WSJ does Houston, accolades, segregation, and more
The queue of smaller misc items has been growing quickly, so let's get to a few of 'em...- The Wall Street Journal does an admirable job with their weekend travel guide to Houston. The "Mutt City" nickname could grow on me...
- Jessie has put together a pretty cool Google Map that overlays the core of Manhattan over, essentially, our "Walled Garden" area of town, showing them to be pretty similar in size (if not population).
- Great profile of the vibrant startup scene in Houston in Entrepreneur magazine.
- Dallas and Houston are the least segregated large U.S. cities, according to a study. Chicago is the most segregated. Hat tip to Jessie.
- The Urbanophile on the rise of DC as America's "Second City" based on "the regulatory superstate". It's enough to make you nauseous...
- Houston ranks among the Top 10 Cities for Small Business.
- Pretty cool zoomable dot-map of every person reported in the U.S. Census. After each zoom, you'll need to give it a minute to render the new detail. As you zoom in on Houston, you can definitely make out the higher and lower density parts of town, even individual apartment complexes and residential towers. Note the very low density of River Oaks and the west-side villages. And I'm guessing that very high density dark splotch in north downtown is the jail district...
- Houston makes it to #4 on the Milken 2012 Best Performing Cities list, behind San Jose, Austin, and Raleigh - moving up from #16 last year. Our stats are here and here's their report blurb on us:
Assets:
» Booming energy sector contributes to broader job gains.
» Major companies relocate operations to create headquarters in Houston.
Liabilities:
» Oil price volatility and future of the Keystone XL pipeline project can have significant implications.
Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, Texas, climbed 12 positions to fourth place. Driven by oil and gas exploration and supporting industries, the metro’s long-term job growth was eighth-highest in the nation. For the year that ended in May 2012, the same statistic clocked a 3.5-percent gain—15th best in the U.S. This metro’s energy business yielded a tremendous ripple effect throughout the regional economy. While the core industry created nearly 7,000 jobs in 2011, another 30,000 were spawned to support its growth. Among them were positions in administrative, professional, and technical services; machinery and fabricated metal product manufacturing; and nonresidential construction.
Houston’s virtues as a base for business—a favorable regulatory climate, extensive trade and distribution infrastructure, and strategic location along the Gulf of Mexico—retain their appeal. Planning to consolidate its operations in and around Houston, energy giant Exxon Mobil is building a campus on 385 acres that will eventually house more than 10,000 employees, and BP will relocate portions of its San Francisco and Chicago operations to Houston. That will boost demand for office space as well as the area’s employment base. Other companies are doing the same.
Labels: census, density, economy, entrepreneurship, identity, rankings, tourism
posted by Tory Gattis @ 6:13 PM
1 Comments:
I think the analyst who noted that Keystone XL's uncertain future could have implications was just trying to think of something unassailable to say. I think Houston's own success runs a much higher risk of being its enemy. Houston's Far West is more and more like Far North Dallas, and its talent seems to flock to the large corporate employers instead of Mutt City startups. This kind of cushy complacency has a hidden cost. There are fewer and more diffuse, not necessarily more, artistic nooks of town as real estate pressure increases. I would like to see the city of Galveston be our secret weapon, our houseboat, but the Mitchells already have their hands full.
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