18 Facts That Make Houston The Best City In America

BI ^ | 7-1-2014 | Emmie Martin and Max Nisen

[blam]

Emmie Martin and Max Nisen
July 1, 2014

When you think about Houston, Texas, you probably picture massive oil refineries, oppressive humidity, and a sub-par baseball team — a far cry from one of the nation's most up-and-coming cities.

But you shouldn't dismiss Houston so easily; the Bayou City is an economic juggernaut.

It's by far the country's No. 1 job creator and home to 26 Fortune 500 companies. A paycheck goes farther here than anywhere else in the country, and it has a medical center larger than downtown Dallas.

Add a thriving restaurant and cultural scene, and you've got a winning case for Houston as the best city in America. Here are 18 reasons you may want to pack your bags and head south.

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[notdownwidems]

Best of all, it’s less than six hours from New Orleans

I wouldn't exactly call that a good thing...or are you being sarcastic? Also as someone else mentioned, the Houston traffic is UNBEARABLE!

Give me LA (lower Alabama) any day!

[Secret Agent Man]

yeah i was told austin and houston were IN Texas but weren’t Texas...

[Paine in the Neck]

Isn’t Sheila Jackson Lee from Houston?

She represents Houston but she's from Queens, NY.

[yetidog]

I will say this (and not regretfully) that all college classmates that I knew who flocked to Houston some 40 plus years ago are today multi-millionaires. I am sure this does not hold 100% true considering I did not know all my classmates.

[Jewbacca]

It’s like a muggy suburb of Hell.

[henkster]

OK, so everybody is bashing Houston here. I have family in Houston and farther down the coast; we go visit two or three times a year.

Climate? Yeah, it sucks. Unless you go there from November to February.

“Undesirable” people? Sure, but you could find them on the far side of the Moon. They’re everywhere.

Gay Mayor? OK, but you can find that in Chicago, it’s been in San Fran, and most other big cities have communist mayors anyway.

Crappy sports teams? Hey, I’m a Cubs fan. I was born with low expectations. No hockey, though. That’s a big black mark.

On the upside:

Plenty of shooting ranges. Having guns isn’t a problem. If you know someone out in the country, you can go hog shooting for the hell of it.

Nice BBQ.

And for the real reason:

JOBS. Follow the money. Houston is a boom/bust town. If you drive through town you can see the boom cycles in the ages of the neighborhoods and the commercial development. Right now, it’s booming.

Go get yourself a piece of the action while you can.

And however bad you may think it is, it’s not North Dakota.

[Jewbacca]

You pro-islaimist lesbian mayor is certainly very special.

[Milton Miteybad]

You should have been here in 1978, when most of the freeways were only six to eight lanes (four main lanes, four feeder lanes.) People would carry large sun umbrellas, lawn furniture and coolers full of beer in the trunks of their cars for the inevitable traffic jams that would have traffic completely stopped for hours and backed up for dozens of miles. People would get out and have a picnic waiting for the cops to clear the accident up ahead. During that boom, it was easier for a businessman to hire (or buy) a helicopter to get to his meetings than gamble on arriving on time via car or taxi.

These days, traffic in Houston is a breeze, comparatively speaking.

[Uncle Chip]

and one fact the other way — FIRE ANTS

[IllumiNaughtyByNature]

LOL, this was the Onion! I knew it!

[uncommonsense]

Wink, wink...

[AppyPappy]

” I hear Appalachia is nice.”

VERY nice

[The KG9 Kid]

I landed at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in the middle of August, walked through the air conditioned terminal towards the rental car transport buses, and when the double sliding glass doors opened up to let me experience Houston's outside temperature and humidity it was like the gates of Hell opened up in front of me with the dark lord himself standing outside laughing and waggling his tongue and making the heavy metal 'devil' sign with his fingers as flames erupted around him.

Only indication of how bad the weather would be was when deplaning from the aircraft into the terminal jetway and I felt the oppressive heat leaking through the narrow gap between the plane and the boarding ramp like escaping radiation from a meltdown fission reactor's core.

I had a brand new rental car with AC/Delco air conditioning and it did next to nothing even at full blast at highway speeds. Only place I've ever been where I experienced *hot* rain.

At home they asked "How was the weather in Houston?". I said "Absolutely satanic. Like living in a hot shower for a week."

I don't care if Houston's streets are paved with gold. No way I could live there.

[GeronL]

Did Sheila Jackson-Lee make Houston the best city?

[AppyPappy]

With a name like Jackson-Lee, she has to be a proper Southern Belle.

[Milton Miteybad]

Mayor Porker is Houston's problem. Miteybad hangs his hat in a neighboring suburb in west Harris County, and has little at stake in a mayoral race in Houston proper.

To be fair, however, Mayor Porker, for all of her peculiarities, does appear to be an able administrator, even if she isn't the second coming of Oscar Holcombe (a former Houston mayor.)

[South40]

Houston ranks #7 in the nation with the worst air pollution.

http://www.stateoftheair.org/2013/city-rankings/most-polluted-cities.html

[dfwgator]

Yeah, but we’ve got a hockey team!

[Grampa Dave]

Your description of Houston below is probably the main reason that so many well off Houston people buy homes in N California to live in after they retire. We know of 3 couples that fit that description. One couple a few years ago, moved in. They have gotten two other couples to move in and more are coming.

As of a few weeks ago, cash home buyers in our area had Texas, mainly Houston people and Asian as the # 1 buyers.

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The real Houston:

Angry natives (blacks)

Horrid heat and humidity

Drunk Hispanics everywhere

Out of control Hispanic children flooding every local event (zoo is barely tolerable)

Little to do beyond drugs and alcohol. Unless you like to hike in a swamp and get attacked by illegal immigrate mosquitos (Asian tiger mosquitoes)

The only thing this city has going is the job market.

[luckystarmom]

You forgot to mention the mosquitos. On top of that, the traffic!!