Dangerous Neighborhoods and Good Deeds

SOURCE: Houston Chronicle, NeighborhoodScout.com

Houston is in the news again, and this time, it's not all good. According to a recent statistical study of violent crime conducted by NeighborhoodScout.com, Houston is home to two of the 25 most dangerous neighborhoods in the country: Sunnyside (#6) and an area within Third Ward (#15). The news is worse for Detroit--home to the top three most dangerous neighborhoods--and Chicago, which has four of the neighborhoods on the list.

The Body of Christ and the City of Houston are not ignorant to the needs of these Houston neighborhoods, and are always looking for ways to serve and impact communities. One such effort is called Loving Houston. Loving Houston is a faith-based community revitalization initiative working in six neighborhoods across Houston, including Sunnyside and Third Ward. If you would like to join with others in making a difference in these areas, more information about available projects can be found here.

Houston and Harris County are growing (really!)

SOURCES: U.S. Census Bureau, Houston Chronicle

For the second year in a row, Harris County added more residents (apx. 80,000) than any other U.S. County. Harris County now numbers approximately 4.2 million residents.

"In the same time period, the Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land metropolitan area increased by 125,185 residents to about 6.1 million, second in the nation behind the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington metro area, which grew by 131,879 people." Houston Chronicle

The Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown MSA inflation-adjusted GDP increased 3.7% in 2011, the fastest growth of any metro area (Dallas was #2, San Francisco was #3). Houston Chronicle

A dot for every person

SOURCE: Brandon Martin-Anderson

When you plot a single dot for every person who answered a question on the last census, it really allows for a cool visual and also a way to zoom in an examine density for different parts of town. Have fun!!

Houston Job Growth & Economic Potential

SOURCE: Various

Since it's been a while since I blogged, I thought I would just highlight the wealth of Houston-related demographic information over the last few months. If you have an eye for Houston-related news, and transit topics in particular, I highly recommend that you check out Houston Strategies on a regular basis.

In short, the future of economic growth in Houston looks very promising. And while there is some seasonality in job growth and decline, Houston seems to be doing very well. See below...

Houston ranked #1 "Best Cities for Your Career in 2013"... Monster.com

Houston ranked #2 for best cities with good jobs (Dallas was #1)... Forbes

3 of the top 10 places to work are in Houston... Workplace Dynamics and CultureMap

Houston is a growing epicenter of STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) jobs... Forbes

Houston added 118,200 new jobs between January 2012 and January 2013... Houston Chronicle

Houston has added 300,000 college graduates in the last ten years, more than Silicon Valley, Boston, or San Francisco... NewGeography. However, there is increasing evidence that recent college graduates are struggling to find work. Just Google the term "Do millennials stand a chance?" and you'll see articles from NBC News, Forbes, NY Times, and others, all talking about college graduates taking minimum wage jobs or taking multiple unpaid internships, only then to take full-time low-paying jobs.

Houston ranked #4 for "Best Performing Cities"...Milken Institute and CultureMap

Houston ranked #40 globally for GDP and employment change, the highest rated American city... Brookings and CultureMap

Houston is "cool"

SOURCE: Various

My wife recently bemoaned the seeming reality that Houston sometimes gets snubbed by bands and entertainers in comparison to Austin and Dallas. I remarked, "But you know that Houston is the coolest city in the U.S. right?" The look on her face is probably similar to the look on yours right now.

And this isn't a weather joke. Houston was ranked "America's Coolest City" by Forbes last year. Not to be merely a flash in the pan, Houston was the only city to have 2 of the top 12 restaurants in the U.S. (CultureMap has links to the original GQ article).

Houston is so cool that it hosts 5% of the top 1 million websites according to Pingdom. That's right, Houston is so cool that 1 in every 20 websites "live" in Houston.

Now about those weather jokes...

U.S. energy independence, thanks to Texas?

SOURCE: New York Times

While perusing an op-ed by David Brooks about the role Texas plays in U.S. energy production, I came across a quote that astounded me. And since it's not my industry, I just thought I would note it here and provide a link if you are interested.

"By 2020, the United States will overtake Saudi Arabia as the world’s largest oil producer, according to the International Energy Agency. The U.S. has already overtaken Russia as the world’s leading gas producer. Fuel has become America’s largest export item. Within five years, according to a study by Citigroup, North America could be energy independent. “OPEC will find it challenging to survive another 60 years, let alone another decade,” Edward Morse, Citigroup’s researcher, told CNBC."

Brooks gets a lot of information from another NYTimes op-ed by Joel Kotkin with exhaustive information about America's economic production centers, in which Houston figures prominently.   

Bengalis in Houston

SOURCE: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year product, 2011

From time to time, I publish demographic maps that I produce in the course of my work. I had someone ask me for the location of Bengali concentrations around Houston. On the long form of the 2000 Census, Bengali was a language included among many that was published, therefore it could be mapped down to the census tract. Since that time, the Census publishes fewer individual languages, leaving me with providing my client a map of Bengali indicators. Therefore, the map does not show Bengalis directly, but rather the most likely places around Houston that have high concentrations of Bangladeshi or Indian foreign born residents, combined with those tracts wherein people speak an Indic language other than Hindi or Gujarati.

Pakistani Perspective of the U.S. Election

While estimates vary widely, Houston is likely home to more than 70,000 Pakistanis including those born here and abroad. The Pakistani people here in Houston are predominantly Urdu speaking Pashtuns, but there are other people groups and languages from Pakistan living here, namely Panjabi speakers, Sindhi speakers, and Balochs. You may remember in 2009 when Balochs and Sindhis were featured in the news for their protests during Pakistani President Musharaff's visit to Houston in 2009 and then again outside the Pakistani embassy in 2011. Balochs and Sindhis are minority groups in Pakistan and have been the victims of atrocities over the years at the hands of dominant groups there.

Due to the persecuted nature of these groups, Balochs and Sindhis watch American elections for signs of leaders that may represent a different path towards American-Pakistani relations. This recent op-ed states the case far better than I could, so please read it. I include this post as a reminder that not just Americans are interested in American elections, and that the impact of those policies affect nations and their people, some of whom might be your Houstonian neighbor.

To learn more about how to pray for Balochs in Houston, click here.

Houston: The Hub of the "Third Coast"

SOURCE: Wall Street Journal

Joel Kotkin's recent op-ed about the rising dominance of the third coast is loaded with statistics and anecdotes about Houston. The "third coast" is a broad term loosely referring to the region from Brownsville, Texas to Tampa, Florida. I highly recommend scanning it as an overview of Houston's prominence and growth over the last few decades, but also why Houston is positioned to succeed in the future.

In case the WSJ link breaks, here are the Houston-related excerpts at another highly recommended blog about Houston. Thanks Tory!

Houston Taking on the Nation in Economy, Housing

While the rest of the nation is still in the grip of an economic recession, the city of Houston is not only surviving, it is thriving.  In his article for Forbes Magazine, published on June 27, 2012, Kurt Badenhausen reports on the recent surge of companies that are relocating to Houston to take advantage of its growing economy.  Well-established Houston fixtures, such as the Texas Medical Center, employing over 90,000 people, and the Port of Houston, generating close to $180 billion a year, already make the city an economic oasis in the rather strained American economic landscape.  However, the new growth brought by migrant companies will far outweigh what is already in place.  Companies such as Direct Energy, Centrica and Exxon-Mobil are each moving more and more of their economic base to Houston this year, nearly doubling Houston’s already impressive $384 billion economy (Houston Culture Map).

Furthermore, according to Karl Smith in his June 13 Forbes article, housing in Houston is on a constant increase, due to the 313,800 new residents that Houston gained due to migration in the year 2011 alone.  On average, for the last several years, the number of housing permits issued in Houston far outweigh the number issued in other large US cities, despite the fact that most of those have a much larger economic base and working force, such as the New York-New Jersey-Long Island Metropolitan area.  

Each of these new realities in the economic landscape of our city have set Houston far ahead of national economic trends.  

Refugees & Immigrants in Texas

SOURCE: Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR); Houston Chronicle; Migration Information Source (MIS)

Sunday's (June 10) Houston Chronicle gave public notice to the ORR report that Texas received 5,623 refugees during the FY 2011. That's more than any other state, including California (4,975) and New York (3,531), the next two states on the list. The story also claims that Houston received more than any other city in Texas, but since the ORR only tracts states, city-level estimates vary. A separate article in the Chronicle estimated that Houston receives approximately 3,000 refugees annually. Regardless of the exact number of refugees, the number of refugees coming to Texas compared to other states is growing. In the last ten years, Texas has steadily climbed the list of states receiving the most refugees, taking the #1 spot for the first time in 2011.

Refugees account for a small percentage of Houston's immigrants. Between 2000-2010, Harris County had the largest absolute growth of immigrants (287,000) compared to all other US counties, though it ranked #5 in total number of immigrants. Texas, meanwhile, ranks #3 for total number of immigrants behind California and New York.

While the highest percentage of immigrants in the Houston MSA are Hispanic from Central America (61%; 55% are from Mexico or El Salvador; 47% are from Mexico alone 2006-2010 ACS), here's a little bit of trivia: "The majority of Hispanics in the United States are native-born US citizens. Of the 50.7 million people in 2010 who identified themselves as having Hispanic or Latino ancestry, only 37 percent (18.8 million) were immigrants (MIS)."

Annexation

SOURCE: Planning and Development Department- City of Houston

When I consult clients about demographics, there are sometimes questions about annexation. So when I saw the following video on Tory Gattis' excellent blog, I knew it should also be shared on this blog. Thanks to the city for putting this out.

Metro Houston Planned Communities in the News

SOURCE: Houston Chronicle

"Three Houston communities made the list of the nation’s top 10 master-planned communities based on sales in 2011, according to an annual ranking by RCLCO. The Woodlands came in at No. 2, Cinco Ranch was No. 3, and Telfair was No. 10." The story also contains some specific information about sales in these and other planned communities around Houston. Click here for the full story.

Is Houston bigger than Philadelphia?

SOURCE: Houston Business Journal (HBJ)

According to an annual computer simulation performed by the HBJ, the Houston MSA has more people than the Philadelphia MSA, making Houston the 5th largest MSA in the U.S.  If you use this statistic, make sure to cite the source, as this ranking change did not come directly from the U.S. Census, as many would assume. If the projection holds true, it will mark the first time in American history that Philadelphia ranks outside the five largest metro areas.

Map: Union Baptist Association, 2010

Updated Maps!

SOURCE: American Community Survey (ACS), 2006-2010

Below are two maps showing the diversity of the greater Houston area in terms you may not be familiar with. The first, foreign born (FB) population, is a fairly common reference showing the estimated population of immigrants and refugees for a given census tract. The second map displays estimates for those people whose preferred language (LANG) is something other than English or Spanish.

Both maps show such increases over the previous ACS estimates (seen here for FB and here for LANG) that an additional class of percentages was added. The line below each map provides a link to a larger version.

Click here for a larger version

Click here for a larger version

Houston is most diverse metro area

SOURCE: Houston Chronicle; Kinder Institute for Urban Research

"The Houston metropolitan area is now the most ethnically diverse large metropolitan area in the country, with two suburbs - Pearland and Missouri City - leading the region in diversity.

The findings come from a new report from Rice University that is based on an analysis of census data from 1990, 2000 and 2010." (click here for full story)

Hispanics in U.S. Cities

SOURCE: U.S. Census Bureau

While researching one of the 100 largest U.S. metropolitan study areas (MSAs), a seminary student asked how his MSA compared to others in terms of the percentage of the population who was Hispanic. This map was designed as part of the answer.

Using 2010 American Community Survey information, MSAs are compared to one another by standard deviations from the mean of the group of MSAs. Essentially, MSAs in red are below average in their percentage of Hispanics, and those MSAs in green are either above or high above the average. There are certainly a number of factors at work, but for a quick snapshot of the country, this map is interesting.

Click here to enlarge the map.

Racial Change in Houston, 2000-2010

SOURCE: U.S. Census Bureau

While looking for a way to visualize how certain communities have changed racially, I created the following map. Until the 1960s, Houston was a bi-racial town comprised of White (non-Hispanic Anglo) and Black. In the decades since, an increasing number of Hispanics and Asians have added to the racial diversity of the area. Communities once home to a numerically greater number of Anglos are now home to a different racial group. The map below illustrates the transition of various communities from 2000-2010.

The key to understanding this map is to understand that it is colored according to race which holds the most number of people per block group. Which means that if, out of 10 people in 2000, 5 were White and 4 were Black, but in 2010, 5 were Black and 4 were White, that block group will appear purple with white cross-hatching.

One may argue that it doesn't take much to indicate change on the map, and they would be correct. The map would appear different if percentages were used. However, I believe the image of community transition is powerful, even if the criteria is subjective. Click here to enlarge.

Panama Canal will effect Houston traffic?

SOURCE: Houston Chronicle

"While it is expected to be a boon for Texas' economy, the Panama Canal expansion has local officials worried about the effects on the already bustling Texas 288 and other Brazoria County roadways. A deeper, wider canal will mean bigger ships coming to Freeport and more trucks using Texas 288 to carry cargo to Houston and beyond.

"Texas is poised for dramatic - almost volcanic - growth," Mike Wilson, director of trade development for the Port of Freeport, said at a recent quarterly luncheon for the Greater 288 Partnership."

For the rest of the story, click here.

Both ports in southeast Texas will also attract increasing numbers of immigrants, adding diversity to an already ethnically-rich area of the country.

Happy Veteran's Day

SOURCE: U.S. Census Bureau

According to the 2010 American Community Survey (3 year estimate), Harris County is home to approximately 189,000 veterans, making it fifth on the list of all counties in the U.S. for most numerous veteran population.

While there are numerous resources available on the web that pay tribute to veterans, I encourage you to spend a few moments on this YouTube channel recounting stories told by Medal of Honor recipients.

Make sure to honor the veterans in your life today, but not just today.