Should Houston promote an annual TAMU-LSU football game? Houston's #1 Winner-Take-All-City Quotient, #2 std of living, innovation corridor, and more

Before getting to this week's items, an idea for Houston as we wrap up the college football regular season: just as UT and OU play each other every year at their midpoint in Dallas with the Texas State Fair all around them (quite the tourism boost for Dallas) - and now that TAMU is in the SEC with a new coach - has anyone considered trying to promote an annual TAMU-LSU game in Houston at NRG Stadium?  I think it would have a lot of potential given the numbers of alums of both schools here - high profile for the schools and a good tourism boost for the city.  And I could see a whole weekend of festivities around the event centered on downtown and midtown (like a mini Super Bowl).  Would love to hear thoughts in the comments... or if you know someone with the GHCVB please pass it along!

Moving on to this week's items:

• Houston punches above its weight higher than any other global city in Richard Florida's ranking of "Winner Take-All Cities".

"For each global city, and for the various categories of global cities, we calculate a “Winner-Take-All Quotient” (or WQ). This is a simple “over-representation ratio” that compares the share of the total amount of economic output, venture capital investment and/or, billionaires in a global city divided by its share of the world’s population.
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Indeed, the 20 largest global metros (by economic output) account for a considerably larger share of the global economic output than they do of global population (see Table 2). The WQ for these cities range from lows of 1.2 and 1.3 in Mexico City and Sao Paulo to highs of 4.5, 4.7, and 4.8 in New York, Washington, D.C., and Houston."

• Houston is still #2 behind San Jose in our second year of doing the COU Standard of Living rankings, with a cost-of-living adjusted real pay of $58,401 per job.
• Houston is also ranked #2 on this infographic for what size home you can get for $500k: 5,813 sq.ft at $86 per sq.ft.  A heck of a lot better than 986 sq.ft in SF or 1,351 in LA!  Hat tip to George.
• Post-Harvey update on the Houston housing market
• LA transit ridership losses lead national decline. So much for spending on rail to boost ridership...
• NYT expose on how incredibly dysfunctional their transit agency is. I know there are mixed feelings on METRO here.  I've certainly seen a mix of good (original red line, bus routes reimagining) and bad (new rail lines) decisions. This is why I think the right long-term answer to low-income mobility will be subsidies to private transportation-as-a-service providers as autonomous taxis and shuttles become incredibly cheap, just like we do now with food and housing vouchers.
• Michael Lewyn's notes on Houston at Market Urbanism. He finds our street grid, sidewalks, and density generally superior to Atlanta and other sun belt cities.
• Cautionary story about how Columbia Sportswear and other companies are pulling out of downtown Portland because of a growing homeless aggression problem.  I don't think Houston is there yet, but we certainly have a growing issue that needs to get addressed, especially in downtown and midtown.
• Regulation runs amok pinching supply and skyrocketing home prices in Toronto, which I think will kill any chances they had of Amazon HQ2.  Another cautionary tale.  Hat tip to Oscar.

Speaking of Amazon HQ2, I really like the new Houston proposal and the concept of the "innovation corridor" from downtown to the med center.  The video is especially well made.  I still think we're a longshot, but this is good stuff to share with any company that might consider coming to Houston.