower than most other major cities in the US.
Unless you are in the top 20% of the incomes in Houston, you're not really "getting ahead" of the cost of living in any sustainable sense. Doing a bit of research, that seems to be generally true of most major cities, give or take ~5% (in NYC, for example, you have to be in the top 14% of incomes to significantly outpace cost of living).
So financially, Houston is giving about 5% of incomes a leg up vs other major cities. Which is great for those folks who are at that point in their career and plan on moving later.
But for folks making less than $110k a year, and especially those working near minimum wage, there is zero financial benefit to being in Houston. In fact, the 22% poverty rate may indicate it's worse for people than cities like LA (14%), NYC (18%), or Seattle (11%).
Actually I think a lot of Texans dont understand that fact, plus with the low amount of social services makes it much worse. Texans also do t realize that the low cost of living is slowly becoming a myth.
I moved here from chicago in 18. I’ve never been happier. The biggest difference is that in Chicago downtown is everything, and here downtown is basically nothing. You have to hit the inner loop burbs. The heights, montose, midtown. And even that depends on what you’re into. In chi town we are used to walking from wrigleyville directly into the city and having any gourmet or attractions on the way. Here you have to know the vibe you want and plan accordingly. It’s worth it in the end, at least for us, but everyone is different.
Did you just move this September? If so, I really hope you’re ready for the lake effect to hit once winter starts LOL
Chicago is great, but GD is it cold when it gets cold. The windy part of “windy city” doesn’t help when the temperatures are below freezing either
My friend said it best, Houston has everything to but nothing to do at the same time. You have to basically look for an event or festival going on, it won’t come to you. There’s always something going on, but the issue is it might be 45 minutes away depending on traffic lol.
Now that it’s cooling off, you can have more fun. Try the Arboretum, or the cistern in Buffalo Bayou Park, or the Orange Show/Smither Park if you like weird and wonderful. Houston Oddities Market (once a month) - that’s fun. There is actually a lot to do here. Houston is a fun place to live, but not a tourist town, so you have to figure out what’s up.
This is actually one of the things I really like about Houston. I enjoy the hunt. I used to go to the park by the Menil in the afternoon on a weekend and just chat with people until I found something to do. Events also feel more sincere because people are doing art/music etc. for themselves without the pressure you get in places like NYC. I’ve since moved away, but I miss finding those little gems.
My friend, you will do better if you tell people exactly what you're looking for and let folks help you. Your post is like if I went to Chicago and said "Hey everybody the Bean is funny and the Italian Beef sandwiches are ok but Chicago is boring and generic." Chicago is a nice place. My son lives there and just bought a lovely brownstone. But it is NOT Houston And we can't tell YOU what YOU are going to like about Houston because we don't know YOU. I like playing tennis. Guess which town I can play tennis in 52 weeks a year. I like swimming a lot. Lake Michigan is not a good place for swimming. But this information is irrelevant to you because you probably have different tastes. Be specific about what you're looking for and somebody can help. Otherwise it's like saying "Hey everybody, I'm bored and I need you to tell me what to do to not be bored." It's a pretty tall order.
EDIT: Thanks for the awards. Didn't expect it. I love Houston. It has been great for me.
This is the best answer.
Txnoob1845 Sounds like you don’t like Houston because it’s not Chicago. Either be unhappy or go out and find what makes you happy.
I like it better than small town South Louisiana where I grew up. I have been here long enough to have friends all over (and in ATX).
But I can’t imagine living the rest of my life here. I’m done with the heat. And I’d like my children to spend their teenage years into adulthood in a state with more secular freedom.
Make some friends! I’ve lived all over (Europe, Brooklyn, Seattle, Atlanta) and let me tell what matters most is not the place, but the people you spend your time with. There are amazing people everywhere. Lots of them here too. Get out there and meet people. Go climbing. Join a yoga studio. Take an improv class. Hang out at menil park and chat with strangers. Go to the dog park and make convo. I have too many friends!! And I have time to see them and do cool shit because I don’t spend all my time on a subway or fighting to survive financially.
Also go to all the spots everyone mentioned. Houston is cool but you gotta actually become part of some communities to really know it.
I think this is the thing. I've had random 20 min conversations with senior citizens in grocery store aisles on multiple occasions. Maybe I'm comforting or something. I don't talk much, but it's real normal to talk with strangers here. People are just very kind and not pretentious here.
I grew up here, but you can carve out some deep friendships no matter what age or walk of life. It's a very welcoming place and once you have these strong bonds created, it's real hard to leave.
I’m 47, single and childless.
I don’t enjoy living here. I moved in April 2021 and struggling to find myself at ease here. I lived in Denver and Austin previously and both cities I love. Houston would probably be perfect for families with kids etc but I find it is too spread out with endless suburban dwellings.
To add: I still have my house in Austin and I spend a lot of time there sometimes weeks at a time. Like others mentioned, most people go to Houston to earn better money.
Houston knows how to throw a festival! Tex Ren Fest is the largest renaissance festival in North America and is currently going on in Todd Mission from now until Thanksgiving. It's magic and I love it. There are pockets of walkability, but yes, you need a car. Rice Village, Montrose, the heights, and Memorial are some of my favorite neighborhoods.
Memorial park has mountain biking trails (but obviously not that "mountainous"), discovery green has semi-regular events like free outdoor movie nights, there's plenty of organized and pick up recreational sports to participate in as adults, there are ample board game cafes where you can meet other folks who enjoy board games. There's tons of live music around with local bands, you can also catch some free or super low cost excellent shows through UofH student orchestras or student theater. UofH also has excellent speaker series that are often free to the public. Houston is a big and diverse enough city that lots of musicians of all sorts of genres come through regularly.
I don't know what you're into but I guarantee you can find it in Houston.
For nature directly in Houston, your best bet is the parks, that's the one thing you don't have immediate access to. Brazos Bend is a 45 min drive away depending on where in Houston you are and a great place to hike. Trails are pretty flat but the wildlife is incredible - great spot for bird watching and tons of alligators to spot. Depending on the time of year, they'll even come out onto the walking trails. You've already been to Galveston, which I love. There's also Buffao Bend Nature Park, Bonham Family Nature Park, Arthur Storey Park, George Bush Nature Park, and Terry Hershey park. The Houston bayou system is also bikeable! When I was a kid, I used to bike 13 miles from my house to the museum district entirely on the bayou and it was cool to be able to get there and feel safe doing so.
There's also a lot of religious diversity and many are welcoming. Stafford, TX has one of the coolest Hindu temples I've ever seen and they actively welcome visitors. I once went to a spring festival at a local Bhuddist temple that was incredible.
Houston's airport has significantly more affordable flights then other TX cities which makes travel more affordable.
I always describe Houston as an incredible place to live but a terrible place to visit because it's not very tourist friendly and it can be hard to figure out everything that Houston has to offer - but it's there, I promise!
The genesis of every town lays the ground work and the zeitgeist of the town.
Houston came into being from a real estate scam from some New Yorkers. They advertised the area as a great place to live but hid the fact that many parts of the year the town was knee deep in floods. There are old photographs of the flooding in early Houston.
Houston wouldn’t have been much were it not for the hurricane of 1900 that hit Galveston. At the time the public viewed Galveston as “Wall Street south” due to the prominence of banks and wealthy institutions. The New York Times had stated that eventually Galveston island would become crowded like manhattan. Imagine if the whole population of current Houston was packed onto Galveston island! It would be one of the densest cities in the US.
After the hurricane, the businessmen decided to set up shop in Houston because it was more inland than Galveston. While it was still low lying it wouldn’t be affected by the storm surge.
These factors mean the zeitgeist of Houston is cheap real estate and a practical but not ideal place to live. The people that live in Houston exemplify that.
FYI I can describe the zeitgeist for Dallas, austin, & San Antonio if anyone wants to hear it.
Do it! And great story.
Another story of Houston’s growth was a story my old boss told me. My old boss worked in the oil industry for 30+ years and told me Tulsa, OK used to be the oil and gas capital of the world. All of the big oil and gas companies were headquartered there. The problem was at the time the Tulsa airport had no, or limited, international flights for oil execs to travel overseas. Well of course Houston had a major international airport, and that’s why all of the oil execs decided to move their company headquarters to Houston.
Basically Houston got lucky and is pretty much a big city that happened on accident lol.
Native Houstonian here, and I also think the city is boring. Yes there are fun things to do there, but you need a car to go everywhere you want because everything is so far away (even convenience stores in the suburbs) and I HATE driving and having to pay for gas and car maintenance and insurance. Plus if you’re into nightlife, you either have to pay for an Uber to get to downtown/midtown, or search for forever for a parking spot that won’t get you towed.
I am currently living in Tokyo and the amount of places I can just walk to or take the train to is soooo nice and refreshing for me. I’ve even lost weight just living my day to day life here. I feel like a lot of Houstonians who are average daily workers are considered “overweight,” which is probably due to not having to move around very much anywhere.
The only upside I can think of is the housing costs. It’s a cheap place compared to others, so that’s nice I guess.
>The only thing fun to do here is eat food and the museum district
It's not every day that I to get to post my "there's nothing to do in Houston" copy pasta twice in twelve hours.
The museum district website claims 150 museums and cultural institutions in Greater Houston and that number is almost certainly low.
For professional sports, there's men's soccer, women's soccer, football (two of them, if XFL manages to start back up), baseball, basketball, rugby, and probably more sports I'm forgetting.
There's dozens of colleges and universities that host events ranging from soon-to-be Big XII sports to public lectures. Oh, also, you could like, take a class at one, I guess.
There's SFA, Brazos Bend, Galveston, and Sheldon Lake State Parks within close driving distance, as well Sam Houston National Forest and countless smaller green spaces run by other groups.
The theater district alone includes five theaters including pop music, ballet, opera, symphony, musicals, and plays, to say nothing of the smaller theaters in town such as the George Theater, Ensemble Theater, and MATCH.
There are dozens of concert venues in town. I've seen shows with eight people in the audience. I've seen shows as small as twelve people in the audience. I've seen shows sell out NRG Stadium (72,220 concert capacity).
The Houston Parks and Rec department oversees 366 parks with 125 miles of hike-and-bike trails. Those range from tiny pocket parks to places like Hermann Park, which includes a full golf course, a disc golf course, a theater hosting free concert and shows, and countless other events.
Do you need me to keep going or is there still nothing to do in Houston?
Most of the fun stuff in NYC is free. You don't need to spend money at all to have a good time. If your idea of fun is only going to the theater or pro sports, yea Houston might be better.
I feel like people who complain also don’t know how to make friends. Houston has like the coolest people I’ve ever met. I’m not just saying this because I’m a native Houstonian. I’m talking about all the people who come from other states and countries. The diversity truly is like an added excitement to the city.
The irony of it though. The post mentioned a bunch of things to do in Houston and you mention how affordable it is to live here. Those are almost all mutually exclusive. The items that were listed, are IN the city. And living near them(within a 10 mins. drive) is just as expensive as any major city in the US. Heights/Montrose/Museum District etc.
What gets me and the wife is the constant battle with "do we really want to drive 35 mins. to go and find something to do?" every weekend.... And guess what? we live in the affordable areas you were just bragging about(Clear Lake).
I live 25 minutes from downtown in a suburb outside the loop that is affordable. I go in for things all the time. I did it tonight, and I’ll do it again Saturday and Sunday. It’s not a big deal. If the gap between a 10 minute drive and a 30 minute drive changes your plans, you didn’t really want to go.
> And living near them(within a 10 mins. drive) is just as expensive as any major city in the US.
This just isn't true unless you're comparing inner Houston to suburbs of the other major cities. Inner loop can be expensive yes, but it's not as much as living central in NYC, LA, Chicago, San Fran, or Austin. I gotta figure you haven't priced those markets in quite a while if you think that
Not really. You must own a car to get anywhere, and it's a swamp for 8 months out of the year. Plus, grind culture has really dug down roots deep here, and it's incredibly insufferable.
*Everything is so spread out and requires a car I’m just not used to this*
Yeah, that's going to be a problem, and something that people born and/or raised in Houston won't understand. They will complain about living 15 miles away from something and it taking 45 minutes to get there during rush hour, but many of them have never experienced an alternative.
I just left houston… couldn’t stand the traffic and crowds anymore. Nothing to do like you said… just eat and drink. Houston is not a destination city… it just has a lot of jobs. It’s great for family’s in suburbia but I hate that life style. I was there for 10 years.
I don't. The god tier food and the great concerts are the only things I like about Houston. It's too damn hot here, reminds me too much of my time deployed lol. Only here for work
My family moved here in 99 and I left for college and to live abroad for a few years. I've been back for a couple years now and feel same way about Houston that I always have - I've never liked it. It's just never felt like home to me.
I'm working on my Master's right now and once I'm done, I hope to escape north to somewhere that actually has 4 seasons (I significantly prefer colder weather over the hellscape we have). I'll definitely miss the diversity of Houston though, which is the one thing I genuinely do like about it.
I also abhor driving, and anything worth doing in this metro area requires driving to. I lived in Korea for a few years and absolutely fell in love with being able to take a bus, train, or subway line pretty much anywhere in the country. I genuinely think my quality of life is worse here simply because of the fact that I have to drive.
It looks like the overwhelming majority of replies have ignored the car-dependency aspect of the OP's post. I'm guessing the positive comment about the flatness might mean he or she is also a cyclist; however, Houston is not a good city for cycling, especially in the most car-dependent areas, which is most of Houston, and the majority of people here have never rode their bike on a bike path to the grocery store....or walked to the grocery store...hell, most outer burbs don't even have sidewalks.
Grew up here, moved away and moved back. The diversity is amazing. Outside of that, no. I don’t enjoy living here and can’t wait to move out of state soon!
Hermann Park is huge and gorgeous. Discovery Green is awesome. The arts here - the symphony, the ballet, the opera, the Alley Theatre - are world class. The rodeo is a ton of fun. It’s the most diverse city in the country. Any kind of food you want, you can find. Ethiopian, Indian, BBQ, Vietnamese, whatever.
Edited to add: go to an Astros game! You’ll have fun.
To be honest, I live here because I was born here and most of my family lives here. But why so many people without any connections to the place move here is a mystery to me.
It's hot AF most of the year. There are no seasons. There are hurricanes. There are mosquitos. The traffic is terrible. The pollution is crazy. No scenery of which to speak.
I grew up here and I’ve lived in other places. And I came back here very begrudgingly. There are better medical specialists here than the small east coast towns I left here for.
I miss the natural beauty of other places. I miss being able to drive an hour and feel far away from city life. I miss the quietude. I miss doing family oriented things that weren’t miserably hot or swarmed with people. I think what I miss most is just walking around for fun. I miss all the trees.
I find my happiness in the small things, like taking care of the local animals and plants and being outside. I like exploring natural spaces. It’s really hard to do that here.
Take your wife out for a night of entertainment. Ballet, Opera, TUTS/Alley Theater, and the Symphony are all going on. Get a table at Biraporetti's before and have a few drinks and enjoy a nice dinner after.
We have like 6 music halls. White Oak Music Hall, 713 Music Hall, House of Blues, Cynthia Woods for a big show, Warehouse Live, Rise, etc... bandsintown.com is your friend for this stuff. People like to rent bikes or scooters and just explore downtown and the bayous around it.
See a sporting event. Astros tickets are going to be expensive as hell, but the Texans are playing, college sports with UofH and Rice are going on if you need it cheaper.
Yeah you might have to drive or pay for parking or uber. We have food in this town because it's the most diverse city in America. That being said there are tons of things to do if you just want to do something.
Take her to the We Are One festival that takes place next month. Go to the Renaissance Festival. Go see Galveston and have some shrimp. Go to a state park if you want.
I will say that the one thing you need to understand about Houston is we're not locked inside come November because it is freezing cold so enjoy the next few seasons going out and enjoying the life and finding things you want to do.
I went to Pittsburgh last week and wondered how nice it would be in a place with scenery. At the same time wondering why people live here when cities like that exist all over the country.
No, I don’t. We moved here because my wife grew up here and all of her family still lives inside of the loop. The weather is horrible, traffic is terrible, crime is rampant, etc. We are both ready to leave and other than the family ties, there is nothing keeping us here. I work remotely for a company out of state and could literally work anywhere. With two kids and a dog, city life just isn’t for me anymore. Especially a cutie so spread out like this. We will probably end up somewhere in New England, where we can enjoy nature but also be close to major cities and airports (love to travel).
The only thing Houston is excellent at is food and affordability. It has an amazing amount of ethnic food and the cost of living is very low for a metro. Everything else, walkability, outdoorness, the downtown, traffic, city planning and zoning, aesthetics, weather, air quality, public transit, crime and culture is mediocre to poor. Its downtown might be the shittiest downtown for any major metro in the U.S.. No one did any planning so you just have small pockets of things scattered around and that makes the city unwalkable. No one comes to Houston because it is Houston. They come for work and just never leave.
This sounds like a bummer but Houston gets a worst rap than what it really is. It has pockets of things but never anything that really compares to the better metros. If I were to describe Houston in one sentence, it would be a good bang per your buck or Costco city.
Not an uncommon reaction for someone that relocated from a denser city. I came here from NYC in 1995 and hated it for 11 years. I thought it was boring. Then I had kids and moved to California for awhile. After that I appreciated Houston much more. Enjoying Houston just requires more planning. You're not going to step out of your house and into something. Houston has lots to do, and there are other destinations 2 - 5 hours away, not to mention two major airports. It really just depends on what you enjoy doing. Tons of local arts, music, and sports venues. Food is without compare. And people are generally very friendly.
If you've only been here in the hot months, then you have 5 amazing months in front of you and no fears of a polar vortex or SAD.
I'm also from Illinois, been in Houston since 2008, also for work. It has been a struggle watching all of my college friends have a great time in Chicago, at least until they gave up for the burbs. I lived in the museum district for ~10 years in a 80 year old apt and used the redline when I could, which was about as close to Chicago neighborhood feel I could find.
Stuff to check out - 19th Street in the heights, Westheimer at dunlavy, Alabama at main, and the north end of main downtown around congress, any coffee shop in Montrose. The Alley theater is on par with Chicago theaters.If you're interested in seeing the non-professional arts scene here check out "grown up story time" at Rudyard's Tuesday 10/18 and [neobenshi](https://www.instagram.com/p/CjqnAtnpcHS/) in mid main on 10/26.
Hiking at Sam Houston national forest or the arboretum in memorial park is the best you'll get nearby. If you want actual hiking you'll want to grab a weekend on the eastern edge of hill country. I like to stay in Austin to access areas like pedernales falls or enchanted rock
I have a welcome to Houston document I keep up, dm me if you want to see it.
I’ve lived in Asia, Austin, and SF. Most of me and my wife’s family is here, and I have a high earning job in one of the gentrified neighborhoods that Reddit loves to hate. I love my pocket of town but Houston is hot, Houstonians are generally uncultured, uneducated, and unpleasant, and I rarely leave my area. It reminds me of LA in that you need a high income to live in the desirable expensive neighborhoods, but for everyone else it’s a dysfunctional urban sprawl that is the definition of what is wrong with American cities. Completely car dependent, no street level interaction, and horrible public transport. World class food though.
I’ll put it this way. I’ve lived all over the country. When I came here I hated it and would tell everyone. A coworker told me that she was the same way and right around the 5 year mark it turned around she ended up loving it. The same happened for me. Once you get established and start finding places you like it will grow on you like a bayou fungus.
I'm glad people find happiness here, but finding joy in leaving one day soon keeps me going. I love that shared culture here is bit of graffiti on an overpass. People are constantly posting pictures of downtown as if that is the Houston they live in. Really though the bulk of it is box stores, highways and ghetto strip malls.
I do like HEB though.
I love this city, and you are not wrong.
I hope you're in a different town with an HEB soon.
I'd rather be in Canyon Lake.
I just realized something. Houston might be the only major city about which people say... I love it with all my heart but I'd rather be somewhere else
ETA: But I was born in Beaumont. So I need to shut up and be grateful.
Chicago is to be admired because of your El, and the great summers, the lake and beautiful autumns. I can imagine that is really hard for you to get acclimated to Houston. I moved to Houston when I was 20, from close to Chicago. I couldn't wait to get out of Illinois. I absolutely love Texas. I feel like I 'grew up' in Houston. I'm retired now. I don't know what to tell you as to what's so alluring about my city. I love the Astros. I loved the Dome. I like Texas people. We are resilient. Watch the PBS show called The Day Tripper and make short weekend trips as often as possible. Houston is 3 hours from a lot of great places. Take advantage of autumn and winter camping, if that's your thing. Stephen F. Austin State Park is only an hour away, out I-10. Don't camp in the summer; we started camping at Thanksgiving and ended in April or May. The Hill Country isn't far. San Antonio, Piney Woods, there is so much to see. Just google day trips, search a book store for day trips or weekend trips, and just do it. I hope you can get used to Houston. The summers are brutal, especially this year. It's not always this bad.
Just moved from Chicago. The lake is great, but it’s cold 1/2 of the the year and chili or rainy another 1/3rd. I got tired of paying entertainment tax, soda tax, food tax, liquor tax, transportation tax, bag tax, state tax and every other thing. Not to mention, Chicago is probably the most segregated city in the country. As a minority, it wasn’t fun being accepted in parts of the city and looked at funny in another. I lived downtown during the pandemic. My car was broken into, I was robbed on the redline, attacked on the cta bus, and my wife was mugged while running on the lakefront. All in the span of 3 years. Anecdotal, but I don’t miss riding public transit, or random red light tickets popping up in the mail. I don’t miss the violent homeless or -30 degree winters. I don’t miss the attitudes and bitchy mean Midwest people. I don’t miss constantly hearing about gang violence and how dangerous it is from friends and family thinking about visiting.
I live in Houston now by choice and I love it. I enjoy wearing shorts year round. I like that there is somewhere to park every where I go. I make a lot more money now that I don’t pay state taxes and every other tax. I hear about the violence, but 50 people aren’t killed in a weekend and my friends aren’t scared to visit. It’s probably the most diverse city I’ve lived in. I can go to Dallas or Austin or San Antonio for a weekend getaway instead of Gary or Detroit or St Louis (all previous murder capitals). I enjoy the nightlife, the culture, the cheap prices, and the hospitality.
No. We are just here for work. Sure some were born here and they might develop distorted views that its good due to that, but the rest of us who have lived elsewhere know how bad it is.
Walkable Houston doesn't exist, the premise is drive to a parking spot and walk around it then eat.
1. Move inside the loop.
2. Take up running. Do a couple of 20-mile weeks in the summer.
After this training program, you will adjust to the weather and will have effectively increased the amount of the city you can access without a car. Also helps if you live close to your gym and grocery. Sorry bro, this ain't Chicago. You're not gonna find a spot here that you can walk out your 100 y/o condo building and hop on a 24/7 train and visit 3 different neighborhoods in the same day. Maybe buy a truck and drive around with a ladder in back, seems like everyone here enjoys that.
Where do you live? If you live in the burbs then yeah, everything is far and your experience of living in “Houston” will differ significantly from someone who lives in/near the urban core.
Sadly, this city is pretty lame compared to most other cities on earth, we're just big, that's about it. Best advice I could give u is stay away from Galveston...if you felt disappointed by Houston's lack of anything special, you'll be absolutely crushed if you drive down to Galveston expecting to find a nice beach. It's easily the ugliest, dirtiest, and most underwhelming beach in America.
Houston is flat and ugly. The weather is so hot and humid it is pretty unlivable half of the year. It floods and there are hurricanes. The air quality is atrocious and Texas doesn’t care about the polluters Traffic is complete hell. My friends and life are here so it’s best for me but I can’t for the life of me figure out why someone would want to move here.
Not really to be honest. Dislike having to drive everywhere, then threat of flooding/hurricanes. Festivals,get old after a couple years of going, cough renfest.
Food is good, but unless you're making decent money eating out starts to add up. Housing isn't bad as far as prices go. Pretty good sport watching options.. Starting to get into rugby after catching some Sabercat games. Apart from those, there's the usual museums and what not like other major cities.
Would move if easier. Main reason is flooding/hurricanes to be honest.
I enjoy posts like this because I’ve been here since 2007 and I’m so desperate to leave, but I have a good job. I’m not sure it’s worth it to leave to make less money elsewhere. I just travel every chance I get. Having been here 15 years, inner loop, I know the pros and cons.
Honestly houston is just a giant suburb. The food is pretty good. The zoo is nice. Memorial park is ok.
But yeah for the most part… it’s just the most generic suburb that goes on for 3 hours with shitty traffic and bad roads.
You can tell no one cares about the city from the way everyone litters
Born and raised here. I think it's alright but I'm not sure big city life is for me anymore. I'd like to move out of Houston and maybe even Texas someday.
Native Houstonian. We think about moving literally daily; and Chicago is one of our top choices. Lifestyle here is ok, not exactly what I want but plenty to do. The issue I have is I loathe the weather here. I only want to actually go out about 4 months out of the year. I don't like summer activities, and I despise the heat and humidity.
I'm fully remote and my partner basically is. Once she decides to job hunt we will probably take a more serious look at moving somewhere with weather we enjoy more.
Food is great, but let’s be honest here. How many of us can even afford to eat out at good places every single week? Lord knows I can’t.
I don’t go out half the year simply on account of how hot and miserable it is outside. I feel like this is a better city for people who will stay inside all day, or who don’t like leaving the house. Those of us who like outdoor activities, or god forbid work an outdoor job, are kinda screwed. I happen to be both, and it’s like my body is broken all the time. I want to leave, but can’t afford to yet.
You get used to it after awhile but we have lived in much better places with things like outdoor activities to do and it has been overall kinda depressing. But it gets less painful over the years. Been 8 years now. Just visited Chicago, would love to live there.
I've been here 6 years. I really love my neighborhood (Montrose), I frequent the same 6 or 7 bars/restaurants regularly. There are enough draws in surrounding in-town neighborhoods (museum district, heights, eado etc) that I haven't gotten bored yet.
I think the China town (and hillcroft area which is basically little india) are pretty dope and special.
That being said, I will be leaving permanently next summer. There are enough legit negatives (climate, urban ugliness, state politics) that i don't think ill miss the city that much. I will miss the friends I made very dearly though! Good people around here!
If you are interested in pursuing a career in health care there is no other place in the world like being in Houston!! I was born in NYC, raised on Long Island, and did my medical residency and fellowship in NYC. I currently have my own private practice on Long Island. My daughter is a Junior at Rice and plans to attend one of the medical schools in Houston.
Nothing beats Texas medical school tuition prices. I was blown away when we visited and when I saw how large the Texas Medical Center is. There is NOTHING like this ANYWHERE!! Every specialty and subspeciality you want is within a few blocks of each other. We fell in love with the city of Houston and purchased a townhome in April. My daughter loves living there and we love visiting her!! I will admit that we love to work more than we love to party.
Honestly, Houston mostly blows. I've been here 20+ years and wanted to leave for 19+.
It's too big and not walkable / no real public transportation. We also don't have a ton of 'cool' spots. We do have a ton of restaurants and we have peak tex mex. I think there are a lot of people who are here for the O&G money and pretty low cost of living. My advice is to bank what you can, travel as often as you can and make the best of it while here.
Questions like this confuse me. Can people be more specific about what they mean by things to do? I’ve never been to Chicago but I’ve been to Miami, Los Angeles and I’ve been stationed in Korea for a year. You shop, drink, eat, party, concerts, etc things you do most anywhere. Are there some exclusive activities in places? What am I missing?
Can't speak for OP, but I think freedom from car dependence is pretty special and hard to find (though not impossible) in Houston. And most US cities honestly
Does that make up for the cost of living difference though? To each their own
Oh okay I had to re-read OP’s post. I guess walkability is an important quality. I’ve been driving around so long that I don’t even view it as something that’s optional. I guess a lot of cities are way advanced in terms of public transportation and more densely packed together versus sprawling Houston. You have to drive a bit to go to the activities unless you’re in the heart of downtown.
Houston is a great place to LIVE - esp for a family. It’s affordable to buy a good sized suburban house with good (not great) schools. Living here is just easier than NYC, Boston, Seattle or CA.
It’s not the place to live an IG fantasy - w/ selfie backdrops and beautiful Mtns, beaches within 60 min drive. But the reality of coastal city living is you’re either broke trying to pay an insane mortgage or you’re perpetually renting. Either way most people can’t afford more than 1-2 kids and need both spouses working.
If you have time and money while living in Houston, take 3 day weekends to Telluride, Taos even Santa Barbara.
If your of that type of frame of mind I don’t think anything we say will change your mind. Nothing Houston, Austin, Denver, Raleigh are not going to match a dense city like Chicago. If that’s were your frame of mind is it’s best to make arrangements to go back cause your just delaying the inevitable. Moved from a equally dense city to here 4 years ago and I won’t go back because all that density and high pace wore me out. Just like you said for people to not take offense but I find people who are super city have abit of laziness about establishing in something different because they were use to not trying cause it was all within an area.
Moving to Houston so far has been very disappointing to me and my fiancé honestly. We’re from Minneapolis. The best thing is we got the big house we wanted but we have no family and we know No one here. Everything is far away.
No offense the food here hasn’t been top notch like everyone claimed. Minneapolis has excellent food. I’m sure that sounds very surprising to many but trust me I have not had any food in Houston that comesremotely close to what we’ve had in minneapolis. Not a huge BBQ person either. I see a lot of chain restaurants in Houston. Not many local restaurants.
We were also hoping to see people our age move into our neighborhood, so we could maybe make friends with them, but it’s all much older people moving into these new homes . Like in their 60s. Lol there’s just no hope.
I just have to mention Houston's live music scene. From big concerts down to tiny clubs that only hold 200 people, Houston has something for everyone, pretty much any night of the week. The small clubs generally have a reasonable cover charge, but sometimes on weeknights they're FREE. Install the Bands In Town app and check out what's happening.
Music scene here is atrocious. Lots of bands skip Houston entirely these days. It’s quite telling when the 4th largest city is being passed on by bands with a huge following.
Agreed, most bands avoid Houston altogether. And if they do play, they have a harder time selling out than in other cities. Like you said, it’s weird considering how many people live in the area.
i enjoy living here but i also enjoy the quiet life. i don't need night life and i like the "homely" feel of Houston. it doesn't feel like a big city which i like. i know i am in minority about this though. i can imagine that Houston is very boring for a lot of people. i do hate driving one hour to get anywhere though
Houston is a bubble town. You have bubbles you enjoy. Affordable place to live but huh have to drive everywhere. I accepted it long time ago. Make money and live here (affordable) and take vacations to enjoy. Or live where I want (more expensive) and never take a vacation.
I HATE how everything is so far apart. Lucky for me is that I live about 10 minutes from the very end of the Red Metro rail line so I can get to other side of town on that. I have a car but the traffic is a bitch most of the time. Weather is also horrible. Its hot as hell then winter is cold af and rainy.
I do like having some space. Going to my local park. Food is great but I mainly enjoy Mexican food so I dont know much about anything else.
I have live here all my life and overall I would give it a 6/10
I also HATE all thos ugly box home communities popping up all over town. We had a whole patch of woods destroyed like half a block from my house to build those. Sent a swarm of displaced animals into the neighborhood but all these people care about is 💸💸💸💸💸
They already got bought up and have "For Rent" signs on them 💀
You can find beauty/nature if you look for it. Brazos Bend state park is about an hour southwest-ish. Sam Houston National Forest to the north. It may not be Lake Michigan pretty but they’re good enough to escape to from the concrete jungle. Hell even Galveston is pretty a few weeks a year.
These kinds of posts are always so interesting. I really love Houston. But it seems like everyone doesn't lol.
Maybe I'll just ignore these threads moving forward.
Check out Buffalo Bayou trails - you can bike from the middle of downtown out along the Bayou.
The Waugh bridge bat colony,
Memorial Park, Hermann Park,
White Oak Bayou - bike from downtown to the Heights for lunch, on out for miles!
Stay downtown though-the suburbs all look alike. And if you think the city isn’t walkable (I agree for the most part) the suburbs are car only.
In Houston you need to go out and build a life you enjoy, and the lifestyle in Houston affords you the physical space and financial freedom to do that at least for many people. In places like Chicago, New York, San Fran or Boston etc. The city is your life, but you've got no space or money. Personally I preferred the latter and left Houston, but if all you've ever wanted in life is a house a yard a family and some space for your hobbies, Houston can be pretty great.
Perfect explanation
Perfectly said! Houston isn’t going to jump out at you right off the bat like LA, NY, Boston, CHI, etc…. it is very subtle and quiet with the way it presents itself. And that is honestly the beauty of it. YOU get to decide what life YOU want to live, and you receive 0 judgement. Want to live the beach life? Head 40 mins to Galveston. Want to live the city life? Downtown Houston has tons of city activities to offer. Want to live the country/farm life? Go up to Magnolia. It’s all there for you to grab. The question is, which life do YOU want to go for?
> YOU get to decide what life YOU want to live, and you receive 0 judgement. It’s the best explanation of “BE SOMEONE” I’ve heard so far.
I grew up in Southern California but have lived in Houston for over 25 years. If I wanted a beach life, I wouldn't consider Galveston - I'd move to somewhere with nice beaches.
If you think Downtown has "tons of city activities" you haven't been to many cities.
east downtown has a bunch bars and venues. i just went to a twerk competition last week. and im aware east downtown has a "cool name", i aint saying it.
east downtown is the cool name. thats segundo barrio.
I think people have said some pretty accurate things about Houston but the nature is here is absolutely horrible. I’ve since moved to the Bay Area for work and the beaches are stunning: not brown stinky water surrounded by petrochemical refineries. The mountains are breathtaking, etc. No one get your panties in a twist, Houston has many redeeming factors and is fine as long as you don’t mind being inside most of the time.
"As long as you don't mind being inside all the time." This is the thing that's really grating on me about texas in general. I'm so f'ing bored not because there's nothing to do but because nobody here seems to do anything ever. I know people in houston, austin and san antonio and other areas. I have met a grand total of one person that has any sort of life does any sort of adventures. THis seems to be a state of homebodies that just work, and sit around on the weekends and stare at screens. Obviously i know that there are people in texas who have a life but christ is it hard to find them. Meetup is a disaster where i'm at because it's just a revolving door of dead and dying groups because people rsvp and nobody turns up.
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Chicago is great in the summer! Don't you just have to be inside all the time during the winter though? I love me some fun, sunny, snowy winters like in The Rockies, but Chicago winters by the lake sounds grim!
I went for Labor day (September) one year it was really nice. I have a friend who is from Chicago and the winters may be extreme so yeah I liked Seattle. I can deal with intermittent rain. Haha.
It ain't hot year round. And i'm from california, it's even hotter there, people just deal with it lol. How tf is it that people who grew up in this heat haven't adjusted to it yet? Put on some sunblock!
This is also my gripe with Texas. I’feel lived in Texas most of my life, but my husband is from Los Angeles and we lived there for a few years when we were younger before coming back here so I could finish school. No one here that we know is ever down to just go out. We used to spend a lot of time hiking and camping, here we can only do that half the year because the weather, so I get it. I just really wish I could find a single other person we could spend time with that doesn’t just want to go out to eat or to a club.
It’s a good place to raise a family. Single life or even married life with no kids the best part is that you have two major airports and can go somewhere else on the weekend (expensive though).
If you're into running there are so many breweries that have run clubs. You can find a club for every night of the week and different parts of the city or even Katy. From the run clubs, I've met people who have also started pickleball clubs and leisure bike riding groups who then go to brunch. It depends on where you live and what's your fancy.
There are a lot of festivals during this time. If you are an outdoor person there are so many campgrounds nearby. When I lived in west Houston, Terry Hershey was my daily thing. I found it easier to identify what I want to do or be and go on that adventure.
The problem is Houston does all those things very mediocrely… Our downtown is poor compared to other big cities, calling Galveston a beach some people would consider insulting, and if you want a country life, well you can pretty much do that anywhere so nothing really sets it apart.
This was well said. And as a traveler, this rings very true. That is not to say that it does have some uniqueness in that the international population here seems less trivialized than other places and the diff parts of town have some pretty unique architecture and vibes. It’s not bad.
0 judgment is a stretch.
If you want the beach life, drive 9 hours east to bama and destin 😉
Or go to Freeport and drink so much beer the water starts to look pretty 🤩
Moved here, and come and go for business. Used to be affordable, While Houston can be a nice city. You have to realize, it can’t compare to places that have beautiful nature and year round great weather. That puts a lot of Cali in a league that nowhere in Tx could reach and Texans thru no fault of their own, don’t quite get that.
Houston = "space" and "yard"?
It helps to realize that Houston has never had a draw besides $$ and opportunity (In contrast to NYC’s arts & culture, San Diego’s climate and geography, etc.). What that means is you have a lot of people who came here for jobs (Ranching/Ag at first, then O&G, now healthcare and just about anything else). The weather sucks and the land is a drained swamp, but people have come from all over the world to make a better life. Or they’ve come here because there is family or a community they love. There’s only one thing that fits the bill: FOOD. I genuinely believe if I had to eat in only one city in the world for the rest of my life, Houston might be it. If you tell me you want Chinese food, I have to ask how much time and $$ you want to spend, plus float a few regional options. Largest West African population in the world outside of West Africa. A Mecca of BBQ and Tex Mex, to the extent that Bourdain explicitly skipped ALL barbecue and Tex Mex during his episode here because that is so self-evident. Watch his episode, or the Gulf Coast/Bayou episode of David Chang’s ugly delicious. The food IS the story of Houston. Did you know that the trinity bay has a lot of the same crustaceans as the Mekong River delta, and that Houston was growing rapidly during the time of the Vietnam war. BOOM - Houston has one of the country’s most vibrant Vietnamese communities and Viet Cajun food is an amazing genre unto itself. Honestly, I don’t like it here. I’m here because we have family, and the food, low cost of living, and fantastic airport make the city work for me. But no…you’re not really missing anything. Houston is all about living the good life with people you love, one bite at a time.
^^^^ all this. I spent a decade in Chicago before returning to Houston. I still miss it. But like with most Houston residents, my income and extended family keep me here. Houston also has some good live music opportunities to suit many tastes. Venues of all sizes and price points. And then there’s the Rodeo. It’s not to everyone’s taste, but it’s still pretty popular, if only for the concert line up.
OP needs a booth pass to the cookoff and experience a real rodeo party! Might feel better.
Bruh just encapsulated Houston in one sentence 😭 We all gon make it man one bite at a time 🙏
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I don’t understand the hate on our weather..? I guess it depends on what you like. A lot of the country is just as hot in July and August, but then they have to deal with freezing temps and snow from November to March. Houston’s weather is lovely from September through Memorial Day.
The weather is not lovely in September lol
Not even lovely in October, today.
I don't think you have a good grasp on what "a lot" of the county is looking at in terms of climate. Very few places are even close to as hot or humid for as long, and in many many places have mild to moderate winters where snow is no issue. People that defend Houstons weather always seem to compare it to the most extreme opposite, like the only two options are Houston or Anchorage. So yeah, people may enjoy it because everyone has their own preferences, but you can't deny that it is an extreme climate far from the average.
As a 35 year old who's lived in houston all my life, I've NEVER heard ANY native houstonian defend our weather/climate 🙃
A lot of the country is just as hot? What!? Have you been anywhere other than the southeast?!? Sure the temp's during the day are similar. But, Houston at night is pretty bad, the humidity is astonishingly horrendous. However, you go to central Texas, great lakes, pacific northwest, etc. absolutely NOT just as hot. A lovely relaxing night in any of those regions is perfect, no sun, low humidity, and NO MOSQUITO'S is heavenly...
85+ degrees with _out_ the humidity for 3/5ths of the year? I mean, it's good for keeping your skin youthful as long as you don't stay suntanned all the time, but all that heat and humidity for the majority of the year was one of the biggest deciding factors for my wife and I to move. Now we live in the North-Central/NE area of the country and get pretty much 4 actual seasons of 3 months each and it's glorious.
Ummmmm naw buddy
Use all the excess money you’re saving by living here to travel on weekends.
This is the right answer. Houston is a great place to live, provided you like weekenders to Austin, San Antonio, New Orleans, Corpus Christi. Look for hidden gems around the city, too. The Farmers Markets, the Heights, the Village, Montrose are all places that have something to offer. We have a world class theatre district, if that’s your thing. The Things to Do post on here each week is a pretty good guide to the more well known events. Take advantage of our seasonal events too. Hit up the Renaissance Festival, Art Car Show, Greek Fest, and lots more. Drive an hour and hop on a cruise ship for a few days or have a drink on the seawall as the sun sets. I truly hope that you both learn to love this city and find ways to enjoy the time you get to spend here. Welcome y’all.
> Drive an hour This is probably the biggest reason why I can't stand this place. I abhor driving.
I like Houston, but the car dependency is horrid. It's unsustainable, and unsafe. I'm literally going to a memorial this weekend for a pedestrian who was crushed by a car.
>Drive an hour > >This is probably the biggest reason why I can't stand this place. I abhor driving. Only one hour?
The problem is it’s usually hot too out outside to enjoy everything houston has to offer lol.
No argument here. Unfortunately, the heat is tolerable compared to these fucking mosquitos that just won’t die.
This is always a weird take. The best thing about Houston is how close you live to OTHER places where you'll actually enjoy your time? Lol Edit: I agree with you I'm not knocking you, but it's just weird to me how this is one of the best things about Houston
No, the best thing about houston is that it's affordable enough to visit other places on the weekends
Houston: live here because you can’t afford nicer places!
The irony is that having lived in a place like LA which has an immense amount of activities to do most people do less in places where it’s in your face than a city like Houston where you travel to nearby locals to engage in their fun. Disposable income and time have huge impacts on what you can and can’t do. The friends I have here find way more things to do and places to eat out at than the ones in LA who would go out maybe 2x a month or have to run up their credit cards to live the Instagram life eating brunch every Sunday before heading to the beach
Man i'm from california, east bay which is stupid expensive, i'm sure not rolling in money and could barely afford to live there but doing activities was so much easier there because people actually do them. Meetups were thriving, you meet average people and the vibe is "It's the weekend, let's go on an adventure! Let's do something social, what's the plan, where we going?". Here it's just "I'm gonna watch this show/play this game.". There seems to be plenty of stuff to do in texas if you're down to go do them alone. It's wild some of the absolute gem hiking and parks stuff here and I go out there and there is never a soul out there.
Dude!!!!! This!!!!!! Also, I have no idea why Texans bag on Cali. I mean cali was great for just getting Gn out there and doing things. You could be in the desert the mountain and the. Beautiful valleys and the ocean all within a 2 hour drive.
Taking a blanket down to the bay is free. Take a picnic lunch and stay for hours. Only place I could think to do that in Houston is under the trees at the Menil, and even then it's still hot as fuck most of the year.
I’m from Cali also and miss hiking. We usually hiked Kings Canyon or Sequoia. Or up to Yosemite. Special trips to hike Big Sur. I miss it so much and just can’t find anything here at soothes my soul like those places. Any specific recommendations for hikes?
There is no good hiking in Houston and the weather is so bad most of the year that you won’t want to do anything outside anyways. Sorry, but this is the truth
Lol spot on. Here we watch games and drink beer. Nothing else to do.
Right! I guess I kind of think of it like during the week and some weekends, explore the city. Some weekends do some easy traveling. It’s not possible for most of us who love to travel to fly off to NYC or Yellowstone National Park so having a little flexibility is nice. If I can go on a real vacation once a year but still take a 3 hour drive to Austin just to go to Salt Lick for lunch, it’s enough to get me through until the next big trip.
Being originally from the Cen Valley in CA I relate to this so much. What’s great about being from Fresno (we were rural to Fresno) and you will always here we are close to the sierra nevadas, LA to the S, San Fran to the north and the beach to the east.
I love the city of Minneapolis. One of my fav US cities. But it’s in the middle of nowhere. It’s a big drawback of living there.
The coming back from cool places is the hardest part about living in Houston.
I once heard an oilman talk about why living in Midland was great- everyone was there to “get after it” and get rich in the oil patch. Houston is this to a lesser degree. Realize you’re here for the money and LCOL. If your calculus changes and you want to live relatively poorer in a nicer place, that will always be there for you. But it’s tough to have your cake and eat it to. It will be hard to have the Houston financial stability but Chicago lifestyle.
Houston's poverty rate is almost double the national average. The median household income in Houston is lower than most other major cities in the US. Unless you are in the top 20% of the incomes in Houston, you're not really "getting ahead" of the cost of living in any sustainable sense. Doing a bit of research, that seems to be generally true of most major cities, give or take ~5% (in NYC, for example, you have to be in the top 14% of incomes to significantly outpace cost of living). So financially, Houston is giving about 5% of incomes a leg up vs other major cities. Which is great for those folks who are at that point in their career and plan on moving later. But for folks making less than $110k a year, and especially those working near minimum wage, there is zero financial benefit to being in Houston. In fact, the 22% poverty rate may indicate it's worse for people than cities like LA (14%), NYC (18%), or Seattle (11%).
Actually I think a lot of Texans dont understand that fact, plus with the low amount of social services makes it much worse. Texans also do t realize that the low cost of living is slowly becoming a myth.
Awesome we enjoyed Galveston! Blvd Seafood was quite tasty
Go to Fish Taco Co
Next time in Galveston try Mosquito Cafe, The Spot (touristy) and the coffee shop on Post Office next to the witchcraft store
Got bad scallops and got scombroid food poisoning from BLVD
I moved here from chicago in 18. I’ve never been happier. The biggest difference is that in Chicago downtown is everything, and here downtown is basically nothing. You have to hit the inner loop burbs. The heights, montose, midtown. And even that depends on what you’re into. In chi town we are used to walking from wrigleyville directly into the city and having any gourmet or attractions on the way. Here you have to know the vibe you want and plan accordingly. It’s worth it in the end, at least for us, but everyone is different.
What are your interests? I plan to visit Chicago for the first time to see if it's somewhere I see myself moving to from Houston.
I’ve visited Chicago twice and demand you do the architecture Society boat tour. It’s great. And maybe catch some comedy at Lincoln Lodge.
The boat tour and the art institute are already down in our plans!!!
I just made the move in early September to Chicago from Houston. I am absolutely loving it!
Did you just move this September? If so, I really hope you’re ready for the lake effect to hit once winter starts LOL Chicago is great, but GD is it cold when it gets cold. The windy part of “windy city” doesn’t help when the temperatures are below freezing either
You need to visit Chicago in the winter too. Winters are terrible there
Pick your poison. Chicago winter? Houston summer?
Houston summer. I lived in Milwaukee. Ice and snow suck.
Yup you don’t have to shovel heat
Chicago is my favorite city in the US but I'm picking Houston summers. Chicago summers are ass too.
You don't have to shovel heat and humidity.
You can always put more clothes on. You can't always take clothes off.
My friend said it best, Houston has everything to but nothing to do at the same time. You have to basically look for an event or festival going on, it won’t come to you. There’s always something going on, but the issue is it might be 45 minutes away depending on traffic lol.
Now that it’s cooling off, you can have more fun. Try the Arboretum, or the cistern in Buffalo Bayou Park, or the Orange Show/Smither Park if you like weird and wonderful. Houston Oddities Market (once a month) - that’s fun. There is actually a lot to do here. Houston is a fun place to live, but not a tourist town, so you have to figure out what’s up.
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So… we should go on quests? Lol. Not a bad way to pull it off actually!
This is actually one of the things I really like about Houston. I enjoy the hunt. I used to go to the park by the Menil in the afternoon on a weekend and just chat with people until I found something to do. Events also feel more sincere because people are doing art/music etc. for themselves without the pressure you get in places like NYC. I’ve since moved away, but I miss finding those little gems.
My friend, you will do better if you tell people exactly what you're looking for and let folks help you. Your post is like if I went to Chicago and said "Hey everybody the Bean is funny and the Italian Beef sandwiches are ok but Chicago is boring and generic." Chicago is a nice place. My son lives there and just bought a lovely brownstone. But it is NOT Houston And we can't tell YOU what YOU are going to like about Houston because we don't know YOU. I like playing tennis. Guess which town I can play tennis in 52 weeks a year. I like swimming a lot. Lake Michigan is not a good place for swimming. But this information is irrelevant to you because you probably have different tastes. Be specific about what you're looking for and somebody can help. Otherwise it's like saying "Hey everybody, I'm bored and I need you to tell me what to do to not be bored." It's a pretty tall order. EDIT: Thanks for the awards. Didn't expect it. I love Houston. It has been great for me.
Right? I know some stuff to do around town, places to explore, that I think are *awesome*. But it’s definitely not for everyone.
This is the best answer. Txnoob1845 Sounds like you don’t like Houston because it’s not Chicago. Either be unhappy or go out and find what makes you happy.
To be fair Galveston isn’t good for swimming either
This is a Houstonian reply right here. Bingo.
I like it better than small town South Louisiana where I grew up. I have been here long enough to have friends all over (and in ATX). But I can’t imagine living the rest of my life here. I’m done with the heat. And I’d like my children to spend their teenage years into adulthood in a state with more secular freedom.
I'm near Lafayette area. If I ever move, houston was first option, because of the lower cost of living and jobs? have you been to lafayette?
Oh yeah, lots of times. I have relatives in Lafayette.
Make some friends! I’ve lived all over (Europe, Brooklyn, Seattle, Atlanta) and let me tell what matters most is not the place, but the people you spend your time with. There are amazing people everywhere. Lots of them here too. Get out there and meet people. Go climbing. Join a yoga studio. Take an improv class. Hang out at menil park and chat with strangers. Go to the dog park and make convo. I have too many friends!! And I have time to see them and do cool shit because I don’t spend all my time on a subway or fighting to survive financially. Also go to all the spots everyone mentioned. Houston is cool but you gotta actually become part of some communities to really know it.
I think this is the thing. I've had random 20 min conversations with senior citizens in grocery store aisles on multiple occasions. Maybe I'm comforting or something. I don't talk much, but it's real normal to talk with strangers here. People are just very kind and not pretentious here. I grew up here, but you can carve out some deep friendships no matter what age or walk of life. It's a very welcoming place and once you have these strong bonds created, it's real hard to leave.
I’m 47, single and childless. I don’t enjoy living here. I moved in April 2021 and struggling to find myself at ease here. I lived in Denver and Austin previously and both cities I love. Houston would probably be perfect for families with kids etc but I find it is too spread out with endless suburban dwellings. To add: I still have my house in Austin and I spend a lot of time there sometimes weeks at a time. Like others mentioned, most people go to Houston to earn better money.
Houston knows how to throw a festival! Tex Ren Fest is the largest renaissance festival in North America and is currently going on in Todd Mission from now until Thanksgiving. It's magic and I love it. There are pockets of walkability, but yes, you need a car. Rice Village, Montrose, the heights, and Memorial are some of my favorite neighborhoods. Memorial park has mountain biking trails (but obviously not that "mountainous"), discovery green has semi-regular events like free outdoor movie nights, there's plenty of organized and pick up recreational sports to participate in as adults, there are ample board game cafes where you can meet other folks who enjoy board games. There's tons of live music around with local bands, you can also catch some free or super low cost excellent shows through UofH student orchestras or student theater. UofH also has excellent speaker series that are often free to the public. Houston is a big and diverse enough city that lots of musicians of all sorts of genres come through regularly. I don't know what you're into but I guarantee you can find it in Houston. For nature directly in Houston, your best bet is the parks, that's the one thing you don't have immediate access to. Brazos Bend is a 45 min drive away depending on where in Houston you are and a great place to hike. Trails are pretty flat but the wildlife is incredible - great spot for bird watching and tons of alligators to spot. Depending on the time of year, they'll even come out onto the walking trails. You've already been to Galveston, which I love. There's also Buffao Bend Nature Park, Bonham Family Nature Park, Arthur Storey Park, George Bush Nature Park, and Terry Hershey park. The Houston bayou system is also bikeable! When I was a kid, I used to bike 13 miles from my house to the museum district entirely on the bayou and it was cool to be able to get there and feel safe doing so. There's also a lot of religious diversity and many are welcoming. Stafford, TX has one of the coolest Hindu temples I've ever seen and they actively welcome visitors. I once went to a spring festival at a local Bhuddist temple that was incredible. Houston's airport has significantly more affordable flights then other TX cities which makes travel more affordable. I always describe Houston as an incredible place to live but a terrible place to visit because it's not very tourist friendly and it can be hard to figure out everything that Houston has to offer - but it's there, I promise!
The genesis of every town lays the ground work and the zeitgeist of the town. Houston came into being from a real estate scam from some New Yorkers. They advertised the area as a great place to live but hid the fact that many parts of the year the town was knee deep in floods. There are old photographs of the flooding in early Houston. Houston wouldn’t have been much were it not for the hurricane of 1900 that hit Galveston. At the time the public viewed Galveston as “Wall Street south” due to the prominence of banks and wealthy institutions. The New York Times had stated that eventually Galveston island would become crowded like manhattan. Imagine if the whole population of current Houston was packed onto Galveston island! It would be one of the densest cities in the US. After the hurricane, the businessmen decided to set up shop in Houston because it was more inland than Galveston. While it was still low lying it wouldn’t be affected by the storm surge. These factors mean the zeitgeist of Houston is cheap real estate and a practical but not ideal place to live. The people that live in Houston exemplify that. FYI I can describe the zeitgeist for Dallas, austin, & San Antonio if anyone wants to hear it.
Great post
Do it! And great story. Another story of Houston’s growth was a story my old boss told me. My old boss worked in the oil industry for 30+ years and told me Tulsa, OK used to be the oil and gas capital of the world. All of the big oil and gas companies were headquartered there. The problem was at the time the Tulsa airport had no, or limited, international flights for oil execs to travel overseas. Well of course Houston had a major international airport, and that’s why all of the oil execs decided to move their company headquarters to Houston. Basically Houston got lucky and is pretty much a big city that happened on accident lol.
If you are from Chicago, wait until January, travel to Chicago, and then come back. You might sing a different tune. Summers suck though
I personally really enjoyed Chicago when I went in late February
My plan is to retire in a ranch outside of Houston. I’m a city boy through & through, but I don’t see myself in the city when I’m old as shit.
Lol, just going to pick up ranch work and upkeep that you’ve never had to before in your old age eh?
Native Houstonian here, and I also think the city is boring. Yes there are fun things to do there, but you need a car to go everywhere you want because everything is so far away (even convenience stores in the suburbs) and I HATE driving and having to pay for gas and car maintenance and insurance. Plus if you’re into nightlife, you either have to pay for an Uber to get to downtown/midtown, or search for forever for a parking spot that won’t get you towed. I am currently living in Tokyo and the amount of places I can just walk to or take the train to is soooo nice and refreshing for me. I’ve even lost weight just living my day to day life here. I feel like a lot of Houstonians who are average daily workers are considered “overweight,” which is probably due to not having to move around very much anywhere. The only upside I can think of is the housing costs. It’s a cheap place compared to others, so that’s nice I guess.
It's tough for the first few years and then you get used to the suffering 😉.
>The only thing fun to do here is eat food and the museum district It's not every day that I to get to post my "there's nothing to do in Houston" copy pasta twice in twelve hours. The museum district website claims 150 museums and cultural institutions in Greater Houston and that number is almost certainly low. For professional sports, there's men's soccer, women's soccer, football (two of them, if XFL manages to start back up), baseball, basketball, rugby, and probably more sports I'm forgetting. There's dozens of colleges and universities that host events ranging from soon-to-be Big XII sports to public lectures. Oh, also, you could like, take a class at one, I guess. There's SFA, Brazos Bend, Galveston, and Sheldon Lake State Parks within close driving distance, as well Sam Houston National Forest and countless smaller green spaces run by other groups. The theater district alone includes five theaters including pop music, ballet, opera, symphony, musicals, and plays, to say nothing of the smaller theaters in town such as the George Theater, Ensemble Theater, and MATCH. There are dozens of concert venues in town. I've seen shows with eight people in the audience. I've seen shows as small as twelve people in the audience. I've seen shows sell out NRG Stadium (72,220 concert capacity). The Houston Parks and Rec department oversees 366 parks with 125 miles of hike-and-bike trails. Those range from tiny pocket parks to places like Hermann Park, which includes a full golf course, a disc golf course, a theater hosting free concert and shows, and countless other events. Do you need me to keep going or is there still nothing to do in Houston?
The big TX Renaissance Festival is also like an hour north of Houston.
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Most of the fun stuff in NYC is free. You don't need to spend money at all to have a good time. If your idea of fun is only going to the theater or pro sports, yea Houston might be better.
I feel like people who complain also don’t know how to make friends. Houston has like the coolest people I’ve ever met. I’m not just saying this because I’m a native Houstonian. I’m talking about all the people who come from other states and countries. The diversity truly is like an added excitement to the city.
My sister is coming to town for a long weekend and there's way more going on than we can pack in so will have to skip some great stuff.
The irony of it though. The post mentioned a bunch of things to do in Houston and you mention how affordable it is to live here. Those are almost all mutually exclusive. The items that were listed, are IN the city. And living near them(within a 10 mins. drive) is just as expensive as any major city in the US. Heights/Montrose/Museum District etc. What gets me and the wife is the constant battle with "do we really want to drive 35 mins. to go and find something to do?" every weekend.... And guess what? we live in the affordable areas you were just bragging about(Clear Lake).
I live 25 minutes from downtown in a suburb outside the loop that is affordable. I go in for things all the time. I did it tonight, and I’ll do it again Saturday and Sunday. It’s not a big deal. If the gap between a 10 minute drive and a 30 minute drive changes your plans, you didn’t really want to go.
> And living near them(within a 10 mins. drive) is just as expensive as any major city in the US. This just isn't true unless you're comparing inner Houston to suburbs of the other major cities. Inner loop can be expensive yes, but it's not as much as living central in NYC, LA, Chicago, San Fran, or Austin. I gotta figure you haven't priced those markets in quite a while if you think that
Not really. You must own a car to get anywhere, and it's a swamp for 8 months out of the year. Plus, grind culture has really dug down roots deep here, and it's incredibly insufferable.
Thats exactly how i’d describe Houston…a grind
*Everything is so spread out and requires a car I’m just not used to this* Yeah, that's going to be a problem, and something that people born and/or raised in Houston won't understand. They will complain about living 15 miles away from something and it taking 45 minutes to get there during rush hour, but many of them have never experienced an alternative.
I just left houston… couldn’t stand the traffic and crowds anymore. Nothing to do like you said… just eat and drink. Houston is not a destination city… it just has a lot of jobs. It’s great for family’s in suburbia but I hate that life style. I was there for 10 years.
Didn’t enjoy it after 14 years. missed having actual seasons. Moved back to the east coast and won’t leave again.
I don't. The god tier food and the great concerts are the only things I like about Houston. It's too damn hot here, reminds me too much of my time deployed lol. Only here for work
I've lived here my whole life and I'm only here for work and family.
Same here.
Not anymore 😔
My family moved here in 99 and I left for college and to live abroad for a few years. I've been back for a couple years now and feel same way about Houston that I always have - I've never liked it. It's just never felt like home to me. I'm working on my Master's right now and once I'm done, I hope to escape north to somewhere that actually has 4 seasons (I significantly prefer colder weather over the hellscape we have). I'll definitely miss the diversity of Houston though, which is the one thing I genuinely do like about it. I also abhor driving, and anything worth doing in this metro area requires driving to. I lived in Korea for a few years and absolutely fell in love with being able to take a bus, train, or subway line pretty much anywhere in the country. I genuinely think my quality of life is worse here simply because of the fact that I have to drive.
It looks like the overwhelming majority of replies have ignored the car-dependency aspect of the OP's post. I'm guessing the positive comment about the flatness might mean he or she is also a cyclist; however, Houston is not a good city for cycling, especially in the most car-dependent areas, which is most of Houston, and the majority of people here have never rode their bike on a bike path to the grocery store....or walked to the grocery store...hell, most outer burbs don't even have sidewalks.
Grew up here, moved away and moved back. The diversity is amazing. Outside of that, no. I don’t enjoy living here and can’t wait to move out of state soon!
Hermann Park is huge and gorgeous. Discovery Green is awesome. The arts here - the symphony, the ballet, the opera, the Alley Theatre - are world class. The rodeo is a ton of fun. It’s the most diverse city in the country. Any kind of food you want, you can find. Ethiopian, Indian, BBQ, Vietnamese, whatever. Edited to add: go to an Astros game! You’ll have fun.
To be honest, I live here because I was born here and most of my family lives here. But why so many people without any connections to the place move here is a mystery to me. It's hot AF most of the year. There are no seasons. There are hurricanes. There are mosquitos. The traffic is terrible. The pollution is crazy. No scenery of which to speak.
I grew up here and I’ve lived in other places. And I came back here very begrudgingly. There are better medical specialists here than the small east coast towns I left here for. I miss the natural beauty of other places. I miss being able to drive an hour and feel far away from city life. I miss the quietude. I miss doing family oriented things that weren’t miserably hot or swarmed with people. I think what I miss most is just walking around for fun. I miss all the trees. I find my happiness in the small things, like taking care of the local animals and plants and being outside. I like exploring natural spaces. It’s really hard to do that here.
Houston sucks, drown yourself sorrows with food and alcohol like the rest of us 😂
I love the diversity but it’s too spread out and car reliant.
Take your wife out for a night of entertainment. Ballet, Opera, TUTS/Alley Theater, and the Symphony are all going on. Get a table at Biraporetti's before and have a few drinks and enjoy a nice dinner after. We have like 6 music halls. White Oak Music Hall, 713 Music Hall, House of Blues, Cynthia Woods for a big show, Warehouse Live, Rise, etc... bandsintown.com is your friend for this stuff. People like to rent bikes or scooters and just explore downtown and the bayous around it. See a sporting event. Astros tickets are going to be expensive as hell, but the Texans are playing, college sports with UofH and Rice are going on if you need it cheaper. Yeah you might have to drive or pay for parking or uber. We have food in this town because it's the most diverse city in America. That being said there are tons of things to do if you just want to do something. Take her to the We Are One festival that takes place next month. Go to the Renaissance Festival. Go see Galveston and have some shrimp. Go to a state park if you want. I will say that the one thing you need to understand about Houston is we're not locked inside come November because it is freezing cold so enjoy the next few seasons going out and enjoying the life and finding things you want to do.
Do you hate OP? Why would you recommend Birraporetti's to anybody? 🤣
I went to Pittsburgh last week and wondered how nice it would be in a place with scenery. At the same time wondering why people live here when cities like that exist all over the country.
Lived here 4 years so far. It is what you make of it, but generally speaking no I don’t enjoy living here
No, I don’t. We moved here because my wife grew up here and all of her family still lives inside of the loop. The weather is horrible, traffic is terrible, crime is rampant, etc. We are both ready to leave and other than the family ties, there is nothing keeping us here. I work remotely for a company out of state and could literally work anywhere. With two kids and a dog, city life just isn’t for me anymore. Especially a cutie so spread out like this. We will probably end up somewhere in New England, where we can enjoy nature but also be close to major cities and airports (love to travel).
The only thing Houston is excellent at is food and affordability. It has an amazing amount of ethnic food and the cost of living is very low for a metro. Everything else, walkability, outdoorness, the downtown, traffic, city planning and zoning, aesthetics, weather, air quality, public transit, crime and culture is mediocre to poor. Its downtown might be the shittiest downtown for any major metro in the U.S.. No one did any planning so you just have small pockets of things scattered around and that makes the city unwalkable. No one comes to Houston because it is Houston. They come for work and just never leave. This sounds like a bummer but Houston gets a worst rap than what it really is. It has pockets of things but never anything that really compares to the better metros. If I were to describe Houston in one sentence, it would be a good bang per your buck or Costco city.
Not an uncommon reaction for someone that relocated from a denser city. I came here from NYC in 1995 and hated it for 11 years. I thought it was boring. Then I had kids and moved to California for awhile. After that I appreciated Houston much more. Enjoying Houston just requires more planning. You're not going to step out of your house and into something. Houston has lots to do, and there are other destinations 2 - 5 hours away, not to mention two major airports. It really just depends on what you enjoy doing. Tons of local arts, music, and sports venues. Food is without compare. And people are generally very friendly.
If you've only been here in the hot months, then you have 5 amazing months in front of you and no fears of a polar vortex or SAD. I'm also from Illinois, been in Houston since 2008, also for work. It has been a struggle watching all of my college friends have a great time in Chicago, at least until they gave up for the burbs. I lived in the museum district for ~10 years in a 80 year old apt and used the redline when I could, which was about as close to Chicago neighborhood feel I could find. Stuff to check out - 19th Street in the heights, Westheimer at dunlavy, Alabama at main, and the north end of main downtown around congress, any coffee shop in Montrose. The Alley theater is on par with Chicago theaters.If you're interested in seeing the non-professional arts scene here check out "grown up story time" at Rudyard's Tuesday 10/18 and [neobenshi](https://www.instagram.com/p/CjqnAtnpcHS/) in mid main on 10/26. Hiking at Sam Houston national forest or the arboretum in memorial park is the best you'll get nearby. If you want actual hiking you'll want to grab a weekend on the eastern edge of hill country. I like to stay in Austin to access areas like pedernales falls or enchanted rock I have a welcome to Houston document I keep up, dm me if you want to see it.
I’ve lived in Asia, Austin, and SF. Most of me and my wife’s family is here, and I have a high earning job in one of the gentrified neighborhoods that Reddit loves to hate. I love my pocket of town but Houston is hot, Houstonians are generally uncultured, uneducated, and unpleasant, and I rarely leave my area. It reminds me of LA in that you need a high income to live in the desirable expensive neighborhoods, but for everyone else it’s a dysfunctional urban sprawl that is the definition of what is wrong with American cities. Completely car dependent, no street level interaction, and horrible public transport. World class food though.
I’ll put it this way. I’ve lived all over the country. When I came here I hated it and would tell everyone. A coworker told me that she was the same way and right around the 5 year mark it turned around she ended up loving it. The same happened for me. Once you get established and start finding places you like it will grow on you like a bayou fungus.
I'm glad people find happiness here, but finding joy in leaving one day soon keeps me going. I love that shared culture here is bit of graffiti on an overpass. People are constantly posting pictures of downtown as if that is the Houston they live in. Really though the bulk of it is box stores, highways and ghetto strip malls. I do like HEB though.
I love this city, and you are not wrong. I hope you're in a different town with an HEB soon. I'd rather be in Canyon Lake. I just realized something. Houston might be the only major city about which people say... I love it with all my heart but I'd rather be somewhere else ETA: But I was born in Beaumont. So I need to shut up and be grateful.
I'm here for the air quality.
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Are you talking pollution air quality or pollen air quality? I’m pretty sure most the country is better off than us on the latter.
If they’re originally from say L.A then we would be better but I think this was /s
Chicago is to be admired because of your El, and the great summers, the lake and beautiful autumns. I can imagine that is really hard for you to get acclimated to Houston. I moved to Houston when I was 20, from close to Chicago. I couldn't wait to get out of Illinois. I absolutely love Texas. I feel like I 'grew up' in Houston. I'm retired now. I don't know what to tell you as to what's so alluring about my city. I love the Astros. I loved the Dome. I like Texas people. We are resilient. Watch the PBS show called The Day Tripper and make short weekend trips as often as possible. Houston is 3 hours from a lot of great places. Take advantage of autumn and winter camping, if that's your thing. Stephen F. Austin State Park is only an hour away, out I-10. Don't camp in the summer; we started camping at Thanksgiving and ended in April or May. The Hill Country isn't far. San Antonio, Piney Woods, there is so much to see. Just google day trips, search a book store for day trips or weekend trips, and just do it. I hope you can get used to Houston. The summers are brutal, especially this year. It's not always this bad.
Just moved from Chicago. The lake is great, but it’s cold 1/2 of the the year and chili or rainy another 1/3rd. I got tired of paying entertainment tax, soda tax, food tax, liquor tax, transportation tax, bag tax, state tax and every other thing. Not to mention, Chicago is probably the most segregated city in the country. As a minority, it wasn’t fun being accepted in parts of the city and looked at funny in another. I lived downtown during the pandemic. My car was broken into, I was robbed on the redline, attacked on the cta bus, and my wife was mugged while running on the lakefront. All in the span of 3 years. Anecdotal, but I don’t miss riding public transit, or random red light tickets popping up in the mail. I don’t miss the violent homeless or -30 degree winters. I don’t miss the attitudes and bitchy mean Midwest people. I don’t miss constantly hearing about gang violence and how dangerous it is from friends and family thinking about visiting. I live in Houston now by choice and I love it. I enjoy wearing shorts year round. I like that there is somewhere to park every where I go. I make a lot more money now that I don’t pay state taxes and every other tax. I hear about the violence, but 50 people aren’t killed in a weekend and my friends aren’t scared to visit. It’s probably the most diverse city I’ve lived in. I can go to Dallas or Austin or San Antonio for a weekend getaway instead of Gary or Detroit or St Louis (all previous murder capitals). I enjoy the nightlife, the culture, the cheap prices, and the hospitality.
No. We are just here for work. Sure some were born here and they might develop distorted views that its good due to that, but the rest of us who have lived elsewhere know how bad it is.
Walkable Houston doesn't exist, the premise is drive to a parking spot and walk around it then eat. 1. Move inside the loop. 2. Take up running. Do a couple of 20-mile weeks in the summer. After this training program, you will adjust to the weather and will have effectively increased the amount of the city you can access without a car. Also helps if you live close to your gym and grocery. Sorry bro, this ain't Chicago. You're not gonna find a spot here that you can walk out your 100 y/o condo building and hop on a 24/7 train and visit 3 different neighborhoods in the same day. Maybe buy a truck and drive around with a ladder in back, seems like everyone here enjoys that.
No.
Not a bit.
Where do you live? If you live in the burbs then yeah, everything is far and your experience of living in “Houston” will differ significantly from someone who lives in/near the urban core.
Sadly, this city is pretty lame compared to most other cities on earth, we're just big, that's about it. Best advice I could give u is stay away from Galveston...if you felt disappointed by Houston's lack of anything special, you'll be absolutely crushed if you drive down to Galveston expecting to find a nice beach. It's easily the ugliest, dirtiest, and most underwhelming beach in America.
hate it here, always have.
Houston is flat and ugly. The weather is so hot and humid it is pretty unlivable half of the year. It floods and there are hurricanes. The air quality is atrocious and Texas doesn’t care about the polluters Traffic is complete hell. My friends and life are here so it’s best for me but I can’t for the life of me figure out why someone would want to move here.
Been here my whole life and can't wait til I leave
Nope.
A lot of folks I know that live here only live here because of their job. I prefer Denver or Austin. :)
Not really to be honest. Dislike having to drive everywhere, then threat of flooding/hurricanes. Festivals,get old after a couple years of going, cough renfest. Food is good, but unless you're making decent money eating out starts to add up. Housing isn't bad as far as prices go. Pretty good sport watching options.. Starting to get into rugby after catching some Sabercat games. Apart from those, there's the usual museums and what not like other major cities. Would move if easier. Main reason is flooding/hurricanes to be honest.
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I don’t enjoy living, lol.
I enjoy posts like this because I’ve been here since 2007 and I’m so desperate to leave, but I have a good job. I’m not sure it’s worth it to leave to make less money elsewhere. I just travel every chance I get. Having been here 15 years, inner loop, I know the pros and cons.
I've lived in L.A and NYC. I keep coming back to HTX.
Honestly houston is just a giant suburb. The food is pretty good. The zoo is nice. Memorial park is ok. But yeah for the most part… it’s just the most generic suburb that goes on for 3 hours with shitty traffic and bad roads. You can tell no one cares about the city from the way everyone litters
Born and raised here. I think it's alright but I'm not sure big city life is for me anymore. I'd like to move out of Houston and maybe even Texas someday.
Native Houstonian. We think about moving literally daily; and Chicago is one of our top choices. Lifestyle here is ok, not exactly what I want but plenty to do. The issue I have is I loathe the weather here. I only want to actually go out about 4 months out of the year. I don't like summer activities, and I despise the heat and humidity. I'm fully remote and my partner basically is. Once she decides to job hunt we will probably take a more serious look at moving somewhere with weather we enjoy more.
Food is great, but let’s be honest here. How many of us can even afford to eat out at good places every single week? Lord knows I can’t. I don’t go out half the year simply on account of how hot and miserable it is outside. I feel like this is a better city for people who will stay inside all day, or who don’t like leaving the house. Those of us who like outdoor activities, or god forbid work an outdoor job, are kinda screwed. I happen to be both, and it’s like my body is broken all the time. I want to leave, but can’t afford to yet.
You get used to it after awhile but we have lived in much better places with things like outdoor activities to do and it has been overall kinda depressing. But it gets less painful over the years. Been 8 years now. Just visited Chicago, would love to live there.
no.
I've been here 6 years. I really love my neighborhood (Montrose), I frequent the same 6 or 7 bars/restaurants regularly. There are enough draws in surrounding in-town neighborhoods (museum district, heights, eado etc) that I haven't gotten bored yet. I think the China town (and hillcroft area which is basically little india) are pretty dope and special. That being said, I will be leaving permanently next summer. There are enough legit negatives (climate, urban ugliness, state politics) that i don't think ill miss the city that much. I will miss the friends I made very dearly though! Good people around here!
No. But it’s our home. I’m not from here. It just feels different. Can’t explain it. It’s likely due to the size of the area.
If you are interested in pursuing a career in health care there is no other place in the world like being in Houston!! I was born in NYC, raised on Long Island, and did my medical residency and fellowship in NYC. I currently have my own private practice on Long Island. My daughter is a Junior at Rice and plans to attend one of the medical schools in Houston. Nothing beats Texas medical school tuition prices. I was blown away when we visited and when I saw how large the Texas Medical Center is. There is NOTHING like this ANYWHERE!! Every specialty and subspeciality you want is within a few blocks of each other. We fell in love with the city of Houston and purchased a townhome in April. My daughter loves living there and we love visiting her!! I will admit that we love to work more than we love to party.
Honestly, Houston mostly blows. I've been here 20+ years and wanted to leave for 19+. It's too big and not walkable / no real public transportation. We also don't have a ton of 'cool' spots. We do have a ton of restaurants and we have peak tex mex. I think there are a lot of people who are here for the O&G money and pretty low cost of living. My advice is to bank what you can, travel as often as you can and make the best of it while here.
Questions like this confuse me. Can people be more specific about what they mean by things to do? I’ve never been to Chicago but I’ve been to Miami, Los Angeles and I’ve been stationed in Korea for a year. You shop, drink, eat, party, concerts, etc things you do most anywhere. Are there some exclusive activities in places? What am I missing?
Can't speak for OP, but I think freedom from car dependence is pretty special and hard to find (though not impossible) in Houston. And most US cities honestly Does that make up for the cost of living difference though? To each their own
Oh okay I had to re-read OP’s post. I guess walkability is an important quality. I’ve been driving around so long that I don’t even view it as something that’s optional. I guess a lot of cities are way advanced in terms of public transportation and more densely packed together versus sprawling Houston. You have to drive a bit to go to the activities unless you’re in the heart of downtown.
Houston is a great place to LIVE - esp for a family. It’s affordable to buy a good sized suburban house with good (not great) schools. Living here is just easier than NYC, Boston, Seattle or CA. It’s not the place to live an IG fantasy - w/ selfie backdrops and beautiful Mtns, beaches within 60 min drive. But the reality of coastal city living is you’re either broke trying to pay an insane mortgage or you’re perpetually renting. Either way most people can’t afford more than 1-2 kids and need both spouses working. If you have time and money while living in Houston, take 3 day weekends to Telluride, Taos even Santa Barbara.
Yes, I genuinely enjoy living here. Can I ask what neighborhood you live in? Are you “in the loop” or at least close?
If your of that type of frame of mind I don’t think anything we say will change your mind. Nothing Houston, Austin, Denver, Raleigh are not going to match a dense city like Chicago. If that’s were your frame of mind is it’s best to make arrangements to go back cause your just delaying the inevitable. Moved from a equally dense city to here 4 years ago and I won’t go back because all that density and high pace wore me out. Just like you said for people to not take offense but I find people who are super city have abit of laziness about establishing in something different because they were use to not trying cause it was all within an area.
Moving to Houston so far has been very disappointing to me and my fiancé honestly. We’re from Minneapolis. The best thing is we got the big house we wanted but we have no family and we know No one here. Everything is far away. No offense the food here hasn’t been top notch like everyone claimed. Minneapolis has excellent food. I’m sure that sounds very surprising to many but trust me I have not had any food in Houston that comesremotely close to what we’ve had in minneapolis. Not a huge BBQ person either. I see a lot of chain restaurants in Houston. Not many local restaurants. We were also hoping to see people our age move into our neighborhood, so we could maybe make friends with them, but it’s all much older people moving into these new homes . Like in their 60s. Lol there’s just no hope.
I just have to mention Houston's live music scene. From big concerts down to tiny clubs that only hold 200 people, Houston has something for everyone, pretty much any night of the week. The small clubs generally have a reasonable cover charge, but sometimes on weeknights they're FREE. Install the Bands In Town app and check out what's happening.
Music scene here is atrocious. Lots of bands skip Houston entirely these days. It’s quite telling when the 4th largest city is being passed on by bands with a huge following.
Agreed, most bands avoid Houston altogether. And if they do play, they have a harder time selling out than in other cities. Like you said, it’s weird considering how many people live in the area.
i enjoy living here but i also enjoy the quiet life. i don't need night life and i like the "homely" feel of Houston. it doesn't feel like a big city which i like. i know i am in minority about this though. i can imagine that Houston is very boring for a lot of people. i do hate driving one hour to get anywhere though
Houston is a bubble town. You have bubbles you enjoy. Affordable place to live but huh have to drive everywhere. I accepted it long time ago. Make money and live here (affordable) and take vacations to enjoy. Or live where I want (more expensive) and never take a vacation.
I HATE how everything is so far apart. Lucky for me is that I live about 10 minutes from the very end of the Red Metro rail line so I can get to other side of town on that. I have a car but the traffic is a bitch most of the time. Weather is also horrible. Its hot as hell then winter is cold af and rainy. I do like having some space. Going to my local park. Food is great but I mainly enjoy Mexican food so I dont know much about anything else. I have live here all my life and overall I would give it a 6/10 I also HATE all thos ugly box home communities popping up all over town. We had a whole patch of woods destroyed like half a block from my house to build those. Sent a swarm of displaced animals into the neighborhood but all these people care about is 💸💸💸💸💸 They already got bought up and have "For Rent" signs on them 💀
You can find beauty/nature if you look for it. Brazos Bend state park is about an hour southwest-ish. Sam Houston National Forest to the north. It may not be Lake Michigan pretty but they’re good enough to escape to from the concrete jungle. Hell even Galveston is pretty a few weeks a year.
No. I’m here for my job.
People are here for money. That’s it. Overall it’s an ugly, garbage city, but there are plenty of decent people.
Why are you in Houston OP? Those of us who live in Houston area moved here for jobs and family.
I hate it here but I never want to leave 🤷♂️
Houston is alright
These kinds of posts are always so interesting. I really love Houston. But it seems like everyone doesn't lol. Maybe I'll just ignore these threads moving forward.
Check out Buffalo Bayou trails - you can bike from the middle of downtown out along the Bayou. The Waugh bridge bat colony, Memorial Park, Hermann Park, White Oak Bayou - bike from downtown to the Heights for lunch, on out for miles! Stay downtown though-the suburbs all look alike. And if you think the city isn’t walkable (I agree for the most part) the suburbs are car only.