A bigger version of Dallas. The 4th largest single city in the United States and largest city in Texas. America’s 7th largest metro area. As big as the Houston area is, it isn't even the largest in Texas. Dallas-Ft. Worth is the largest. It’s economy has a broad industrial base in energy, manufacturing of chemicals and petrochemicals, aeronautics (NASA is headquartered in the city), technology, biotechnology and healthcare and research institutions. It is home to the most Fortune 500 companies outside New York City. It’s numerous high-paying jobs followed by a low cost of liviing makes Houston a very easy city to live in. It is one of the fastest-growing metro areas in the country and is a classic example of urban sprawl gone ammock, like many Sun Belt cities including its rival, Dallas. Houston saw a surge of New Orleans refugees in September of 2005, after Hurricane Katrina. It is believed that its crime rate (already among the highest in the country) escalated rapidly after receiving the evacuees. Houston is almost an urban hell to live in because it has no zoning regulations whatsoever, thanks to its voters. Not suprisingly, it has the second-worst air pollution in the country after Los Angeles. For a city of such large size, Houston has very abysmal public transportation and just about everybody drives everywhere. The roads are overused, overcrowded, underfunded and in need of repair. Houston has among the youngest populations in the nation,partly due to an influx of immigrants (both legal and illegal) into Texas. It has the third-largest Hispanic and third-largest Mexican population in the United States. An estimated 400,000 illegal immigrants reside in Houston if you can believe it or not. That’s perhaps why the city has such a high crime rate. Houston, although not with a profile like the crowded East Coast cities, has just about everything: professional sports teams from every sport except hockey, museums, a theme park, tons of bars and nightclubs, an active nightlife, and ranks high in the arts. Houston is just damb big all over the place and an urban nightmare if you want to live there. It’s a nice place to visit or conduct business, but you don’t want to live there. Houston, we have a problem.
Houston is just too dam big and crime-ridden to be good for anything.
By krock1dk@yahoo.com