Houston Strategies

• Houston's Prop 1 drainage and roads fee is featured in this Wall Street Journal story (and it's among their most popular articles): WSJ.com - Strapped Cities Hit Nonprofits With Fees.  My feeling is that it's just like any other utility nonprofits pay for.  They pay for electricity and water, why shouldn't they pay to have the runoff from their land properly disposed of just like their trash and sewage? (although if they increase permeability or have retention ponds, they should get credit for that)  They also benefit from being on the road grid just like they do from being on the electricity and water grids.
• A writer lays out the case for living in Texas over New York, albeit with a Dallas bias: "Deep in the heart of taxes: Why I won't move to New York", NY Post.  Hat tip to Joel Kotkin for the heads up.
• The Wall Street Journal names a TV commercial for Rice University one of the best of the year.  It's based on JFK's famous 1962 'go to the moon' speech from Rice Stadium.  Alums will definitely find it moving, although I think all Houstonians should be proud.
• According to Forbes, Houston is the #1 shopping city in America (NY Daily News story, Houston specifics)  I think this reinforces my case about Houston's incredibly high standard of living because of above average incomes with the lowest cost of living of any major city in America.  That means we have the discretionary income to shop, and the lack of zoning means it's plentiful and hyper-competitive.  Hat tip to Jessie.

"Houston comes in at No. 1 one the list. “Houston might be a big city, and sure you can spend days buying up the shopping malls, but for me the best thing has always been the boutiques that are somehow both 100% Southern and completely chic,” says stylist Kate Barash, a Houston native now living in Los Angeles."