fpaulson

Castle Court is a nice street to live on if you want pretty good 59 access (it's not immediate; you'll have to cut over to S Shepherd if you want to hop on the freeway or take the spur to downtown), but you don't want to pay the premium you WILL pay if you live south of 59 (and thus closer to Rice and West U).

Be careful where you park your car, depending on where your building is; some chunks of Castle Ct and the surrounding area aren't the best, but they are still WAY better in contrast to many parts of Houston (around 288 for example).

Bissonnet goes through a decent bit of inner Houston, but the part near Rice in the West U area is particularly nice. It runs next to several quite affordable apartment complexes and house for lease and rent, and has quite a few quaint bookstores (Brazos and Murder by the Book, just to name a few) and other random gems on it. The food on the street is quite good, too.

Ashby Street was a favorite of mine to live on while living here and there in the West U area. The traffic and noise is minimal, there is a NICE park in the neighborhood, Rice Village is still very close, Rice University is just down the street, the neighbors are older and nice...the list goes on.

The neighborhood is now in the process of protesting Ashby High Rise (a development the people of the area believe, probably correctly, will cause a traffic spike), but it will probably be built anyways.

I'm sure the neighborhood and street will stay pretty great, though. If I could choose any place in Houston to move back to, it would probably be Ashby.

Definitely DO NOT speed on Buffalo Speedway. It is easily the biggest speed trap in West U...and the only major street in the area with a speed limit of 30, funnily enough.

Buffalo Speedway has two things it shares with much of the rest of West U, though: high prices but great convenience. The shopping center up Buffalo near US59 is one of the best in that part of Houston, and the neighborhoods flanking the speedway are uniformly immaculate. I'm sure actual residents love the overfelt presence of police in the neighborhood, but I think many teens and Rice students feel differently ;).

Southgate is an amazing street to live on in the West U area. I rented out a place that was on Southgate for about a year at one point; I was not disappointed in the least. In all the years I've lived in Houston (going on 11) I've never enjoyed a combination of convenience and lack of traffic more.

I lived off of Sunset for years while I attended Rice University in Houston, and let me tell you: awesome. Beautifully wooded basically throughout, room for biking, easy access to Main street and Montrose; and when I say WOODED, I really mean that. Just being around the Rice outer loop running track is nice...and it's open to the public. There is a good elementary school in the area, and police patrol the heck out of the street (out of the West U area in general because of how wealthy it is).

The disadvantage, of course, is the living price. Only River Oaks is equal to the price you'll pay to live along Sunset in West U.

I lived on Weslayan near Westheimer for years, and let me tell you -- the neighborhood is ridiculously expensive for Houston, but MAN is it convenient.

If you live in the Galleria area on Weslayan, that puts you within walking distance of Central Market and Highland Village for shopping, plus you get easy access to all the strip shops on Richmond. (You could actually bike to work if you worked in Greenway Plaza, too). Good vibe on the street, great access to stuff, not as insane as Kirby or Westheimer...highly recommended.

Polk street near the heights has character -- it really does. It provides good access to plenty of things (auto shops, a few restaurants in the heights area, and heights boulevard itself). I would recommend avoiding it if coming from 610 when during rush hour, but otherwise it has some cool shops on it, and the traffic otherwise isn't so bad. Go check it out!

Ah, Kirby Drive - it seems to get more crowded every day; on the other hand, that's because of how convenient it is accesswise when inner-loop in Houston, and how many shops and restaurants line it (outside of the residential areas, of course). The fact that it connects to Allen Parkway is a BIG plus, too; I am not sure how bad the traffic will eventually be, though - so far it seems to have no limit.

AVOID this street on weekdays from 3:30 to 6 if you can at ALL avoid it. The combination of tons of retail plus lots of construction makes for a pretty unhappy drive.

I've lived on W Alabama for about a year, and I must admit that I love it. The only downside is the traffic near the Galleria area at Weslayan...everything else is a HUGE plus. There is easy access to Whole Foods and Central Market, as well as tons of specialty shops and restaurants (vegans: try Field of Greens).