What was Houston like in the 80's?

[Matadora]

Originally Posted by PedroMartinez

As long as you didn't limit yourself to Astroworld, Houston was a whole lot of fun in the 80's.

I agree! Those were some of the most memorable days of my life! The 90's were also some of the best!

[bu2]

Originally Posted by LocalPlanner

I hit my teenage years in 1980. Some things I remember:

Economically / demographically:

The decade can be viewed as two distinct parts, 1980-1984 and 1985-1989. The first part was a heady boom time, with crazy building going on (even after the oil economy started to go south after 1982), glitz and glamour, and poor uneducated Midwesterners streaming in because their home economies were devoid of opportunity. Hispanic immigration into the area really began to pick up. The Asian / Middle Eastern presence was there but at a much lower level than now. Traffic was unbelievably awful - as bad or worse than now, maybe even worse than what you see in Austin now.

Houston was really wild during this period. It was the murder capital of the U.S. in the early 1980s. People would just get drunk and shoot each other (often at bars and nightspots), it was pretty normal. There were also serial killers (Coral Eugene Watts - killed the daughter of one of my teachers). But the city was so drunk on success that people could overlook it.

The other big event was Hurricane Alicia in 1983. While true damage was really bad only in some areas, it was a major inconvenience for two weeks for many more people. Our home didn't have power for nearly a week, and it was 95 degrees. School started a week late. My family spent 5 days cleaning up our yard. We found a pair of newborn squirrels that we gave to Lynn Ashby's wife, who was a neighbor and worked for the zoo or something like that. Mr. Ashby then put them on his Channel 2 "Live at Five" segment a few weeks later when they had fur. They named them Alex and Alicia.

From 1985 on, gloom and doom economically. All those new office buildings and suburban homes were empty. Banks failing left and right, the entire Savings and Loan industry went away. I was lucky to find a minimum wage summer job ($3.25/hr, rose to $3.35 in 1986 I believe). Crime shifted away from general drunken mayhem and serial killers toward focusing on the crack epidemic - Houston was one of the earliest cities to experience this. White folks began to flee their previously middle class areas like Spring Branch and the Southwest side. Previously hip apartment complexes, many still new, began to slide into decay and a low-income / immigrant renter profile as all the former young professional and tradesmen renters had disappeared along with the jobs. I had gone away to college in 1986 so I missed the up-close-and-personal view of the changes.

Culturally:

1980 was "Urban Cowboy" so big C&W clubs were opening up. Wild West was at Gessner and Long Point.

Big pop / rock acts played The Summit. I went to my first concert (Van Halen) there in 1984. Prince came through that same year and sold out a whole bunch of shows in a row. Astroworld also had concerts. You had actual rock radio back then, and hard rock festivals (the "Texxas Jam").

The Astros were popular - Mike Scott, Nolan Ryan etc. The Rockets had Akeem and Sampson, both new. The Oilers tanked after the "Luv Ya Blue" era, Earl Campbell left, it was a bleak time for them.

The main entertainment area stretched from the West Loop to Hillcroft, between San Felipe and Westpark. The Richmond Strip was the beating heart of it by the late 1980s. Montrose was popular for the "alternative" crowd, teenagers would cruise Westheimer (I never did though), but otherwise was viewed as rapidly declining and very sketchy. It was during this time that AIDS was hitting the gay community very hard, which just made it worse.

The "hot" newer suburbs were Quail Valley, Clear Lake, and FM 1960 / Champions. The Woodlands and Kingwood for those who really wanted away from the City, though they were much smaller than what they are now. Alief and Mission Bend were hot for the middle class, believe it or not, through the late 1980s, though I'm sure they had their share of foreclosures. Spring Branch was still middle class until the late 1980s, then it fell fast.

There were some big churches but not "mega."

"Ethnic" cuisine was limited to Tex-Mex and Chinese. Vietnamese, Indian, and Thai weren't a big deal yet, though they did exist in small numbers of establishments. Cajun food made a big splash (Achtafalaya Cafe), which makes sense given how many Cajuns already lived here by then. Chili's, Strawberry Patch, and Pappasito's were the top new restaurants for the middle class. Also Black Eyed Pea. For Italian, Pino's - that my was birthday go-to restaurant.

Big hair was a big deal nationwide, but Houston and Dallas were the big hair capitals of the U.S.!

For the white kids of the Reagan era, if you were really debauched and wealthy, you did cocaine. For most though, getting drunk was the big thing - pot and acid were for the 60s-70s hippie types. Parents were totally terrified of their kids doing drugs though ("Just Say No"). Yet they would buy the kegs for the kids! Neighborhoods would be stuffed with parked cars on weekend nights when some kid would throw a kegger. Drunk kids would pee in our yard. The drinking age went up to 21 during this period.

Defining the decade as 3 different eras would be more accurate. 1980-1982 were booming like crazy. I remember looking west out the window of an office building on Del Monte and counting over 20 cranes. And there was more construction in the other direction. Traffic was awful. Crime was bad with every bad news criminal in the country coming down to take advantage. Freeways were filled with Michigan and Ohio plates. Texas was booming while the rest of the nation was in a recession. A popular bumper sticker was, "Let those d___ Yankee b_______ freeze in the dark!

Then in 1982 the blue collar oil bust happened and tens of thousands of oil workers and manufacturing workers like welders lost their jobs, but it was worst for blue collar workers. Even worse than the drop was that people were betting on $100/bbl oil. So 1982-1987 was waiting for the oil recovery. In 1985 things seemed to be coming around, but then the bottom fell out in 1986 and prices dropped to $10/bbl. Crude Oil Prices - 70 Year Historical Chart | MacroTrends

This was more of the white collar bust. They estimated one in four Houstonians lost their jobs. Home prices collapsed. Foreclosures were rampant. It made the 2008 national "great recession" look pretty mild by comparison. Virtually every S&L went out of business. All but one of the top 10 banks in Texas was sold or failed. In the townhome complex I lived in, units similar to mine that sold for 78k in 1982 went for 66k in 1983, 40k in 1984 and one of the few that sold in 1987 went for 12k. The city was kind of in shock.

It wasn't all bad for Houston. The criminals moved on to Phoenix. With the slowdown, Houston caught up on its infrastructure. It became a little less frenetic and became more "Austinized." Rendez-vous Houston in 1986, the Jarre concert, the laser/music show on downtown buildings drawing over a million people, was a uniting moment in the depths of the downturn.

1987-1989 was recovery. It only took a couple years after 1986 for things to return to "normal." But normal wasn't the crazy boom of the late 70s and early 80s. A popular bumper sticker was, "Lord, if you will give me another oil boom, I promise not to p___ this one away."

Houston became a better organized, more humble, more laid back city. It became even more the world's oil capitol as firms consolidated operations in Houston. It also became much more diversified as Compaq spawned a hi-tech boom and Houston became a world leader in medicine with the massive growth of the Texas Medical Center.

[bu2]

One other big change was the national law banning singles apartments. It changed right as the first oil bust hit. Apartments all over the city that were not well set up for families suddenly started leasing to them and rapidly went downhill. The Gulfton area was particularly hard hit.

You can look up Michael Pollock and the free VCR! for renting at Colonial House Apartments, a singles place in Gulfton. His non-stop commercials are discussed on other threads here.

[Matadora]

Originally Posted by bu2

One other big change was the national law banning singles apartments. It changed right as the first oil bust hit. Apartments all over the city that were not well set up for families suddenly started leasing to them and rapidly went downhill. The Gulfton area was particularly hard hit.

You can look up Michael Pollock and the free VCR! for renting at Colonial House Apartments, a singles place in Gulfton. His non-stop commercials are discussed on other threads here.

WOW I would have never recalled those commercials had you not mentioned them.

Looks like Michael Pollock moved on to Mesa, AZ to continue his real estate business.

Michael A. Pollack

[bu2]

Originally Posted by ipuck

Back in the 80s heights were mostly junkyards and automotive repair shops. The houses were mostly hispanics from what i remember.

I do remember West U houses were over half a million and it was nice then.

Of course, there were houses on 1960 that were half a million and up (Northgate).

Only some of those West U. houses. "Lots" were still below 200k. And there were a lot more of the original wood frame and brick cottages left.

[KerrTown]

Originally Posted by LocalPlanner

The "hot" newer suburbs were Quail Valley, Clear Lake, and FM 1960 / Champions. The Woodlands and Kingwood for those who really wanted away from the City, though they were much smaller than what they are now.

So people back then liked 1960's ranch home MPCs for some odd reason?

[PedroMartinez]

Originally Posted by KerrTown

So people back then liked 1960's ranch home MPCs for some odd reason?

It was what was in. I Dream Of Jeannie was among several ranch style homes featured in 60's tv shows.