Houston: The Space City That Air Conditioning Made Possible
Houston shouldn't work. The fourth-largest American city sits on a coastal plain that floods regularly, in humidity that would have killed the pre-air-conditioning population, without zoning laws to organize the chaos. And yet it works - spectacularly, messily, improbably. The oil industry made Houston rich; NASA gave it prestige; immigration made it diverse. The city of 2.3 million (metro area of 7 million) sprawls across 670 square miles, a footprint larger than most states, connected by freeways that are always inadequate. Houston is what happens when a city decides to let the market decide everything: strip clubs next to churches, skyscrapers next to parking lots, Vietnamese restaurants in strip malls that could be anywhere. The chaos is the character.
The Oil
The Spindletop gusher of 1901 - near Beaumont, 80 miles east - began Texas's oil age, and Houston became its capital. The oil companies headquartered here, the refineries lined the Ship Channel, the pipelines radiated outward, and the money flowed in. Houston rode the boom-and-bust cycles that define oil economies: spectacularly rich in the 1970s, crashed in the 1980s, recovered and diversified since. The oil industry remains - the Ship Channel is the nation's busiest petrochemical complex - but Houston has hedged its bets with medicine (the Texas Medical Center is the world's largest), tech, and trade. The oil made Houston possible; what comes after oil is Houston's question.
The Space
'Houston, we have a problem' - Apollo 13's message to Mission Control established Houston as space capital. NASA's Johnson Space Center, south of downtown, has controlled every American human spaceflight since 1965. The astronauts train here; the missions are managed here; Space City became Houston's nickname. The visitor center offers tourists access to Mission Control and the Saturn V rocket; the working facility next door continues directing the International Space Station. Houston's connection to space is real and ongoing - not just Apollo history but current and future operations. When humans return to the Moon or go to Mars, Houston will be talking them through it.
The Diversity
Houston is America's most diverse large city - no racial majority, over 145 languages spoken, immigrant communities from every continent. The Vietnamese population is among America's largest (the refugee influx after 1975 created a thriving community); the Nigerian population is among America's largest; the Mexican-American population shapes the culture. The diversity manifests in food: Vietnamese crawfish boils, Nigerian suya, Tex-Mex everywhere, Indian in Hillcroft, Chinese in Bellaire. Houston's diversity happened because the city was growing when immigration increased, and because the lack of zoning made ethnic neighborhoods possible anywhere. The diversity is Houston's best feature.
The Flooding
Houston floods. Tropical Storm Allison in 2001 killed 22 and caused $9 billion in damage. Hurricane Harvey in 2017 dropped 60 inches of rain, flooding neighborhoods that had never flooded, causing $125 billion in damage. The floods are getting worse - climate change brings more intense storms, and development paves over the prairie that once absorbed the rain. Houston's response has been inadequate: the reservoirs built in the 1940s protect some neighborhoods by flooding others; the buyout programs are slow; the development continues in flood zones. The flooding is Houston's existential threat, the disaster that keeps returning, the problem the city hasn't solved.
Visiting Houston
Houston is served by George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) and Hobby Airport (HOU). Space Center Houston provides the NASA experience; plan for a full day. The Museum District clusters 19 museums, many free; the Museum of Fine Arts and the Menil Collection are essential. The Houston Zoo and Hermann Park offer respite. For food, explore the ethnic enclaves: Bellaire for Chinese and Vietnamese, Hillcroft for Indian and Pakistani, the East End for Tex-Mex. The Galleria is shopping at scale. The heat is brutal May through September; the humidity is worse. Winter is mild. A car is essential; the freeways are unavoidable.
From the Air
Located at 29.76°N, 95.37°W on the Gulf Coastal Plain, 50 miles from the Gulf of Mexico. From altitude, Houston appears as endless sprawl - the fourth-largest American city spreading in all directions, the Ship Channel's refineries visible to the east, the Texas Medical Center identifiable as a dense cluster. The freeways crisscross the development. What appears from altitude as a vast coastal metropolis is Space City - where Mission Control guides astronauts, where oil built the economy, and where 7 million people live in a swamp because air conditioning makes it possible.