You're Wrong About Houston and Here's Why
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- Опубликовано: 9 май 2024
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Houston gets a pretty bad rap for bad walkability, bad bikability, poor transit, and car dependence. Is this fair, though? If you haven't been to Houston recently, especially the inner loop, and if you don't know what's going on in the November 2023 election -- well, you should watch!
Thanks as always to Dwellsy for the data! dwellsy.com/
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Previous CityNerd Videos Referenced:
- The 10 most urbanist MLS stadiums! • The Most Urbanist Socc...
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Resources:
- Read up on Proposition B, Fair For Houston: www.fairforhouston.com/
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enhypen
- www.segregationbydesign.com/h...
- www.segregationbydesign.com/s...
- www.h-gac.com/about
- www.h-gac.com/board-of-direct...
- www.axios.com/local/houston/2...
- www.houstonchronicle.com/news...
- www.houston.org/news/houston-...
- www.governing.com/community/h...
- houston.culturemap.com/news/c...
- www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-...
- kinder.rice.edu/urbanedge/not...
- www.npr.org/sections/itsallpo...
- www.star-telegram.com/detour/...
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I may have read another comment under this video
I don't see how a ddos attack against your IP address on public Wi-Fi is anything anyone should worry about
My standalone "Comment failed to post" --- you rigged it!
Do you get paid more for prefacing the ad read with that?
Done. Was looking to sign up anyways. Also, lived in downtown Houston before. Not as bad as its burbs. In Valencia, Spain right now. Can't ever go to Houston again lol.
City planners in America be like: "We need to make our cities more convenient for all the people who refuse to live here, rarely visit, and regularly cheer online for cities to go bankrupt."
You literally just described how the mainstream political right views California and the mainstream political left views Florida.
@@crowmob-yo6ryI don’t want Florida to go belly up, it’s going to if they don’t elect a competent government that isn’t shadow punch “wokeness” but that doesn’t mean I want that to happen.
@@cooper8357trust me, as someone who lived their entire life in Orlando up until 4 months ago, you are the exception to the rule. So many American neoliberals have this weird obsession with wanting Florida to get destroyed by hurricanes or having it secede without putting even a fraction of a second of thought into the long history of political disenfranchisement of minorities in the south. One can only see the "bugs bunny sawing Florida off the map" gif on Twitter so many times before forming a lifelong disdain for coastal yuppies who have never spent any significant amount of time in the place they cast off as worthless.
It’s like America wants to split into union and confederacy again…
More like : inner city residents vs the heinous requirements of suburbanites
As a Houstonian, I think this is a very accurate assessment of our city. I nominate "Not as bad as you were expecting city" as our new moniker.
Kansas City is there too ngl, everything south of the river is where you don't really need and in some cases want a car.
Glhf driving in westport
Houston, is in fact, less dense than the entire island of Java. Java is larger than New Mexico.
Java is more populous than Russia.
@@catabakies69java is number one population in the world! Java Strong 💪 💯 🥇
The big problem is the humidity, dont visit in the summer
Houston has two seasons: hot (June to September) and not hot (October through May). Hot is pretty awful. Those that can leave do so.
My main coping tool was leaving for a week halfway through summer (last week of July) for someplace cooler, usually Colorado or New Mexico.
Not hot is pretty nice. Definitely the time to visit. This video shoot was well timed-sounded like October. Wouldn’t want to bike during hot season.
I live in Houston and joke with people, "I don't leave the inner loop", but it's pretty accurate. This video does well to portray the nice pockets, but once you get outside the 610 beltway, it's a whole lot of suburban sprawl, parking lots, chain restaurants, and big-box stores.
I agree with everything except the chain restaurants thing. Yes, they exist, but in general, the only inner loop neighborhood that comes anywhere close to a dozen or so outer loop neighborhoods when it comes to authentic food is the (far) East End.
Agreed. It is much better inside the Loop.
Outside the Loop has way more mom-and-pop / international eating places and retail than inside the Loop.
@@stevenspillette148 i wouldn't try to quantify it (i don't have the data or the time), but the situation is definitely a changing one. the suburbs used to be a "white flight" situation, but the cultural diaspora has followed people (and cheap land) to the suburbs in the last few decades and there's a lot more variety in the suburbs now. there's definitely more chain restaurants in the suburbs than the city for the same reasons, but it doesn't exclude the interesting (imho) mom-and-pop cultural variety.
20:12 we have lived just outside the loop for over 3” years and raising our children in this wonderfully diverse area of Houston has been a definite positive. As well I am a 30+ year bike commuter in the city and yes there are still issues with the dance between car traffic and cyclists/pedestrians but I feel that the city is actively trying to continue growing a workable infrastructure for bikes and walker/runners. Thank you for a well balanced article on our lovely city.
So glad to see a RUclipsr highlight all the things my hometown has done over the last several years to become more pedestrian-friendly. I’ve never particularly cared for other channel’s perspectives, mainly because they seem to focus on the suburban areas rather than Houston proper. We Houstonians are well aware of our car-obsessed reputation and many of us are ready to change it. Keep up the great work!
P.S.: MKT stands for Missouri-Kansas-Texas railroad. It’s how the suburb of Katy got it’s name, and they keep a rail car in their historic downtown district
Haha, I feel so dumb for not having done the minimal amount of research it would've taken to decode M-K-T. On your other point -- yeah, you can dunk on ANY US city if you only visit its suburbs. I'd rather focus on the parts of a city that someone who cares about urbanism would actually consider living in, and that's almost always close-in neighborhoods in the city proper. I'm a huge NJB fan and he actually does make some fair points about the city itself if you watch his video all the way through. But I really wanted to give a different perspective!
Seriously! It's like the internets have had it out for the H for the last year or two. Always talking bad about it.
Dallas has also converted a section of the MKT into a rail-to-trail coursing through the inner city - the Katy Trail
Right! I’ve never been to Houston myself, but as soon as I heard that designation, I instantly knew what it was.
Two things can be true. Shocker I know. Houston is doing a lot on moving away from cars, and they still have a whole lot more to do, with likely, many unknown unknowns (to steal a phrase from Don Rumsfeld), but doing things makes you better at execution, as shown by their successes in reducing homelessness with a successful, if imperfect implementation of Housing First. @@CityNerd
Completely agree on your comment that one of the better ways for our society to reduce racism is just having people from various backgrounds doing day to day activities with each other.
True, but the people that need this the most, and whose opinion actually matters to Harris County or the DoT are hunkered down in their McMansions 45 minutes away in the suburbs, and anything that mildly inconveniences them driving their obnoxious pickups to the ball game is a personal attack on their freedom.
Exactly. Bringing people together (not dividing then) makes race irrelevant. We need more people from different backgrounds living in harmony like that.
So why does the left want to segregate & cause division between races?
This is one of the reasons third places are so important: because they make this natural.
This is generally true, but it will backfire if individuals representing a certain group universally display the worst stereotypes of that group. I'm speaking from personal experience.
Really satisfying to watch this video as a person who is working really hard to improve street safety and who doesn't own a car in Houston. Thank you.
As a European this video gave me a major stroke but I'm happy you're happy lol
Keep up the good fight!
I'm actually pretty impressed I imagined Houston being much worse they seem pretty progressive w those bike lanes
@@trapmuzik6708 the city itself is of course "progressive" its a city. Thoes bike lanes are godawful and not safe, but again, I guess it's better than nothing. Still, shouldn't give you a good imagine of the city at all because that's not at all what 99% of people living there experience.
@@trapmuzik6708keep in mind that this video covers the small part of Houston that has alright urbansim. The rest is car hell. Also this is the fourth largest metro area in America
CN's ability to find silver linings and positive things to say is incredible. This video isn't sugarcoating Houston, it's showing what viewers might be interested in if we ever visit (read: actual useful info for the people who actually watch his videos). Another banger from the best urbanist youtube channel.
Yeah, it's actually not that easy to make these. I kinda want them to be urbanism travelogues, but I also want to have a strong narrative about what makes the city different, what the issues they're facing are, etc. It's hard to try to do both!
Nuance
Did you cover Houston’s roaches and humidity?
@@CityNerdyou did an amazing job
Thank you so much for covering Houston and giving it a fair assesment. It is an agressivley car oriented city no doubt , but it has so much culture and diversity that redeems it as a great city. Most underrated food and art city in the US by a long shot.
Yeah and despite the wide roads there are pockets of really nice walkability and urbanism peppered in throughout the city
I grew up in Houston and despite its challenges and me living in a much prettier place now, there are some things I miss about it. I’ve always felt like it doesn’t get a fair shake in urbanist circles and is more of a punching bag than anything else. The freeway shit is a joke tho, no pushback there
I'm a huge Rothko nerd and that chapel is worth going to Houston for alone
@@CityNerd I recommend going on a sunny day. The light makes a difference.
Not only aggressive car culture but a huge presence of giant trucks with jacked up wheels and loud stupid cars. Not pretty!
The negative assessments were fair. NotJustBikes was a good one.
Finally, an urbanist who puts his money where his mouth is, so to speak. Many "urbanist" YT channels love to dog on cities they've never been to or done research on; Houston being one of them. Flying out and WALKING around the city itself, then amending your original thoughts is a very honest way of rating cities. Looking forward to more city reviews 👍
I mean, some of those urbanist channels have also been to Houston and have recordings of them literally walking around the city. The key is that Houston has bigger sprawl than some states. I'm glad that downtown is making good progress despite the state's best efforts, but that doesn't come close to representing the entire city.
It's nice to see an urbanist youtuber highlighting what Houstonians are doing to enact change and improve their city instead of joining the "Houston Bad" circle jerk. I've never even been to Houston and this completely changed my ill-formed perspective.
I live here and he hit the nail on the head.
@@isoscelestriangle I live here and don't agree.
I've lived in Houston my whole life (31) and totally agree on the cherry-picking. The video only covers the few nice neighborhoods inside the loop. But that disdain is directed mainly towards our car-centric layout and related repercussions. Otherwise, it's a great city for restaurant/bar options, and stuff to do/things to see in general.
I'm from Houston and it sucks😹 the neighborhoods he mentioned are extremely wealthy and the roads he mentioned (Westheimer for example) are not safe to walk down. Houston is high in crime and one of the biggest sex/human trafficking hubs. Everyone who is ACTUALLY from Houston knows that those who walk or bike are looked down upon as "ghetto" or they're hippie millennials who can afford to live in areas with nice bike routes
It still sucks
used to work in Houston, in the Galleria area and liked the city a lot! spacious, green and well maintained + enormous variety of food options. local climate was the only drawback
As someone who lives in the Houston metro & works downtown, literally nobody I have talked to about the highway expansion is excited for it. Even commuters are starting to understand that highway expansion is just construction and the inconvenience it brings for years so we can all sit in larger traffic jams.
It’s like 5-10 years of construction hell for MAYBE 5-10 years on improved traffic before it’s congested again
Tell TX-DOT. And while you are at it, tell then to stop trying to turn neighborhood streets into highways.
THANK YOU! It’s wild how people use my city as an example for all the things they’re upset about.. that we have or are building. We didn’t just expand our freeways, we voted on a county level years back to build the now over 400+ miles of dedicated “bikeways” as we call them (non motor roads) or bike lanes, the 3 rail lines we didn’t have prior to 2004 and still growing, as well as a revamp of our entire bus network. Our rails are almost the nations highest used in terms of rider/mile and has helped to densify the inner city. We also have a massive underground city/tunnel system downtown like Montreal, Canada has which is why during the hot months you won’t see people usually walking around…. Its hot. Everyone’s in the tunnels lol. Shoutout to CityNerd, the most accurate and unbiased city planning channel I’ve had the fortune of subscribing to!
houston has improved very much since the 70’s
I live in Houston. I found out that Houston doesn't own it's sidewalks. The adjacent property owner does. Until Houston can tackle the likely tens of thousands of miles of absolutely abysmal sidewalks or lack of sidewalks this city will always have problems with public transportation. It's hard taking public transportation when you literally can't get to the transit stop.
Houston is making improvements but the sidewalks are the elephant in the room. It took nearly a year to upgrade the sidewalks on a few miles of Westhimer. Even then there are sections they upgraded, tore up and then never reinstalled the sidewalk. So when it rains there is suddenly a massive dip in the sidewalk that collects water.
@@thatgoodpain What are you on about? If there’s public works construction, METRO puts those temporary bus stops. There’s lots of construction, sure. Because we voted for it. We’re seeing our taxes being used and don’t want another Hurricane Harvey. If you’re talking about a random pothole, did you report it on the 411 app? I’ve done so with many and they’re filled usually 2-3 business days.
I find Houston to be a surprisingly decent city as far as urbanism go... if you live dead Downtown.
Being stuck near Katy, on the other hand... :(
@@Meta7 😂 can’t say I blame ya. My sister moved out that way 2 years ago and wants to move closer back in. But no, you don’t need to be right downtown. My office was in westchase before I switched to working from home and the new bus network was great when my car was in the shop for a couple weeks lol. Katy, we can’t help yall 😭
Shocking how actually visiting a given city can help you see it from the point of view of the residents, and not just some "Houston Bad" circlejerk members. Thank you, CityNerd, for taking interest in the struggle that makes Houston Houston.
I'm in Houston and most of Houston is bad but this video needed to be made because Houston isn't all bad.
I figure the bar is set so low by public expectations that no place can be as bad as Houston is portrayed. A visit to the city has got to make it look surprisingly good.
Like the reverse of Paris, a city generating such sky high expectations that it is bound to disappoint.
Exactly. Bringing people together (not dividing then) makes race irrelevant. We need more people from different backgrounds living in harmony like that.
I've lived here most of my life. Apart from a few select generally unaffordable on a modest income, areas, It's objectively bad, bland, segregated, and the food sucks. People should stay critical and push for more of these positive changes. Anyone saying it isn't bad and just gassing it up because they live here are just part of the Fat Earther conspiracy.
Shocking how showing 5% of the densest part of a city can make anywhere look good
“Traffic Jam at a fast food drive-thru” is one of the most American things I’ve ever heard 😂
I’ve been living in Houston close to 15 years. Both in the loop and outside the loop. The best of Houston is inside the loop. The Houston everybody hates is outside the loop.
The problem is that majority of Houstonians live outside the loop and the experience can be similar to NJB’s video. With that said CityNerd assessment of the inner loop was pretty accurate. If you live in the loop or close by it, Houston can be a generally cool city. A lot of bang for your Buck.
Outside of it though is the worst type of urban planning in all of the United States.
Have you been to Jacksonville? Per big cities, Houston may be second, but Jacksonville is just something else
@@spaceageexp8679 true Jacksonville is a poorly designed metro on a large scale as well. It’s boundaries make no sense and in some ways it’s similar to Houston. But the reason I’d rank Houston over Jacksonville as far as being worst is due to Houston having 5 times more people in its MSA which makes things more chaotic and exhausting.
@@BishopZoneTV Heck no. I been to both a lot. Jacksonville is mind blowingly hard to get around despite the lack of population. As you mention, Houston atleast has the loop. Jacksonville doesn't even have that. their downtown mimics that of a small town except surrounded by interstate. The one bright spot they have is jacksonville beach but its far from the city center
I’m a native Houstonian and agree with allot of what you said. I live just outside of the loop but hate having to go downtown. Most of what I need is within a 20 minute drive (including traffic). Because of this I love where I live. However if I go to the area between the second third loops (BW8 & 99) it is a suburban nightmare. Nothing but the same big box chain stores and fast food places and cookie cutter houses.
Mind you I enjoy driving, I drive Lyft and go on road trips there are so many great things about Houston proper. Except the roads and crime, and homeless camps. It is important to note that people, especially women DO NOT feel safe walking past large groups of men in extremely dirty areas covered in trash and drug/alcohol paraphernalia.
@@barrychopsticks Thx!
As a Houstonian and huge city nerd I really appreciate this video. 😊
Recent transplant from Atlanta and I can honestly say being within the 610 loop, it’s surprisingly more walkable then I originally thought. There are so many issues with sprawl in our metro area, but within the immediate 610 loop, it’s very livable - almost don’t need a car. ( I wfh)
Houston has more or less the same density throughout. It's completely opposite in Atlanta. You have almost NYC type density a mile from single family housing. Is Houston weird or is Atlanta?
The weather is not walkable. The past summer is brutal, it's honestly dangerous to walk in Texas heat.
Now go live in Humble.
@@MDLC424they already acknowledged the sprawl.. nobody would wanna live in humble Anyway lmao
@@l0gh0rn1 Houston is absolutely more walkable (in theory) than Atlanta because of the street grid and consistent density. But like you say, the heat is so bad there. Drivers are even worse with pedestrians. It's bad.
I lived in Houston for the past 5 years before recently moving, and I'm just so thankful for this video from my favorite urbanist channel. The amount of urbanist hate that Houston gets because of a certain several million view video from a certain urbanist channel who judged an entire city by a sidewalk in the suburbs is absurd. By no means is Houston a perfect city from a walkability/public transit standpoint, let alone even close, but it has so much to offer that people from outside the loop/the city in general do not realize. Neighborhoods like Montrose have their issues with dilapidated sidewalks and little bike access, but you can still walk these dilapidated sidewalks, and they have access to dozens of delicious restaurants regardless of where you live in the neighborhood. There is such a wide variety of parks from the marshy memorial trails to the curated Japanese garden at Hermann, and as you start to bike (or run around) the city, you start to find connectors between the main parks through either the bayous, columbia tap to rail trail, or some of the newly constructed bike lanes down Waugh and other streets (I hope you got the chance to bike down Waugh, CityNerd. It was one of my partner and my favorite areas in the city). And I think one of the biggest things about Houston that does not get mentioned nearly enough is that it truly is a melting pot of culture. I previously lived in Chicago and originally grew up in the suburbs of San Jose, CA (I know, not your favorite area). These places were often touted as "melting pots of culture", but in reality Chicago is still one of the most racially segregated cities in the US and San Jose suburbs is primarily only a mixture of ethnicities of European/Asian/Hispanic descent. Houston is a true melting pot of the US and to an extent, the world. There is so much vibrancy and love in the city and although there are plenty of problems, there are truly good people there who are passionate about making the city better and not just making larger freeways to drive their giant Ford F150s down.
LMAOO THE SHADE
What channel hated Houston? I only started watching urban channels and there’s one that I cannot stand.
@@stephentomaszewski8501 I believe they're referring to NotJustBikes
Man, I live on the Buffalo Bayou. It is nice, but it's a tiny fraction of the city. Try biking or walking anywhere outside the Heights/Buffalo Bayou area and youre SOL. Don't get me wrong, this city is clearly working hard to improve but you've got a long way to go before you pat yourselves on the back. And NotJustBikes is not wrong - I have had the exact same experience he had many times over here, walking and biking.
Neither guy is wrong. A healthy mix of opinions is good
Montrose resident here of 5 years, after living in Boston for 6, talk about a culture shock! This is a very realistic view of the city. It doesn't seemingly have a vibrant tourism industry, but we like it that way. Daily life is about as good as it gets for the price point if you can stand the nuclear summers.
I moved to Houston a little over a year ago after finishing college and expected the worst, because that's how everyone described it to me. But I found a place near the Buffalo Bayou, and I've been pleasantly surprised (much like yourself) by this city, and I do love biking around. I hope the coming years prove that young adults want to live in cities designed to be people-friendly and we see good development, because there's no way in hell I'm living outside the loop anytime soon! Great work, like always!
Been here 4 years and love it. If you run/walk try Memorial park. Tons of awesome trails there.
Agreed. Stay inside the Loop.
I spent 4 days going around Houston last summer (minor with no car so dependent entirely on public transit) and had an AWESOME time. I am so thrilled that this episode isnt a hate video. Houston is cool
I applaud you for visiting Houston in the summer only using public transport, you're very brave when it comes to extreme heat.
@@AslanKyoya1776 It was actually very pleasantly air conditioned. And for whatever reason I was almost always one of the only people on the tram. I went to Dallas in July, their light raul was nicely air conditioned as well. Walking to the stations was unpleasant but due to global warming, my hometown in upstate NY gets up to 100 and humid so it didnt really feel all rhat bad
Big difference between living and visiting these car-centric cities. You got plenty of free time to travel with transit and explore at whatever pace you feel if things go bad. That's how I experienced San Diego for many years as a visitor until I moved here recently. I can't even bike between certain areas because it's so perilous riding along or crossing major highways.
@@avibarr2751 yeah exactly as much as I question Houston: I dont know what the fuck people are talking about about the heat. The weather is quite sexy there and I have a lot of urban fun whenever I’m there (and when I lived there for 10 months). It is very windy. The humidity of Houston summer is a fun kind. You barely feel the sun. So I just have to emphasize it is not hot there. It’s gotta be fat or physically/mentally unfit people making fake stories about the nonexistent heat there. And the winters are frosty.
San Antonio and Austin, especially Austin which is more humid, are what I consider the hot part of Texas.
@@gonzalo4658 yea, I mean I definitely think the heat is hell at first but after a few days you really don’t notice it much
As someone who’s lived in Houston the vast majority of my life, thank you for making this video highlighting the parts of the city that isn’t talked about enough! My biggest complaint about the infamous Not Just Bikes video is that it showed Houston at its worse and next to nothing of what makes the city amazing in its own way. I had a similar view of the city until I moved out of the suburbs. Moving to Uptown and spending most of my time in the inner loop completely changed my view of my hometown and you did a wonderful job of showcasing it.
What I found worst about that one video was the ending where he basically said every US city is exactly the same. NJB is the king of making sweeping generalisations.
To be fair tho, most of Houston outside the loop looks the area where NJB filmed. The best parts of Houston imo is inside the loop. Outside the loop sheesh!!
He also showed like a weird suburb thing in the north of Houston, Willowbrook, which I wouldn't talk about when talking about "Houston" proper
@@cmc8708 honestly that’s still in the city of Houston so technically it’s Houston proper. And a large percentage of Houston looks closer to 1960/ Willowbrook once you get out the loop.
The lack of sidewalks on stroads or arterial residential streets is what blows my mind about Houston (and Texas in general)...I grew up as a teen in suburban Orlando but pretty much expected sidewalks on a stroad to walk to the bus stop or strip mall. I could walk 7 miles with no gaps in the sidewalk to my high school near the edge of town. I guess I just didn't realize how bad it could be in other states.
The local news talked about how residents are unhappy with the city regarding those large power lines being put up in montrose and midtown. Even residents felt they were poorly placed and done without consideration from locals. Theyre currently having talks about cutting down hundred year old trees in the same area to make the said street “more walkable.” Thanks for coming to Houston! I hope you enjoyed the city!
How can that possibly be ADA compliant that's my question
@@CityNerd it's not
There's a large power pole in the middle of the ramp up to the metrorail platform right outside the George R Brown Convention Center and Discovery Green@@CityNerd Not those new jumbo ones they are installing now but at least double the size of the old-school wood poles.
Follow the Houston Happy Hikers.
Wtf. Climate-appropriate trees literally make streets in hot climates like Texas *more* walkable
I moved to Houston in 2016 after a decade in NYC, Boston, and Baltimore. The Loop neighborhoods are relatively easy to walk and bike around, though you often have to come up with your own hacks to stitch them together. (I find Houston urban navigation fun for that reason, but it's hardly ideal.) The one thing we have is space; as you saw in downtown and midtown, there are so many streets where you could easily shave off an entire lane for bikes or rail and still have 3+ left over for the cars. And there are forces in the city that want to do this; the main obstacle is our budget cap and a state government increasingly trying to stymie the autonomy of Texas cities. Prop B will help a lot if it passes.
Also, I appreciate that you mention the diversity of the outside-the-Loop neighborhoods. This is where the bulk of the city's economic and cultural diversity lies. I worry that the fixation on the Loop can sometimes create a bougie white blindspot in Houston urbanism. I once heard the head of Rice's Kinder Institute asked about making outside-the-Loop neighborhoods more bike- or pedestrian-friendly and he was like, "what's the point? those people don't want stuff like that." Yes, "those people."
It's wild that Houston's streets were made that wide in the early 19th century long before cars and "one more lane". My family thinks it's because they needed enough room to turn a 20-mule team, but I'm not sure.
@@a_pet_rockThe oldest areas of Houston don’t have wide streets. The wide ones didn’t come until the 1950’s or so. There was a very effective lobbying effort by the concrete (and rubber, apparently - think car tires) industry in Houston around that time, which is why we’re now stuck with endless freeways and stroads, as well as all but one of our bayous concreted (thanks to Terry Hershey and George Bush Sr, we at least have Buffalo Bayou in a fairly natural state). The 20-mule team idea is from Salt Lake City.
@@debbiemueller7067 Are you sure? I don't think the city blocks have changed size at all. Just as an example, I'm looking at the intersection of Preston and Travis (which I see exists in a map from 1890) and there is a ton of space between blocks. Good to know about the mule teams and SLC though. I might be remembering wrong and they used some other number.
I'd probably agree with Kinder Institute's head though. Outer loop residents sometimes live in much poorer conditions. They probably want more safety and economic prosperity before urbanism gets on their mind in the first place. And the really far out suburbs like Sugarland/Pearland which are more prosperous (and also racially diverse at the same time) would like to keep their status over allowing urbanism.
Yuck. Yeah I felt weird about limiting myself geographically, but I literally had two days. Tried to be clear about all that in the video, and really want to get outside the lop on my next visit!
One really cool thing the water department in Houston has been working on is Exploration Green. It's in a suburb where a golf course died and was just sitting there, so they took it over and have been turning it into a natural waterway with walking and cycling. It's so beautiful and really pleasant to walk in, and right in the middle of neighborhoods!
That sounds fabulous. And dr. Now (600 lb life tv show) approved. ;)
I love this! I'm all for turning golf courses into more inclusive spaces
@@sarahwatts7152 What I'd love to see them do is to require all of the golf courses along the bayous to be sunk at least 5 meters (16+ ft.) so that they can be used as future emergency detention ponds. They would have flooded anyway due to where they sit, so why not put them to better use, for the good of all? 🙂
If not for the hellish commute to anywhere else, I would totally live in that neighborhood. The houses are affordable, and the area is practically flood-proof.
It's flood control. There are many such instances.
As a fan of your channel for the past year, and as someone who travels to Houston frequently, I’ve highly anticipated your take on this city! I know your focus was within the I-610 loop but I was still a bit surprised that you didn’t note the near absence of public transit options from both Houston airports. I’ve always been floored by this when I think of smaller US cities that have rail and/or express bus into the city center. Perhaps you could explore the political and social reasons why as part of a video about the outer loop areas of Houston. Love your work!
Yeah giving friends a ride to the airport is a huge favor in Houston.
As someone who has moved to Houston a few years ago. I feel this video really hit the nail on the head. I currently live in the Rice Military area and agree that the culture, bike and walkability is great inside the loop. However I do wish the city continues to support this movement of accessibility. It's great how you actually explored and took a closer look into the inner neighborhoods. My roommate doesn't own a car and bikes everywhere inside the loop (and slightly out). I enjoy living here mostly because of the diversity in culture, ethnicities, and food! The food here is unmatched. I've been to NYC, LA, SF, and other urban metro cities and it's not even close. Thanks for stopping by!
Never in my 2 years of being subscribed to Citynerd did I expect to see houston get this much praise.
Thanks for doing Houston! Lmao that Astros shade at 12:30 hey hey we won 2022 fair and square :)
I don’t live in Houston but i really appreciate an urbanist video where you actually visit the city and look around it in person. Some other RUclipsrs annoy me with how they can judge places from the comfort of the utopian city they fled to as if Google Maps is the best way to explore anywhere. Also appreciate the shade toward the Astros.
The train station in Houston is absolutely PATHETIC.
The freeway underpasses may be a plus when it comes to biking in summer.
Oh yeah. I’ve gone running on the buffalo bayou, and that Houston sun is no joke. It was nice to get a little shade every now and then lol
Firstly, the disrespect to showing Altuve and then a cheating joke. That one hurt, man. Second, everything else was spot on. Born and raised in Houston. East of Downtown, but not “EaDo”. The neighborhood over. We are at a snail’s pace for making this city pedestrian friendly. And even slower at a better public transit system, but I’ll keep hoping and voting for better. Loved recognizing all your footage of my city. Glad it was a decent experience.
You took pictures of a lot of places that I frequent (including very close to where I live)! I'm from Mexico City, and Houston has so far been great, although I really miss the hills and the temperate climate. It's great that you explored lots of different places, and I really liked the video! I would add to the conversation that (a) Houston has terrible weather during summer, making it almost impossible to avoid using a car if you want to get anywhere comfortably, and (b) Houston provides both jobs and housing for a big number of people that are not already wealthy, which is a huge deal for many communities. When I went to Seattle and San Diego I saw that they were much more picturesque cities, but you could certainly tell that the city was primarily enjoyed by people of very specific backgrounds and incomes. I also greatly appreciate that Houstonians are more aware of Mexico as a friendly country, instead of this classic notion of it being a faraway, barren dessert with donkeys, gangs and a beach, which is what most Americans in other places think of it.
The power poles in Montrose that CenterPoint put up in the last month will have to be taken down as they're an ADA violation. Including the one you have at 4:20. That pole is the one pictured in the Chronicle's reporting, they should be gone within 30 days.
Former Bike Ped planner of Houston MPO here. You are speaking the fact that 4 million people in the urban area are fighting for, board representation. I haven’t been to all big cities in the country, but all my friends from out state said Houston is the most integrated City in terms of race, and has the best food.
Its demographics and diversity reminded me a lot of Toronto.
Yup food is one thing Houston does right for sure
Toronto is way more white than Houston
I’ve lived in Houston for almost 40 years. I’ve never met a functioning adult who lives here for over 6 months without owning a car. The city is too big and decentralized.
As someone who lived in midtown and Montrose- I can tell this is a take on Houston from a visitor. The terrible sidewalk shit gets really old really fast. The public transportation system exists but with the zoning laws, it doesn’t really go anywhere. Busses are never on time. The rail is pretty reliable though. The streets change names at odd points through out the city. Bike lanes… not a thing. That said, museum district and Buffalo bayou are gorgeous!
BRT will completely change how Houstonians see buses. The rail is reliable not because it's rail, but because the trains have their own space and mostly don't have to mix in traffic. Even horse-drawn buggies could have reliable schedules if they didn't have to get stuck behind a long line of brake lights during rush hour.
As someone who currently lives in Upper Kirby and is in montrose a LOT, I disagree, respectfully.
"Bike lanes - not a thing"
That's not my experience. I haven't biked in that many cities, but I can say that it's certainly better than Boston or Chicago (though the walkability is obviously nowhere near as good).
Yeah you're right..I came home just to visit one time and tried to catch a ride on a bus from the airport and it was like 30-40 minutes late. Love Montrose and Eado tho. Awesome bars and comedy, dope people. Going to LA time to time there is slightly better transpo, comedy and outdoors, but it is filled with homeless vagrants that are almost out of a horror movie or psyche ward or some shit. Everything there survives entirely off of clout regardless if it's actually good, or not. The people there give off the vibe that they dont care about anyone and kinda smug. Houston has good food because it's gets shit on and the underdog when people compare cities IMHO. It has to work for it's reputation. LA is too squeezed together infrastructure wise when you get outside the freeway. Houston feels like there is just so much room and a lot better once you get off the freeway in a lot of places.
I’m a native Houstonian living abroad, and man, I can’t wait to see the upcoming BRT projects come to life in a few years. Along with more bike lanes and more pedestrian friendly streets
I am so happy that you mentioned just how staggeringly diverse Houston is. Diversity is by far the biggest strength of American cities as compared to say European or Asian cities that may have better urbanism. Houston may not be walkable, but it is kinda cool that you can go to a strip mall and see 15 different languages
Amsterdam has a lot of diversity, but yeah, the thing with America is that its consistent in many american cities. It isn't just a NYC and LA thing. Places like Orlando and Omaha are more than just [insert white people stereotype].
@@gars129By what metric is Amsterdam diverse? The city is 80% white, and 50% of the city is native Dutch, so there’s not even much variation on ethnicities.
@@thedapperdolphin1590 I mean ethnic Europeans are white so it makes sense. It’s actually impressive to me that Amsterdam is only half Dutch!
Diversity is the best thing about American cities absolutely. I complained about my city not being diverse enough. I went abroad and came back home. I realized I have cuisine from well over a dozen countries and these are businesses owned by people from those communities all within a stone’s throw. Honestly that’s really special!
On the downside though, that diversity is also a _cause_ of poor urbanism and car-centric design. Conservative white suburbanites who fled the urban cores because they didn't want to be around non-white people oppose transit and walkability initiatives, on the grounds of (A) "I don't want my tax dollars going to projects that help Those People," and (B) "I don't want transit coming to my neighborhood because Those People will come here and commit crimes."
And thanks to the "clustering" effect (liberal voters pack in to a few urban districts, while conservatives are spread across many suburban/exurban/rural districts), reinforced by partisan mapmaking, the anti-transit contingent generally holds more political power.
Really enjoyed this. I felt this optimistic view shows the potential Houston has and how great it CAN be. That take will hopefully be inspiring to support projects and actually try to make a better city from the sprawl foundation. There’s a lot you can say about what Houston has done wrong but only focusing on that makes it seem impossible to ever change. Some other videos feel like “well we built the city wrong to begin with shame on us now we have to live with it”
It’s not a city I would say add to a travel bucket list but it really is a great place to live. All different kinds of people and lifestyles manage here. It’s very resilient and I think the progress we’ve made on urbanism speak to that. There is a mindset too of constant progress, tear down and build better that sometimes hurts as it’s not very sentimental but that hopefully will allow the city to keep improving.
A big note on “outside” factors making the city more dependent is the influence that all the oil companies here have. They tend to like it when people drive more and they do influence infrastructure projects.
Born and raised in Houston. You nailed the city. Diverse, unnasuming, underrated, and a hot mess with some perks.
I feel the thing a lot of people overlook about NotJustBike's video on Houston is that it's an anecdote. It was an isolated experience that isn't necessarily reflective of the city in its entirety. However, the fact that experience and the points that he touched on in his video resonated with so many people and made them realize how car dependent their own cities are can't be understated. I certainly wouldn't be as interested in urban planning if that video didn't bring it to my attention.
NJB hates North America much more than he loves the Netherlands. So yeah, take what he says with a grain of salt.
@@goober239 He really tends to ignore Europe's own horrid infrastructure and other issues.
@@goober239what did NJB say about Houston in that video that is false? Also consider that video is a few years old at this point and a good chunk of the stuff CN showed off in this video was new
To be fair, much of the biking infrastructure shown off in the video has come online in the past 6 - 8 months. It is concentrated in the heights and rice military which are by Houston's standards pretty expensive and safe. I can live mostly car free (except during the summer's unbearable heat) in Rice military, but it is difficult to get to montrose and eado without a lot of effort. It can be done, but I'll typically uber because the busses are not really convenient. If you live in any other neighborhood but those shown in the video (excluding maybe West U ) you'd find travel just as difficult as what NJB described. Safety is also a major concern when you're outside the loop or in the south side of the city. There have been improvements for sure in the five years I've been here, but you cannot experience the diversity the city really has to offer - like bellaire, the Ghandi district, Alief, etc without a car.
It really isn’t isolated though. That experience is pretty much majority of Houston outside the loop. And it’s actually large swaths of Houston that are worse than what NJB showed. CityNerd did have a more fair assessment of Houston but he covered the loop.
I tell people all the time if you visit Houston visit the loop. You’ll leave with a more favorable impression. Go outside the loop and not so much favorable impression.
Houstonian here for 4 years. I love that you are finally doing a more “positive “ video. As a citizen, it is frustrating how car reliant we are but hopefully this High speed rail to Dallas comes to fruition! Keep up the great videos 🎉
Local here - mkt (as in the trail and development you mentioned) stands for the Missouri-Kansas-Texas railroad. The trail was formerly a railroad (some bridges clearly use to be for trains and some road crossings are visibly changed from a train crossing). However, about twenty years ago it was converted to that great trail.
One of the issues here is the climate. I used to bike home from the Medical Center to my West University home every day, but I gave it up in the summer, which is most of the year here. It's just too hot and miserable. People may not realize that the reason there's so little foot traffic on the streets downtown is that there is an air conditioned tunnel system underground.
Where is the tunnel
You're of course joking
@@ChatGPT1111 me or the poster?
Not an excuse. Chicago in January and February you will still find people walking/ biking, taking public transit.
@@jdeaderi Cold climates are MUCH more manageable than sweltering heat, to be fair
"MKT" Stands for Missouri, Kansas, & Texas, the rail line the trail replaced!
MKT used to run through my home town in Oklahoma and cross the Missouri Pacific line. We used to call it the "Katy" and the other "MoPac"
…as in “She caught the Katy - and left me a mule to ride.”
I only use my car here when I leave the inner loop. If I’m staying within the loop, I prefer to bike or bus.
I do want to point out, the North Houston Highway Improvement was strongly opposed by many many residents and officials within the loop, however highway projects greatly help suburbanites who come downtown for baseball games and work so that’s whose voice was listened to by TxDOT :/
@CityNerd, A quick clarification: Houston is called "Clutch City" (and has been for the past 30+ years) because the traffic causes freeway drivers with manual transmissions to constantly engage their clutches, not because of anything achievement-based.
I never noticed how diverse Houston (and its suburbs) were until I began visiting other cities.
Tbh most diverse cities I been to are Atlanta, Dallas and Miami
And Houston is more diverse than that?
@@VegitoBlue202 not sure, but I can say that, growing up in Katy and now working in Houston, it’s a pretty even split between whites, latinos, blacks, and asians, with more or less of one depending on the specific area of houston you’re in
I think dallas is pretty similar
@@VegitoBlue202 Yeah it definitely is
The thing that's most surprising about Houston is how good light rail service is. The 6-minute headways on the Red Line are probably the best of any light rail line in the country. It's way better than Seattle (service is every 8 minutes). 12-minute headways on the other lines are pretty good.
Train to no where. Just laughable. Dallas has 126 miles of rail going in all directions including the suburbs.
@@thebootielover yeah, though somehow, Houston seems to have decent ridership.
@@thebootieloverwe don't need rail to low density suburbs. We don't have burbs with 300k+ populations like Arlington.
Rail is built for future generations@@rehsa-zc6zq
I appreciate seeing these nicer parts of Houston in this video.
I think why Not Just Bikes resonated so much with me-as someone who was a teenager in the suburban sprawl of Houston-is because it really was challenging to live there. I could do nothing. I remember once trying to cross the "stroad" just to get to the gym and I stood there for 30 minutes and couldn't cross; I walked up and down for a mile or so and could not find a single pause in traffic or opportunity to pass. The only places I could travel by foot within a 30 minute timeframe were gas stations.
Everyone I knew had a long and grating commute. Every restaurant I saw was a franchise chain. There were a few parks in my area and that was nice, but of course you needed a car to get there (there are no bus routes in the vast majority of Houston).
Furthermore I was terrified of driving because of the drunk drivers, massive 4-6 lane roads connecting everything, and the horrible conditions of the roads themselves-one of the two times I tried to practice driving, a pothole tore the rubber off the wheel and I almost crashed into a ditch. xD
Ultimately I truly think Not Just Bikes was fundamentally right about what it's like for the average person in the giant area called "Houston" but maybe less so for the inner loop and nicer neighborhoods, which I hope the outer parts can learn more from! Houstonians are great, but the infrastructure is truly very bad and most people really know any different.
Back in 2009, once a week myself and a dozen other members of my middle school tennis club would walk 1.3 miles down Westheimer from Lanier middle school to Lamar high school to use their tennis courts. It was absurd how dangerous it was - I’m talking migrating construction that forced us to cross back and forth across Westheimer, sometimes without a proper crosswalk. Too often we had no choice but to band together and assert ourselves into oncoming traffic. But we made it work, which feels like such a prototypical example of the type of collective determination that’s common in Houston’s culture, speaking as someone who’s lived here over 20 years. It’s that culture, in combination with all the great signs of improvement captured in this video, that make me excited and optimistic about the future of Houston’s urban design. Thanks for covering my city! 🙌
The clutch city moniker comes from the 1990’s Houston Rockets, not the Houston Astro’s.
Try biking when it’s 95 -110° all summer with a dew point of 78.
I believe MKT stands for Missouri-Kansas-Texas, which was the railroad which was used for the trail. The Missouri-Kansas-Texas RR was nicknamed the "Miss Katy", or the "Katy RR" which is how the Houston suburb of Katy, TX got its name, and I believe is also the namesake of the Katy Freeway (I-10) which is something like 20 lanes wide.
I was thinking this too! Also very ironic naming one of the worst freeways in the US after a railroad
Actually, its just short for "market" which is the name of the shopping center he showed 😅
Hi, love your videos. Here's an idea: it would be really fun to watch you play a city-building video game like Cities: Skylines or Cities in Motion and hear your commentary on what is realistic vs. unrealistic about the game model, how you're making decisions on what to build, and if the game model allows for an appropriately urbanist approach, or if it forces you to be a bit car-biased.
Huge thanks for making this video about Houston. As someone from Seattle who moved to Houston, I've been advocating for more bike lanes and sidewalks!
Michelin doesn't even look for restaurants in Texas, In the US i think it's only NY, Cali, Florida, and Illinois
Lived in Houston my whole life, was excited to hear you were coming and I'm happy with the video you put out. I bike around the city all the time and I'm glad Bike Houston welcomed you.
A little bit of correction in regards to the freeway construction in East Downtown. It isn't a highway expansion project. No freeway lanes will be added. What they are doing is realigning I-10 and 1-45. I-45 will follow I-10 then curve and follow 1-69 past downtown. Currently, 1-45 goes around the west and south side of downtown. The elevated freeway south of downtown, known as the Pierce Elevated Viaduct, will be torn down (or turned into a park; they haven't decided yet) because its nearing the end of its service life. 1-45 will be rerouted around the eastern side of downtown, running alongside 1-69, which is already there. That is why they are taking another block out of EaDo. However, that is not all they are doing. They are also burying both 1-69 and 1-45 below ground level and putting a freeway cap over most of it, which will allow either a park and/or development to be placed on it. So they are, in effect, stitching EaDo and Downtown back together, at least partially. Overall, the realignment will benefit the city, but there are no plans to add any lanes to any freeway through downtown, only realign what is already there.
Thanks for doing this! I moved to the city (from Houston suburbs) years ago and now I couldn't imagine living more than 5 minutes away from the bike trails you featured. Also that scary area by the Target/Panda Express is the bane of my existence as both a cyclist and a driver. So funny to see it here at its worst.
When one ignores the major parts of the city that people reference when talking about that city, then yes, it’s great!
OKC, where I live now after fleeing Houston, has a walkable downtown with many improvements. A mile away from those improvements and the city returns to its disrepair and car dependency. Same for Houston.
Things are definitely better in both cities the closer one gets to downtown, and that’s great news! But when people talk about a city, they usually mean the whole thing.
I live in Austin and was telling my colleague today at work that if you live in Houston to not live on the first floor as it always floods there. Housing costs have actually gone up quite a bit but relatively affordable compared to other places. Houston will continue to transform over the years and will continue to improve especially when it comes to being a walkable city and the reason for this is due to the mild winters. Twenty years from now it will be ahead of Chicago in many ways including a regional population greater than 10 million. Quite frankly it reminds me of Bangkok minus some cooler winters as Bangkok is tropical.
You do know austin will just become like houston is today because TxDOT will not stop till the entire state is fully asphalt and concrete.
Yeah I've heard anecdotally that that's part of why Houston is a magnet for south/southeast Asian immigrants -- it isn't much work to adapt to the climate!
Always floods? Moved to Houston from Austin two years ago and still waiting to experience a flood. I have no doubt that it will at some point, just like how it sometimes floods in Austin during heavy rains, but am beginning to question the "always floods in Houston" narrative. But definitely do check flood maps in Houston and Austin before buying property.
Houston had epic floods in 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2019. Also in the mid-1970s, 2001, and numerous other years. We've just been lucky recently. Flooding is definitely Houston's Achilles Heel.@@aubreyhale
@@aubreyhale Some parts of the metro area are more prone to flooding than others. Still a good idea to never live in a first floor apartment if you can help it, especially if you live near a bayou.
You are 100% right about houston v Texas DoT. And you’re 100% right about lower Heights/Montrose. It’s the only areas that feel urbanist. I choose to live on buffalo bayou for that very reason, not to mention the excellent bus access
I live outside the loop, and when I have a meeting downtown, I take the bus to the light rail to downtown. Once you're downtown, the tunnel system makes it walkable.
As someone who lives between midtown/montrose and takes a 10 minute e-bike ride to downtown I REALLY appreciate this video. ❤ You can definitely do city living and be a little less car dependent by being in the right area.
I try showing this side of Houston in my own content!
I used to live on the Northside (specifically Kashmere Gardens) when I was broke and only had a ebike. Worked downtown and my commute was either 15 minutes pleasant ride or 30+ min of hell waiting for a slow moving train at one of the many tracks I crossed. If I ever moved back to inner loop, it would be midtown for sure
@@Geoff9001 I think I know exactly which train you’re referring to haha.
@@brianruizy I know this is a stretch, but do you ride critical mass? If not, you're welcome to join us. Last Friday of every month, 7.30pm, Guadalupe park
@@Geoff9001 I did it once! And it was just by chance I was riding around and someone told me to go to. But this was at Market Square Park maybe it’s a different meetup?
@@brianruizy MSP has tons of different rides and critical mass used to start there years ago but now it's Guadalupe Park. Didn't go this last one, but I bet it was no less than 3000 riders and it's fun for meeting different types of bikers. We all got something in common tho, actually 2 things: we love riding bikes and H-Town!! Hope to see you out there one time. I'm on a modified RadCity ebike and white/ 6-1 tall in case you want to try to meet me there haha👊
Wow! Love seeing you highlight my neighborhood in Houston! 😍 seriously feel like I live in a hidden gem, but hidden in plain sight! Glad to see someone like you recognize it!
I love that this video started out in my neighborhood of Midtown. One of these photos was taken 2 blocks from my home.
Not sure why people suggest Montrose as the area to visit within the inner loop. It has the worst streets and is overcrowded.
People definitely sleep on Houston. The bike/rail/walk options are pretty good for the inner loop.
One thing you missed downtown; basically all of the buildings are connected by an extensive tunnel networks full of shops, dining, and gyms, dentists, synagogues, doctors offices, and other miscellaneous buildings. Most people miss it though since the tunnels are only open M-F from 7am-3pm. They primarily serve people who work downtown as a lunch option and a transit option between offices for people who are trying to avoid the weather. These were wonderful for me when I worked downtown as a great way to meet friends for lunch without getting super sweaty. They also made my walk to work in the morning really nice as only ~10 minutes were above ground and the other 20 minutes of my walk was below ground. Of course my walk home was all above ground, but that wasn't a big deal since arriving home sweaty is no biggie.
The highway improvement is necessary for through-traffic. The original freeway design includes a bunch of left-exits for efficiency of materials. But the designers didn't realize how much left-exits impede the flow of traffic for through traffic who aren't anticipating them. A large chunk of the rush hour traffic on I-10, I-45, and Hwy 69 around the core of downtown are from left-exits clogging the fast lane for through traffic that is just passing through the city. If you drive into the downtown core often and have to use one of these left exits it becomes very clear that they are the cause of most traffic. Prior to this, traffic upgrades were centered around "adding another lane" and then wondering why traffic didn't improve. This is a major improvement in efficiency of exits which should improve traffic quite significantly.
I like Houston, and I hope that people keep sleeping on Houston. I used to live in Austin, and people finding out about that city is what ruined it. Now I just hope people don't find out about Houston.
I'll also add that I've lived here for 7 years, and have lived here without a car for 5 of those years. I rarely leave the inner loop and have had no problems walking/biking/public transiting in those years, it's a lot nicer here than the internet depicts it.
7:49 this is the exact driveway where someone pulled out in front of me while I was 10 feet away on my bike. I love that this is where you advise people to ride carefully.
A lot of urbanism channels seem to be making videos that are reactions to Not Just Bikes, especially after he said North America is a lost cause.
While I don’t agree with that idea, I think it’s a little silly how RUclipsrs are going out of their way to prove the opposite is true.
North America is far from a lost cause, but NJB is right that NA cities are very, very car dependent. AND that they are extremely resistant to changing the status quo (i.e. adding bike lanes and public transit). Fortunately, there’s more people who favor urbanism today, but I’ve seen first hand just how many people will fight with every ounce of their strength to stop a single bike lane from going up.
So while the situation in NA is more nuanced than NJB makes it seem, he’s not wrong to be disappointed.
I don't appreciate the overcorrection personally. To fix a problem, you really do need to admit it. I just want honesty for once. Sure, it's a little grating to be negative but I hate being oblivious just to stay positive even more. I've been lied to enough about what was going to happen just around the corner for years on end. And I don't like being told that my viewpoints are invalid because I'm not as "positive" as someone who's blinded by it.
I think the younger generation will bring much needed change to cities. But that's going to take a long time because resistance is so high and society favors the status quo. The current environment is already built around cars. It doesn't have to stay that way forever. But it requires a huge cultural change that doesn't have a timeline and isn't guaranteed. It's not wrong to be disappointed by that and by the fact that I know large swathes of the population do not agree enough with each other to push for change within the timeline that I want.
My grandmother used to live in a suburb of Houston _(Humble)._ I went to visit her one time and she picked me up from the airport. We took the freeway, there was no traffic, and we never left the city. It took over an hour to get to her house. Houston is _huge._
I had the same experience. My aunt lived in Houston. She picked me up from the airport and an hour and half later we arrived at her house. 😳
Houston has like 7 million inhabitants in its metro area, my city Mexico City has about 3 times more population, but its area is smaller than Houston. I get that everyone loves to have their own giant garden, but I love not having to use my car for everything, I wouldn't change walking 5 blocks and finding everything I need, 2 supermarkets, stationeries, local cafeterias, a park, a metro station, offices, houses, apartments, gas stations, 7 elevens, starbucks, gyms, etc.and still my neighborhood is pretty quiet except for the main avenue. It's like all Mexico City main avenues felt like a dense downtown, but you can walk 1 or 2 blocks and be in a quiet oasis with lower density offices, houses and apartments.
Great video and I really appreciate a mostly positive review of our home here 👍
But I have to ask: how did you get up on the roof of the Brown Convention Center in order to get that view out the back (and over 59/69)? I recognized the location right away, but not the vantage point 😄
He was on the parking garage next to it getting those shots it seems like
@@PresentGenGamer Okay, that makes more sense. I've never driven there for the few times I've been to events. Always someone else drove and I didn't pay close attention to where we were for parking.
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This is by far the best video showcasing Houston's inner loop in great detail! As an American living in EU and interested in moving to Houston (never visited before) you've given me lots of great information. 😊Please do more on Houston!!
I'm a native Houstonian living in New Mexico. I grew up in the Houston burbs, but immediately gravitated to Montrose, the Museum District and the Heights as an adult. There are some well-established neighborhoods that hug the immediate exterior of the 610 Loop that are also worth living in, but the further out you get, the more unattractive and downright insane it all becomes.
I've always loved the city's diversity. Houston food choices are amazing, always have been-I think it's because Houston is actually a port city and attracts all kinds of people. The people are friendly and love a good time--look for the old Ice Houses tucked away in older neighborhoods...there's usually good burgers, BBQ, cold beer and talkative locals.
Lots to do there, lots to see. However, I think living there without a car would twist my mind.
Happy to see a video not completely dogging Houston. I’m from the city and it is terrible in spots, but not as terrible as people make it out to be in others. And yes, the food is top tier. I moved recently and it’s what I miss most about the city. The Austin area can’t compete with Houston food scene in my opinion
Lived in Houston my whole life since 2003 and I have to say this is the most fair video on Houston I’ve ever seen, it’s not as bad as you think is the perfect way to view the city
Thanks for the Houston video Mr. Nerd. We moved out of the city years ago but kept our apartment (condo). After watching your video we are super excited about moving back and biking a lot.
One thing you forgot abt downtown is that there is no parking without "fees" inflated ones and alot of times you can get towed
As somebody who lives in the Houston area, I agree with pretty much everything you said, Houston really isn’t as bad as you would think. The only problem is once you get into the suburbs like cypress, spring, humble, Katy, etc..
suburbs aren't supposed to function like cities.
@@jarvisjackson4833Right, but they’re not supposed to be a nightmare to do literally anything in. Even going to the store out there sucks, you can’t bike there safely, or walk, and you get stuck in a ton of traffic just driving a mile. That really needs to change.
@@genosreviews252you are never going to do your grocery shopping on foot or in a bike unless you plan to go to the store every day. There's barely any traffic in suburbs, you've been on urban planner youtube too long.
@@jarvisjackson4833there are plenty of times I would’ve went to the store on foot or on a bike if it were safe. You can’t tell me you’ve never went to the store just to get a few small things, like milk. Even if you don’t do that, cargo bikes still exist. I don’t know what planet you’re living on, but every decently sized cities suburbs are full of traffic, ESPECIALLY Houston. I know this because I’ve been to many, many metropolitans across the US, and I’ve been to a lot of their suburbs. Please, go outside, and just observe.
Doesn’t “MKT” stand for “Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad”, better known as “The Katy”, as in “She caught the Katy”?
The White Oak Bayou Trail is awesome. It almost makes it all the way to Beltway 8. Currently it’s still under construction and there’s some unpaved gaps in the newer sections. 20+ miles of continuous trail with only a couple of street crossings.
I grew up in the northwest suburbs of Houston and left around 2011. Currently living in Austin where there’s generally better trails, bicycle infrastructure, and parks. But my hometown is giving it a run for its money with these bayou trails!
10 years ago the bayous in the suburbs of Houston weren’t as developed with trails or parks compared to closer in town. The bayous were where I would smoke weed and get drunk in high school. A little bit of nature in the urban sprawl (albeit a bit manmade as the bayous were channeled out, glorified ditches) Now the bayous around the neighborhood I grew up with near Jersey Village are lined with trails and parks and almost connected to the White Oak Bayou Trail. It’s insane. It’d be a 45mile ride to downtown and back from just outside beltway 8 on great trails that minimize street crossings. Super excited to check it out when it’s all finished
I went exploring Houston for the first time in March 2018, and I used the Red Line to get to Downtown. Because it was street-running it was quite slow and it took something like an hour to get from Fannin South park-and-ride (which is basically just outside the I-610 loop) straight north to Downtown. Yeah METRORail exists and it's better than nothing, but it still is woefully inadequate, not just in terms of how the trains themselves run but also the fact that there are only three lines.
I went to the University of Houston and I loved my time there. Houston really is underrated
#GoCoogs ❤
The inner loop of Houston is great. You can travel between The Galleria, Shepherd, Montrose, Museum district, Midtown, Heights areas all without really needing to get on a freeway. If you can live in those areas, Houston is great. Suburban Houston and dealing with the awful traffic and massive trucks driving too fast on 5-lane freeways… not really that great. I lived in Midtown on Bagby for a couple of years and it was a blast
I think one major difference comparing inner loop Houston and Baltimore it that although they have similar population numbers per square miles, Baltimore once had one million residents in that square area and was built for that density, whereas Houston has steadily grown for the last 70 years. Thus the actual infrastructure, city character, and built housing density of Houston feels like half that of Baltimore.
OH MY GOODNESS!
I saw my Fiance's car in this video!!!
She lives in Midtown and I've spent a lot of time here, especially during the pandemic, where we walked around this area a lot for food and stuff. Great video!
Great video! FYI - MKT is the former Missouri-Kansas-Texas rail line. So it's just M-K-T.
The heat disqualifies Houston for me. It’s a cool city if you can handle the heat.
Most Houstonians are acclimated to a/c, and not the climate so you'd probably do well here, too. There are often outdoor eateries where they air-condition the patio. The stadiums do that, too. It's weird to me, as I am indeed acclimated to our subtropics climate, so heat and humidity don't bother me at all. Except when it is neither hot nor humid 😉
NotJustBikes getting humbled. 😅
I've been to Houston and can attest that its your average city growing at such a large scale that there isn't much room to handle the sprawl. The transit provided by METRO is actually some of the best 👌🏾 I have experienced. There's only so much Houston can do without TexDOT butting into things but the city and, again, Metro does a good job in providing connectivity across the metropolitan area.
My home, being Baltimore, is in that same spectrum
I grew up in Houston and unless it has changed drastically (I don’t think it has, still have friends that live there), it’s just suburbia forever and ever. I’d call my mom on my way home from college when I stopped for gas on the NW side… she then knew I’d be home in an hour or two. It’s just sprawl, sprawl, sprawl.
In HS it was a dream come true turning 16, because you could actually do something with your friends. I had one friend in HS that I could (and did) reasonably walk to his house, or play basketball with in the park, just one. All of my other friends were a 10+ minute drive away, my girlfriend for most of HS was 20 minutes away, there were no buses.
Fond memories of Houston, but you’d have to pay me absurd amounts of money to ever move back. It’s also very hot and humid 90% of the year.
Finally a not biased approach and actually visiting the city. 👏🏽👏🏽 Yes; Houston is HUGE!!
Still looks like a completely 100% car dependent city though. Even with this video trying to shine a better light on Houston's infrastructure
Thanks for highlighting the world-class food! I’ve traveled around the world and been to many Michelin-starred restaurants. Our food scene rivals many around the world. We are truly spoiled here.
Thank you so much for covering my hometown! The Menil is fantastic and I can confirm that the Hermann Park train is our best transport. lol
Loved this video: I live in the metro burbs along White Oak Bayou, just inside our beltway. You did not venture out this way, but when I tell my neighbors that I can ride my bike downtown using the bayou system in less than 30 minutes, they think I am lying. What is super crazy that no one appreciates is the Bayou Path has zero traffic lights or stop signs, so you can cruise pretty fast because other than me and 10 other freaks l see on the trail. Sadly, the media never shows what you showed in your video. By the way, I love my town, and it's not just for the cuisine or diversity. People, when they get out of their cars and off their phones, are some of the finest you will encounter, and 95% of them were not born here. The secret is out, and even in a troubled economy, we are still growing every day. An Englishman who moved to Houston told me a long time ago Houston is the best place to make money, period. I often think about how many immigrants come here and are wildly successful.
I was waiting for the obligatory "nice" when you mentioned I-69 but then I remembered urban freeways are anything but.
Great video, made me genuinely want to visit Texas, which is quite an accomplishment
I'm honestly surprised that I-69 hasn't had more road sign theft.
No one here calls it 69