5 Things That Suck About Lubbock

First off, I'm not saying "Lubbock Sucks".  You can make that determination on your own. There's good and bad everyplace.  For instance, could make a list about Austin and put "traffic" at the top of the list.  The second part is, I'm going to focus on the stuff that is within our control. That means, I'm not going to put dust storms or lack of water on this list. This is all stuff we could change if we wanted to.

So here's "Five Things That Suck About Lubbock"

5. The drive in from the airport. Lubbock is one of the cleanest, well-kept cities out there but you'd never know it driving in. The first thing you see are junkyards, steel buildings and a whole lot of nothing.  If somebody had to make judgement within ten minutes of landing at the airport, they'd get back on the plane.

4. The lack of "public spaces".  We have some pretty good parks, but if you're not into sports there's very little for you to do.  I recently read of a place that turned an old bridge into a public space with bike riding, street chess, and other fun stuff for people to do when walking around.

3. Almost no nightlife.  I don't know what it is about Lubbock, but people beyond college age don't seem to go out that much.  Compare that to a town like Austin where it's a regular thing for people of all ages to go out and see bands.

2. The town is too conservative.  We shunned Buddy Holly. We're still shunning Natalie Maines. The town does not leave itself open to new ideas and ways of doing things. There is a prevailing "if it was good enough for my daddy, then it's good enough for me" attitude. If someone tries to be different around here, they get shut down. Where this becomes a problem is, if we get a park, it looks like every other park. There's no innovation, no places for alternative sports, it's just the same old jungle gyms. We a diversity of ideas.

1. We have a small town mentality.  This is almost the same as number two, but it bears repeating, we don't dream big or outside of the box.  Heck, the painted cows in Plainview (which was a "borrowed" idea anyways) show more character than anything we have around here.  Taking this further, we as a community are not aggressive in promoting our city or bringing new business to this town.  I don't care how many departments we have "working on it", we do a lousy job of it.  We're not willing to spend money to make money whether it's to call on business that might move here, or to help build attractions here to make the city a more inviting place.

I'd like to conclude with the fact that I do love Lubbock, and I've put my money where my mouth is to try to make Lubbock a better, more fun and entertaining place.  I just wish we had city leaders with both the vision and the guts to stand up and keep this town moving forward, because it's been standing still for a long, long time.

Want proof of what I'm saying?  I took the picture/screenshot from a promotional film by Visit Lubbock (below).  It had 5,345 hits when I posted it.  That is EMBARRASSING.  If that's the best you can do to get the cities name out, you might as well pack it in. I could get more web hits with a video of a farting cat. I wouldn't blame Visit Lubbock or Civic Lubbock either, they are doing what they are charged to do. It's up to us to fund them, give them direction, and to build things and shape attitudes that they can promote to the outside world.