14 Comment

• Angostura April 10, 2014 at 9:13 am

  The decline in townhouse sales is surprising and counter-intuitive, until you realize that much of what, by all outward appearances, LOOKS like a townhouse — three stories, no yard, front-facing garage, two bedrooms on top floor, kitchen/living on the second and third bedroom behind the garage — is classified as single-family by virtue of behind detached on both sides.
  A search on HAR in the townhouse farm of Shady Acres only turns up about a dozen listings classified as townhouses. Expand that search to single-family homes greater than 2 stories, and the number jumps to the eighties, virtually all of which are townhouses in every aspect BUT a shared wall.
• Remember the Alamo April 10, 2014 at 9:14 am

  Houston ahead of San Antonio as a travel destination???????—who in the fuck made this ridiculous list?? The Houston Chamber of Conmerce?
• Mother Hydra April 10, 2014 at 10:08 am

  I enjoy watching the lumbering, dinosauric and outmoded taxi industry struggle with these agile companies. Imagine how this plays out in a few years as driverless cars come into play and eliminate the human from the equation entirely. At this point all the Taxisaurus can do is try to stall for time in court by abusing decades-old laws in a last-ditch, failed effort to stop the revolution already in progress.
• jimbo April 10, 2014 at 10:43 am

  Hope the cabbies go bankrupt in a last ditch effort to try to stop Uber/Lyft. Good riddance.
• Eric April 10, 2014 at 10:49 am

  My 3-story townhouse has a shared wall, but even it is apparently legally considered a single family home. Made that mistake when I was buying it, using paperwork calling it a townhouse, but I had to redo it with the paperwork calling it a single family home. I do have a yard, however, with the house only occupying about half my lot, making it more of a single family home than most of the new detached yardless townhouses. I don’t even know what is considered a townhouse anymore.
• Dana-X April 10, 2014 at 11:03 am

  Alamo the list was made from Trip Advisor customer reviews and ratings. And while it really doesn’t count for much at least it’s real people writing about their experiences instead one person at a desk ranking cities. I think Houston has already adjusted upwards its previous reputation and is forming a new reputation as a place, maybe without classic tourist traps, but one where you can wine, dine, take a train, go to a museum, see a sporting event etc., things for a new kind of tourist perhaps; the urban explorer, not a place for a family vacation or to just lay out on a beach . Plus the ratings probably include a lot of conventioneers too who enjoyed their stay.
• Harold Mandell April 10, 2014 at 11:27 am

  @ Eric- I think you are confusing “townhouse” with “condo”. There is no separate paperwork for single family homes and townhouses, because townhouses don’t have any legal meaning. But condominiums actually are a different status than single family homes, and use a different contract.
• Patrick April 10, 2014 at 11:42 am

  Ooh I’m definitely going to be at Vert this weekend, unless someone steps up to tell me exactly what is in that mysterious gyro “meat” that no one in Greece has ever encountered.

  And speaking of gristle, I’m also in the mood for a good click-bait flame war. So I say: San Antonio, bah! Puffy tacos? Abomination! Alamo? Fake! Riverwalk? Kitsch! What else ya got?
• Old School April 10, 2014 at 11:59 am

  I suspect that there is a difference between a “travel destination” and a “vacation destination”. Tons of people have to travel to Houston for work, conventions, special events (marathon, rodeo, NCAA/high school events, etc.). I can certainly see Houston being rated highly as a “travel destination” because it is not a “vacation destination”. You are not piled up with tons of tourists with lots of lousy restaurants and shops gouging you with high prices for lousy food and cheap junk just because they have a key location. In addition to the fine dining scene, Houston has a lot of food options that we take for granted that are a big find for people from the north (Tex-Mex, Barbecue, etc.). Hotels are dirt cheap compared to places like NY, San Fran, Chicago and Boston.
• Angostura April 10, 2014 at 2:02 pm

  I think San Antonio suffers from the fact that, almost without exception, the restaurants on and around the Riverwalk are pretty abysmal. Even the best ones (Biga, Bohanan’s) wouldn’t crack the top ten in Houston.
  Also, this is based on TripAdvisor reviews. Look at their top restaurants for Houston ( http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurants-g56003-Houston_Texas.html ), a list on which Chama Gaucha Brazilian Steakhouse is #2, and Underbelly is #250.
• Shannon April 10, 2014 at 2:51 pm

  Yeah, I’d rather soak up the humidity and petrochemical plant poisons here than go to Sea World, Fiesta Texas, Schlitterbahn, Hyatt Regency Hill Country, the Mission Reach, and the River Walk–
• Shannon April 10, 2014 at 2:58 pm

  And who picks a city as a destination based on 5 star restaurants–most families can’t afford those places, get real–they eat at Chili’s or maybe Chuy’s–I don’t think anyone would argue that Houston has the best 5 star restaurants in Texas, but come on, how many people here on vacation are going to drop 250 dollars on a dinner for two, God help you if you have a family.
• Rex April 10, 2014 at 4:31 pm

  I am happy to see the cab companies under pressure. I am so tired of having to navigate to my locations. 90% i am going to major landmarks/areas. I honestly dont know how out-of-towners ever can make it to their destination if they dont know the area. Sad because i do get some very good drivers. The industry just sucks, its expensive, you have no control over your service.
• matx April 12, 2014 at 7:11 am

  I never have any worries about getting a taxi or having access to good, easily navigable public transportation in major cities, except in here in Houston. Taxis in Houston are good for getting you to a destination when you can plan ahead and reserve one, like for a trip to the airport.