Houston, the Oil Town, Is Sharing in a Boom (thanks to Richard DuBoff for the tip!!)
HOUSTON ‚Äö√Ñ√Æ The good times are back. Galvanized by the record profits at energy companies, this city, the center of the country’s energy industry, has shaken off the effects of the Enron implosion six years ago and is enjoying its strongest resurgence in more than 20 years, business officials and real estate developers say. The good news extends across the city. The port recently opened a $1.4 billion container terminal to tackle soaring traffic. In 2006, it handled 1.6 million 20-foot containers, up 29 percent from 2003. At the Texas Medical Center, hospitals and universities are investing billions in new facilities. Residential and mixed-use developments are going up downtown. The Houston economy has been growing since 2004, when energy companies started investing more in big-ticket projects and hiring thousands of employees to run them. Before that, oil companies had been hesitant to pour more into exploration and production, because they had lost millions in the past when oil and natural gas prices collapsed.
Ah, yes, ‘tis good to be one of the “haves” in Houston these days (not that I would know….). Laissez les bon temps rouler! Indeed, if you’re one of the lucky ones, Houston’s a pretty damn good place to be right about now. The employment market is favorable, real estate costs are very reasonable, and you never have to go far to find a Lexus dealer or an investment banker.
Of course, the flip side of this boom cycle is that there are a significant number of (mostly minority) Houstonians who’ve not only missed the boat, they never even had an opportunity to buy a ticket. Like any city, there’s the parts of the Houston area where the wealthy and well-off live (Memorial, River Oaks) and where the struggling poor live (Sunnyside, the East End, virtually anywhere in Pasadena)…and never the twain shall meet. You’ll never see a million-dollar home in River Oaks whose back yard borders a refinery. No, you’d have to go to the Manchester neighborhood for that sort of thing, where the houses go for maybe $80,000, and where the state air-quality monitors won’t spend any appreciable amount of time without wearing gas masks.
In the interest of fairness and self-disclosure, I must admit to not liking Houston very much. Most of the city’s an armpit, city government is inept at best and a complete joke at worst, and the traffic sucks. This is why I don’t live in Houston, and why I spend as little time there as possible. Between the economic disparity, the chemical plants, and the poor air quality…well, let’s be honest, shall we? Like I said, the place is an armpit.
Nonetheless, if you happen to work in or are affiliated with the oil and gas industry, this is where you want to be. If you’re here in the Oil Bidness, you’re probably doing pretty well. There’s nothing wrong with personal financial success, of course. Everyone wants to do well. And what’s wrong with driving that Lexus hybrid, anyway?
If you can manage to get used to the heat and humidity, you’ll probably manage to find a lot of good things about Houston. Especially if you’re making a good chunk of change and living in Memorial.
Of course, if that description doesn’t fit you…well, I hear Pasadena’s lovely this time of year.
