After 3 years, the good, bad and mostly ugly of the Houston area

I grew up in the South, lived in California and throughout the world, and accepted a job offer in Texas almost three years ago because I wanted to return to some Southern state. Texas as a whole might not be Southern, per se, but the Houston area is more culturally so than most of Texas…or, at least, that's what I thought. Below is my breakdown of the good, bad and ugly of greater Houston.

Good:

• Underrated local culinary scene on a national scale
• Strong job market
• Many well-paying jobs relative to cost of living
• Some inner city neighborhoods such as Rice Village, River Oaks, Montrose and the Heights haven't completely lost their personality and character
• Multicultural, multiethnic
• Memorial and Hermann are nice parks
• Decent cultural institutions
• Texas Medical Center
• Growing local brewing scene
• More pro-development than most major American cities; the only con I can think of of Houston's no-zoning mantra, and one of the few advantages I can think of of Texas being in bed with developers
• Friends: What few I've made here (and this place has a certain social "freeze" about it) have probably kept me from going insane
• Nice weather…but only during the 3-4 months each year it's actually nice

Bad:

• Local park and bike trail systems are underwhelming (apart from Memorial and Hermann)
• Regional beaches, especially Galveston, are disgusting
• Secondary streets are in bad shape in some areas, especially inside Beltway 8.
• Public transportation exists…but not really
• Tolls, tolls and more tolls
• Bush and Hobby are very depressing, "low-rent" airports (even considering Hobby's expanded, modern security area and Bush's remodel underway). Try flying even out of College Station, Austin, or D/FW, let alone Munich, Singapore, Istanbul, or Hong Kong; they put IAH and HOU to utter shame. Hell, even the infamous LAX still has an average international terminal.
• Flying to many other places is often more pricey than from Austin, D/FW, let alone the coasts – despite Houston being a major air hub
• Cost of living in some of the Houston region's most desired areas is gradually approaching the levels around cities like Seattle and Denver (cities that have actual natural beauty)

Ugly (a very non-exhaustive list):

• Summer: Lousy even by Southern standards
• Crime and the "physiology" of neighborhoods: Tl;dr – Though cities like Chicago and Detroit may have higher urban-core crime rates, Houston is an overall more violent overall metropolis**.** You see, it should also be noted that Chicago's and Detroit's suburbs are mostly quite safe. By contrast, Houston city limits' spread over some 600 square miles, and the ensuing, lower-density demographic spread, results in crime not being quite so concentrated. What's more, as cheaply-built "older" developments (25+ years) age, landlords care even less than before about those properties, and the upper-middle-class move ever outward for newer, shinier neighborhoods. The overall "physiology" of some "older" neighborhoods begin to deteriorate. A form of gradual, creeping, suburban decline has now begun to slowly inflict the peripheries of areas like Pearland, Katy and Cypress.
• Southeast Texans lack charm. I laugh whenever I hear Houstonians being described as kind, helpful and polite. It's also a very tough area in which to make friends, in large part due to the transportation system and general metropolitan layout.
• Awful, selfish, short-sighted, impatient, road-ragin' drivers who pull maneuvers I haven't seen even in Boston, NYC or Latin America. Especially you, Cody, Miguel or Karen in your Silverado, F-350, Tundra, Suburban, or Escalade.
• Generally trash culture that actively promotes anti-intellectualism and shuns any real sense of community pride
• Customer service: Some combo of inattentive, brusque, miserable, and/or outright rude. A region full of miserable drones who just angrily shout "Next!" at their customers; the absolute worst attitudes I've seen outside of possibly the urban Northeast and South Florida.
• Racial hostility: I've noticed this more here than in other cities, primarily by black and Hispanic people toward people who aren't like them. So much for the diversity perhaps…? (I easily made friends of numerous races on the West Coast.)
• Almost entirely, aesthetically unattractive city – both manmade and naturally
• No zoning in Houston, and few standards for cohesion and aesthetics are encouraged otherwise by other area governments – "becuz property raghts." A result? Areas such as Cypress (which is unincorporated), Magnolia, Pearland, Friendswood, etc. have little to make them distinct from one another. Preservation of old-town character in the suburbs isn't a thing, like it is around other cities; communities like, in this case, Spring, Tomball, Rosenberg and Richmond have really underutilized those opportunities.
• Flooding: Re: no zoning and no serious urban planning
• Long drive (2.5+ hours) from any other city of actual interest. With the possible exception of New Orleans, none of the others are that interesting after the first visit.
• Service/feeder roads are the bane of my existence (this is a statewide issue, though)
• Summer

After three years, I'm ready to check out. I still don't know what to make of Houston, other than just being a giant suburban blob of swampcrete and hostile locals. And, Texas hasn't made any really positively lasting impressions on me as far as land, people and culture. Off to a more suitable state I'll go next!

At least y'all have great brisket!