Help! I'm Moving to Houston

In no particular order here is a collection of the 10 greatest things about Houston.  This is in no way a complete list, if you feel something is missing let’s hear it!

1. No Zoning. The lax zoning laws in the city mean that everything you need, groceries, video store, Barnes & Nobles, restaurants and malls are scattered within a short distance from each other. No need to drive from one end of the city to the other in order to grab a taco, pick up the groceries, get your car serviced, meet up for a glass of wine with the ladies, and finish the day off with some Vietnamese pho noodle soup.
2. Spring/Fall Weather. Before and after the sweltering summer, Houston is actually a great place to live. This is confirmed by the large number of patio bars dotting the city where you will find people laughing it up in the sun during happy hour almost every day of the week.
3. Park and Trail System. During the mild spring or fall is an ideal time to enjoy the cities vast trails for biking, hiking and jogging. The city has been on a drive to connect many of the paved pedestrian paths and they now connect for several miles. You can actually bicycle from the Heights to downtown, then out through the Art Park and Memorial Park to the Galleria. Terry Hershey Park on the westside is even longer and stretches from the beltway 8 beyond highway 6 with constant additions being made.
4. Jobs. During the current recession, the Houston unemployment rate never rose above 8.8% for any month and spent most of the time at 6% to 7% while the country overall was at over 9% for most of the year. The large number of Fortune 100 companies located or based out of the city ensure a strong hiring surge when the recovery begins.
5. Great Variety of Food. Long known for the large quantity of high end restaurants (which is probably related to the size of the expense accounts of local companies) Houston has an enormous supply of family run ethnic  restaurants. Malaysian, Vietnamese, Himalayan, Pakistani, Indian, it is all here. Stop at one of the hundreds of little restaurants along Bellaire Blvd, and though you may not be able to find the country it was named for on the map, you will love the food and the prices.
6. Rice Village, Washington Ave, and Montrose Nightlife. Houston is not known as a very walkable city…until after dark. The newest nightlife is along Washington Avenue and the most famous bars are in Rice Village.  Montrose offers a good mix of places to eat and drink as well as some great themed bars.
7. Affordable Urban Housing. People often say Houston gets a bad rap, and it does. Combined with having plenty of suburban space for palatial family homes that means that there has been less attention by home buyers to many areas around downtown. There are few cities with over 5 million people where a couple with only a year or two out of college can afford to buy a home near downtown with a traditional mortgage.  Yet The Heights is filled with them.  Benefits are a short commute from a nice neighborhood and weekend barbecues with friends within a few blocks from home!
8. Flora and Fauna. Everything grows well in Houston. On my block we have citrus and papaya, massive oak trees with arching limbs, cactus, vines and great grass. Most people from out of town are surprised to realize that Houston is not a desert!
9. Parking. Being able to drive down to Minute Maid Stadium or Toyota Center only 15 minutes before an event and find free street or $5 paid parking only a couple blocks away is something most people in Houston take for granted. Not having to wait in a 45 minute traffic jam to exit the area is another. Retail stores tend to cater to all vehicles by having larger parking spots too. You know, the kind that allow you to actually open the door without having to see the chiropractor afterwards?
10. Get it Done Attitude.  Maybe we can thank the thousands of engineers and wildcat culture for this, but when Houstonians see a problem, they fix it, and they do it right. When the I-10 highway became clogged with traffic, the reconstruction project widened the road to 7 lanes plus an HOV lane in the worst affected areas slashing the commute time to Katy from downtown.  Where the intersection with other highways became to complicated, Houston built overpasses that would dwarf an aircraft carrier!

What are the things you love about Houston? Post your own list below.