Living in Houston: The Pros and Cons
Houston is the nations fourth largest city with a population of approximately 2.4 million. However, as the city continues to grow with the help of booming industries and low housing costs, it is expanding well past the Houston city limits. As of 2017, the population of the Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land metro area is nearly seven million. Because of its proximity to Central America, and the appeal of its many economic opportunities, it has also recently become the most diverse city in the U.S. Over the past century, Houston has experienced growth surpassing that of Los Angeles and Chicago. Despite their second and third place standings on the list of the countries largest cities, the growth or decline of these two cities is important. While LA has continued to experience population growth every year since its beginning, the figures for the past ten years reflect smaller changes. These changes are tens of thousands of people less than Houstons numbers. Chicago is the third largest city, but with its high crime rates and history of corruption, it is no longer seeing the growth that it did in its early years. Instead, for the past sixty years, five out of six of those decades have seen tremendous loss.
Houston is booming, in a time when many other large cities are plateauing. People are flocking to the bayou city to take advantage of a plethora of jobs, low gas prices, and reasonable cost of living.But what does this mean for long time residents? As the suburbs surrounding Houston continue to grow further out in all directions to accommodate for its growing population, adverse annoyances are very apparent. Perhaps the most obvious, is the hellish commute times during rush-hour traffic. This is not only a clear sign that we are reaching capacity, but also the reason for another one of Houston’s biggest problems. Construction.
Native Houstonians can attest to the fact that this city has been under construction for as long as they can remember. As many began looking forward to the completion of highway 290, the closure of 59 south became the newest headache for commuters. With a huge lack in public transportation and suburbs that average thirty to forty miles from Houstons metro area, getting around is a hassle. In 2004, Houston launched METRORail, a train system that serves downtown and several surrounding neighborhoods. In addition to this, Houston also boasts a bus system that travels beyond the rail system and intended to serve the outlying communities. However, as the city has grown, the Houston Metro bus map has failed to expand to keep up. In 2015, plans were approved to move forward with a new reimagined map. Unfortunately, this map still does not include service in Sugar Land, Katy, Cypress, Tomball, The Woodlands, Humble, Atascocita, South Houston, or Pasadena.
As Houston continues to build to account for its growing population, new housing developments are springing up practically overnight. Houston has no zoning laws and very loose land use regulations. This essentially means builders are allowed build whatever they want, wherever they want. Including on the wetlands needed by a city situated on a coastal plain to protect against large amounts of rain and flooding. While Houston does have an extensive bayou system connected to creeks, rivers, and smaller tributaries, laying cement over grounds that could absorb rather than collect water, is problematic. As we have seen time and time again, flooding is a major issue in this city that is seemingly only getting worse and more widespread. Areas that had never experienced flooding, were swallowed during the catastrophic flooding brought by Hurricane Harvey.
These are cons that can be managed, and ones that have clearly not deterred herds that are moving here for the pros. Houston is, for a lack of better terms, a melting pot. Its diverse cultures and ways of living are admirable. The University of Houston is a great reflection of the cities diversity. UH is ranked 73 out of 2,486 on a list of most diverse colleges in the nation. In addition to being ethnically and racially diverse, Houston is number two, only behind New York City in U.S. cities with the most fortune 500 companies. This doesn’t include the countless other employers stationed in and flocking to Houston. The opportunities that this presents is a huge pro and most peoples reason for choosing to call Space City home.
