Houston Strategies

• The Economist magazine profiles Houston.  Excerpt: 

"Paradoxically, perhaps the city’s biggest strength is its sprawl. Unlike most other big cities in America, Houston has no zoning code, so it is quick to respond to demand for housing and office space. Last year authorities in the Houston metropolitan area, with a population of 6.2m, issued permits to build 64,000 homes. The entire state of California, with a population of 39m, issued just 83,000... Joel Kotkin of Chapman University in California argues that thanks to cars, even over its vast size, Houston creates the same possibilities for people to meet and share ideas that generate wealth in denser cities such as New York. Sprawl may not be pretty—but it seems to work."

• Texas one of the happiest states in America: Makes a huge jump in new national rankings
• GHP's March at a Glance report is out with updates on job growth, energy, and construction.
• Houston ranked the #1 Best City for Foodies by Travel+Leisure
• YardMap, a crowdsourced mapping project for your yard and bird habitats. Hat tip to John.
• Houston #2 (behind Chicago) and Texas #1 for corporate relocations and expansions.  We've been #1 or #2 every year since 2011.  Houston had 265 new or expanded facilities.
• A glowing piece on Houston in Forbes, with a powerhouse recounting of all our accolades over the last few years.  Too many highlights to excerpt - read the whole thing: "Welcome To Houston, Texas - Still America's Economic Miracle"
• Houston #9 on Brooking's list of top advanced industry hotspots, but we're #2 behind DC in total numbers (#3 if you merge SF and San Jose).
• Forbes ranks Houston America's fastest growing city.  Good opening paragraphs about us, and then these factoids:

"Since 2009 the area has welcomed some 1,500 corporate relocations or expansions—and that’s just counting those that created 50 or more jobs, leased 20,000 or more square feet of office space, or invested $1 million or more in capital improvements.
...
In the past four years, greater Houston grew by half a million people—half from moves, half from births. Population growth means housing demand, and realtors sold more than 425,000 homes in the last five years, amounting to a home-closing rate of one every six minutes, according to the Greater Houston Partnership. What’s more, jobs boost construction, which is why last year Houston topped our list of Building Boom Towns: metro areas with the most new construction. 

What’s behind the boom, besides the obvious oil explosion? Exports. Between 2009 and 2013, the value of Houston’s exports grew 74.5%. More than 3,000 companies in greater Houston do business internationally, by Jankowski’s count, from oilfield services giant Schlumberger to Universe Technical Translation. The metro area is now the nation’s top exporter, ahead of New York, Los Angeles, Seattle and Detroit. "