Houston's economic diversity Thread .. (Dallas, San Antonio: inclusive, metropolitan area, county)

[WRM20]

Originally Posted by atadytic19

Speaking of the Beast, this came across my feed this morning:

https://abc13.com/astrodome-redevelo...dium/13836055/

Nothing in the vid seemed ground breaking, but I do like the idea.

And not just the Astrodome, but those huge lots too.
It would be great if they could do like multiple spaced out garades and boost the entertainment value around NRG. It's that lack of drive again.

It's not lack of drive, it's lack of control. The Texans and the Rodeo control everything that happens around NRG. Talk to them if you want something different.

[atadytic19]

Originally Posted by WRM20

It's not lack of drive, it's lack of control. The Texans and the Rodeo control everything that happens around NRG. Talk to them if you want something different.

So you think they are somehow excluded in the lack of drive camp?

[ParaguaneroSwag]

Nope. The county owns the Astrosome. They have the ability to do something with it. They also take the financial burden though

[WRM20]

Originally Posted by atadytic19

So you think they are somehow excluded in the lack of drive camp?

No, The Texans and the Rodeo have their own agenda and neither of them care what you think.

[atadytic19]

Originally Posted by WRM20

No, The Texans and the Rodeo have their own agenda and neither of them care what you think.

I'm just expressing my opinion, no need for the aggression. Lighten up. It's not that serious. Dunno why people get so defensive

[ParaguaneroSwag]

Added my response to the previous convo late. I waited because I had a busy weekend plus emotions were getting stirred above and I preferred wait. I have 2 sides to my response.

Here’s the first.

First, economic development has absolutely not lagged behind in the past few years. LP mentioned the major things (Helix Park, BioPort, SpacePort etc). But besides that, the “box office bids” aren’t a sole indicator of economics in a region. The GDP. Software and finance employment has rose locally (that’s also shown in the GDP distribution not just me making it up). Now I will say that a relatively high proportion is software jobs in Houston are in optimization which feeds the energy industry. But nonetheless, the growth there vs decline in other energy work is not a negative signal at all. Unemployment was the one figure that was a bit lower than it should but even that started easing in the second half of 2022. Im not here to list all of the economic activity. The point is that the economic development is there the region is growing. Which brings to the next point.

Now the other side

As far as leadership showing its weakness; this is absolutely correct. I have never seen so many missed opportunities to promote a region as there is here . AIG spins off half its company (and later hiring local roles and opening internship opportunities at UH). Crickets. Woodlands rising as a fintech hub. Crickets.

For example, when Tesla purchased a million sq ft of real estate, the publicity was extremely poor. I could care less about Tesla (even though I recently purchased one). But Tesla is a prime publicity name. It doesn’t matter how big or small this employment center is. The name Tesla is prime opportunity to promote. When they bought real estate in San Antonio, for example, they were all over the front page as it should be. Again, I could care less about Tesla but the media is missing very easy reach opportunities to promote a region that they should be taking. AWS’ entrance got a good bit of publicity since Mayor Turner stepped in. But when they expanded the office later? Crickets. Amazon did more to promote their Houston expansion than local promoters did.

Now is there some fanfare here? Yes. But comparatively speaking to how you see other regions go all out, making interviews and letting the word out. showing high quality photos of the locstions. In Houston it goes like “cover the event, turn the page”. In other regions it goes “let this build on to the momentum and keep the ball rolling”. Houston journalists and chamber members absolutely need to get it together in this regard.

And to give a good ole high 5 to Mr. OilCapital above since he will love this… local leaders prefer give negative publicity to protect UH from getting some healthy competition than promote its region

[Mr. Clutch]

Originally Posted by ParaguaneroSwag

Added my response to the previous convo late. I waited because I had a busy weekend plus emotions were getting stirred above and I preferred wait. I have 2 sides to my response.

Here’s the first.

First, economic development has absolutely not lagged behind in the past few years. LP mentioned the major things (Helix Park, BioPort, SpacePort etc). But besides that, the “box office bids” aren’t a sole indicator of economics in a region. The GDP. Software and finance employment has rose locally (that’s also shown in the GDP distribution not just me making it up). Now I will say that a relatively high proportion is software jobs in Houston are in optimization which feeds the energy industry. But nonetheless, the growth there vs decline in other energy work is not a negative signal at all. Unemployment was the one figure that was a bit lower than it should but even that started easing in the second half of 2022. Im not here to list all of the economic activity. The point is that the economic development is there the region is growing. Which brings to the next point.

Now the other side

As far as leadership showing its weakness; this is absolutely correct. I have never seen so many missed opportunities to promote a region as there is here . AIG spins off half its company (and later hiring local roles and opening internship opportunities at UH). Crickets. Woodlands rising as a fintech hub. Crickets.

For example, when Tesla purchased a million sq ft of real estate, the publicity was extremely poor. I could care less about Tesla (even though I recently purchased one). But Tesla is a prime publicity name. It doesn’t matter how big or small this employment center is. The name Tesla is prime opportunity to promote. When they bought real estate in San Antonio, for example, they were all over the front page as it should be. Again, I could care less about Tesla but the media is missing very easy reach opportunities to promote a region that they should be taking. AWS’ entrance got a good bit of publicity since Mayor Turner stepped in. But when they expanded the office later? Crickets. Amazon did more to promote their Houston expansion than local promoters did.

Now is there some fanfare here? Yes. But comparatively speaking to how you see other regions go all out, making interviews and letting the word out. showing high quality photos of the locstions. In Houston it goes like “cover the event, turn the page”. In other regions it goes “let this build on to the momentum and keep the ball rolling”. Houston journalists and chamber members absolutely need to get it together in this regard.

And to give a good ole high 5 to Mr. OilCapital above since he will love this… local leaders prefer give negative publicity to protect UH from getting some healthy competition than promote its region

Great post. I hate puffery and silly marketing, but that's different from no marketing at all, which is what Houston seems to do these days. The region has continued to expand in spite of local leadership sitting on their hands and most of the expansion has been to bolster areas of strength rather than evolve into new things. We should be competing, strongly and with purpose and intention, for anything that has a reasonable chance of success.

[ParaguaneroSwag]

Originally Posted by Mr. Clutch

Great post. I hate puffery and silly marketing, but that's different from no marketing at all, which is what Houston seems to do these days. The region has continued to expand in spite of local leadership sitting on their hands and most of the expansion has been to bolster areas of strength rather than evolve into new things. We should be competing, strongly and with purpose and intention, for anything that has a reasonable chance of success.

There’s has been a lot of growth in areas the region previously lacked in. But few of it is from local leadership. It could definitely be bigger if the chamber of commerce did more to step in

[WRM20]

Originally Posted by Mr. Clutch

Great post. I hate puffery and silly marketing, but that's different from no marketing at all, which is what Houston seems to do these days. The region has continued to expand in spite of local leadership sitting on their hands and most of the expansion has been to bolster areas of strength rather than evolve into new things. We should be competing, strongly and with purpose and intention, for anything that has a reasonable chance of success.

Originally Posted by ParaguaneroSwag

There’s has been a lot of growth in areas the region previously lacked in. But few of it is from local leadership. It could definitely be bigger if the chamber of commerce did more to step in

That sounds like a business opportunity for the two of you. Instead of complaining, do something!

[ParaguaneroSwag]

Originally Posted by Mr. Clutch

Great post. I hate puffery and silly marketing, but that's different from no marketing at all, which is what Houston seems to do these days. The region has continued to expand in spite of local leadership sitting on their hands and most of the expansion has been to bolster areas of strength rather than evolve into new things. We should be competing, strongly and with purpose and intention, for anything that has a reasonable chance of success.

I remember Geico expanded their Katy campus, there was more publicity about it from out of town sources than local posting earlier this year. It looks like Statefarm is also eying expanding in Katy. Besides region promotion stalling, it also is (in my opinion) bad for local professionals that want to know where the work is. You see more publicity about energy companies than things like Geico and AWS from the chamber of commerce which as you said, the focus should be centered more on things of that nature

https://communityimpact.com/houston/...dreds-of-jobs/