Houston, Texas
Houston is the largest city in Texas and the fourth-largest city in the United States. It is home to about 1,953,000 souls, according to the 2000 census. When the surrounding metropolitan area (Harris, Galveston, Fort Bend, Montgomery and Brazoria Counties) is included, that number jumps to over 4.6 million.
A Word about Houston
Houston is my home. It is the city where I was raised, the city where I was born, the city where my family lives, the city where Lori's family lives, the city that I constantly visited during my five years of exile in Austin, Lewisville and Denton, and, as of May 2002, the city that I once again live in.
Houston is much-maligned for its myriad problems: the horrible air quality, the traffic congestion, the unbearable summers, the incessant humidity, the lack of zoning laws, the collapse of local firms like Enron, the hordes of west-nile-infested mosquitos, the underacheiving sports teams, et cetera. A lot of people around the nation don't like Houston; they think it is a miserable hellhole and they wonder why anybody would live there.
As far as I am concerned, these people can go to Hell.
I like Houston. Despite all its problems, Houston is a wonderful and in fact very beautiful city. It is amazingly diverse, and there's never a shortage of things to do or see. Jobs are pentiful, the people are generally friendly and unpretentious, the cost of living is low and the food is great (Houston has one of the highest restaurant-to-person ratios in the nation). The wonderful springs and falls and the mild winters make up for the unbearable summers, and the city's good geographic location means that a wide variety of attractions, from the Texas Hill Country to the beaches of the Gulf of Mexico to the heart of Cajun country in Louisiana to the Mexican border, are all just a few hours away by car. Houston is home to one of the best non-Broadway theatre companies in the nation, one of the top medical centers in the entire world, and one of the best private universities in the country. Several Fortune 500 companies have their headquarters in Houston, and the city is generally regarded as the hub of the nation's energy economy. Houston's port is one of the busiest in the nation, and most of the gasoline that Americans use to power their cars was refined here.
Every city is unique; each has its own advantages and disadvantages and no city is perfect. But if Houston were really as crappy as some people would like to believe, why do so many people and businesses continue to call the city home? Four and a half million people call the Houston area home, and that number is growing everyday. Houston must be doing something right.
If you don't like Houston, good for you. Don't come live here. Don't even come visit. I really don't care. Your opinion about my city is meaningless. I like Houston, and as far as I'm concerned that's all that matters.
Links
Houston - information about the city
houstontx.gov - official site of the City of Houston
chron.com - the Houston Chronicle
houstonpress.com - the Houston Press
houstonitsworthit.com - read and see why
The picture is of the downtown houston skyline, as seen from the Philip Johnson-designed Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture building at the University of Houston.