Quote:
Originally Posted by bilbao58
|
For many years I lived in the neighborhoods shown above near Rice University, and I was fortunate enough to be able to drive/walk/bike on these streets every day. It is the best looking area of Houston. However, our cars were always dirty year-round, from a combination of soot and dirt from nearby freeways, and heavy doses of pollen from the oak trees in the spring and early summer. I never realized how bad it was until I moved away, and I now rarely have to wash my car even once a month except during winter. Driving anywhere in Houston includes driving though extensive areas of road repair and construction, adding additional dust, dirt, and mud to your vehicle. A car wash barely lasts as long as your first trip back home, or a night in the driveway. Houston has no street cleaning plan for most streets/roads, and I never saw a street sweeper in my neighborhood in the 12 years I lived there. Lawn people regularly just blow debris and clippings into the street, to be spread by traffic. To add to that, the streets in the last couple of pictures also have egrets nesting above, and the streets and sidewalks below look like gallons of stinky white paint have been poured over them. And all this is in one of Houston's premier neighborhoods. Houston has consistently lacked a decent, comprehensive, continuous public maintenance plan for decades, leaving a patchwork of good/bad maintenance in public and private spaces. Not uncommon to see trash and car parts spread along freeway shoulders for weeks at a time, and in some roads dead dogs may remain just as long. Driving up US 59 from the south, you can see clear differences in maintenance and infrastructure as you approach Houston, a big contrast transitioning between spotless Sugar Land to less maintained Houston.