Houston (and San Francisco) To Become America's Next Dominant Cities (Austin: job market, luxury)

[ToyYot]

Originally Posted by bu2

When people say Houston has no outdoor activities, its totally wrong.

Now if you say Houston doesn't have mountain hiking, that's true.

There is some great mountain biking, just not very much of it.

[radiolibre99]

Originally Posted by Jack Lance

Lets not get bogged down in minute bickering over city park space. This thread is about which economic model will win eventual domination over the American economy, or will peace be made at some point? Both have footholds in the others state. Austin is basically a San Francisco outpost and California Energy development is being run from Houston. My guess is there will be enough cross pollination of the two economic models that at some point they meld into one more cooperative synergistic model

I think this is the fabricated big issue the magazines like to sell the public. The financial rags have been playing up this ridiculous California vs Texas rivalry as if its the battle for Americas economic soul. Of course they've been on Texas's side because it favors their economic perspective more and for years they've ignored the economic pace of blue cities like San Francisco, Washington DC and Boston in favor of Houston this and Houston that.

I think it's very ideological motivated. Kansas followed a similar path and they're feeling the negative affects now. The thing that holds up Texas is the strong diversified economy, oil revenue, cheap flat land ripe for development and a population influx that keeps growing. But the financial rags keep playing it up as though it's the triumph of the free market and that the Texas model should be the American model.

I hope that there is a fundamental understanding that you need sensible policy that molds the two ideologies. That Houston will be a great example of a purple city. But some detractors act as though businesses are like deer and you can make too much noise because you'll scare them away, the market is just so delicate that its awesome infallible glory cannot be disturbed.

[bhammaster]

Originally Posted by Meyerland

I would say Atlanta has similar weather. Where is the hate for Atalanta?

Go to the Atlanta forum. Plenty of people hate on it there and many of them don't even live there.

[Jack Lance]

Originally Posted by radiolibre99

I think this is the fabricated big issue the magazines like to sell the public. The financial rags have been playing up this ridiculous California vs Texas rivalry as if its the battle for Americas economic soul. Of course they've been on Texas's side because it favors their economic perspective more and for years they've ignored the economic pace of blue cities like San Francisco, Washington DC and Boston in favor of Houston this and Houston that.

I think it's very ideological motivated. Kansas followed a similar path and they're feeling the negative affects now. The thing that holds up Texas is the strong diversified economy, oil revenue, cheap flat land ripe for development and a population influx that keeps growing. But the financial rags keep playing it up as though it's the triumph of the free market and that the Texas model should be the American model.

I hope that there is a fundamental understanding that you need sensible policy that molds the two ideologies. That Houston will be a great example of a purple city. But some detractors act as though businesses are like deer and you can make too much noise because you'll scare them away, the market is just so delicate that its awesome infallible glory cannot be disturbed.

Its also a matter of what stage of development any particular area is in. Most of the "blue" cities that people refer too when comparing economic models actually developed under the low regulation free market model that Texas currently champions. This model is almost always employed in emerging economies as well. The California model is a more mature developed model. Time will alleviate much of this as the Texas economies mature and the California models loosen to be more competitive and encourage more growth

[radiolibre99]

Originally Posted by Jack Lance

Its also a matter of what stage of development any particular area is in. Most of the "blue" cities that people refer too when comparing economic models actually developed under the low regulation free market model that Texas currently champions. This model is almost always employed in emerging economies as well. The California model is a more mature developed model. Time will alleviate much of this as the Texas economies mature and the California models loosen to be more competitive and encourage more growth

But when was this; pre new deal? Wages were highest post new deal as were representation of unions in the workforce. Corprare tax rate high too. Did those cities develop then?

If you mean pre new deal, cities developing like in NYC and Chicago were pretty much third world, like developing cities of today that are experiencing growth. I've never bought this idea that a city or state needs to develop via the growing pains of the free market.

I think San Francisco will find a way to alleviate its disparity, but Houston politics are bit tougher to traverse. Heck people in here think being a moderate is "utopian".

[Jack Lance]

Originally Posted by radiolibre99

But when was this; pre new deal? Wages were highest post new deal as were representation of unions in the workforce. Corprare tax rate high too. Did those cities develop then?

If you mean pre new deal, cities developing like in NYC and Chicago were pretty much third world, like developing cities of today that are experiencing growth. I've never bought this idea that a city or state needs to develop via the growing pains of the free market.

I think San Francisco will find a way to alleviate its disparity, but Houston politics are bit tougher to traverse. Heck people in here think being a moderate is "utopian".

Yes most of that development happened under the Robber Barons and their laissez faire economic views. There was a post war prosperity that allowed for much of what your describing, post New Deal, that cannot be translated into todays economy. The high tax rates were due to the war debts incurred during WW2, as long as the revenue generated by those high taxes were going to private businesses rather than social programs people were fine with them, after those debts were paid off the tax rates started to decline starting with Kennedy and ending pretty much with Bush 43. Most of those Union members were veterans of WW2 as well, when the membership of the unions changed so did attitudes toward those very same unions.

What is going on in Houston today is not laissez faire but it is the closest thing to that that we have .

[groovamos]

Originally Posted by radiolibre99

Of course they've been on Texas's side because it favors their economic perspective more and for years they've ignored the economic pace of blue cities like San Francisco, Washington DC and Boston in favor of Houston this and Houston that.

I think it's very ideological motivated. Kansas followed a similar path and they're feeling the negative affects now. The thing that holds up Texas is the strong diversified economy, oil revenue, cheap flat land ripe for development and a population influx that keeps growing. But the financial rags keep playing it up as though it's the triumph of the free market and that the Texas model should be the American model.

I hope that there is a fundamental understanding that you need sensible policy that molds the two ideologies. That Houston will be a great example of a purple city. .

See the above thesis is basically weak for one reason, the post left out the school systems. LAUSD is now one of the worst big city school systems ever. What happened? I attended public schools in Nashville in the 50's-60's and have fond memories of good schools, now Nashville has the most astounding private school portfolio that puts Texas cities to shame in that sector, but for one reason -- the middle class has largely abandoned Nashville public schools.

I'll tell you what happened. Our political culture happened, like in topsy turvy - so there goes the thesis on melding the two sides of the political debate and come up smelling like purple roses. Our political culture is such that we can't even discuss what happened to the big city school system, the best back in the '60's in L.A. -- or the administrators would delete our posts and maybe close the thread. Would you in a million years guess which ideology is in control of almost all the schools and colleges in the U.S. , and by default, most blogs such as this one?

I was surprised that the Houston Press came out with an honest discussion on the problem here. Quote: A female classmate of Tony's says she can't get through the stories she reads in school unless someone explains them to her. She's passed all her state tests, too. How? She says she uses classroom-taught "strategies" on her English reading test and that if she underlines and highlights enough and narrows down her options, she has a better chance of guessing right by playing the odds. She failed her math state test because of the word problems, so she employed her English strategies there on the retry attempt and passed.

"You could tell me to read a book all day; I could read a book all day; I probably don't get it."

"Guessing right". Wow. That's how you read a book huh? See, underlines in a book don't increase intelligence -- or maybe it's me that's guessing. Intelligence increases when motivational outlook and genuine, hungry curiosity about the world and culture are passed on by the family and culture. And sometimes by an exceptional teacher or school but rarely. We are in deep doo doo. We as a nation have decided that our nation's founding and its cultural underpinnings are unfair to other cultures and so we are seeing the results. We are seeing important innovative startups (Google is an example) here founded by Asian teams of entrepreneurs, because Asians have not forsaken their cultures as we have. California and Texas at least can benefit from that but it makes me sad that American born and bred talent doesn't always cut it anymore, so people like Mark Zuckerburg (facebook) are pushing for tech worker immigration. I used to resent him for this but I have read up on it lately and see now the problem from his perspective.

I'm going to throw out one more -- anyone think high school kids are not seriously distracted by the hook-up culture? You know, the culture encouraged on college campuses, endorsed by faculty and student groups and the dominant social paradigm running the media? Yeah we're in it deep.

H-Press Link:

Why Is It So Many HISD Kids Can't Read on Grade Level (& It's More Than You Think) | Houston Press

and here: Amid All the Good Things Going On in HISD, Why Is It So Many of Our Kids Still Can't Read? | Houston Press

and here: HISD Stalls in Reading on Nation's Report Card, Sees Math Gains | Houston Press

[radiolibre99]

Wouldn't you guys say that Houston is actually in a better spot than SF, since SF is really just a one trick pony; tech?

Houston has manufacturing, oil, gas, energy, medical, restaurants, service, ports/shipping, construction etc. It's actually in a better spot since a lot of the markets is global too, it's not just selling to the US. It's economy is so diversified I couldn't see it slowing down anytime soon. Now the biggest is energy which could be a big hit for Houston if there's any downturn but do you guys see that coming up at all? I could see a tech bubble burst before I'd see Houston hit with an energy crisis.

[PedroMartinez]

Originally Posted by radiolibre99

Wouldn't you guys say that Houston is actually in a better spot than SF, since SF is really just a one trick pony; tech?

Houston has manufacturing, oil, gas, energy, medical, restaurants, service, ports/shipping, construction etc. It's actually in a better spot since a lot of the markets is global too, it's not just selling to the US. It's economy is so diversified I couldn't see it slowing down anytime soon. Now the biggest is energy which could be a big hit for Houston if there's any downturn but do you guys see that coming up at all? I could see a tech bubble burst before I'd see Houston hit with an energy crisis.

The port is a good point since the expansion of the Panama Canal will have a direct impact on the tonnage coming through Houston.

[radiolibre99]

Then Houston and Texas in general will see continuous growth for a long time. The state just has to make the necessary investments in infrastructure and I see it taking over Chicago and easily becoming the US's third most important city.