Space Age City


This is the fourth largest city in America where there are about four million people in the greater metro area. Forget those stereotypes about cowboys. This is one of America's most cosmopolitan and ethnically diverse cities. There are numerous shops/restaurants that represent the communities of Korea, Vietnam, El Salvador, Colombia, Nigeria, India, the Philippines, China, Thailand, Greece, Israel, Japan, Mexico, Cuba, Lebanon and a whole host of other countries. In fact, there are over 65 consulates representing countries from around the world. Some 85 languages are spoken here. Houston has a mighty huge suburban Asian area along in the Southwest (the New Chinatown area with a New Little Saigon along a parallel street). There are also a small scale downtown Chinatown, a mid-town Little Saigon, many Latino commercial districts, a Little Korea, a Little India/Pakistan and of course, there are lots of miscellaneous boulevards that offer various international stuff, from pho to Thai fashions to Filipino caldereta to Ethiopian groceries to pupuserias to taquerias to Taiwanese ice cream shops. It's pretty doubtful that other more highly regarded new power cities like Atlanta (just because they got the '96 Olympics?) and Dallas (just because of the Cowboys and J.R.Ewing?) can match this sort of representation. While those cities are probably known more as national cities, Houston is definitely America's SE quadrant gateway to the world. .

The Allen brothers from New York founded this town a long time ago. But this is the new millenium so that doesn't matter anymore, does it (not that Houston cares about history anyway)? This is a town that has a Medical Center with a myriad of research facilities, business offices, universities and hospitals that is a downtown environment all its own replete with glitzy hotels, lobbies and inter-connecting tunnels. VIPs and patients from all over the world come here (not New York, not L.A.) to receive treatment from the world's most advanced medical city. And the Med. Center is another engine which makes Filipinos come here in droves.

Houston is pretty unique in that it has no zoning. It's not unusual to drive down San Felipe and see a tall skyscraper looming over a well-manicured neighborhood beyond the boundaries of downtown. That Houston has several distinct skylines because of no zoning gives it a high-powered concrete sprawl. Some say no zoning is bad, some say it is good. All I know is that you won't find those huge, bulky ghettos of Chicago or New York City here. And no zoning gives more opportunities for Houston's multi-ethnic population to mix. (Beat that segregated Chicago!) Houston is also unique in that it offers the most regal of cabarets featuring a Texas tradition, beautiful women, (basketball star Charles Barkley once said Houston has the "best damn bars in America" during his 76er days; ladykiller Fabio also once stated that Houston is the city that had the beautiful women and came here because of that when he was 16) and yet it is one of America's more vocal gay cities. According to one gay City Councilman, he did not know of any other city outside of West Hollywood in L.A. that had as many gay council people as Houston. Houston might vote, more or less, moderate Republican in a capitalist sense but it surely is not conservative in the social sense.

Houston seems to be a composite of different places in the USA. It has the extreme freeway-driven sprawl of LA but still has the symmetrical center of a Chicago yet doesn't have very many true suburbs. Houston is a true king-size regional hegemon unlike Atlanta, Los Angeles, Detroit, Chicago and Dallas which are buried by suburban cities. Some places like the Rice Village and River Oaks Center remind one of West LA. Houston's downtown has a true genuine urban chic that LA, Atlanta, Dallas and other Sun Belt cities seem to lack in their downtowns. And Houston also has the cool entertainment areas that are well outside the urban core (unlike the compact East Coast cities) but still in the same city limits. Unlike Atlanta and Dallas (or New York or Chicago for that matter), Houston also has nice Gulf Coast scenery and attractions that make one be reminded of Florida's Sarasota/Bradenton or Tampa Bay area (albeit maybe not as pretty as the Sunshine State's).

So Houston is a fun place to live with a balance of things. It's been listed as the 7th best restaurant city in the USA (ahead of Dallas, Atlanta, Miami, Seattle, Philadelphia, D.C.) by the most knowledgeable and traveled food critic, John Mariani. H-town may not be the obvious tourist place like Orlando, Las, Vegas, San Francisco or New Orleans but that's OK. As noted earlier, how many cities can claim to have three different skylines in their city limits? And though rather prejudicial people may say Houston's weather is too hot (only true for four months of the year, the other eight are fairly nice and comfy) and there is no superficially beautiful scenery, the fact is neither New York nor Chicago have natural beauty and no one seems to badmouth Florida for being "too hot" weather-wise. I would also add that Houston's Clear Lake, Woodlands and Memorial Park areas give the city a diverse natural beauty not to be found as much in NY or Chi-town. I hear a lot of African and European accents and have seen a lot out-of-state plates here, so we get our fair share of visitors.

And Houston's geographic location is convenient also. It's nice to be able to get to our cool extended suburbs like Austin (2hrs), San Antonio (3hrs), Dallas/Ft.Worth(4hrs), Galveston(45 mins), the Rio Valley area(6hrs) and New Orleans(6hrs) when we want to.

Unlike other Sun Belt cities, it is a fact that Houston is one of only four cities in the United States to have permament world class companies in the performing arts like the opera, ballet, symphony and theater (for those who can afford them). Houston's Museum District is highly regarded also (only one of three cities with any such diverse district for a variety of museums). In all, Houston isn't a bad place to enjoy life. Surely I wish it could be more like Seattle or San Francisco in terms of social spending and concern but no state taxes in Texas doesn't help that cause.

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