It seems to be the American way. Just about every city in this country is filled with ugliness, mostly outside the inner city. The freeways are cluttered with strip mals, billboards, big box stores, etc.. People think they're not going to see that in Austin, because it has such a good reputation, but I-35 and U.S. 183 in Austin are just as hideous as what you find in other metro areas.

Inner cities are where you find the beautiful architecture and sights that don't hurt the eyes. In Texas, the inner cities of Austin, Houston, and Dallas, for example, and really, really nice. I've seen the same in most large America cities. At least we have that.

No downtown is complete until new ecosystems begin springing up through its empty parking lots, lol.

Thank you. Your pictures were well done and you have made me prouder of my hometown than ever!

and those newer buildings are at least 40 years old. :haha:

Thanks for the great looking photos Jeeper. With regard to MobyLL's post I am sorry to read about the devastating tornado. I can't help but think how apocolyptic Lubbock looks lacking any apparant liveliness.

San Francisco bans 'em all. But we have a special place for them. It's called Emeryville:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...fromhilton.jpg
Photo courtesy Wikipedia

;) ;) ;) ;)

Is there any chance the city will try and revive the downtown area? Or is it one of those situations where they've conceded it won't be anything and are trying to revive and support neighborhood retail (malls, chain stores) more than anything? Is there any nightlife at all downtown and if not, where do the Tech kids go to party?

The brick streets sure are cool. I'd be interested in seeing photos of other parts of town.

People in Lubbock don't care about bringing life to downtown since the city is dry. and most of the prettiness of Lubbock is at tech. and it is funny that Lubbock is a dry town since tech students are know for drinking and STD’s but it’s what gives Lubbock its feel, in a weird kind of way.

Also I would have to agree with nath05 this is a city that started in the 20th century, not in revolutionary days like the northeast. And jeeper was making a joke in the beginning it's kinda like an inside joke for Texans. And use some common sense people every town or city of descent size has strip malls and highways. this is America the home of strip malls and huge highway systems.

When you say dry, do you mean literally dry as in you can't buy alcohol at all?

Yes dry as in a dry county or dry city were you have to go outside of the city limits or to a neighboring county to buy any alcohol, at this moment I’m not sure about bars because I’m 19.

you can drink in bars in Lubbock. It's package sales that are prohibited. (one of the most maddening laws I've ever experienced) You can drink all you want in a restaurant or bar, but you have to drive ~20 minutes to find a liquor store.

Nightlife is most concentrated in the depot district, which can actually get pretty wild on Thurs/Fri/Sat when school is in session. There's probably 20-30 bars/restaurants down there. The rest of the nightlife is scattered throughout the town. Keg parties are popular, and the greek stuff is pretty widespread around campus.

I get the feeling that Lubbock, as viewed by other Texans, is the Toledo Ohio of the Texas republic? :shrug:

Nevertheless, interesting photos. Please post the Tech pics! :tup:

Lubbock catches hell, but I think there's at least a few other cities in Texas that are guilty too. Midland comes to mind here. Midland is actually looking to demolish several of their mid rises from the 50s and 60s because they're completely vacant. I read somewhere that some of the 10 and 12-story buildings there are for sale and are only asking $100,000 for them! There's at least 3 buildings that are being considered for demo. And to think that back in the 70s and 80s the place was booming. I read that at one time Midland had three 500 footers planned, one of them was to be designed by I.M. Pei. :eek:

Odessa, its neighbor to the west is right now demolishing one of its tallest buildings, a 10-story office building.

Amarillo, Abilene, Waco, Beaumont and Tyler on the other hand are encouraging. They've made strides in renovating old buildings and encouraging downtown living. These still have a way to go, but it's awesome that that these small and mid-sized cities are at least making the effort while others give up. Beaumont and Tyler still have a ways to go compared to the others, but they're headed in the right direction at least with their efforts.

I really have to give props to Waco. They have several mid rise residential buildings in downtown. One building which is an old office building from the 1920s had 3 extra floors added and is now completely residential. Another building is a residential building geared towards students from Baylor University. And their 2nd tallest which used to be a hotel originally, then was used for senior citizen living, is now being renovated and will contain residential, some office, retail and restaurant space. Their old Hippodome Theatre is still open in downtown. They also have a downtown plaza and bus stop. And the downtown is anything but vacant. There's plenty of shops and restaurants. Still, you don't see a huge amount of people on the street, although, I'm usually there around Thanksgiving, so that might be why.

Even Abilene is encouraging. I've been downtown as late as midnight in January with the temperature at like 25F with ice in the trees and people were still hanging out in the clubs downtown. Their old downtown theatre, (the name escapes me), is still in use. Outside of downtown, though, Abilene is fairly suburban, even rural just on its edges. But it's still one of the only cities in Texas period, that their 2nd tallest is used for residential purposes. Even the big cities can't brag about such things, (though Austin is trying). ;)

nath05 -- good points here -- I never thought of it this way, but you're right, Lubbock really is kind of an ideal petri dish for anyone studying typical American suburban development over the last 80 years or so.

KFT - One aspect about Lubbock that is different from most other mid-size Texas cities is that it is not on major interstate route. Amarillo (I-40), Midland/Odessa, Abilene (all I-20), Waco (I-35), Beaumont (I-10) -- Lubbock has I-27 which basically just connects it to Amarillo. I may be over analyzing this, but I really think this fact contributes to the sort of isolated, provincial (sorry) feel to Lubbock. Lubbock is bigger and has a major university which Amarillo does not (West Texas State is relatively small and about 15 miles south in Canyon), yet somehow Amarillo has always seemed more "interesting" (at least to me).

here's a few hopefully honest pictures of Lubbock. Really unremarkable, but not as bad as depicted by the thread starter:

the 34th Street strip.
http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d1...g?t=1183944071

A typical 'inner city' neighborhood around 28th Street or thereabouts.
http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d1...g?t=1183944182

Another shot of an inner city home:
http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d1...g?t=1183944252

The fringe growth. This is the intersection of 98th and Indiana
http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d1...g?t=1183944768

A typical newly developed neighborhood around 98th Street. Anonymous brick boxes with very little character, but you find those almost everywhere.
http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d1...g?t=1183944327

A wealthy area in the furthest reaches of the metro area. This is in one of the few 'suburbs' a small town called Wolfforth. (That has to be the ugliest house I have EVER seen...
http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d1...g?t=1183944406

New student housing. This place is the incarnation of all that is evil and dehumanizing about suburbia. Believe it or not, it's actually quite a popular place to live.
http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d1...g?t=1183944488

I don't have all that many pictures of Lubbock anymore...my computer crashed a few months ago and I'm obviously a little far away from the place now.

I have. The Southwest Freeway is said to be the busiest highway in America and for sure the busiest in Texas, but at it's widest it's only 12 lanes +1 HOV lane. From what I have seen, the Katy Freeway expansion will take it up to 12 lanes. Big for sure, but there is bigger to be found outside the state.

As much as I hate highways and as much as I love Austin, it pains me to say that there are times when driving through Austin that I wish I-35 was 16 lanes wide. I hate being parked on 35 in Round Rock. :hell:

When I pulled up in the lot, he thought I was about to run him off. I told him I just wanted to shoot some photos of him skating with that great backlighting. He was cool with it. He said his name was Michael and he was a 17 year old who just dropped out of high school.


Okay, and about my photos. I've never claimed to be a complete city photographer, nor a suburban or college campus photographer. I like to take photos of city centers and commercial districts. I tried to make it clear in my original post that I acknowledge that Lubbock has some decent parts of town, but I don't care for taking photos of houses, dorms, and strip malls.

I don't hate Lubbock, but I don't like it very much either. The city, with the exception of the newer exurbs, are dirty and I would be willing to bet there there are as many asphalt parking lots as there are people there. Lubbock flaunts Texas Tech because it has nothing else to offer. The city hasn't seen any significant growth in many years, and it's easy to see driving down any of the main avenues (19th/34th/50th/Ave Q, etc) and see all the abandonment.

This huge project that the city is undertaking, namely the demolition of the so called Tech Slum area and the new housing and commercial zoning that will take it's place, might turn that around, but I think that the fact that the city is not sitting on a major Interstate and has few large employers (aside from Covenant and Tech) will keep the city from ever becoming anything special.

One last thing, if Texans from not one city, but basically cities from all over the state have bad opinions on Lubbock, couldn't that mean that there's something to all those Lubbock jokes?

Thanks for all the discussion in this thread. It was a pleasant surprise to come home from a trip and see that it had hit 4 pages.
:)

That's actually not bad architecture. They need a landscaper, though!

Kevin you are a godsend and this is for the Abilene comments. the old theater is called the Paramount Theater. I think your right about Abilene being or is one of the few cities in Texas were the second tallest building(and yes it towers at a mind-boggling 200ft ;) ) is a residents tower. It has had many names like the Abileneian or the Windsor hotel but it is called the Wooten hotel for now.

Great pics!! Rough looking city.