Houston Opponauts, sell me on your city

"MonkeePuzzle" (monkeypuzzle) 02/19/2016 at 14:08 • Filed to: None

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I’ve had a job offer in Houston, what about the city is attractive?

Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras > MonkeePuzzle 02/19/2016 at 14:16

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no income tax

-guy who has always liked that idea

EL_ULY > MonkeePuzzle 02/19/2016 at 14:17

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A job!

Cost of living

The beach

Rad cars

REAL Mexican food

Fuel prices

Nice climate

Parks/Nature

Theater/Arts/Museums

NASA

Yummy food, LOTS!!!

Me :]

Cheap property

No state tax

Sports

Music

and more as time goes on and the city continues to grow more and more!

Gone > MonkeePuzzle 02/19/2016 at 14:18

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Pros:

Cost living might be cheaper depending on where you’re coming from.

Suburb life is pretty cheap overall.

MSR and karting.

Green spaces and park areas.

Cons:

Crime in the city is high as are city housing prices.

Suburb life can make commuting a nightmare.

Traffic sucks.

Not as much auto-x/TT guys as DFW.

Heat/humidity

It honestly depends on where you work and can afford to live. And if you have kids. More info will make big diff if I’d recommend or not. I think it outright sucks compared to Austin and DFW.

deekster_caddy > MonkeePuzzle 02/19/2016 at 14:19

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Here’s two things that would drive me not to live anywhere down south:

- Endless summer

- No winter

But for some people, that’s a thing they want! Not for me. I can’t stand the hot weather.

Azrek > MonkeePuzzle 02/19/2016 at 14:21

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My best friend and his family live there. His wife’s allergies were so bad she had to carry an e-pen. They are looking to leave.

Infrastructure is weak or poorly designed.

The Indy Car race was canceled there...forever...because of heat and lack of attendance.

I was never impressed whenever I visited....good luck!

TractorPillow > EL_ULY 02/19/2016 at 14:31

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Agree with all but climate! Holy crap, it's sooo humid and hot.

Matt Nichelson > deekster_caddy 02/19/2016 at 14:31

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I can’t stand the heat and I was born, raised, and still live in in the south. We have the potential for tornadoes year-round. That part does at least keep me interested since I do some storm chasing.

deekster_caddy > Matt Nichelson 02/19/2016 at 15:08

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That I would find exciting, at least. Tornado chasing. Yeah, that sounds like a great time!

MonkeePuzzle > Azrek 02/19/2016 at 15:10

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SOLD! wow

MonkeePuzzle > Matt Nichelson 02/19/2016 at 15:11

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I was born and raised in the tropics of Australia, and I hate the heat now too. Been in Colorado too long.

MonkeePuzzle > EL_ULY 02/19/2016 at 15:12

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I did enjoy my visit last time, I checked out all the Nasa.

EL_ULY > MonkeePuzzle 02/19/2016 at 15:20

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Houston may not have that cool hip trendy lifestyle of Austin, but when there is work to be done and money to be earned, Houston is the only place in the US to do that.

MonkeePuzzle > EL_ULY 02/19/2016 at 15:21

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and its not really an option, I can move to Houston and take the job, or I can stay in Colorado.

Its in oil... which has some pretty high unemployment these days

TheRealBicycleBuck > MonkeePuzzle 02/19/2016 at 15:21

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One thing you have to understand is that the people from Dallas, Austin, and Houston are all fundamentally different. I’m going to throw out some generalizations here, but every generalization has a grain of truth.

Dallas folk are more business-focused and “success” oriented. Think of it like a little piece of Manhattan took a road trip, stopped in Dallas, and never left. A friend of mine, resident of Dallas for several years, put it this way: “when you go into a bar in Dallas, everyone’s keys are sitting on the tables so that they can display their key fobs. No fancy car, no luck with the ladies, so I left.”

Austin is a little slice of California dumped into the middle of Texas. Their unofficial motto is “Keep Austin Weird.” You will find more Birkenstocks and granola there than in the rest of the state combined. I have several friends who still live there and still complain about how “earthy” it is.

Houston is more “down home” and Southern than the other metropolitan areas. The people are more conservative than in Austin, less success-oriented than in Dallas. The food is fantastic. The traffic can be awful (although you may find yourself in bumper-to-bumper traffic doing 80 in a 60). The weather is almost as hot and humid as Louisiana. I have several friends who say Houston and Atlanta are very similar, both in climate and in temperament.

MonkeePuzzle > TheRealBicycleBuck 02/19/2016 at 15:22

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I used to live in Atlanta, a city I truly love!’

thanks for the long reply

EL_ULY > MonkeePuzzle 02/19/2016 at 15:23

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My dad does commercial A/C here. In 2015, his company alone did 15 new HUGE!!! warehouses in town for oil (pipes, pumps, etc.). Impressive since there are already sooo many of them up and running now and more to come despite the industry being low right now. I feel a surge coming soon for the oil field.

Short-throw Granny Shifter is 2 #blessed 2b stressed > MonkeePuzzle 02/19/2016 at 15:24

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I spent a couple months there on business trips so here is my outsider perspective: The arts, food, and car culture is great. For real, possibly the best food city in America, and home to some world class museums. Downtown is really cool too. You really feel like the city is growing and revitalizing itself around you. Its a great place to be young and have money, and later to raise a family. It’s also the place to be if you work in the energy sector.

However, I was offered a transfer to Houston and I turned it down. The monotony of the traffic and commuter culture is unbearable. Suburbs are cheap but living in the city, the housing costs are nearly as high as any of the great cities in the Northeast. The urban sprawl is crazy, there isn’t really many places in Houston that are more dense than where i live in suburban NJ, which makes it a nightmare to get anywhere if there is traffic. Lastly, I really can’t stand the heat.

MonkeePuzzle > EL_ULY 02/19/2016 at 15:25

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*fingers crossed*

a Houston opponaut with connection to the A/C industry, I’ll keep that written down somewhere! make it like winter in my house with some industrial A/C!

MonkeePuzzle > Short-throw Granny Shifter is 2 #blessed 2b stressed 02/19/2016 at 15:27

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I’m in oil, so it certainly the place to be. And best I can tell the office is out of the city, so commuting doesnt sound so bad. Its good to hear its got some culture, folks have been telling me the exact opposite, but I think its a perception of folks who havent been there.

EL_ULY > MonkeePuzzle 02/19/2016 at 15:28

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lol, my dad hooked it up with a 6 ton York commercial unit and handler. Not the most efficient set up but pretty much my own private piece of Antarctica :]

Short-throw Granny Shifter is 2 #blessed 2b stressed > MonkeePuzzle 02/19/2016 at 15:37

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The culture is what surprised me the most. I should have known better though. The city doesn’t have the history or pedigree of say, Philadelphia or Boston, but with the amount of oil money coming in, and the young professional people along with it, they’ve put together a really vibrant arts scenes. Music, craft beer, food especially, all that good “hipster” stuff.

I’m also in the Oil industry btw. I know there are a lot of us engineers on here but its cool to see another petrochemical guy.

MonkeePuzzle > Short-throw Granny Shifter is 2 #blessed 2b stressed 02/19/2016 at 15:40

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cars and oil, we go hand in hand :D

TheRealBicycleBuck > MonkeePuzzle 02/19/2016 at 15:45

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Like others have posted, the food there is FANTASTIC. It is truly a multicultural town, so any kind of cuisine you want can be found somewhere in town.

As for culture, let’s let the experts tell you about it:

http://www.thecultureist.com/2013/01/07/thi…

http://www.visithoustontexas.com/about-houston/

There’s easy access to Galveston (which also has it’s own version of Mardis Gras), NASA is nearby, there’s Galveston Bay for excellent fishing or boating (there are also lakes if you don’t like brackish water), there are planned communities and eclectic communities, and dangit, now I’m really missing home.....

The biggest downside for us was the sprawl and traffic. It took my wife an hour and fifteen minutes to get to work every day - a 35 mile drive. I was going 80 miles in the other direction and it took the same amount of time. Now my commute is usually less than half an hour due to living closer to town (Baton Rouge), less traffic, and time-shifting my work hours. It provides me more time to spend with my kids, which is really important to me (gotta get the time in before they turn into teenagers with attitude).

If the office is outside of town and you get a place closer into town, then you will avoid much of the traffic. There are a lot of new places coming up around I-10 between Houston and Katy, and along 290 between Houston and Cypress. As long as you don’t live further out and travel toward Houston during rush hour, you should be fine.

Matt Nichelson > deekster_caddy 02/19/2016 at 15:48

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It’s very exciting, but also very stressful. One wrong turn and you become another statistic. Definitely not for the faint of heart.

Matt Nichelson > MonkeePuzzle 02/19/2016 at 15:50

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That makes sense. You never really get used to the climate down here, you just find a way to tolerate it. Like Houston, we have a lot of humidity in south Mississippi. If there was less of it, maybe it would not be so bad.

Brian Silvestro > MonkeePuzzle 02/19/2016 at 16:03

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MSR Houston has a great membership package that’s really cheap.

MonkeePuzzle > TheRealBicycleBuck 02/19/2016 at 16:04

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I’m told it’s pretty near Katy.

TheRealBicycleBuck > MonkeePuzzle 02/19/2016 at 16:14

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There are a lot of planned communities out that direction (Cinco Ranch comes to mind). The area along Hwy 6 between I-10 and 290 can be a bit rough. Also watch out for low-lying areas. We experienced the floods first-hand when Tropical Storm Allison stopped by. Make sure you check the dFIRM floodplain maps before you buy anything in the area. https://msc.fema.gov/portal/search

MonkeePuzzle > TheRealBicycleBuck 02/19/2016 at 16:27

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good to know. if I take the job I’ll likely be asking folks to recommend places to live, hard to pick a part of town on a 3 day house hunting expedition.

Stef Schrader > MonkeePuzzle 02/19/2016 at 16:54

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MSR-Houston is pretty rad. Take plenty of mosquito spray and give up on ever having straight, non-frizzy hair again, though.

MonkeePuzzle > Stef Schrader 02/19/2016 at 16:57

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oooo, mozzies! yay #zikavirus

bubblestheturtle > MonkeePuzzle 02/19/2016 at 18:24

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It’s humid as hell. Not as humid as Corpus Christi or Vietnam, but close. Don’t go. If you are in the oil biz and out of downtown, you will most likely be out West in the Energy Corridor (unless Anadarko). Live East of that an you should be good on traffic.