Okay, I'm just going to stand up for Houston here, since I've lived there three times in my life! When you are coming through on the highways, it's easy to just see the concrete, but there are very few places where a highway or convention center area will give you a true view of a city.
Houston has a range of large parks throughout the city, including Hermann Park and Buffalo Bayou; an amazing restaurant scene, both on the high end and the low end; world-class opera, symphony, and theatre options; a huge range of museums; a constant parade of shows from top performers; and excellent basketball and baseball teams (as well as pretty good football and soccer teams). It is one of the most culturally diverse cities in the United States, which also enriches all of the above. There are three official languages in the Houston Independent School District. You can probably guess two of them - English and Spanish. But can you guess the third? It is Vietnamese.
So, hmph.