The Story of Houston and its Overall Shaping

Houston was a commercial commodity marketed by local growth coalitions since the early 1900's. The number one marketing pitch was that is was a city for businesses and businessmen. Houston's success was supposedly the "result of business methods applied to public affairs." In this context, it makes sense to begin Houston's history by looking at it in terms of its role in the market.

Prior to the early 20th century, Houston was a major commercial and shipping center. As a major railroad hub, it was well equipped to be the center for the sale and export of timber, cotton, and grains. By the 1850's Houston was on the cutting edge of transportation developments with railroad lines linking it to rural areas, and by 1901 it was of central importance to Houston that it was nationally connected through intercontinental railroads. The regional headquarters of the Southern Pacific Railroad was in Houston, and railroad capitalisits promoted outsiders to invest in local industry as well as investing themselves. The cotton warehouses, mills and exchanges, as well as the transportation infrastructure put in place by the railroad and shipping industries between the period of 1890 and 1920, made it possible for the oil industry to take root in Houston in the later part of the 20th century. From its conception, merchants and business leaders saw the advantages of a deep-water channel linked to the Gulf of Mexico, and indeed, the federal project that created the Port of Houston has been one of the keys to Houston's economic success. The focus on industry and shipping in the central downtown areas, as well as the development of a highway centered transportation system meant that Houston's large-scale real estate development radiated out along this grid in a decentralized pattern. There is no central residential downtown. Houston did not develop a concentric ring formation, but instead has a huge quantity of residential pockets scattered throughout:

Neighborhoods outside the City Limits

There are 98 distinct residential areas in and around Houston.

In spatial terms, Houston is a very new city. Most of its built environment, from suburbs to office towers, has been constructed in the last 20 to 30 years. So the pattern is not slow expansion out from a troubled central city. Houston's dominance also springs from its huge ETJ (extraterritorial jurisdiction) that gives it the freedom to annex surrounding land without voter approval and without the responsibility to provide many servies to these surrounding areas. From the 1950s Houston has been built up by its developers and other real estate actors in a decentralized fashion. There is no large, decaying downtown area. Rather, in a short period, a polynucleate city has been built up with only a modest portion of the city's construction dating from before the 1940s. This polynucleate development can be attributed to several factors: the massive freeway system, the lack of restrictions on development that comes from having NO zoning laws, and a high velocity of investment-capital flowing into the city's large-scale construction projects in the late postwar period. In addition, Houston's physical growth can be directly linked to the oil industry. Locating oil refineries along the ship channel fueled Houston's most rapid growth period (1920-1930). In 1930, businesses were pushing for federal funding to aid expansion, and this led to capital for roads, schools, and bridges, making the 1930's when Houston's urban infrastructure was essentially refurbished and updated to accomodate the booming oil and petrochemical industry. Below is a map of Houston and the surrounding area that shows the complx highway system and the massive suburban sprawl that has resulted in everydirection from these highways.

Houston East/Southeast:
Includes Houston, Baytown, Channelview, Deer Park, La Porte, Pasadena, Pearland, South Houston
Houston Inside Beltway 8:
Includes central Houston, Aldine, Bellaire, Jacinto City, Jersey Village
Houston North/Northwest:
Includes Houston, Conroe, Humble, Kingwood, The Woodlands
Houston West/Southwest:
Includes Houston, Katy, Missouri City, Richmond, Stafford, Sugar Land

Houston's dominance also comes from its unstifled and irrepressible population growth. Older cities tended to lose population between 1950 and 1970, but Houston grew. It continues to grow at rates higher than the national average, spurred by a thriving economy. The only time growth slowed and was during the oil crisis of the 1980s when unemployment was high. Because building permits were so easy to obtain, the oil industry had a tendency to overexpand and during the 1980s vacant office space was at an all time high. Construction has been more closely monitored recently, and an emphasis has been placed on renovating existing space to meet modern needs. Houston's industry has continued to attract population in staggering numbers. But as is shown in the table below, industrial and commercial space still dominates Houston's landscape despite the rapid population growth.

(Care of Greater Houston Partnership)

One of the interesting components of Houston is its lack of residential housing. There has been huge amounts of vacant building space, but it has always been commercial or industrial space left empty because of a contraction in the oil or petrochemical industry. Houston, despite the fact that it has a very poor urban population, has very little low-income or state sponsored housing. This is not surprising considering the lack of public spending on poverty issues, but it is important to note that despite the fact that there has been so much growth and construction in Houston in the recent years, it still suffers a housing crisis for those who can not afford a private builder. The housing shortage does not seem to be going away, with only a 1.8% change in residential space being constructed, as opposed to a 46.1% increase in non-residential construction.

Between the ’90 and the ’00 censuses, the population of the Houston CMSA grew 25.2 percent, according to the Census Bureau. The nation’s population increased 13.2 percent over the same period. Net migration accounts for more than 40 percent of Houston’s population growth since ’90. Given Houston’s prominence in international business, it is perhaps not surprising that foreign immigration accounts for an overwhelming 71 percent of net migration (some 214,000 people) since ’90. The 2000 census found that no racial or ethnic group now constitutes a majority of the metro area population; by 2030, under reasonable scenarios, Hispanics could become a majority. Asians—nearly 5 percent of the population in 2000—will climb to 10 percent within the next two decades. Houston's polynucleate nature seems to facilitate the segregation of minority groups, as well. There are distinctly black or hispanic neighborhoods inside of Houston.

PLANNING AND SPATIAL ORGANIZATION OF HOUSTON