Travel: Atlanta and Houston

I've always had a pretty strong touch of wanderlust. That's why I left Rochester for New Orleans for college, and took a trip across the Atlantic to study abroad in Madrid. Since graduating, I started working at Tulane full-time and am about 1/2way through a free (mostly) MBA. It's obviously a great opportunity, but it's meant two things: my travel time is limited, and I didn't leave New Orleans after graduation. I like Nola a lot- I really do, but at my age, I want to move every few years and experience new places, new cultures, and new cities, I guess at the expense of laying down roots.

In the meantime, my appetite for travel has had to come in small trips here and there. Because of non-stop MBA classes, and the difficulty of getting approved vacation, I've been taking advantage within the Gulf/South region to visit cities on 3-day weekends, places I can drive to easily.

In the last 6 months, I've visited Boston, Atlanta, the Florida panhandle, and Houston/Gulf Texas- on the to-do list is Memphis (6 hours), Nashville (8), the Smokies (10), Birmingham (6), Mobile (3, driven through many times), Austin (7), and maybe Dallas/Little Rock. (8-9)

Atlanta and Houston were pretty similar in a lot of ways. They're both clearly "new" cities (compared to the Northeast), and done according to conservative politics, which means less density, more suburbs. Both have massive suburbs stretching out endlessly, which leads to some pretty nightmarish traffic situations. Houston has an enormous amount of freeways circling and crossing the city, and yet, there was still decent traffic on a Sunday afternoon. Atlanta had a pretty similar setup (one giant interstate circling the city, a few branching in) but less highways. But still a lot of traffic.

I didn't spend much time at all within Houston itself- I was visiting my friend down near the Gulf, but I wasn't impressed with either city. I like relatively dense cities, which generally means there's good public transportation and it's a walkable city. In both cities, the downtown area was pretty spread apart, which made walking difficult and while both cities had a "subway" system, neither seemed terribly comprehensive and thus, I didn't use them. In Atlanta in particular, MARTA seems more about taking people from the suburbs into the city, not getting them around the city. (Which could be very useful to alleviate traffic) Neither downtown area seemed particularly compelling to visit. Walking around different districts didn't seem very interesting either.

Driving into Houston was interesting. The sprawl surrounding the city stretched almost to Beaumount, near the Texas-Louisiana border. There's the saying "everything is bigger in Texas" and I don't know I perceived it as such due to a successful PR campaign implanted in my head, or because it was reality, but it did seem true. While Houston is still in the hot/humid Gulf region, driving towards it you get into some open plains, having left the bayou. It seemed wide open, expansive. The city of Houston was the same way- the buildings were a bit spread out, but with the green trees covering the city, Houston was a group of skyscrapers rising out of a forested area.

I was down an hour south of Houston for most of Easter weekend, and we went to the beach. It was very Texan, no rules and regulations. That was pretty neat, because it meant you could drive a truck on the beach and pull up to the shore, but that same attitude also meant the beach was disappointing covered in garbage.

There were certainly some neat things about Atlanta- I was staying at a friends place at Georgia Tech, which is in midtown Atlanta. (I think) It was interesting how you could walk 2-3 blocks from his place and be standing by skyscrapers, but go a different direction and you'd be near some suburban-looking homes. There were some neat bars and restaurants around the area, but none seemed unique to other cities. I did really enjoy hiking up Stone Mountain- it's odd that there's a bald mountain close to the city, seemingly rising up out of nowhere, but it did offer some really neat views. It did seem to suffer from a bit of over-commercialization, what with the chair lift (to avoid a 10 minute hike!) and all the amusement park events below.

A friend of mine from Houston once said "Houston is where no one wants to live, but everyone ends up." There's no doubt Houston and Atalanta are economic powerhouses- both are home to a ton of Fortune 500 companies. They've got business-friendly environments, great infrastructure (lots of highways, both have intercontinental airports) and extensive suburbs for middle/upper managers with families. But neither seemed to be terribly interesting cities to live as a young adult. I'm sure there are redeeming qualities, but probably not enough for me to outweigh the negatives. I'd revisit both, but to see my friends- not out of any desire to see the city again.