These are actual quotes taken from the www.turnleft.com website. (It claims to be the home of liberalism)
Right_on apologizes if you are offended by the content of this page. But, as a good conservative, and in an effort to be fair to all , I feel it is my duty to print comments from the liberal point of view.
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It's hard to condemn 4 million people,
so I won't. Just most of them. Houston is of course in Texas, so that's
your baseline. People down here still mainly use hair length to figure
out your sex (which, on the bright side, works great for transgendered
people who can simply cut or grow their hair to cross the line). The local
residents put their recycling in the trash and their trash wherever they
please, then pave over it all so they can operate more cars simultaneousy.
Houston's transit authority got a lot of money for building commuter rail,
then decided they didn't even want to do a test installation on already-existing
tracks to see if it would be accepted -- it all went to the freeways. Not
that I think people _would_ accept public transit around here. If you _are_
on a bus, you're pretty much guaranteed not to be white, too.
Most of the economy is based on oil and aerospace, so you can't really
speak out in public about the link between cars and poor air quality (second
worst in the nation), nor can you insinuate that building lots of jet fighters
might be a bad thing. Beef is a staple, as you would expect, and if you
say you're vegetarian people serve you chicken instead.
Don't even ask about the suburbs.
On the other hand, in the section of town called "Montrose" you can find
lots of rainbow flags, one of the nation's five main Pacifica radio stations,
veg-friendly shopping, and other modern conveniences. This is where the
Texan hippies retreated to if they couldn't make it to Austin for one reason
or another (i.e. they couldn't handle not being able to find a job for
the rest of their lives), so at least there's a local area to hole up in
when George Bush, Jr. wins another term.
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Well, as a resident of Houston for
20 years now, I can tell you that it has changed dramatically. There are
many liberals here, and although the government is still mostly conservative,
we are making strides in that arena too.
There are many gays and lesbians here who live out in the suburbs, such
as Katy, Tx. and Sugar Land, Tx. There are many clubs that cater to all
persuasions, and don't have a problem with their clientele getting along...
some are even in the suburbs!
Montrose is the best: the 3rd largest gay population in the U.S. live in
Houston. Gay Pride week is celebrated by gays, bis, and straights alike.
We have a Gay/Lesbian Yellow Pages directory (360 pages!) filled with businesses
that are owned by or cater to the gay and lesbian community. The GLPC is
a very strong voting minority in city and county elections.
Religious tolerance... well, let's just say we still have a bit of work
do to there... if you aren't Baptist, you're going to hell according to
a lot of people. Being an atheist, I've had some unpleasant encounters with
"well meaning Christians" trying to shove their religion down my throat.
But that happens just about everywhere.
Our industry has become more and more diverse... Houston is home to Compaq
computers, BMC Software, the *world's* best medical center. High tech industry
is definitely one of our strong points, and brings in more people from
other areas who don't have a "redneck" mentality. The stereotypical "racist,
sexist, homophobic redneck-types" still exist, but most of them live in
Pasadena... and who would ever want to go there, with all the air pollution
from the chemical plants? The auto pollution from the freeways pales in
comparison!
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I can start with one thing about Houston. GET ME OUT OF HERE! Without a car, on the west side of Houston (Rather far from the interesting Montrose district.) you get a small taste of what the right-wingers keep spouting off about this 'Hell' place. I live in an apartment complex with 48 units. At least 16 of the cars in the parking lot have 'Jesus Fish' on them.
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You can give us credit for electing
our first racial minority (African-American) Mayor (Lee Brown), who
from the get-go sought the gay endorsement (both HGLPC & Log Cabin
Republican). He didn't get it the first time around, but after Brown prevailed
in the general, he again sought the endorsement for the run-off (and got
it). Of course, it was hard to keep the bigots focused on Brown's gay-friendly
attitude when they were spending so much energy focusing the bigots on
his race, and on the fact that we had an OPENLY gay candidate for City
Council, running at large. The good news is that Annise Parker, who was
consistently identified in our daily paper as a "gay activist" or "lesbian",
won handily... more friendly stuff about HOUSTON! Parenthetically it should
be noted that A LOT more blacks voted for the lesbian, than gays voted for
the black mayoral candidate. In fact, in spite of the fact that a well-respected
leader of the Houston gay community was on the ballot, running city-wide,
with a well-organized campaign, only 27% of registered voters in Montrose
voted? You tell me what happened!
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Polluted waterways, insane and viscious drivers, murders to spare, yearly obsession with Rodeo, driving 50 miles to get anywhere, super-high car insurance rates, and no zoning (church-porn shop-school-bar in someone's garage -- all next to each other), insane religious scence (Lakewood Church)
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Here are some of my observations about Houston. Houston is one of the most diverse cities in America for its size. Approximately 30% African American, 30% Hispanic, 30% White and 10% Asian. Most everywhere you go, you see people of color, not at all like most progressive cities, like Madison, WI. It's refreshing. But Houston, in my opinion, is polarized by race. The south believes in race, as a categorical unit. Often, the members of each race seem to act like they are simply too different from one another. There appear to be few interracial groups that are active.
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I recently had the displeasure of moving to Houston. I have never seen so much pornography and alcohol advertising in my life. Everywhere, in the mail, on billboard, in people's conversation, on bumper stickers, is stupid born-again Christian advertisement. There will be a billboard advertising the MegapleXXX, then one right next to it advertising some or another Southern Baptist church. I wish that stupid Texas would realize that the world is changing, and when someone says "God loves his children" it doesn't only mean male, heterosexual, Republican, born-again Baptists who drive pickup trucks and don't "sin".
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I grew up in Houston and then came to Austin to go to college. After living in Austin for a few years and appreciating the differences between this fine city and my hometown, and I would strenously object to Houston being considered a "liberal-friendly" town. Houston is run by old money cronies from River Oaks, new money jerks from the suburbs, and corporations. The entire central area of the city has been abandoned as the whites have fled to the suburbs, leaving ghettoes for the minorities. This is an area that elected Bill Archer, Tom DeLay, and Steve Stockman to Congress. Pollution is awful, but its not on the public policy agenda whatsoever. Unlike Austin, that has vocal pro-environment, gay-rights, etc. activist groups, the liberal voice is rarely heard in Houston. The Chronicle and the news stations are puppets for the moneyed interests that run the city. Fans of the city point out that Montrose is a liberal, artsy neighborhood with a large gay population. While this area is one of the few nice enclaves it is also where all of the far too frequent incidents of gay-bashing occur. TX is a bad state for liberals, and Houston is a bad city for liberals. I will never spend more than two weeks at a time there for good cause. While Houston didn't seem that bad growing up, travelling to other parts of the country and living in Austin have given me a different perspective.
