4 ms·

I think the bigger question is why does Houston look so different when you compare to other cities? Yes, I can't tie it to incidents of racism, but something mu

• karlkatzke 13y ago
  I'm not sure. I lived in Houston for three years and we left because of the crime in the part of town that we lived in. We could have moved to a "safer" area, but it was "safer" because it was a socioeconomic monoculture with defined borders and a private police force, not because it was actually safe. We chose just to move to a different city rather than embody "white flight"... In the part of town that I lived in, which was the Energy Corridor along I-10 between Beltway 8 and George Bush Park, racial tension was pretty harsh. You had haves and have-nots. Most of the have-nots were notably of one culture or another (depending on which block you were on), and they were pretty merciless about taking advantage of the haves, which were also a monoculture based on the area. Houston was the first place I've had my car broken into repeatedly, to the point that I started leaving the doors unlocked and the windows rolled down regardless of weather. (A plastic seat cover is cheaper than new windows.) Houston was the first place that I've been very happy that I owned dogs, and considered owning a gun. I grew up not locking doors; Houston made me form a routine of checking doors, security bars, deadlocks, door blocks, and window locks and setting the alarm before bed. The Energy Corridor was NOT cheap to live in, and we rented a modest sized house. That part of town has 1980s era architecture where few, if any, windows face the street. I grew up with block parties and knowing your neighbors and talking at the mailbox. Everyone in my neighborhood in Houston, regardless of color, rolled right into the garage and the door came down. I don't know why it's that way, but I suspect it was that cultures self-segregate instead of mix. Personally, I hope to never need to find out, because I'm not coming back, even to visit.
• angersock 13y ago
  Houston is pretty much the perfect example of the once-touted multiethnic future of the US. We've got a large number of people, a large diversity of socioecoethnic backgrounds, and we are a much more integrated city due to lack of zoning and only relatively recent gentrification. Additionally, note that there was an (arguably recent) influx of folks from New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina--that had lasting economic and demographic impacts on large parts of Houston, especially around Reliant.
  • hieronymusN 13y ago
    Ahhh yes, The Katrina Refugee Boogeyman raises its head. Figured it would make an appearance at some point. Houston has always been a trigger happy city (I grew up there, 3rd generation) with high crime zones particularly in the Southwest section. Katrina refugees didn't make that happen.
    • angersock 13y ago
      Hey, I'm not saying it's either good or bad--I'm merely pointing out that there was a large migration of people from point A to point B. I used to live across from Reliant a few years ago--many neighbors were folks that had resettled in Houston from New Orleans.